Valsuelm

You misunderstand me. I'm not mad and I'm quite calm. See how easy it is to misinterpret black and white text alone? Next time, just make it clear you're joking.

This is disproven by the fact that Germans have an absolutely phenominal GDP given their modest population, yet they're some of the biggest **** and most miserable people on the planet. Maybe being big **** makes them happy? For real, there are happy and miserable people everywhere. I certainly met some very happy Germans that were anything but **** when I was there. Take your racism elsewhere or keep it to yourself please. ...But I AM German. :D If you were Jewish the ADL would label you a 'self hating Jew'. Good thing for the world we have only one such mislead and ridiculous organization. As I said though, there are happy and miserable people everywhere. People have both good and bad reasons for being both. I don't know your circumstances, but there are happy Germans somewhere not far from you. Go find and be with them. 'Misery loves company.' Escape those people if you need to. Man, calm your ****. I'm a dual citizen, and I cannot tell you how many times I've had German friends travel to the USA (my other country) and come back saying "omg everyone's so nice and people are actually friendly and happy!" Yeah no **** Germany, that's what happens when you don't treat people with an attitude and tone that says "I'm only speaking to you because I have to." Of course there are miserable people everywhere, and I doubt Germany's anywhere close to the most miserable country given all the corrupt and war-torn countries out there devoid of basic human rights. But hell yes I'm gonna poke fun of Germany for being needlessly more miserable on average than needs be, especially when I can cross multiple borders and find countries with better attitudes in no time at all, and especially when I'd dare argue things are far worse in the USA and yet average American handles that stuff like a champ. But now here I am explaining a joke and thereby killing the joke because omg let's be politically correct.... Political correctness has nothing to do with it. You made a statement that is pretty much only likely interpreted as racist if taken by itself. Had you had 'Germany' listed as where you hailed from or also stated something that indicated you were joking (albeit a bad one), there'd be no issue. There is no tone, inflection, facial expression, etc on an internet forum, so what might be meant as a joke can be taken as something entirely different by someone else in black and white text.

In addition to the Haiti example, here's an example from Africa: http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-from-africas-richest-state-under-gaddafi-to-failed-state-after-nato-intervention/5408740 This thread should be subtitled: 'Ignorance is bliss!'

This is disproven by the fact that Germans have an absolutely phenominal GDP given their modest population, yet they're some of the biggest **** and most miserable people on the planet. Maybe being big **** makes them happy? For real, there are happy and miserable people everywhere. I certainly met some very happy Germans that were anything but **** when I was there. Take your racism elsewhere or keep it to yourself please. ...But I AM German. :D If you were Jewish the ADL would label you a 'self hating Jew'. Good thing for the world we have only one such mislead and ridiculous organization. As I said though, there are happy and miserable people everywhere. People have both good and bad reasons for being both. I don't know your circumstances, but there are happy Germans somewhere not far from you. Go find and be with them. 'Misery loves company.' Escape those people if you need to.

This is disproven by the fact that Germans have an absolutely phenominal GDP given their modest population, yet they're some of the biggest **** and most miserable people on the planet. Maybe being big **** makes them happy? For real, there are happy and miserable people everywhere. I certainly met some very happy Germans that were anything but **** when I was there. Take your racism elsewhere or keep it to yourself please.

Funny thing about that. The Nazis did such things. One of them is generally referred to as 'The Transfer Agreement'.

'Kill The Messenger' A largely accurate, slightly incomplete story of the saga of Gary Webb. If you don't know who Gary Webb is, I highly recommend seeing the movie and then further researching the information you'll learn from watching it. If you already know the story, it's a pretty good rendition of it. This movie falls under the rare category of 'I'm surprised Hollywood made this movie'.

Do you sit around trying to come up with most inane superficial bull**** that you can think of that matters to no one that can critically think before you post things like this? The subject matter may as well be 'People confirmed happier after eating Chocolate Ice Cream' or 'Being able to write your name in the snow in urine proves male virility' or 'Survey proves my High School is better than your High School.' Who care? No it doesn't. And I prefer mine dry not shaken so I'm better than you! And as usual you absolutely miss the point and refuse to see the facts , there is critical thinking that goes into these surveys. Its based on accurate and real metrics, I can't explain it any other way In your view how would you measure if the citizens of a country are happy because obviously the global and accepted way of doing it isn't relevant to you ? What facts? The ones you subjectively choose to pretend are there that reinforces your disposition? A survey on happiness is never going to be anything but subjective. One man's treasure is another man's trash, vice versa, and the same goes for something intangible like happiness.

Do you sit around trying to come up with most inane superficial bull**** that you can think of that matters to no one that can critically think before you post things like this? The subject matter may as well be 'People confirmed happier after eating Chocolate Ice Cream' or 'Being able to write your name in the snow in urine proves male virility' or 'Survey proves my High School is better than your High School.' Who care? No it doesn't. And I prefer mine dry not shaken so I'm better than you!

It is hopelessly defined because trolling is subjective and has variation in degree based on a large range of factors, principally based on how the recipient responds and whether it was even intended as trolling in the first place or is just labelled as such by the recipient. To illustrate, let's say that I think someone, let's call him Bob, posts stuff to get a negative reaction, you think someone, let's call him Ivan, posts stuff to get a negative reaction but neither of us thinks that both are trolls. And if we asked either they'd both say they aren't trolling. So are you right, or am I, or are neither of us? Are we going to go through some objective check list to determine whether your troll induced butthurt or my troll induced butthurt is objectively reasonable, or if either of us should be butthurt by both 'trolls'? Do we take the 'trolls' statements about their intent as gospel or do we assume they'd lie about being trolls, or indeed lie about not being trolls (the classic 'say something stupid, then claim to be trolling' defence of having said something stupid)? The only answer I can come up with is that none of those questions actually work to determine anything objectively. Base stuff on self identifying trolls and assume the trolls are being... honest and upfront- I think everyone can see the inherent problem in that proposition- or base stuff on what you personally think constitutes trolling, in which case it isn't objective either. Hogwash! Where's your peer reviewed study?!? Nothing is legit unless some incestuous academes who have yet to enter the real world and probably never will say it is so. We need bonified PhDs or their minions to verify your statement, and they better be from the Ivys, Berkeley, Oxford, or Cambridge or it still is questionable. None of them seem to be on your side so you must be a crazy conspiracy theorist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYJZbiEciGE

You guys keep bringing this topic up, and it's clear that some of you don't understand what a troll is. The articles linked in the OP most certainly were written by someone popping too many pills. Here's a couple of examples of real trolls. I can't say I've seen any real honest to goodness trolls on this particular forum, even though many accuse others of being such fairly often, and some make some really bad attempts at trying to be one. Some of you guys are like kids who think babies come from Storks trying to discuss the finer points of Kama Sutra when you talk about trolls. http://youtu.be/Kwu50xCtMME

And in light of the last few posts: Reached #1 the world over in the summer of '85. I don' think there's ever been a bigger more successful collaboration in music.

So, I just watched the above video again for the who knows how many timeth, and was promptly inspired to break out my Live Aid DVDs. Thanks Keyrock. You changed the trajectory of my evening towards a much more rockin one than it likely otherwise would have been. On the Live Aid DvDs: can't recommend them enough. Sadly the video quality is lacking on many of the performances (it really wasn't mastered well), but the music quality is there on almost all of them. And there were many great performances at Live Aid. It's arguable that Live Aid was the pinnacle of live concert events so far in modern recorded history. While looking at the lineup a few moments ago while deciding which DvD I'd start listening to, it occurred to me that there's not enough U2 in this tread. So here: Also, not enough Madonna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2LUnbH_0kw Really, get your hands on these DvDs. You will be glad you did. Youtube is missing a lot.

This is probably my favorite live performance of any band I've ever seen in a video. I remember seeing this on TV when I was younger. It was a huge event and Queen stole the show from some of the biggest names in the biz. Wish I'd been there. Magic this is. I can't name a best guitarist ever, a best band ever, a best drummer ever, and so on. I certainly have a short list for them all though. I can however name the best frontman ever: Freddie Mercury.

Pretty much this: Also, it's a sad thing that so many actually think there's been integrity in gaming journalism, at all. For the most part there hasn't been in well over a decade. The last time I read a good, impartial, intelligent review of a game by a website was for 'Mask of the Betrayer' back in '07-'08, and at the time I remember thinking that was the first good review I'd read in years. I sadly don't recall what website that was anymore, but it wasn't one of the biggies, nor was it completely off the mainstream radar. As some have said already in this thread: gaming went mainstream quite some time ago. It's been cool to be a 'geek' for a long time now. The 'eternal September' of the game industry happened before the 'eternal September' of the cell phone world, and that was way back in '02 or so. Good gaming journalism was always rare, even in the 80s, but it's been like the fabled Mokele-Mbembe since the late 90s.

While not directly related to Columbus Day, very much directly related to why Columbus Day is under fire: Edit: Oh yea... bonus points if anyone actually watches the above, does some research to enlighten themselves, and then can tell me how it indirectly debunks some of the credibility of 'Guns, Germs, and Steel.' (which is not in any way discussed in either video).

Alas, no.

Here's another picture of the same person that should make this much easier: Still nobody, eh? Okay, here's one more: Kicking myself for not placing him on the first two pics (yea, I'd seen the first before). He was the man!

I didn't attack his credentials as a scholar, I said his scholarship in 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' was ****ty. It is, even if for the sake of argument he's 100% correct. Perhaps you don't know what good scholarship is, and the fundamentals of writing a concise and well written history, science, or other work. But in regards to his credentials, you obviously hail from the number of folk who think that just because someone has a PhD after their name, or because they went to a prestigious school like Harvard or Cambridge, or because PBS went and made a documentary based on their work, that they know what they are talking about. Once upon a time I thought that way too. Then I went to college, met a lot of these people (know oodles to this day), and became disappointed and disillusioned with that illusion. People in universities by and large are not that smart, even at the most prestigious ones. If you think otherwise, you either never have been to one at length, or are one of the not that smart ones. Mr. Diamond and the subject at hand aside, there are more incompetent folks with PhDs in field X than there are competent ones, especially these days when they've lowered the standards of getting them, and on average widened the # of people that receive them (there are a number of reasons for this but the primary one is probably just plain old $$$). Just as if you walk into your average McDonalds or most other businesses there are generally more incompetent employees than competent ones. Same is true of both Harvard and Cambridge, two institutions I've spent quite some time at and know many from. I even dated a girl for years while she was going to both and has a PhD from the latter. And herein lies a fundamental problem so many on this forum, and so many throughout the modern world have. They buy into the hype, the prestige, the frankly: propaganda. They assume that people from these institutions know what they are talking about. Heck many think that these folks are the cream of the crop. On rare occasion this is true, just as it is true of many other areas of life and academia that don't have the well advertised prestige, but the norm is that it is not. Also, as most well read historians would tell you: The majority of the best and most informative history books/papers/etc are not done by even remotely famous people. This is also true of most scientific works.

I'd love for you to cite your reference for that one, because no.

Except it doesn't. It's a work that is very poorly cited, which is at the heart of the problem of the work. He makes assertions with zero evidence or citations, again and again in his book. If I'd have written a history paper in college, or even high school the way that book is written I'd have gotten a deserved F even if what I wrote was 100% correct. I realize the standards have slipped in the last decade or two (holy **** at what I've seen some AP history teachers let their kids get away with recently), but there's no good reason someone with the credentials and background as Diamond is writing so poorly. 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' appeals to the layman, appeals to some modern theories of genetics, fits a popular dialogue regarding plague, and other often misguided things. Read a bunch of history books on the subject prior to it's publication (as I did once upon a time) that actually do have good scholarship, citations,and much better discussions of the evidence known, and you'll realize that Diamond is grasping at straws much of the time in his work, especially when he's discussing the 'germs' aspect of it. And no, for the most part, the Europeans were not actively trying to spread disease, that's another myth. Especially smallpox, which is generally believed to be the biggest killer. Doing so could and would very possibly lead to suicide, as the Euros were not exactly immune to it themselves. And yes, Howard Zinn was a quack historian on par with Diamond. They both are cut from the same ****ty cloth.

To my knowledge, no one has stated either on this forum. Both assertions you make are gross exaggerations of what some have said about both things. Insofar as the Inca and 'genocide in the Americas'. I'll just say these two things. 1) If we accept that the 'Inca were decimated' by disease, brought by the Europeans, what does that have to do with the Navajo, Iroquois, Apache, Maya, and countless other tribes who did and didn't suffer serious bouts of disease to varying degrees? The inca are indeed the best general examples of plague in the New World after the Euros showed up. 2) The evidence that there is fairly overwhelmingly suggests that the Inca were in the midst of a plague and a civil war before the Europeans actually showed up (the Spanish really got lucky in their timing). The evidence further suggests that there were a series of devastating civil wars and widespread bits of death (unknown for sure causes) in the few centuries prior to Columbus ever setting sail for the 'New World'.

I hope you know that there's little to no evidence that Euro diseases wreaked near as much havoc as modern myth spearheaded by such popular historians as Jared Diamond would have people believe. Someone who really represents the worst of what's come out of the history corner of academia the last few decades. There's theory, some of which is plausible, much of which is not, but folks who push the 'Germs' aspect of what happened in the Americas post Europeans showing up tend to have about zero evidence to support their theory, and ignore all sorts of evidence that would refute it. Not to mention, when you get down to it, they're racist eugenicists who think that Europeans are genetically superior to those native to the Americas. Whether they acknowledge that or not, that's one of the things their theory is saying at the end of the day. However it is more than likely they didn't think that theory through and are not guilty of racism, just guilty of intellectual laziness on many levels, as on many levels this theory largely falls flat. But yes, even if those theories were true (something which would fly in the face of most of the evidence that there is the world over), calling it genocide is beyond ridiculous. 'Genocide' is a term that is far far overused and misapplied in all sorts of contexts these days, not just this one. To be clear, this is not to say for the uninformed that disease wasn't an issue for Europeans, Native Americans, et al back in the day, but it wasn't the genocidal widespread wiping out most of the population stuff that idiots like Diamond would have you believe. This myth is possibly the most widespread bit of hogwash revisionism to catch on in modern times.