The Political Discussion Thread

[Womble]

I agree, citizens, even an armed citizenry have an uphill battle going against an established government. Maybe they just need to have the idea in their mind that they have a chance to succeed in order to try, should it become necessary.

But stripped of firearms, they have no chance.

That's not true either. There's plenty of examples of citizens overthrowing oppressive regimes without starting out armed to the teeth.

You see, any dictatorship is only as strong as its military and police, but the military and the police come from the general population. When a genuinely popular unrest begins, deserters from the military and the police become the core of the rebellion, and bring their guns with them. In the Syrian civil war, for example, a large part of the rebels are Syrian army deserters.

In other words, private gun ownership is neither sufficient nor necessary for keeping the government in check. Which is why I'm not the least bit receptive to that particular line of gun ownership defense.

[Falcon Horus]

And I wish people would stop citing "Native Americans", meaning Indians when discussing this, or even immigration.

You're not a native to American lands. Your ancestors immigrated to it from wherever it was they originated from. So... it's a valid point.

The situation was different.

Was it?

The first ones to cross the pond were running from an establishment they didn't agree with, wanted freedom of religion and just basically didn't want to live under the rules of whatever country they hailed from.

When the Europeans landed on the American continent, it was simply the Indian's bad luck that they encountered a more advanced civilization before they were able to stand against them.

Advanced how?

Hasn't this sort of thing happened at other times in mankind's history; a primitive civilization encounters a more advanced one and the more advanced civilization displaces the primitive one?

Science has proven that Homo Sapiens and Neanderthales had interracial interactions both on a sexual level and on a socio-economic level.

Romans invaded and spread across the known world, bringing everyone under their rule but keeping everyone where they were, assimilation was a hot topic. The Greeks before them. The Egyptians before them. The Mesopotamians before them.

Yeah no, I don't see the similarities.

[Annoyed]

Advanced being defined by the ability to kill. It's unfortunate that that is the defining factor, but that's just human nature.

[Falcon Horus]

Advanced being defined by the ability to kill. It's unfortunate that that is the defining factor, but that's just human nature.

O-kay, you clearly have no clue what an advanced civilization is then.

[Womble]

You're not a native to American lands. Your ancestors immigrated to it from wherever it was they originated from. So... it's a valid point.

Kind of irrelevant; if you roll history back enough years, no one's native to any place. Your ancestors took Belgium from the Celts, who took the land from a bunch of earlier cultures, who took it from the Neanderthals (although there were some ownership gaps; pre-Bronze age Belgium was apparently Europe's least popular place to live).

[jelgate]

O-kay, you clearly have no clue what an advanced civilization is then.

Its really a personal perception of what advanced is. I don't really agree with the killing analogy about advanced but I also know their is no defining criteria for advanced societies.

[Annoyed]

I don't like the definition but the human race is a hunter-killer species. It's how we managed to wind up at the top of the food chain on this planet. Just because I don't like a particular fact, that doesn't make it any less of a fact.

[Annoyed]

Citing a leftist news outlet to silence cries of bias:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b00b033aaf0c6d

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton's home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails that contained material requiring one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes three days before Clinton competes in the Iowa presidential caucuses.

Any bets on whether a presidential pardon is in the works?

[Coco Pops]

Well let's just hope that if we humans ever do make first contact that the beings we meet don't think the same as the Europeans. "Nice planet I think we'll stay"

It will be more then an uphill battle for sure.

[KEK]

Asylum-seekers whose application is rejected get send back on a regular basis in every country. It usually concerns those who are not on the run from war-torn countries, like the Balkans for example. No different over here (= Belgium). Even families who integrated over several years, and have been contributing the economy and society still can be rejected and send back to their country of origin.

Very few are ever deported, and even when they do it's at great cost. The Great Replacement is something we should be talking about more in the West.

[Annoyed]

Well let's just hope that if we humans ever do make first contact that the beings we meet don't think the same as the Europeans. "Nice planet I think we'll stay"

It will be more then an uphill battle for sure.

Stephen Hawking has reservations about alien contact for those very reasons.

http://www.space.com/29999-stephen-h...fe-danger.html

This week, famed physicist Stephen Hawking helped launch a major new effort to search for signs of intelligent alien life in the cosmos, even though he thinks it's likely that such creatures would try to destroy humanity.

Since at least 2010, Hawking has spoken publicly about his fears that an advanced alien civilization would have no problem wiping out the human race the way a human might wipe out a colony of ants. At the media event announcing the new project, he noted that human beings have a terrible history of mistreating, and even massacring, other human cultures that are less technologically advanced — why would an alien civilization be any different?

[Coco Pops]

I think Mr Hawking would be right. It'd be a massacre. Either that or it'd be a mass culling and only the fittest would be kept as pets.

[Falcon Horus]

Kind of irrelevant; if you roll history back enough years, no one's native to any place. Your ancestors took Belgium from the Celts, who took the land from a bunch of earlier cultures, who took it from the Neanderthals (although there were some ownership gaps; pre-Bronze age Belgium was apparently Europe's least popular place to live).

Exactly why I can't say I'm a native to these lands.
As a matter of fact, if my father is right then there's Italian blood running through our veins so we're definitely not from around these parts. (if I would have to wager a guess)

And to make it even better, there's definitely Neanderthal DNA in our genetic make-up as we have some of the allergies passed on from their half of the family tree.

[ClockworkNebari]

Anyone see my Rushdie thread?

[jelgate]

Conventional wisdom suggests the mods removed it for breaking the rules