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I forgot about the Vietnam thing. My bad, 40. Still a very peaceful record compared to ourselves over the time period. Why's everybody so invested up and loa

I forgot about the Vietnam thing. My bad, 40. Still a very peaceful record compared to ourselves over the time period. Why's everybody so invested up and loaded for bear with factoids about how China is so bad? Have we terminally entered the Thucydides trap?

Analemma_ 8y ago
There are ways to avoid the Thucydides trap, but they don't involve clapping your hands over your ears and pretending everything is fine when it is not. No matter what they like to claim, China is an aggressive expansionist power, and simply ignoring that reality is not going to accomplish anything.
- yourbandsucks 8y ago
  I'm with you, except for that 'aggressive expansionist power' thing. I'm seeing one 27-day long aggressive war in 1979, previous ones are 1960s or before? And some current day peaceful-yet-obnoxious saber rattling about the South China Sea? (completely oppose them on that BTW). That's... really not 'aggressive expansionist power', as far as these things go. France, for example, has been in more war over the last 30 or 60 years. Britain MUCH more war. US and Russia? Don't get me started. China is by far the least warlike Security Council member, and it's quantifiable. I'm all about spreading enlightenment values. Let's try not to look like total hypocritical a-holes and maybe we'll be successful.
carapace 8y ago
"The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don't just go away, they are only postponed to someone else's advantage. Therefore, they made war with Philip and Antiochus in Greece, in order not to have to fight them in Italy... They never went by that saying which you constantly hear from the wiseacres of our day, that time heals all things. They trusted rather their own character and prudence — knowing perfectly well that time contains the seeds of all things, good as well as bad." ~ Machiavelli YMMV
ionised 8y ago
Sports team politics. They bad. We good. Even when facts suggest you're both different shades of bad.

Analemma_ 8y ago

There are ways to avoid the Thucydides trap, but they don't involve clapping your hands over your ears and pretending everything is fine when it is not. No matter what they like to claim, China is an aggressive expansionist power, and simply ignoring that reality is not going to accomplish anything.

yourbandsucks 8y ago
I'm with you, except for that 'aggressive expansionist power' thing. I'm seeing one 27-day long aggressive war in 1979, previous ones are 1960s or before? And some current day peaceful-yet-obnoxious saber rattling about the South China Sea? (completely oppose them on that BTW). That's... really not 'aggressive expansionist power', as far as these things go. France, for example, has been in more war over the last 30 or 60 years. Britain MUCH more war. US and Russia? Don't get me started. China is by far the least warlike Security Council member, and it's quantifiable. I'm all about spreading enlightenment values. Let's try not to look like total hypocritical a-holes and maybe we'll be successful.

carapace 8y ago

"The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don't just go away, they are only postponed to someone else's advantage. Therefore, they made war with Philip and Antiochus in Greece, in order not to have to fight them in Italy... They never went by that saying which you constantly hear from the wiseacres of our day, that time heals all things. They trusted rather their own character and prudence — knowing perfectly well that time contains the seeds of all things, good as well as bad." ~ Machiavelli YMMV

ionised 8y ago

Sports team politics. They bad. We good. Even when facts suggest you're both different shades of bad.