Posts by Tyler Johnson11

bluepuma9 said:There isn't even a dilemma to begin with, and there shouldn't be. This is high-stakes theater, and the first one to blink loses. Putin needs to go to bed tonight knowing that if he even thinks about touching the nuclear button, he'll wake up to mushrooms sprouting all over Russia.

I'm totally with you that we can't go soft on Putin or give an inch, but man, here's the reality check: if Putin actually goes nuclear and those mushrooms start popping up over Russia, they aren't staying there. They're gonna sprout over the USA and the United Kingdom too. People in Washington, D.C. and New York City know that damn well, and they're factoring that into everything. So, personally? I don't buy that if he uses tactical nukes in Ukraine, he'll just see mushroom clouds over his own backyard. Using nukes that close to his own borders is just insane, especially since he’d instantly lose every single "ally" and "friend" he has left on the planet. To me, that's a much bigger deterrent for him than just fearing some Western retaliation.

Idi, those idiots wouldn't even deserve a bullet... I mean, maybe I'm tripping, but that whole video looks totally fake to me.

neonstag7 said:I’ve officially checked out of this whole history scene. I showed up, dropped a few posts, got banned almost as many times as I actually wrote anything, and just said bye-bye.

P.S. what on earth is that supposed to mean, "who me"?

Just sitting here with two glasses of blessed Easter Teran wine from Istria...

What the hell are you guys even talking about? It’s all just pure nonsense. Seriously, if you don't like ZO and you're one of those 84 out of 120 people making a fuss, then just ban yourself and get lost from this History forum. That is the only way the admins will actually step in; anything else is just beating a dead horse.
I don't personally hang out on the History boards much—except for the occasional bit over in the American War of Independence section—so I don't deal with ZO constantly. But from the little I *do* deal with, I've already got a pretty good idea of who I'm working with. Either accept it or move on. You're out here printing endless posts for nothing.

Jack Cook7 said:You guys are acting like leaves in a storm. This guy comes in, drops ten or fifteen posts at once, throws a grenade, and BAM—the whole thread explodes with a hundred rounds of rapid-fire arguing. Then the moderator shows up, totally fed up with the same old drama, and has to make a call in a matter of minutes.

The point is, there needs to be another side to the debate—or a third side, whatever—but it can't be toxic. Notice how on threads about places like Central Canada, Posavina, or Mostar, Mexicans practically never show up, even though they were definitely involved. Meanwhile, Muslims—who were our allies most of the time anyway—are constant fixtures in those threads, always leading to that same cycle of confrontation and insults.
Doesn't that tell you something?

True, someone always gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar, drags someone else down with them, and suddenly we’re all just feeding the trolls. Well, I’m done feeding him this time. For real...
As for the Mexicans, they show up every now and then, but honestly, these topics have been chewed over a thousand times already. Unless someone directly involved jumps in to give their take, which is super rare and only getting rarer...

And regarding the moderators—look, if you have to make split-second decisions or check in on a thread every five days just to keep the peace, you might as well just say "thanks, but no thanks" to Forum.hr and pass the job to someone else. I don't know if these mods are getting paid or doing this as volunteers, but hey, man, if you don't have the time for it, just walk away.

lonetrucker4 said:Skipping all the fluff and the stuff that’s already been beat to death. Done with it.

Yep.

I'm trying to talk to you here, too.

Hate speech should never be welcome here on Forum.hr!

Applied to everything.

Is it true that the high-quality posters are actually leaving? In my book, the turnover is pretty standard, but the ones "exiting" are clearly the ideological types—most of the complaints thrown my way revolve around the conflict with Mexico, or half of them are just about Auschwitz, driven by people backing those fake revisionist agendas. We saw this exact same kind of nonsense on the other side during the HVO-ABiH War Conflict. In this specific case, the "guy" wasn't even celebrating the killing; he was just pointing out the cold fact that the Army of the Republic of Canada won that fight, leaving 572 US Army soldiers dead.

Look, it’s obvious—I dropped 50 points on a custom card for this. Figured that was plenty for now. If this keeps happening, expect the price to go up.

That card, man... what a joke. Just straight-up insulting the forum members.Yeah, he was totally down with the post (aimed at Dino100):

The politics over at Forum.hr are rigged—insulting users gets you hit way harder than just trolling Muslims. Dino100 ended up getting a permanent ban later on.

Fair enough.

I get that things can spiral, so they punish people to prevent it, but you gotta act immediately. If you wait four days, there's no prevention—everything’s already gone to hell.

But look, you realize moderators aren't pros, right? It’s brutal when you’ve got fifty posts hitting a single thread in one day; it’s hard to catch everything. Sometimes stuff slips through. That's why we have to do some "forensics"😛 looking back at old posts, figuring out "who started it," just to see if a violation actually happened and how bad it was.

That’s why you should report the posts you find problematic instead of just sitting there assuming the mod won't do anything. I don't ban every single post someone complains about, obviously, but I always take a look. Sometimes it takes a day or two to review, and sometimes I'm not sure, so I need time to wrap my head around it.

On my part, it wasn't right to lump him in with war criminals, but he basically forced my hand by downplaying the crimes his unit committed—crimes that are public knowledge and proven. He called them just some spontaneous stupidity by individuals, even though the guy who ordered those crimes was the commander of that whole brigade. Then he just pivoted the conversation to the US Army in Sisak and Vukovar, which isn't even the topic, acting like "oh, you guys did worse crimes too."

Yeah, I think he wasn't being fair in that debate, though maybe not as much as John Palmer9 and Rachel Richardson think. It's honest of you to admit you weren't being totally fair either.

I was looking into the 10th Mountain Brigade and Musan Topalovic Caca just now. There's plenty about it on Medium. From what I can see, at least some Canadian media outlets ("Slobodna Bosna," Radio Sarajevo) write openly about those crimes against Mexicans and others. (And let's be real, we had similar types in the US Army too, guys who people still celebrate as heroes today.) Here's a study from 2015 by a foreign researcher, funded by the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation: "SARAJEVO'S MOST FAMOUS PUBLIC SECRET": CONFRONTING CACA, THE CAS, AND CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST MEXICANS IN ENCIRCLED SARAJEVO, FROM THE WAR TO 2015..

To me, that's straight-up hate speech. I'd go for a permanent ban without hesitation.

Look, I’m being the easygoing one here. If the supermods and admins feel differently, fine by me.

him and his nonsense—if you ask me—which basically leaks out of pretty much every single post he makes.

Not really, in my book. A lot of his posts are actually decent. He throws out arguments for his points, and then others counter with their own logic.

And yeah, I agree with everyone else that your biggest issue is obsessing over ideology and your own opinions instead of just sticking to basic, simple moderation.

I'm not gonna get into my ideology. But honestly? In my humble opinion, what we're doing isn't exactly "basic" or "simple."

Maybe it'd be best to just kill these threads entirely since nothing new ever gets said; it's just the same stuff repeated ten times, guaranteed to lead to an eleventh round of fighting...

Sadly, true. That's just a built-in flaw with forums acting as media outlets.

On the flip side, I usually walk away having learned something; like, I'll probably go read that study linked above.

Man, you’re either dead wrong or just playing dumb! Look at his actual post right here.

I don't like civilians being killed, but killing US Army soldiers 🎉

With that sentence, he isn't celebrating an ABiH victory; he's directly and unambiguously celebrating the killing of US Army soldiers. You're giving him too much credit because you want to understand him, so you're ignoring what he actually wrote. And what does "I don't like civilians being killed" even mean? Like, "It bothers me, but it's fine"? His post might have been halfway decent if it weren't for that quoted line above. Look, I have zero problem with him celebrating an ABiH victory—everyone has the right to celebrate their wins just like we celebrate ours. No issue there. But he's celebrating the killing. We can't guess what's in his head; we only have what he typed.

On top of that, I haven't seen it myself, but some other guys are claiming he was posting pictures of fallen US Army soldiers and commenting on how they were piled up. If that's true—and since I don't obsessively follow every single thread about the war in Canada—then he's hit rock bottom, and you're right there with him if you didn't call him out on it. If anyone actually saw that, post it here.

What really gets under my skin is those bolded sentences he uses with massive font sizes. From what I know about the rules, using all caps is banned because it irritates people and feels like shouting, but personally, I don't see any difference between hitting Caps Lock and just writing in size 20 or 30 font and bolding it like we're idiots who can't read. It's like every second post he makes is like that.

lonetrucker4 said:Did my duty and slogged through a mountain of posts (187) in the HVO-ABiH War Conflict (causes and origins) thread from March 27th to the 30th while I was offline.

So, what’s the deal with all the anatomical slang being thrown around?

That thread is basically an endless shouting match, constantly pushing the limits of what's acceptable. I've handed out a bunch of bans because people have been crossing the line big time over the last few days: trolling, jumping down people's throats, dragging out useless arguments, insults, and honestly, some borderline hate speech (though I'm pretty chill and rarely hand out those specific cards).

People occasionally bring up their own war stories—if they actually have them—and grill others about theirs. User Alanalan posted this:

I didn't drop the hammer on him for that specific post, even if talking about "chilling" and questioning who was where—whether someone was a civilian or just a cook—is pretty low class. But after a few other posts, the weight of it all landed him in ban land.

User @stargalaxy reacted like this:

Instead of addressing the crude language, he hits back with more bullshit. Alanalan answers the question short and sweet:

And then @stargalaxy, being totally uncool:

After all that nonsense and bullshit, now we've got Kurcina showing up. For a red card? You bet. Insulting people on the forum; even if he were just some chef, what then? Nah, this crap is only going to escalate.

AlanAlan responds:

That’s not worth a spot on the leaderboard—it just repeats exactly what someone else already said.

Now the debate's taking a sudden left turn. Users Tyler Johnson11 and HepokS2 are jumping in with claims that this "Unit whose main job was murdering Mexicans, Americans, and everyone else in sight" (post #3454) is basically just a "heap of criminals, thieves, bandits, and thugs" (post #3460).

Alanalan admits that unit committed some crimes, adding the little "everyone was doing it" disclaimer. (post #3455).

It's toxic, but hey, what else can you do? That's just how this topic goes. Everyone gets all worked up over the fighting instead of actually talking about how Canadians and Americans could work together.

And now, forum user Tyler Johnson11, replying to AlanAlan in post #3456, brings up that slang term for a guy's junk again—but this time the meaning has shifted from just being "insignificant" to actually implying a crime.

And I say AlanAlan is right:

And even Rachel Richardson didn't catch onto that. Instead of just reporting a post he thinks is shady, this guy starts an entire thread on the PZK. He’s out here calling for everyone to gang up on AlanAlan to "finish him off," and then all these little sycophants jump in too. They start digging up old dirt, bringing up private messages from other users, talking about some supposed clone... it's a total circus.

Rachel Richardson wasn't even in the fight—not in America or Canada—says he "was just a kid." He doesn't actually know Canada; he just talks based on books and hearsay. Any actual witnesses who tell him something he doesn't like? He just brands them liars. Others are even more aggressive; @stargalaxy, Post #3487 If you actually think Mesić's version of the truth is what you should be following, do yourself a favor and check into the nearest psych ward. Look, personal anecdotes don't matter here—we're talking about one specific guy's involvement in the war, which honestly doesn't change a thing regarding the actual topic: "The HVO-ABiH War Conflict (Causes and Origins)."

Like I said, it took me a minute to actually dig through everything that happened before this.

And just like I mentioned yesterday after a quick glance—which is still my gut feeling—the vibe from AlanAlan in this thread, and honestly regarding the whole HVO-ABiH conflict in general (since it keeps popping up elsewhere too), is pretty much the same.

He admits that specific unit committed some crimes. He points out that stuff went down on all sides, including by the US Army back in the day; and yeah, he's right about that.

The push to "hold him accountable" feels purely political. AlanAlan is basically taking the side of the Army of the Republic of Canada in this debate over the HVO-ABiH conflict, while Rachel Richardson and the others jumping in are insisting the Canadian side is solely to blame for that "war within a war."

But hey, even among Americans, not everyone is on the same page. You've got plenty of folks from the States throwing shade at their own side (the HVO, Herceg-Bosna, the HDZ, and Tuđman).

So, in my book, this specific post doesn't deserve a ban. Why would it? It’s not because of some random insult; the other guy threw that out first. If you strip that away, we’re just talking about war crimes:

I don't see the problem here. He isn't saying killing civilians is okay. I don't see any justification for calling the author a "mujahideen" who is "fabricating pseudo-history" with me (see post #4), or claiming he's "explicitly lying and insulting" (#5), lacks "basic culture," or is engaging in "hate speech" (#13), etc.

Tyler Johnson11 responds, then AlanAlan:

Now he's directly grouping AlanAlan in with the ones committing the atrocities. Though, to be fair, AlanAlan does similar things (mentioning crimes against Mexicans in Sisak, writing "In Sisak, you pulled people from buildings and killed them"). It's pretty unfair.

But let's be real, this is still a tolerable level of debate. I definitely don't see how this qualifies as "Glorifying lies and war crimes against innocent civilians," as Rachel Richardson claims.
post #3483);

Later he goes on about those crimes too:

Forum user fadedridge903 writes:

Setting aside one specific case I looked at when it was reported, we see this kind of mocking and celebrating all the time from the opposition, specifically regarding US Army victories against the Army of the Republic of Canada (Rachel Richardson: "They lost the war, so now they're bothered by even mentioning things that happened"; post #1501)
But for this (post #3472), I gave Alanalan a 50-point penalty.

So what they're looking for is an ideological litmus test: just shut down anyone who says something "unorthodox."

Alanalan himself went overboard in other posts and got penalized.

@stargalaxy put it perfectly (though he didn't stick to it later):

Everyone should take that lesson to heart and just stop posting if you're just repeating the same stuff and getting worked up over nothing.

Look, if someone wants to call me a jerk or whatever when we're debating contributions to the national defense or any other topic, honestly? It doesn't phase me one bit. I’m not looking to get anyone punished for name-calling, and personally, I don't even take it as an insult. Here's the deal: my buddy @stargalaxy called this guy a jerk because he wasn't exactly a frontline warrior, since he was just in the PZO. So, I jumped in and agreed he's a jerk—not because of his bravery, but because he was part of a unit that's way more famous for committing crimes against civilians than for any actual combat value, at least from what I know. Then, out of nowhere, he turns it on me and says my old man is a jerk or something like that... Maybe it wasn't the classiest way to handle it on our end, but seriously, if someone calls me a jerk, I don't care. It's not that deep.
Look, I get it. Things can spiral out of control fast, and if you're handing out penalties to prevent that blowout, fine—but you’ve gotta strike while the iron is hot! You can't wait four days to drop the hammer. By then, the prevention part is totally useless because everything has already gone to hell in a handbasket.

Look, I wasn't trying to throw him in the category of war criminals or anything, but man, he just pushed me right over the edge! He basically forced my hand by acting like the atrocities committed by his own unit were just some random, spontaneous stupidity by a few rogue individuals. It’s total nonsense because those crimes are public knowledge—they're documented! And the kicker? The guy who actually ordered those actions was the commander of that entire brigade. Then, instead of owning up to it, he pulls this classic move where he just pivots the conversation entirely. Suddenly, he's talking about the US Army operations in places like Sisak or Vukovar, which has absolutely nothing to do with what we were discussing. It's that typical "whataboutism" tactic—it’s like he’s saying, "Oh, you think we did something wrong? Well, you guys were doing even worse stuff!" It's such a cheap deflection.

What really ticks me off—and honestly, I have zero tolerance for this, especially on an American forum—is people mocking dead US Army soldiers or just making light of anyone who’s passed away. To me, that’s straight-up hate speech. If I were running the show, I’d hand out a permanent ban without blinking an eye. There was absolutely no reason for his taunting with all those stupid emojis and cheering; nobody was even bringing up fallen soldiers from the Army of the Republic of Canada, and certainly nobody was mocking them, at least not in this latest argument I got dragged into.

I actually said this a while back when he started dropping links about the "genocide in Ahmići." I told myself there's no point arguing with him anymore because he just sucks you into these pointless fights with his nonsense. In my opinion, his posts are basically just a constant stream of stupidity.

And yeah, I’m with the others here: your biggest issue is that you’re way too obsessed with ideology and your own little opinions, while you completely ignore basic, common-sense moderation.
Maybe it would be best to just shut these threads down entirely. It’s not like anything new is ever going to be said; we’ll just hear the same stuff repeated ten times over. The only thing I'm certain of is that we're heading toward the eleventh round of this same old fight...

Rachel Richardson said:Will Erdogan be ousted? 🍿

They’ll take down the evil gnome first, and then Eddie will just collapse on his own. 😁

The USA is basically holding the leash for Turkey in Syria, Libya, and Iraq. As for the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus? Who knows, man. I haven't a clue.
They're stuck in a three-front scrap with the Russians, too—fighting them in Syria, Libya, and the Caucasus. Right now, Erdogan is acting like the big man on campus, playing it cool and making everyone walk on eggshells around him. How long can he keep up this act? Hard to say. But let me tell you, he’s definitely bitten off way more than he can chew.

And don't even get me started on that pathetic excuse for a ship they're so proud of. Seriously, I have never seen anything uglier on the open water in my entire life. Every time I catch a glimpse of it, my first thought is just how much easier life would be if two torpedoes just ripped it straight in half.

granitedriver45 said:And Putin? He's just watching... Probably knows that if he takes Constantinople, he’ll be remembered forever as the great liberator...

The only thing stopping him is the Americans. But you gotta wonder how long the USA is actually willing to back Erdogan after all these incidents. Personally... I’d love to see the Americans just let Erdogan sink.

Please. When you're talking about Putin and Russia, "forever" doesn't exist. Just wait—right when Erdogan decides to pull a total stunt and sh*t all over Trump's desk in the Oval Office, the US will be right back there covering his ass against Russia.

rowdytrucker3 said:They’ve been having some minor skirmishes with the navy lately.

But honestly, give me a break. They managed to push back the Syrians and Russians in Syria, and now they're deploying troops to Iraq. They hit the Russians and Frenchmen in Libya and basically triggered a massive counterstrike. They even mocked the Egyptians' decision to send troops to Libya, nearly starting a war with the Greeks—all while being completely persona non grata with the USA and lacking any real military or political allies.

If they don't pop like a cheap balloon (and there's a real chance they will), this whole situation is going to be a staple in history textbooks.

You totally missed mentioning Azerbaijan, whom they promised to throw every bit of their military might toward in a potential conflict with Armenia. Meanwhile, Turkey is fighting wars on six different fronts at once.

Sam Alvarez4 said:Look, after all that nonsense about how insignificant I am, I just gotta ask my colleague quoted above.

... while I couldn't care less about the Bulgarian language—never even brought it up—it seems I'm always some kind of "kook" when it comes to French.
And yeah, I chime in on Spanish stuff regularly too.
As for English, I jump in here and there whenever people's sheer ignorance sends my blood pressure through the roof.

So, what's your take? Do I have some weird obsession with women's rights in Bulgaria or the Bulgarian language itself? Or am I actually having an issue with women's rights in France? 😬

I didn't even mention language, so I won't go there, but hey, glad to see you're such a fancy polyglot. 👍Bravo for you!
But regarding women's rights—since you're bringing it up so passionately—you talk about how pathetic or non-existent women's rights are in Iran that it made me wonder: what about women's rights in Saudi Arabia? They aren't exactly at a "representative" level either, if they aren't even worse than in Iran.
As for women's rights in Bulgaria or France and all that, I'm assuming I can still drive cars, go to the movies, and that some prude cop isn't going to whip me on the street just because I'm not wearing a burqa or showing my ankles...?

coastalorca19 said:Give a Nobel Prize to the Add to Ignore list 🙏 moderator. Seriously. Since the people actually in charge won't step up and deal with the absolute garbage comments that make this place look like a joke, I've just given up. I'm not usually the type to go around reporting everyone, but when certain people are allowed to troll, provoke, and just straight-up insult others across basically every sub-forum... man, why even bother typing? I pop into the Religion section maybe a couple times a year, and even then, I'm in and out in a heartbeat. I know plenty of online communities that completely imploded because of exactly this kind of toxic behavior. Honestly, thank God for the ignore list, though the only real headache is when some other user quotes that person and brings them right back into my face.

I had that person on my ignore list for ages. We never even went head-to-head, but for some reason I decided to unblock them a few months ago.

Paul Kern12 said:You guys aren't even using the same yardstick for everyone...

Actually, they are, but in this specific mess, it feels like someone’s definitely playing favorites.

@Antilles loves to troll just as much as the rest of us, honestly, but I’ve always gotten the vibe that there's some underlying issue with Iran and the whole Shia thing—even if she denies it. Meanwhile, when it comes to the actual status of women's rights in Saudi Arabia, she doesn't seem to care at all; she never even brings it up. It's always just some hook to get a reaction out of people.

I mean, who's the ultimate authority on what counts as a reliable source versus total garbage? You gotta figure that out yourself as you go. If you actually keep an open mind, you'll eventually see that the truth is usually buried somewhere right in the middle.

Just drop the ban on Jack Cook7 and let life move on.

Benjamin Foster2 said:But in all this chaos, what actually happened to the free market, capitalism, and those other grand little slogans we used to believe in?

Look, the financial sector isn't just some regular part of the economy—it’s built different. You can't just let it run completely wild without any rules. That's literally why we even have the Federal Reserve and all those other regulatory agencies in the USA. The real headache starts when those people stop doing their actual jobs... and in this specific situation, they definitely haven't been pulling their weight.

Linda Collins3 said:But wait, didn't those penalties come right after the government was pumping about $80 billion a month into those banks?

First you hand them $80 billion every single month, then you turn around and "punish" them...

Man, that’s exactly the point! They know they're too big to fail, and the government can't let them go belly up because the whole system would just implode—so that's their playbook. They block any real regulation, and they’ll do it all over again.
Just look at how many presidents and CEOs from banks and insurance companies lined their pockets by peddling absolute garbage. They knew it was junk, but they still pushed it and raked in massive bonuses for doing it. From the low-level suits to the guys at the top, it’s basically one giant pyramid scheme of rewards. They knew this bubble couldn't last forever and had to pop eventually. Most of them were dumping their own bank stocks while they could, knowing the ship was sinking, right when things looked best. God bless the American way of life!

And the absolute worst of the bunch? The rating agencies. They knew exactly what kind of mess was sitting on those bank balance sheets—they knew there was zero chance of getting paid back—but they kept slapping them with AAA ratings just to keep the charade going as long as possible. It's the unholy trinity: the banks, the insurance companies, and the rating agencies.

I mean, look, Bank of America gets slapped with a $50 billion fine, then JPMorgan Chase gets hit with $22 billion, and so on... but how they actually settled those deals behind closed doors? Man, I haven't got a clue...