I’ve always been more of a believer in the idea that a nation is a reflection of its leadership—that those at the top are essentially just a mirror image of the people below, rather than the other way around. To put it simply, when you see corrupt politicians, shady cops, or a broken judicial system, you’re looking at an incompetent government that is a direct byproduct of the society that produced them. It’s all connected. Even things like hooliganism in sports are just symptoms of a larger, more primitive streak within the general public. In the US, you don't really see anyone fighting against that kind of chaos because, frankly, certain political factions actually find it useful; they let those rowdy crowds act as a distraction whenever they need to shift the spotlight away from themselves. But if you look closely, there isn't much difference between a billionaire tycoon pulling the strings and the angry fans screaming insults from the bleachers. One just managed to grab the levers of power, while the others are part of the same ecosystem. Our leaders are built from the same fabric. At the end of the day, you can't pull fresh, healthy food out of a rotten refrigerator.
I honestly think we’re running into trouble because we’ve become way too pacifistic. If you look at history, men have been hunters for hundreds of thousands of years, and for the last couple of millennia, they’ve been warriors—warfare has been a constant. That drive for aggression has been baked into our DNA for ages. You can't just expect a group of young guys to suddenly be perfectly calibrated for a totally pacified society; they basically have all this built-in energy that needs an outlet. It's not even about being violent, it's just how they're wired. That’s why, in my view, things like this aren't necessarily a bad thing. Personally, I’d almost prefer seeing them deployed to somewhere like Afghanistan; they’d actually have the chance to prove their courage and heroism to their heart's content.
It seems like the kleptocrats are just going to keep ruling over an oblivious public, since for centuries now, the elite have basically been selling smoke to people while keeping them distracted with nothing but trivial side issues...
The thing is, you can't really blame them for staying stuck in that loop. You've got these disorganized, aggressive types who end up clashing and hating one another without even understanding the root cause. It's like seeing people out in the freezing cold, acting completely irrational, just venting frustration blindly. If someone falls into that trap of being easily manipulated, then that's just the reality of the situation.
Honestly, I’ve been thinking about the next big rivalry game between the Lakers and the Celtics. It feels like we need a different approach entirely. What if we just had both sets of hardcore ultras surrounded by a massive police cordon, loaded them straight into transport buses, and dropped them off at the exact same spot?
Honestly, I don't know why everyone is getting so worked up about this. History shows us that the white population will likely remain in control, even if their numbers drop to something like 10%, much like the demographic breakdown you see in Mexico.
I honestly think there are some people out there who are actually pretty relieved, mostly because we managed to pull through and keep our Russian brothers on our side.
Robin Ramos2 said:Whether or not they should have been promised membership is pretty much irrelevant now, I guess. The reality is that those promises were used as leverage to push through reforms when the government needed to maintain a shaky consensus among voters. Turkey basically spent years trying to balance the internal tug-of-war between liberal factions and fundamentalists. Moving away from the EU and distancing themselves from the USA might just end up empowering the fundamentalists in the long run.
As for whether modern Turkey should face repercussions... well, that's a whole other debate. Today's Turkey isn't the Ottoman Empire that committed those atrocities. However, it's true that modern Turkey still uses archaic laws to go after intellectuals who dare to speak out about the Armenian Genocide. Plus, the border with Armenia is still blocked by Turkey. From that perspective, the resolution makes sense. But, looking at realpolitik and how things work with Muslim nations, the timing couldn't have been worse.
If a country like Turkey only ditches fundamentalism as a tactical move to get into the European Union, then heaven help the European Union if they let people like that in.
Robin Ramos2 said:The military risks are almost secondary here, because I think this operation is primarily about domestic politics. For decades now, Turkey has been bending over backward under all sorts of external pressure just to remain a loyal NATO partner and try to get into the EU. But now, look—the EU openly won't have them, and one of their biggest US allies has gone so far as to equate them with Nazis. Because of all this humiliation, the Turks are feeling pretty wound up, and I suppose the government needs to give them something to boost morale a little. And wouldn't you know it, what a coincidence, next week Erdogan's government will seek authorization for a military incursion after a public holiday which ends on Sunday, regarding an action that has basically been talked about since July.
They were compared to Nazis back when they carried out the genocide against a million people. Honestly, they were actually an inspiration for Hitler, who, when asked "what will future generations think of us?", simply replied: "who even remembers the Armenians anymore?"
I have issued the command — and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish descent and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space [Lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?
Unsere Stärke ist unsere Schnelligkeit und unsere Brutalität. Dschingis Khan drove millions of women and children to their deaths, deliberately and with joyful Herzens. Die Geschichte sees him only as the great Founding Father. What the weak Western European civilization claims about me is irrelevant. I have issued the command — and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. So I have, for now only in the East, placed my death-head formation in readiness with the command to mercilessly and without compassion send men, women, and children of Polish descent and language to their deaths. Only thus do we gain the Lebensraum we require. Who talks today of the Armenian Genocide?
Adolf Hitler, August 1939, a conversation with German military commanders immediately preceding the invasion of Poland.
hiddengardener84 said:Back when Turkey was ruled by Sultans who actually had faith, this stuff didn't happen. But once that disgusting Jew Kemal Ataturk took over, everything changed. 😂Some idiot is still going to claim he did it in the name of Islam. 😂
The Armenian Genocide was carried out during the Sultanate era between 1915 and 1917!
Honestly, there’s no such thing as reaching the limit of human stupidity. What’s truly frustrating—and has always been a recurring theme in these discussions—is the fact that, unlike George W. Bush, these groups can never actually win power through democratic means. They don't play by the rules of the ballot box; instead, they crave a total revolution, a purge of their own internal enemies, or some kind of sweeping upheaval against their own people. As Rosa Luxemburg so brilliantly put it: "a revolutionary majority doesn't always have to be a quantitative one." History has shown us time and again that she was absolutely right about that. George W. Bush was an elected leader within the framework of the Republic. That's a reality the "capitalism is evil" crowd on the left just refuses to accept. That fundamental denial is exactly where all their bitterness and frustration stems from. It reminds me of how certain politicians used to claim there was no democracy during the era of leaders like Reagan, simply because those leaders cruised to victory with massive margins while the opposition couldn't even scrape together 5% of the vote. If you can't muster the numbers, you start crying foul about the system itself.
Some people in this thread have been drawing parallels between marijuana and things like cigarettes or coffee, arguing they aren't actually any more harmful. And look, from a certain perspective, that’s a fair point—but there is one massive caveat you can't ignore. While cigarettes and coffee aren't exactly stepping stones to heroin, marijuana often is. It's that one crucial exception that changes the whole equation.
Richard Wilson4 said:Just Singapore? What about Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, or Costa Rica?
It’s honestly kind of fascinating how some people on these car forums act like places like Singapore, Panama, or Costa Rica don't actually have distinct nations. I guess their definition of a "real" nation is just whether or not they have ancient myths dating back to the Middle Ages. They seem to ignore the fact that those same people are just as fiercely patriotic about their national sports teams, fight wars over territory and resources, and use plenty of slurs for their neighbors—it’s all very much there. Plus, they conveniently overlook the fact that many of those countries have much older, more established cultural identities than the folks here in the States who love to play the "we’re the only ones with a true heritage" card.
The reality is that in today’s world, trying to lean on protectionism doesn't really work when you're operating in such a small geographic area. It just ends up driving prices through the roof, which inevitably leads to a spike in smuggling and people just driving across the state line to shop where things are cheaper. In the end, domestic production just collapses under its own weight again. You can't really hide behind tariffs; you either have to be more competitive or you fail. Protectionism only seems to hold any water when you're dealing with massive distances.
If you look back at human history, there isn't really a single instance where a culture managed to smoothly absorb massive waves of newcomers, even when that culture was experiencing its own population boom—which is quite a departure from how things are playing out in the US today. Historically, whether it happened before or after the fact, these shifts always triggered deep social turbulence. Even China itself had to endure incredibly traumatic periods whenever they faced incursions from the north, and it took them an immense amount of time to eventually integrate those newcomers. But, the undeniable truth remains: they eventually pulled it off. Following that logic, we have to acknowledge that this marks a unique turning point in history; for the first time in the last century and a half, China has transitioned into a country that actually sends migrants abroad. That said, I don't expect this status to last long. Last year, their population grew by a mere 6 million people. To put that in perspective, just ten years ago, they were growing by 40 million annually, and twenty years before that, it was closer to 60 million per year! With a fertility rate sitting at 1.7 for quite some time now, it’s clear that their population growth is headed toward a standstill very soon. You also have to factor in the heavily skewed gender ratio, specifically the shortage of young women. What could become a much more likely scenario in the near future is that China, with such high economic growth paired with a plummeting demographic trend, might actually revert to being a destination for immigrants—especially when you consider the vast, impoverished regions of Southeast Asia. However, that shouldn't necessarily give Americans any cause for celebration, because the Middle East and Africa represent regions that will continue to be sources of intense migration for a very, very long time...
The Iranian authorities are facing a massive disconnect with their own people, who are frankly starving for a taste of the West. Most Iranians today were either born under the Ayatollahs or were so young when things changed that they don't even remember how life used to be. It’s pretty common knowledge that when Iranian women travel abroad, they ditch those restrictive rules they're forced to follow at home; you see young people flocking to clubs and disco spots because they're just hungry for that Western lifestyle. The regime essentially manufactures these provocations to trigger a backlash, all in an attempt to force a sense of national unity and ensure their own survival. If they can't frame everything as an "us versus them" scenario, the public would likely just turn its back on them. That's why they constantly push buttons—it's a calculated move to keep the nation glued to their side through manufactured conflict.
Honestly, I think it’s best if the Americans just keep hitting back. Wherever you see groups like the Taliban, the Mujahideen, Hamas, Hezbollah, or any other jihadist factions popping up, they really need to be dealt with.