I've been here a long time. I think it's fair to say that at various points in the past, Butchers and co. and I have not merely mutually 'poked'; we've gone at each other with nail-studded cudgels.
Now, that made me smile - widely!!!
I'm not interested anymore in war with them or you. I asked you the question because I thought that as an intellectual, you might find it interesting; challenging even - and because you would probably try to answer it, as opposed to responding with 'fuck you twat', or somesuch.
I never start with that! Period! I never did and I never will! For as long as the interlocutor is decent - so am I. At least I try. Genuinely! Maybe I make an occasional mistake but when I realise it - I do apologise! But I never start that on purpose, not unless I am attacked!
Gorski...but ... you say that Scandinavians are non confrontational ..?
Scandinavian ancestry was extremely aggressive, warlike and confrontational...The mark of the Vikings was made on most of Britain and Ireland. So much so that people still talk about it in whispered tones.....
I think the Scottish mainland was the only neighbour left relatively unaffected....
I lived in Sweden for 3 years. Once I encountered a fellah wearing a t-shirt like "Black Sabath World tour", with places and dates they were there, only this time it said "Vikings, World Tour"
Their past, however, is one thing. Their present is radically different. Within 70 or so years of their pre-Keynesian project they went from a semi-feudal, backwards little country to a richest place on Earth, advanced in just about every way imaginable...
People argue...and even you do. It's human nature or maybe it's animal nature. You come across as wanting to win an argument.....whether you mean to or not.... Isn't that on the same page or perhaps in the same chapter as "confrontation"?
No, it is not "animal nature", the way we do it. But if you take what you know and use those goggles to "observe" nature - you will find your country's current relations there, too... (See Marx's criticism of Darwin, for instance.)
As for Terry Pratchett, I think you would really enjoy his books.
Perhaps I would enjoy his books but I am pressed with time, these days. I am trying to understand various points of view on autism spectrum disorder ("Thinking in pictures" by Temple Grandin, for instance).
Gorski you're doing it again with "social Darwinism". An utterly absurd accusation around here. You've got to stop assuming you know what people are thinking/saying while ignoring what they actually say.
Easy now. I do not assume, I know what I see. Not like I just appeared here - been in the UK for a long time now, thanx very much for your benevolent, if somewhat patronising trolling...
He's not trolling. He's genuine and honest.
I thank you, Sir.
Finally something straight forward from you, not some kind of convoluted attempt at mildly humorous and entertaining trolling...
I also don't think he's trolling. But he does very badly misunderstand the positions many others are taking, mine for instance
Thanx for the former. As for the latter: maybe. There is always this possibility, in all things Human. We can and we do miss, frequently. However, there is also this possibility that I understand you better than you ever will...
As danny says, the idea that a single one of us on this thread or the last one is a social Darwinist is so far wide of the mark that I have to doubt whether gorski knows what a social Darwinist is. If anything, he's the one who's been treading a fine line in that regard with his talk of human potential and some not reaching it.
Nonsense. Now you demonstrate, as per usual, that you just can not understand my (philosophical) position that differs fundamentally from yours.