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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted August 20, 2018 10:07 PM |
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Edited by Zenofex at 22:19, 20 Aug 2018.
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They adopted Christianity because they had an enormous territory to rule over with means of communication lagging far behind, increasingly corrupt administration and overstretched military resources all the while dozens of peoples under their rule were united by nothing from ideological point of view. It was an act of preservation of what was left of the empire - and frankly a fairly successful one, given that they bought themselves around 1000 more years - but certainly not an act of establishing a bastion against the pagan barbarism - the Romans already considered themselves pretty much the only civilized state in Europe. They even sanctioned what is "correct Christianity" and what is "wrong Christianity", that alone speaks enough.
Edit: Besides, people usually forget that one of the main reasons, if not the Main one, for the rise of Christianity throughout the empire is its internal crisis in III century.
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted August 20, 2018 11:16 PM |
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Zenofex said:
Yes, the prevalence of monotheism and the intolerance toward different beliefs that goes with it did help to shape the mindset everyone has to follow One system of rules because there is no other True system but that's only a development of an already existing tendency to enforce something on weaker entities whenever it suits you. Rome did not become an empire spanning over 3 continents because the Romans believed in Jupiter, nor did Great Britain build the biggest colonial empire because the British were spreading the word of the Anglican God but in both cases they believed they were right to do what they were doing because they can. Take the arms of an empire, destroy its economy and it's no longer anyone's moral beacon, nor it tries to be.
I do agree that monotheism isn't the key factor at all here. I mean after all, both Byzantine (Eastern Roman) and Ottoman Empires were monotheist just as well but had the structure of a classical empire rather than colonial, which means they were "tolerant" when it comes to customs and culture,(I'd prefer the word indifferent) as long as it didn't cause political rebellion and uprising. Some historians argue that one of the reasons Rome (the first, pagan one) weakened was how they included each invaded people's sacred days as official holidays and they actually went out of work days in the calendar. No, the key factor, when it comes to colonial empires is the enormous informational and technological gap between them and their colonies. It was a very unique period in history when a region skyrocketed in science, geographical discovery, military technology and had confronted tribes with wooden spears. There was no social sciences yet to properly analyze the reasons behind this, so they easily interpreted the gap as innate superiority. Classical empires were extremely powerful military forces but when they invaded people, they invaded farmers and merchants, people living quite like themselves. But imagine the mindset of a 18th century British officer from London, confronting some Cherokee tribe. It is a totally different experience.
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost
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JollyJoker
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
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posted August 21, 2018 08:37 AM |
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So - what's the difference between Rome invading Dacia, enslaving part of the population sending them to Rome or elsewhere within the Empire to sell and slavers raiding, say, the Ivory Coast enslaving part of the population and ship them to the American colonies of Britain and later into the US of A to sell?
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted August 21, 2018 01:54 PM |
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1- There is no racial facto and wealthy Dacians can “upgrade” to Roman citizens as well.
2- They can still have their own law as long as it doesnt interfere with Roman affairs.
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted September 03, 2018 04:43 PM |
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Edited by blob2 at 16:49, 03 Sep 2018.
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Brazil museum fire: Funding cuts blamed as icon nearly destroyed
Yeah, I know it's more of a news story then an article, but it made me wonder how easy it is to loose years of history at a moments notice.
I mean it's so sad, one of the biggest collection in Americas: skeletons, meteorites, historical documents: almost 20 mln of items lost in an instant. And it wasn't even some kind of terrorist devastation (like in Iraq), this could've been prevented.
I don't know how Brazil looks exactly nowadays, but I read some articles from time to time that they went from one of the most dynamically expanding economies into one of the most depressing ones. Some commentators even summarize that the underinvestment in the case of this museum shows exactly how much of a crisis Brazil is in atm.
Whatever the reason, it is such a shame...
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted November 13, 2018 01:20 PM |
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted November 13, 2018 01:44 PM |
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Edited by blob2 at 13:49, 13 Nov 2018.
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There is a similar problem in my country currently. Politicians in the ruling party that have nothing constructive to say are full of complexes. Aside from offending others or being loud, they are preying on their voters instincts like patriotism (but wrongly interpreted), hate for elitism (wealthy people) or social equality (no matter an individuals actual input). They have absolutely no idea how a modern/globally aware country works, yet as long as they can feed their (and some of their countrymen) pettiness it's all good. Unfortunately as they have enough people to vote for them, they can actually do what they want...
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted November 13, 2018 02:08 PM |
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blob2 said:
Unfortunately as they have enough people to vote for them, they can actually do what they want...
they'll do what they want regardless. even if nobody voted, they'll claim otherwise. what i want to know is, why in the snow the common populace allow themselves to be so stupidly manipulated?
then again, i already know the answers to that question, so asking it is unnecessary anyway. 
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted November 13, 2018 02:09 PM |
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Peterson is brilliant and has certainly a lot to say, given that he surfs and puts a lot of thought on some of the subjects the representatives of medias have no choice but avoid or offer the same vomiting soups. I found this debate particularly interesting - as it shows it is possible to tear to shreds feminist and leftist dogmatism. If such interview was published on major medias, that would challenge a lot from the platitudes people use to ingurgitate and would certainly help our societies to become less divisive.
Now that the radical left hate or despise him, I fully understand. They have no arguments when in front of him, thus they are reduced to write biased and safe-from-counter-arguments articles. They do what they do best, shoot from a safe distance.
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted November 13, 2018 03:55 PM |
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The guy on the article is certainly not radical and the quite long article (I dont know if you read it to the end, if not, do so) is full of very specific and accurate arguments against him, actually it quotes him from his own books and seminars directly and objects to specific but drastic errors.
I also watched a six hour (three parts) discussion of him with Sam Harris and (in the third part) Douglas Murray. I guess, we can both agree they are neither leftists, nor feminists. When confronted with someone of substance, his tactics dont work and just like the article claims, he just starts leaping from this to that. The most accurate criticism in the article is that he talks as if he is not ideological himself (he is very much so, just watch him try to defend Christianity against Harris with massive conviction) when he complains about ideologies.
He is not stupid, yes, and he occasionally has an interesting perspective on things but mostly he is very misguided about very basic concepts and he tries to “lingo” his way through that only to defend very outdated ideas. His objections against overzealous political corectness is what makes him so popluar but any sane person will agree to that part anyway.
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted November 13, 2018 04:32 PM |
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Edited by blob2 at 16:37, 13 Nov 2018.
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artu said:
He is not stupid, yes, and he occasionally has an interesting perspective on things but mostly he is very misguided about very basic concepts and he tries to “lingo” his way through that only to defend very outdated ideas. His objections against overzealous political corectness is what makes him so popluar but any sane person will agree to that part anyway.
I'm on this with Artu. Even when talking with that feminist in the interview, and we all know how feminists are pretty biased and have contradicting views (for instance have a happy family life, yet they speak of oppressive men etc), he doesn't struck me as someone who "destroys" her with valid arguments. He seems to be mostly using counter-logic like "Why are you happy? Because why not?" or changing the subject...
And what Artu says: any sane/unmanipulated person will agree that political correctness went wrong at some point, it's sufficient to only read daily news to see why. It's easy to find flaws in this logic, but what is most disturbing here is that mainstream media adopted it as they didn't have a choice.
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted November 13, 2018 05:58 PM |
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Btw, I also already watched the Helen Lewis interview a few weeks ago, it’s far from one “shredding” or “destroying” the other, it was a conversation where both parties made some valid points. The funny part is, at some point, I said to myself “this guy is going to turn out a Dostoyevski lover,” (it takes one to know one) and after that she asked him about his favorite author and he replied “Dostoyevski.” 
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted November 19, 2018 09:09 AM |
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Ben Shapiro commenting Macron/Trump meeting around armistice commemoration and the nationalist vs patriotism contentious. Until 20' or so.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted March 31, 2019 07:53 PM |
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted March 31, 2019 08:37 PM |
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The popular image of the devil had a lot do with pagan Gods Pan (the goatie, horns and hoofs) and Poseidon (the trident). Scapegoat tradition having something to with it is not very probable, it’s a really long shot. The image was not something standard up until quite recently anyway, there are many historical portrayals of him without the goat horns.
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Are you pretty? This is my occasion. - Ghost
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JollyJoker
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 31, 2019 08:48 PM |
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blob2
Undefeatable Hero
Blob-Ohmos the Second
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posted March 31, 2019 09:00 PM |
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Edited by blob2 at 18:48, 05 Apr 2019.
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AlHazin
Promising
Supreme Hero
النور
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posted April 29, 2019 12:35 PM |
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Edited by AlHazin at 12:36, 29 Apr 2019.
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted April 29, 2019 01:02 PM |
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted May 31, 2019 08:31 AM |
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This thread is pages long: 
