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Blaming the Ottomans, while largely correct, is less satisfying to them. Tom Send a noteboard - 24/05/2017 03:21:14 AM

They can't hate the Ottomans the same way they can hate us. First, of course, the Ottomans are gone, though Erdogan seems hell-bent on turning Turkey into his own little caliphate. If he does, I do hope we kick them out of NATO, establish Kurdistan as a country and carve up Turkey (pun very much intended) like we should have in 1918. Give the Greeks Constantinople (the city has a real name instead of its retarded Turkish toponym, which is just a barbarous corruption of the Greek phrase "to the city" - εις την πολιν or is tan polin in Byzantine Greek) and the Aegean Coast (like they would have had if they didn't get greedy), give Armenia the Black Sea to Trabizond, give the Kurds the Southeast - hell, give Assad Antioch - and leave a little tiny rump state around Ankara we can call Ancyra and Iconium (to avoid using their names in their language). But I digress.

I've said over and over again that the problem isn't just terrorism. It's intolerance generally, and there's an arrogance that manifests itself when Muslims live without non-Muslims that, honestly, other religions just don't manifest. There is some Hindu extremism in India, but compared to the intolerance of Muslims it's a walk in the park.

The other problem in the Near East in particular is that there is no sense of national identity for most people in what is called the Arab World (a misnomer, considering Iraqis are descendants of the Babylonians and Assyrians, just like Egyptians are descended from the people who built the pyramids, and so on). Loyalty is first to clan, then to religion. That's why Syria is such a shitshow right now - Assad is being propped up by the Alawis, Iranians and Hezbollah because his enemies are Sunni (though the Iranians have a national identity, unlike everyone to the West of them, Hezbollah is a great example of the clan, then religion mentality). Sunnis in Iraq decided to support ISIS because they hate the Shia. The Kurds, another group with national identity even though they have no country, don't think of their home as Iraq - it's Kurdistan.

That's a very roundabout way of saying that religion is the key mover in the region because national identity, the other "natural" unifying factor in a society, is totally absent. And it's the Ottomans who suppressed it.

Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
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Terrible thing in Manchester last night. - 23/05/2017 03:34:11 PM 1166 Views
Pogroms - 23/05/2017 04:29:06 PM 608 Views
You can't stop psychos from doing psychopathic things. - 23/05/2017 05:40:15 PM 552 Views
I'm not sure i understand. - 23/05/2017 05:54:33 PM 575 Views
That's a quite obtuse answer - 23/05/2017 08:34:20 PM 578 Views
Hiding? - 23/05/2017 08:58:11 PM 638 Views
What do you mean, exactly, by "stop making ourselves targets" then? - 23/05/2017 09:47:43 PM 558 Views
First off, we agree completely on one thing - 23/05/2017 10:51:22 PM 605 Views
What hasn't been consistent about our foreign policy in that region? - 23/05/2017 11:13:57 PM 637 Views
I thought it was obvious that I didn't mean consistently shit. - 23/05/2017 11:36:58 PM 607 Views
It's always about us, then, isn't it? - 24/05/2017 02:34:52 AM 583 Views
For me, it is. - 24/05/2017 07:49:03 AM 596 Views
Don't forget getting an education if you are female *NM* - 23/05/2017 09:38:26 PM 323 Views
They might have a point with that one. I haven't seen much value from it. - 23/05/2017 09:53:19 PM 528 Views
You are going to get rocks thrown at you *NM* - 23/05/2017 10:29:45 PM 277 Views
There aren't many left who would bother. *NM* - 23/05/2017 10:52:14 PM 321 Views
Me and the jihadis - victory by sticking around! *NM* - 24/05/2017 11:11:35 AM 314 Views
Picking a concert that would be mostly teenage girls makes it extra disgusting *NM* - 23/05/2017 09:37:25 PM 308 Views
Not really. It's a logical extension of the whole rationale. - 23/05/2017 09:50:30 PM 623 Views
He said 'extra disgusting'. Not 'less logical'. *NM* - 23/05/2017 10:29:21 PM 324 Views
I am not sure logic applies to the issue. - 23/05/2017 10:41:32 PM 527 Views
I can see that - 24/05/2017 11:47:59 AM 588 Views
It makes me wonder about the attacker - 23/05/2017 11:00:40 PM 587 Views
I wonder about what these people sea in a good who wants this kind of thing - 24/05/2017 05:58:25 PM 577 Views
It really does. That shit makes the blood boil. *NM* - 24/05/2017 05:23:33 PM 337 Views
Isis Shmisis. Daesh is just the end result of the radicalization of many Muslims. - 23/05/2017 11:58:42 PM 563 Views
Blaming the Ottomans, while largely correct, is less satisfying to them. - 24/05/2017 03:21:14 AM 589 Views
There's lots of nationalist feeling, surely. - 24/05/2017 06:48:59 PM 587 Views
Your errors are legion here. - 24/05/2017 10:03:53 PM 562 Views
Really? I see precisely one point which, according to you, is a factual error. - 26/05/2017 11:41:00 PM 625 Views
You're not looking very hard, then - 27/05/2017 03:23:36 PM 650 Views
At this point we're just arguing about perspective, seems to me. - 28/05/2017 07:11:55 PM 745 Views
No, I think that you're missing the point - 28/05/2017 09:49:34 PM 489 Views
Alright, I did miss that point. - 29/05/2017 07:33:36 PM 537 Views
You can't do anything - 24/05/2017 05:00:31 PM 538 Views
Be honest. We both know I am a major hardass and you like it. *NM* - 24/05/2017 05:19:21 PM 300 Views
Oh I do - 25/05/2017 10:27:08 AM 658 Views
My opinion? We (USA) should either bomb ISIS into oblivion or back off and let them kill each other *NM* - 24/05/2017 05:38:37 PM 336 Views
When I see those girl's faces and think about how easily it could be my 11 year old daughter - 24/05/2017 05:53:01 PM 567 Views
I would prefer to annihilate them, if possible, without boots on the ground. - 24/05/2017 06:03:49 PM 540 Views
I admit my reaction is as much emotional as rational but boots may be needed - 24/05/2017 06:37:51 PM 633 Views
Are you serious? - 28/05/2017 09:56:07 PM 488 Views
There is no tool for not allowing citizens back in the country - 29/05/2017 10:11:42 PM 512 Views
Re: There is no tool for not allowing citizens back in the country *NM* - 29/05/2017 10:11:52 PM 327 Views
Wow, talk about mission creep hitting after just one (incoherent) message - 30/05/2017 03:07:46 PM 745 Views
Speak for yourself. - 30/05/2017 06:57:16 PM 579 Views
You have thus argued for the death of education. - 31/05/2017 02:51:11 PM 559 Views
No, I've argued for substance over form. - 31/05/2017 07:07:28 PM 652 Views
Well, fuck you too then - 02/06/2017 01:43:47 AM 746 Views
Tom, he's dyslexic. Stop being a dick. - 02/06/2017 09:37:27 AM 519 Views
I'm such a n00b *NM* - 24/05/2017 06:03:50 PM 303 Views

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