A possibility does not require evidence. It is a “could be”, a hypothetical proposition. I do not need evidence an undiscovered planet lies in the Oort Cloud of our solar system to wonder if it is possible for one to exist there.

If one cannot admit a possibility and can only come up with excuses for why, then what you are dealing with is faith, the same thing within people that creates religions. It’s how people can read the Bible or Koran and simply believe it, while being unable to admit the possibility it could be false.

When someone has faith like this, it becomes very difficult to communicate with them, as their faith blinds them to certain possibilities. This is why I do not think I can get through to you, unfortunately. It’s just like someone saying “I need evidence for why the bible is false.”

So, you cannot admit even the possibility it could be false.

This is faith, no different from religion. I do not think I can get through to you.

NTD.com, or New Tang News, is a Falun Gong-funded organization founded in NYC in 2001. It is owned by Epoch Media Group, the owners of the Epoch Times. It leans strongly right and does not check its facts. While still potentially capable of reporting true things, this is one of the least reliable sources out there.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ntd-tv-new-tang-dynasty/

That evidence was collected by people, and can be falsified. If it had all been gathered by one group, that would be a problem. The Soviets and the USA are certainly not in the same group, though, so when they agree on an account, that is good evidence.

Your claim that Stalin seriously attempted to resign might potentially be false. Can you admit that?

You asked, why didn’t he? I’m saying your faith that he certainly tried is inappropriate. He might’ve tried, or he might’ve not. It’s not a question of which side says what, it’s the sheer quantity of different people that helps make an account reliable.

We can say yes, the Holocaust really happened, because such a wide range of people, from Americans to Soviets to Germans agree that yes, it happened. This makes it reliable. If only Americans said it happened, this would be less reliable.

I already admitted just a couple replies ago what I do not know, and what I am unable to know. The one who has failed to acknowledge their own potential ignorance is not me.

Again, that is not fact. You can’t just unilaterally declare one side as fact. You have to acknowledge that maybe it wasn’t a good side vs a bad side. Maybe it was two bad sides vs each other. Maybe both were willing to lie. This is very important.

We admit we lie sometimes. This is why we doubt everything and try to seek consensus in our academic environments.

Ahhh thank you. That does clear it up.

They keep talking about this map of claims published a month ago, but I’ve known for at least a year that they claim a broad swath of territory that basically matches the furthest extent of the Qing Dynasty about 200ish years ago.

I vaguely remember reading about their modern territorial claims on wikipedia, of all places. I remember clicking on the map to look at it zoomed in.

So I don’t get how this is supposed to be new. That said, yeah, historical territorial claims are dubious at best. If we allow them all, then all sorts of people get to simultaneously own Turkey for instance.

edit: I’m trying to decide who the biggest winner would be, if we validated all territorial claims throughout all of history, and associated each one with a modern day state.

I’m thinking Mongolia (Mongol Empire) is the happiest. But the Brits and Spanish are really not far behind. The Dutch and Portuguese (all colonial empires) would be major world powers again as well. The Italians (Rome), of course, are doing quite well, as are the Greeks (Macedonians under Alexander). Iranians (Persia), Turks (Ottomans) and Epygptians all get a fairly similar looking empire and are happy. France (Napoleon) is quite happy, as are Germany (Hitler) and Russia (USSR at its largest, including claims). Poland and Lithuania both come roaring back with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Japan (Japanese Empire) is doing well, China (various dynasties extended their reach into SE Asia, Korea, etc) has a map larger than their 10-dash one actually and should be happy. We have to give Aztec and Mayan lands to Mexico I suppose, Peru is Inca I guess? Who gets the land Atilla the Hun conquered, I don’t know who Huns were…?

Anyways, it’s been a fun thought experiment. lol I’m thinking either the Brits or Mongolians are happiest.

edit2: I was wrong… If I’m validating all territorial claims, that must include those gotten through marriage.

Austria, with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had married into basically every royal family in Europe over the centuries. They could stake an indirect, but still valid, claim on basically every European empire. Since all those empires are also getting all their claims, the Austrians win.

While this marriage loophole does apply to most European monarchs, thus giving each of them most of Europe due to the collosal amount of royal inbreeding, I think the Austrians had the most ties.

Rather than link, I’ll just repeat myself. It is physically fucking impossible to be unable to resign. You can be talked out of resigning, but when a man genuinely wants to resign, he does so. Claims of being unable are claims.

History only has facts when a lot of people agree on something. When one guy claims he was doing very good things, you must consider that he lies.

I think you’re finger-pointing. The brainwashed one is me, even though you’re discussing a former world leader, all of which employ propaganda.

Uh huh. If you think this charade of yours is fooling me, you’re mistaken.

Of course I do not know why with any certainty, nobody but those that were there can really know. This is fundamental to history, where records were written by people, who have biases and ulterior motives. We can only suspect when it comes to people’s reasons for doing things.

This does not mean my answer is not an answer, though. An answer … is an answer. You just don’t like it I guess.

True. I was kinda hitting back at this idea that the USSR was getting lots of credit for anything good that happened there, but when it came to their fall, well, that was all our fault.

I generally agree with your other comments as well.

That is a very easy thing for you to say. It is, however, an answer, even if you think it is incorrect. You haven’t even tried to take mine on, however. Do you need more time or something?

I think my argument about how it’s not actually physically possible to be unable to resign was rather compelling.

Regardless I have answered your question, even if you dislike my answer. I have certainly tried at least. Can you answer mine yet?

Interesting thing about the Lords Prayer… You ask God to forgive your trespasses, as you forgive others who trespass against you. If any given person does not forgive others, then they are praying for that same amount of forgiveness (none) for themselves from God.

I actually have addressed that one with other commentators, if you check out the rest of this thread.

They’ve clearly seen them before, at least on tv, but that is different from learning what they are called. It’s not too unusual to just not know the name of something, and then you have to describe it to people instead of just naming it.

“awning” is not a particularly common word, like say, “kitchen” or something. I kinda doubt most, say, 14 year olds know that word.

Hint: Most memes are probably not made by adults.

You quoted part of a sentence. That was part of a question. Questions and claims are not the same things.

But sure, this should explain how Stalin rose to lead the USSR:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin's_rise_to_power

I fully agree. I was more interested in a conversation on communism and history, so my comment took the conversation in that direction. Personally I support social democratic systems like you find in the Nordic countries.

It was certainly not intended to be a description of how things must or always be. Simply how they often work, it is one factor that goes into a very complex equation.

It is a large factor though. But not overriding or anything.

For your first paragraph, yes, I did choose just one century because I am aware that our behavior has changed over our history, many times.

edit: Just to provide an example, we used to genocide our Native Americans and steal their wealth. Now we let them build casinos even though we usually prohibit ourselves from building them, and we gamble away our money to them. These are different things. This indicates a change in our behavior.

For your second paragraph, can you provide a source for that?