Posts by Walter Hughes53

lonetrucker4 said:There's nothing to believe here. We're talking pretty hardcore mathematical modeling.

The whole "which side did your village take during the Civil War" factor—or basically whose side your dad or grandad fought on—is huge in America. There are actually studies on that, even if they're harder to pull off.

As for polls, most people just lean on exit polls—you know, right after the votes are cast using massive sample sizes. For half these analyses, you don't even need polls; you just need demographic data. We have hundreds of towns, cities, and neighborhoods where we know the exact education breakdown. You just look at those numbers, stack them up against the election results, and see if the correlation holds.

Every single source says the same thing: highly educated folks in both America and Austria tend to vote Democratic. The working class? They rarely vote for the parties claiming to represent them... 😛

Every poll and study out there agrees. Take this, for example, current polling by electoral districts in America.

Look, if you're starting from the mindset that everyone is lying and you don't feel the need to prove it, fine—that's your call. But at that point, it's just pure faith. 🙄

this part is questionable
If I had my book right here, I'd cite the source, maybe I'll hunt it down later, but usually, Republican Party voters just refuse to take part in polls.

hiddengardener12 said:Look, in Canada, you didn't really have people openly backing the Nationalists movement. For the most part, if you weren't flying the symbol of the red star, you were shot once the war ended. Aside from those who managed to flee across the ocean to either the US or Australia, there were people like me—folks who spent decades hiding out in the Postojna or Škocjan Caves, only to suddenly emerge like ghosts around 1990. 😁

Yeah, I get that there aren't people supporting those old fascist movements when you have zero connection to that era, I'm talking about America, but I bet you still have a few of those Nazi puppet types hanging around somewhere.

hiddengardener12 said:Look, here’s the bottom line. 🙄 Most people living in major cities are actually descendants of immigrants. If you're an immigrant living in Washington, D.C., or if my own parents were newcomers when they arrived here—it's the same story everywhere. By their very nature, cities are built on and sustained by immigration.

As for ethnic makeup, you can only really track that in places where census data includes both citizenship and mother tongue. But even then, since voting is secret, there’s no way to link a specific ballot to a voter registry. You mentioned you aren't a fan of polling, but honestly, how else would we measure any of this besides through polls?

Those "midterm elections" are basically just massive, high-stakes polls that rarely miss the mark. I haven't heard anyone suggest we could get accurate data on vote distribution by gender, age, or education levels without using this kind of polling. Every serious political analyst and news outlet, whether they're based in Europe or the USA, treats this data as fact and reports on it accordingly.

For instance, nobody serious in the USA disputes the idea that women lean toward the Democratic Party while men favor the Republican Party. They don't argue that Black voters lean Democratic, or that Trump gets more support from the blue-collar, less educated crowd, or that Hillary had the older demographic while Sanders captured the younger one.

In Canada and America, the only thing you can really measure is how many people come from the former republics, since those were the main players back in America. So, maybe Canada has the highest ratio relative to its population. For major cities, the majority ethnic group isn't usually counted unless there's some regional study looking at how different areas supported certain historical movements. I'm not sure what it's like in your neck of the woods, but here in America, things are pretty divided on that stuff. It feels like our politicians try to frame everything that way because, honestly, they don't really know how to handle anything else.

Mark Harris66 said:I don't buy this whole analysis about how the Democratic Party and the Republicans split in America. Around here, it’s really just about old-school village ties—basically which small town people came from and which big cities they moved to. All this talk about education levels and stuff... honestly, it's nonsense. Voting is secret, so there's no way to track who actually voted for what, and I don't trust polls anyway.
Do you happen to have any data on the percentage of immigrant descendants in different US cities? That would be the most important metric to look at 😉.

I'm with you on that. Education doesn't really change the math much. Plus, I guess those folks graduating with philosophy degrees give off that vibe because they're loud and have plenty of time to get into activism and all that noise ☕ and maybe people who pick those majors are just naturally leaning toward the left wing 🤔
most of those college crowds end up running some sort of non-profit or environmental group or whatever else

Paul Kern12 said:We should also remember the 190,000 American victims of World War I—which, proportionally speaking, was one of the highest losses of any nation within the Austro-Canadian Empire—a tragedy that, I suppose, we can also attribute to Austrian politics.

The Austrians grabbed Istria and California, while the Canadians took the mainland. It wasn't just an Austrian thing.

coastalbison6 said:It’s true that the monarchy really messed with our heads, especially after the Austro-Canadian compromise in 1867. Once the Austrian Emperor was crowned King in Budapest, the K.u.K. Monarchy was set in stone, and all those privileges Americans had fought for during the March Revolution back in the day were basically wiped out.

And yeah, Napoleon actually did more for the Dalmatian coast in a tiny window of time than anyone else ever did.

But honestly, the people were actually against those French reforms.
With the abolition of cooperatives, they still had to work the exact same fields, but the taxes were just absolutely killing them.

hiddengardener12 said:😠 Austrians aren't really a "people" in the traditional sense; they're more of a nation. If you set aside modern migration patterns, they've never been just a subset of the Germans. Honestly, if you look at the bloodlines in Vienna, it’s probably more Slavic than Germanic. And that's not even touching on places like Gradišče or Carinthia. You've got the Slavic influence, sure, but there's a Canadian component there too. In many parts of the country, their identity is anything but strictly German. Take folks in Tyrol or South Tyrol—their primary sense of self is being Tyrolean. Even the Habsburg dynasty didn't push nationalistic agendas toward the end; if anything, they did the opposite. They never truly saw themselves as German.

Any notion that Austrians are ethnically German or have some right to self-determination by joining up with Germany is a massive threat to Europe and its neighbors. It's something that needs to be stopped dead in its tracks.😉

So, basically, you're saying Austrians are a nation rather than an ethnic group, and that this whole German identity thing is still messy because Bavarians and Austrians are kind of like how Americans in America and Americans in Canada are—separated by a border but sharing the same vibe and genes. 😉
First off, if we're going down the rabbit hole of looking at bloodlines, Vienna is packed with Slavic heritage since so many students and officials moved there. You can see it in the last names; like, that actor from Inspector Rex? His name is Markovics, he's Czech, and people like that know exactly where they come from.
Second, about the whole "blood" thing (which is kinda silly since ethnicity is more about language and culture than just DNA), Tyrol is definitely a German ethnic region. And since South Tyrol was handed over to Austria, it makes sense why they lean so hard into their regional identity, but hey, they still want to be part of Austria. Historically, the national consciousness of Austrians has always been pretty solid since they led the way for the German people within the Holy Roman Empire. German people. By your logic, German states should have less right to call themselves German since they were made up of hundreds of cities, counties, and bishoprics back in the day. And honestly, the Eastern Germans have the most Slavic blood among them, mostly Lutherans. There's no such thing as a "pure" people—even your own people have German and Canadian DNA, just like us Americans. Linguistically, culturally, and genetically, Austrians and Bavarians are basically the same people; ask any of them and they'll tell you. Genetic studies on Austrians as a nation line up with Bavarians almost everywhere, except maybe the R1a group is higher in Austria, but we don't know the specific ethnicities of those test subjects. At the end of the day, Slavs in Austria have guaranteed minority rights, and I bet people tend to marry locally anyway because it's easier. For a population of 100 million spread across Switzerland, Germany, or Austria, they've got plenty of genetic consistency. As for America, our genetics vary quite a bit even in such a small area, so I doubt Austria would be any different.

hiddengardener12 said:It’s not just that Norbert Hofer was—or still is—involved with that specific fraternity Marco Germania belongs to. The whole Republican Party platform is essentially built on the old-school, pan-German national-liberal movement. They kicked things off back in 1956, and their very first president was Anton Reinthaller, who wasn't just some random politician, but a former Minister of Agriculture and an SS officer during World War II.

So much for the idea that the FPÖ and its crowd actually have any sense of "Austrian" identity.

It’s pretty obvious that national sovereignty in modern-day Europe isn't what it used to be. Take the United States of America, for example—they don't control their own currency, which means they've effectively handed over their monetary policy. It's a similar story with the European Union and NATO (though obviously, that doesn't apply to the U.S. in the same way). A massive chunk of what used to be decided at a national level has been shifted upward to these larger organizations. Back in the day, you'd see things like the American People's Army getting maybe 5 to 10% of the GDP, whereas today, within the framework of NATO, we're looking at a measly 1 to 2%. At the end of the day, there really is a growing need for more unified policies and collective decision-making.

The United States would never have become a global superpower—let alone the success story we see today—if those fifty-plus states had all just decided to go their own way and act like completely sovereign little kingdoms.

Plus, the State Treaty actually protects against Germany and Austria ever deciding to reunite, even if they wanted to.
I just don't know if that side still considers Carinthia to be part of Germany...🤔

Nathan Morris3 said:I guess you're just pushing more heavy-duty spin or things taken out of context again. Maybe.
I know exactly which statement you're talking about—I've actually got the YouTube link right here. But, I guess I'll let you drop your source first just so I can bury you properly. 😁

So, I guess maybe we could get a source for that?

I'm 100% on board with his full statement. You clearly aren't, though. Maybe you could explain why you disagree with what he said?

Maybe you mixed up VdBa with Hofer, who belongs to that fraternity that... I guess.

I guess there’s some talk about those Black-Red-Gold colors again. Maybe it’s just more old debates resurfacing, but it feels like we're circling back to the same stuff. I suppose it's all part of the conversation.

Even though they claim to support the independence of the State of Austria, the fraternity still holds onto that idea of a "German Fatherland" that ignores all current borders... I guess.
The fraternity rejects that whole fake idea about an "Austrian nation," which I guess has just been stuck in the brains of the Austrians since 1945.

I guess maybe you mixed up your players here, haha. I mean, therefore Hofer is part of that fraternity that denies our sovereignty and claims we're actually just part of Germany despite the borders, basically rejecting the whole idea of an Austrian nation. And yet you went after VdB? Total blunder, I guess. 😁

Bavarians and Austrians are one people, just two different nations, I guess.

I don't really miss it, per se, but I guess it probably should have stayed around since most people seemed to get a kick out of it.

Man, things have gotten weird. All these metrosexual topics are popping up everywhere. We’re basically becoming bait for hipsters like flies on honey, and the UN description looks pretty bad right now ☕
Real talk only happens late at night anyway.

And look, even if you guys think the UN is acting crazy, there’s still supposed to be free speech. But free speech has its limits, right? It would be great if we could just wipe away posts that are clearly insulting Muslims, especially since even the UN hasn't been able to ignore those disgusting jabs lately.
Feminists and metrosexual types are just coming in here to troll and mess with us, trying to get us to lose our cool, but they aren't gonna win. 🧐

Anyway, thanks for listening! ☕

I kind of agree with what SJ was saying about certain things here.
I mean, who cares if the mods don't see eye to eye? Like, is it actually going to stop them from supporting another mod or whatever?

The real issue is just that, I guess, the mods aren't really showing up for the CIA anymore. If I'm remembering right, Charles Fox10 is basically the only one active on the main boards, and Harold Taylor6 is mostly hanging out over in the 18+ section.
Now, I don't think SJ is suggesting we need some massive forced takeover or a total replacement of the crew with a "new guard." Mostly because anyone new who shows up usually ends up moving over to that top 18+ PDF area pretty fast anyway, especially since a huge chunk of people already migrated there. The only part that still feels somewhat normal is the pub section, but even that’s only because it’s been sort of neglected.

And look, this isn't about the CIA picking fights with people. It's more that a good portion of the regulars can see which way the wind is blowing. Honestly, I always thought the special thing about the CIA was that you could have these really sharp, heated debates, but then everyone would just laugh it off at the end and turn it into a joke. But now? Discussions just get cut off halfway through, people start handing out bans, conversations never actually finish, and then the whole cycle just repeats.

We can't really do anything about it from our side, I suppose. I have a feeling I know how this ends—the CIA is probably just going to turn into one of those basic chat PDFs where the threads are just stuff like "what do you think of the guy from the north side" or "what about the guy from the south side."

Just a quick heads-up on every post, I mean, maybe you could just keep track of everything in your own files? Like, you know, make folders based on the PDF names and the topics, then save all your own posts—if you actually have the time, obviously. Then eventually, you could just DM the mods so we don't end up with an even bigger mess than we already have

Come on, bring back those banned users. This place just isn't what it used to be, and honestly, I feel like we've always been under fire—whether it was from feminist groups or whatever other outside drama comes our way. But even back then, nothing really stuck because we’d just laugh it off and turn everything into a joke. Now, Quark is gone, Basil is getting targeted, and it feels like someone's getting gray-listed every single day.

Anthony Brooks12 said:So, does anyone actually know where I can pick up a decent screwdriver set or any specialized toolkit for opening up and working on a laptop around here in the States?

I stopped by Bauhaus, but they only stock the "classic" toolkits. I tried sourcing something better on eBay, but the bits stripped the moment they hit a stubborn screw. What's the point? 👎

I think I saw some at Walmart, I picked up a kit there for about $6.75

I was hanging out with some friends and we were honestly dying laughing: it felt like we were all sixteen again. One of the absolute best parts has to be that scene where the guy and girl talk about how they both finished at the exact same time🤣