BruceVC

I have come to appreciate these types of posts because they give me a better understanding of the differences in our views on what makes societies better but also I have changed my personal views on certain SJ debates after realizing certain views I had were wrong or rather I wasn't aware of certain realities....and for me when you and others share your views on the USA it is important because its representative of valid concerns that are real and or perceived. And sometimes in life when we want to make things better through a well meaning view of a particular SJ objective we unintentionally can make things more dichotomous and we can actually alienate people who are not part of the problem or the perceived problem. So in other words, and this is just one small example, when people use terms or assume that comments like "white male privileged " are the most effective ways to implement any change or to build real understanding of issues . For me if you want to address certain historical imbalances it would seem logical that you would work with all people who share this view and or believe in direct ways to do this and that would surly include white people who are like minded But my observation around most examples of people using " "white male privileged " is that it is used more to criticize and make certain generalizations around how white people achieved, if relevant, financial success and then really counterproductive comments can be made like " white people cant possibly comment about racism " or " white people have no agency to understand historical injustice " This is the most unhelpful framing of these points because every single human being of course has empathy and the ability to understand any historical injustice or why for example any form of bigotry is unacceptable. You may need to research certain events but that is not hard to do if you want to understand these things. But this does not mean white people cant understand these things and be part of the solution. Also you cant assume all white people must or will necessarily be part of a certain SJ movement, and the reasons for this will vary but thats not the same thing as making assumptions about what most white people believe Finally part of the Trump victory was because there are some of his support base that do believe that there is this unfair or unreasonable attack on white people and generally wanting to change or undermine established cultural. Now I dont support this in the final assessment of how relevant this criticism is because even though there are certain narratives or SJ movements that absolutely generalize and play the race card but that doesnt mean anyone needs to believe these views are actually going to change what is normal to many of us. My advice is just ignore these comments but focus on societal changes that you can influence in a normal way For example in SA its not uncommon for some to say things like " all white people are responsible for Apartheid and Colonialism " but the problem with this view is it ignores the historical reality of when Europeans arrived in South Africa and more importantly it conflates the genesis of who was responsible for the actual implementation of these systems so the entire point becomes more of an unhelpful view that we must just accept responsibility for things because ...we have the same race. Its easy to understand when your ancestors came to Africa but there reasons would vary and not everyone will have the same family connection to these things or rather you wouldnt necessarily have any resources or ways to address this

GD doesnt it annoy you when people like Chomsky undermine and constantly criticize the USA and " Capitalism " yet he lives in the USA and benefits immensely from the so called " imperialist " system that he claims is flawed and problematic Through my life and things I have experienced I have certain views on what makes a person someone I admire or respect, people in the public limelight should be consistent when it come to there moral compass and what they say they believe in. Being part of end of Apartheid and then voting in 1994 in South Africa I have learnt a lot about what makes a country succeed and what makes it fail. In the narrative of SA I have heard people say and do things that are incomprehensible or rather incongruous to what makes us better For example, sometimes there is this unnecessary criticism of English as the primary language in SA. We have a unique Constitutional component where all 11 local languages are seen as equal in sense they all in our Constitution....but the reality is everyone prudently learns English as the main language. Black South Africans from SA generally come from one of the 9 tribes and most black people speak multiple languages and English. Years ago sometimes there was there negative view from some commentators " that white people dont speak African languages because we dont respect black people " ....of course that isn't true and respect isnt about learning someones language But still every now and again some " Chomsky " equivalent will pop up in some discussion or debate and they always, always, always just repeat what other people have been incorrectly saying for years. I remember about 2 years this Kenyan linguistic expert came to SA to be part of 2 discussions at some of universities, I had never heard of this guy but based on some feedback on talk shows he seemed to be held in high regard. Anyway I made a point to listen to his first lecture to see what he was about and what he stood for He was invited to SA representing an aspect of our narrative which for some people is about " decolonising " and addressing the perceived and real historical imbalances we sometimes grapple with as a new Democracy, In summary this so called " expert " on African history basically spent 2 hours undermining the usage of English and kept saying things like " black people must reject English and focus on there own African languages "....he went on about how " English is so bad mkay....." But guess what he does for a living, he lives in the USA and works at some California University and guess what....he speaks English all the time. The bizarre thing he didnt see anything wrong with what he was telling students and what he actually practices ..... Anyway he meant well but he reminded me of Chomsky

I would argue Germany wasnt bombed to end the war, yes Dresden occurred but it was considered a legitimate target in the German war machine Unfortunately Hitler and a few of his closest confidants like Goebbels refused to surrender and they made a final stand in Berlin, there were also SS regiments and other German forces that fought literally a street to street with the Soviets in the final days of the final attack against Berlin Now the Allies couldnt be sure of just using a bombing campaign to kill or force Hitler to surrender considering Hitler was living in a bunker at the end and I doubt this would have worked. So it was necessary for a ground campaign and soldiers clearing the streets There is a huge difference between the reasons for the bombing of Dresden and why nuclear weapons were used in Japan, the Allies didnt have the same concerns about when Germany would be defeated and if there would be a huge, unacceptable loss of US soldiers fighting some fanatical remnants of the Nazi army, Yes of course there was real German resistance throughout the final offensive to get to Berlin. But you had a very different and much less effective German army that made the final stand. And the Soviets also played a huge role in defeating the Germans from the East. So final predictions for loss of soldiers in the Berlin attack was much lower than the prediction of 1 million US who might have been killed invading Japan using a traditional island attack strategy

I noticed this story on various networks and it seems credible, he apparently used his suicide vest to kill himself because US special forces were about to kill/capture him. I dont blame him, that is the first decision he has ever made that I can guarantee you I would agree with him on. He would have spent the rest of his life on Guantanamo Bay as an isolated prisoner. death is preferable in certain realities https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-leader-isis-targeted-u-s-raid-n1072506?yptr=yahoo I am sure it is him, I hope it is him because he has to face accountability for his egregious war crimes and the huge part he played in the creation and sustainability of ISIS For me its not fundamentally going to change the reality of how ISIS operates nowadays as since the Caliphate was destroyed ISIS has become more of an amorphous group that doesn't need or require the a leadership structure as the basic brutal belief is practiced by several examples of groups affiliated to ISIS ....yes this will upset ISIS disciplines who knew he was still alive but just like AQ the group will continue as its about the belief. Its appalling that anyone would practice this corruption of the Koran but this what extremists do

Its so funny you made this point because you right but I was hoping you wouldn't notice it, so in other words I misunderstood your post to Hurlshot because I thought you were being sarcastic. Sorry about that. But the interesting thing is after I made my post I realized you weren't being sarcastic as you not like that when you make points and in fact my entire post can be characterized as " "Because Japanese were bad people." if you read it a certain way But just to explain further so you understand where I was coming from. I want to share this extra information so you understand my broader view on this topic which comes up sometimes in RL. Lets say Hurlshot had raised the question outside any internet forum maybe in a school classroom or even a normal debate, he basically asked " why weren't the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki seen as war crimes or some sort of holocaust ", even though your answer is not incorrect its an over simplification and also it can be seen as a generalization. So in other words its not detailed enough to adequately answer the question to a certain audience. The question is relevant to certain opinions and some views people have that I have debated with but I am well aware this doesn't apply necessarily to anyone on this forum , occasionally I had exchanges with people who use this point as an example of USA\Western hypocrisy or rather history being selective about these types of events. Of course most people are well meaning when they raise this and normally its because the idea of killing 300k civilians by dropping the bombs cannot be justified by them or accepted. This is a normal view for people living in the year 2019 Which is why the historical precedent is very important about " why the USA did it ". And as I mentioned in my previous post there were reasons for this that were applicable at the time and made sense. I will ague that most of the remaining Japanese army were prepared to fight to the death, part of there ideological view was surrender was for cowards and anathema to there core beliefs and because this was there primary homeland how could they accept terms ? So somehow you needed to find a way to get the Japanese Emperor to accept surrender and I doubt a protracted land invasion would have had the same result Finally of course the terrible loss of civilians lives will be seen as a tragedy. But considering the outcome it was part of the overall strategy that was necessary to end the war

Geez as I always say, you Swedes are hardcore There are about 9 million people in Sweden, I cannot believe how DHL can just expect you to speak to all of them....very unreasonable but well done for doing it. As I said HARDCORE

These bombings really shouldnt been seen as war crimes, there are several fundamental reasons for this Elerond if you truly want to understand parts of history then you have to try to adopt the same mindset as the people who lived in that era and understand what were there considerations, fears and goals ....and most importantly you will see there reality. Then you will have a more favorable or rather a more balanced view of certain events like the bombings in Japan. If the USA had invaded mainland Japan to finally get Japan to surrender it was predicted they would lose 1 million soldiers fighting the fanatical Japanese loyalists Why should the US lose that many men when the war was basically over, Japan wasnt a threat at this stage to anyone as most of there army had been destroyed but they still had the Emperor and the general ideology of Totalitarianism which the army still followed. This ideology could only be eradicated will with Japan surrendering and admitting defeat So the cities had to be bombed to ensure this and to prevent the inevitable lose of hundreds of thousands of US soldiers, the Pacific campaign was a brutal and merciless series of battles and after Okinawa and Iwo Jima and the horrendous loss of life no one in the US wanted another ground invasion to conquer the final bastion of the Japanese . I would strongly recommend anyone interested in how terrible this campaign was to read the book below,its evocative and brilliant. Its called Goodbye Darkness https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19801.Goodbye_Darkness

I hear you but without being pedantic Hurlshot didnt say " the holocaust " he used the word holocaust which is not not exclusive to the Jews

Interestingly enough you can use the word holocaust to describe a mass killing/genocide but if you use it with a capital, Holocaust, then this describes what happened to the Jews in WW2 by the Nazis ....so you both right in different ways

I have had an excellent day so far, I passed an exam I have been studying for and tonight one of my customers is sponsoring an event around an advanced hacking seminar and how customers can be exploited. There is going to be some ex-hacker from the UK who is only 17 and is apparently going to demonstrate live how devices can be compromised and how data can be stolen Interestingly the customer is an asset manager but clearly this type of risk matters to them so it will be very interesting to see how the hacker operates

The secret to sustainability at these events is simple....Tequila Before you get there have about 5-7 shooters and you should be fine and loving life

Volo you making several scurrilous accusations against Trudeau, they demonstrably untrue. He definitely doesn't hate women and he apologized for the brown face incidents, Dont be a hater

Thanks for explaining, very interesting

Great game Jade Empire, I played it for the first time about 8 years ago on recommendation from members on this forum And it has some exciting Romance arcs which always adds to the immersive RP element of these types of games

Wow that sounds both interesting but difficult to understand, are you joking or can you explain what you mean because I am clueless ?

South Africa just won so they through to the semi-finals, so the last 4 teams are NZ, Wales, England and SA SA plays Wales next and hopefully England beats NZ next weekend .......a SA vs England final will be ideal

That definitely should concern you....seriously

Huge weekend for the Rugby World Cup and numerous games England is first team through to semi-finals , New Zealand vs Ireland and of course the most important game tomorrow, South Africa vs Japan. We should win but the courageous Japanese shouldnt be underestimated

I agree it has been incredibly frustrating and laborious but I think we are near the end of whole " do we leave with no deal or with a deal " interminable exchanges that have become relatively commonplace But Gorthfuscious today is still an important vote because of the 31 October " Johnson " deadline

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu/brexit-day-of-reckoning-parliament-to-vote-on-johnsons-deal-idUKKBN1WX2M6?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews Today is a huge and important day for Johnson's BREXIT deal to get passed through the UK parliament Firstly its the first time in over 30 years the UK parliament has met on a Saturday so this should highlight the importance of this vote, basically Boris needs 320 votes to support his new deal with the EU. But to achieve this number you will have to have some opposition party votes supporting Johnson to get to the number so this means people from Labor, SNP, DUP and Independents will have to be convinced. Very exciting development

Its slightly old but Im very excited about the new HBO Watchmen

Its a stunning day today so we going to the CPT Waterfront and a restaurant called Gibsons which is an American theme diner which specializes in Burgers and Ribs...they have an amazing burger selection and the view of the harbor is amazing and adds to the general atmosphere https://gibsonsburgers.co.za/

You must be close to the Kurds Hoon, my condolences... the ME is a complicated place. Sometimes its literally " the Devil we know "

As I have mentioned in the past I am loving my RTX 2080 Ti, I am playing Metro Exodus at the moment and I can run the game at maximum settings

It sounds like you trying to recreate history, the West won....dont be a hater