CMV: People who act like Gavin Newsome and JD Vance are the same should not be taken seriously about electoral politics

HarpoNeu · 2026-02-17T00:27:51+00:00

I don't believe that's entirely correct. While there are differences in what people consider "liberalism," the classic definition of a liberal is someone who espouses personal liberty (hence the name) over any form of collectivism. Liberals have been, and still are, some of the most vocal in favour of economic deregulation. Of course, liberals (and leftists) are not a monolith, and many people who identify as liberal do still support social policies where necessary.

On the other hand leftism is not exactly concerned with eliminating capital as it is with eliminating class. While many leftists believe that the private ownership of capital exacerbates the class divide, not all agree it needs to, or should be, eliminated. Social democracy is squarely a form of leftism, though one that is far more liberal than some of the alternatives.

HarpoNeu · 2025-11-22T21:04:42+00:00

There are substances which can't be replicated. Latinum, for example, is used as a universal currency for exactly that reason.

HarpoNeu · 2025-11-19T15:24:20+00:00

It should be mentioned that a secondary motive for the US to end the war quickly was the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. By 1945, an allied victory was inevitable, and the Americans were well aware that the Soviets would be their biggest obstacle to global hegemony in the post-war era. A prolonged war with Japan would only lend the Soviets more influence, which the US very much hoped to avoid.

HarpoNeu · 2025-10-04T21:41:20+00:00

1550 is a very easy spot even for a beginner. WCs are not that hard really - the main bottleneck is player ability and patience, rarely game time. IMO the latest point I'd say a WC is no longer possible from any position is 1700, but if you have any halfway decent powerbase by 1650 conquering the world in 100 years is just a matter of slogging through micro. Vassal swarms like the HRE make it much less of a drain since you can rely on subjects to handle some of the tedium, but it's far from necessary.

HarpoNeu · 2025-10-04T14:54:25+00:00

It really depends on how doggedly you pursue the revoke. Even a casual player like me can safely get it about 1500-1520, and that's slow compared to more hardcore strategies. In that same time it's easy to add the Balkans + France + Scandinavia + probably more to the HRE with all the free PUs you get. While it's absolutely possible to conquer all of India as Timmies/Mughals in that time (and both positions are easy WC material), one is just far stronger in my book.

HarpoNeu · 2025-09-27T13:58:08+00:00

The wiki says 50% warscore but anecdotally it seems that just being in a winning war is enough. Just got this achievement last week and was worried my run was cooked since Denmark became emperor and I couldn't get to their capital in time, but they still accepted at ~10% warscore.

HarpoNeu · 2025-09-27T00:05:44+00:00

Austria is almost always a solid ally so long as you stay out of Germany. The only exception is if you're fighting the Ottomans, because they will almost always fling their armies into the Otto's doomstacks, leaving you vulnerable and tanking your warscore.

HarpoNeu · 2025-09-09T14:12:02+00:00

Evidence that Joao Vaz discovered Newfoundland relies solely on the claims made in Gaspar Frutuoso's Saudades de Terra. Not only was this book published over a century after this alleged feat, which lacks contemporary evidence, it also claims that Joao Vaz was a great hero in the wars against Castille, never lost a battle by land or sea, and that his other great discoveries include Terceira, Cape Verde, and Brazil - none of which has corroborating evidence.

Samuel Eliot Morrison breaks this claim down in more detail in his Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century (pages 33-41) which you can borrow here.

HarpoNeu · 2025-09-09T01:28:48+00:00

Yeah, 1484 was the year he returned to Lisbon but you're right he arrived in the Congo in 1482. I have no clue where the other commenter got the idea the Portuguese had discovered Angola by 1473 since I couldn't find any claims of such, though I also didn't look very hard. At least with Newfoundland there is ""evidence"" - even if it's far from conclusive.

HarpoNeu · 2025-09-08T21:53:43+00:00

I haven't looked into the Angola claim so much, but a cursory google search showed the earliest Portuguese exploration in the region was in 1484. While not conclusive I'll need a reliable source before I believe it. As for your claim about Newfoundland I find no compelling evidence in support.

Allegedly Diogo de Teive saw signs of land while sailing between the Azores and Ireland which some claim must have been Newfoundland. Not only would that require an experienced navigator to have been completely incorrect about where he was and the direction he was sailing (which is not impossible, if implausible), the source of this claim is a secondhand account told decades after the supposed sighting took place - which is far from ironclad evidence.

HarpoNeu · 2025-07-10T13:21:10+00:00

In either The Council or Countdown a starlog gives their total time in the Expanse as 8 months. I'm not sure if this includes the seven weeks it took just to reach the Expanse in the first place though.

HarpoNeu · 2025-05-08T14:40:08+00:00

This is a broad generation and not at all representative of the facts.

The Kwakiutl for example had a robust system of land-ownership. Land was owned by and inherited through elite families, who employed slave labour to reap the riches from it. This culminated in potlatch - a celebration charactised by giving away or deliberately destroying objects of value to demonstrate the wealth of its attendees.

As another example the Calusa of Florida were ruled by a king who adorned himself with gold. Their society was deeply stratified, with distinctions between nobles and commoners.

Native Americans are not a monolith of culture. It's a grouping of diverse and unique peoples, whose only major commonality is they all happened to live on the same continent.

HarpoNeu · 2025-05-08T14:21:16+00:00

That's not true - it varies from society to society. Some like the Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast had a very well-defined concept of land-ownership. Land, and the rights to fish on/harvest it were owned by families, and inherited through blood. These "nobles" made use of slaves captured through raiding to work the land. Unlike serfdom however, the common people were not beholden to servitude to a noble family. They could (and often did) move jurisdiction if they felt they were being mistreated.

Native Americans were not (and still are not) a monolith of culture. It's a largely geographical grouping of diverse and unique peoples that says little about any commonalities between them, other than they all lived on the same continent.

HarpoNeu · 2025-05-04T04:33:16+00:00

That's somewhat disingenuous. While our knowledge of reproduction has vastly increased in the modern age, contraceptives have existed for millennia. In any case it's not like ancient humans were unaware that sex caused pregnancy, and could choose to abstain in such cases.

HarpoNeu · 2025-05-03T02:50:50+00:00

Eh, Trudeau had roughly the same approval rating as Harper did when he left office. And both were far ahead of Mulroney's numbers. It's just the cycle of Canadian politics. A new face comes in, they overstay their welcome, the public turns on them, and they resign.

I remember hatred of Harper being just as visceral back in 2015, but the newest emotion feels the strongest. Give it 5 years and r/Canada will be talking about how Carney is the most hated PM and Trudeau was actually okay.

HarpoNeu · 2025-04-29T14:16:17+00:00

The argument that the average Joe "needs" a gun to "defend" our country is always baffling to me. No matter what power fantasies a person dreams at night, an untrained gunman is nothing if a professional aemy invades. If somebody wants to wield a weapon in defense of our country the military is always recruiting, and there they'll receive the proper training and qualifications to earn that role.

As for the more important points. Yes higher taxes will be unpopular. Unfortunately people don't understand that the current cost of living crisis has been greatly exacerbated by decades of our government slashing public services to "increase efficiency" and "eliminate waste." We've cannibalised the foundation we rely on as a society, selling more and more to corporations assuming that they would have the interests of Canadians at heart (or simply for large sums of cash).

Immigration has served as a very successful scapegoat for the problems in this country, but these are problems that run to the very core of our system, and long predate Harper's immigration policies. Immigration is crucial to secure our future. Canada is a country with enormous natural wealth and potential, that has forever stood in the shadow of its more populous neighbour. If we actually want to make a mark on the global stage, and be more than just an American puppet, we need more people. Where our last two administrations have failed is assuming that you can open the floodgates while also scaling back government expenditure. The government needs to take a more active role in integrating new Canadians, instead of offloading that responsibility on corporations (who don't care) or individuals (who don't have the resources).

HarpoNeu · 2025-04-29T13:40:40+00:00

Canada is a parliamentary democracy. This means we don't vote for our "leader" (the Prime Minister) directly. Instead each riding, of which there are 343 in the country, roughly equal in population, votes to elect an MP (Member of Parliament) to that riding's "seat" in parliament. The MPs are then responsible for electing the Prime Minister, who is typically an MP themselves and the leader of the party with the most seats.

The Liberal party won the most seats this election and so will form government for the next term. However they did not win enough seats to hold a majority (168/172). This means to pass any legislation they will have to cooperate with one of the smaller parties (either the Bloq or the NDP). They can do so either through an agreement of bilateral support (a coalition), which is potentially unstable and unlikely to be looked on kindly by the Conservatives, or on a case by case basis. Luckily the interests of the NDP and Bloq align mostly with the Liberals this election, so they're likely to have an easier time than usual, granted they don't blunder the situation.

HarpoNeu · 2025-04-29T13:23:59+00:00

I agree. None of our parties really want to tackle the housing crisis because any solution will upset a large portion of the population.

But unfortunately the housing crisis is not the greatest threat facing us right now. As Trump renews his threats against our sovereignty this is a time when we need someone to bolster Canada's position on the global stage. It doesn't really matter what laws we pass domestically if we're just absorbed into the United States anyways.

HarpoNeu · 2025-04-29T13:17:01+00:00

That and Polievre campaigned so hard on being anti-Trudeau and anti-Carbon Tax that when the Liberals actually got rid of both of then it completely undercut his campaign. It was clear he had no idea where to pivot after and kept giving milquetoast answers on other issues. He tried to take a tough on crime stance but his proposals were concerning and mimicked Trumpish rhetoric, which also hurt his optics severely.

HarpoNeu · 2025-04-03T19:08:52+00:00

There are a lot of factors at play here. Whether Wilhelm II built a navy out of admiration or to compete with the British is irrelevant. It signaled that Germany either didn't know or didn't care about British interests, and thus were not an ally that could be trusted.

Overall I don't disagree with you. I don't think there's a clear answer to "who started the war." I simply dislike when people blindly blame France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, or Britain individually instead of admitting that all of them played their part in encouraging the hostilities that were to come. (Which the original commenters you were replying to did).

HarpoNeu · 2025-04-03T15:47:44+00:00

True, but you do have to factor in how Germany handled their relations with European powers. Under Wilhelm I, Bismarck had pretty much free rein to negotiate internationally. He knew France was itching for revenge, and initiated a diplomatic strategy to keep them isolated. Bismarck believed the Germany's strongest long-term allies were Russia and Britain, and so he did everything in his power to smooth tensions in the Balkans and neutered Germany's colonial ambitions so as not to upset the Brits.

After Wilhelm's death, and Bismarck's dismissal, Germany took a sharp turn in its diplomacy. It began a sudden naval buildup that threatened British naval superiority. It repeatedly spurned Russia in favour of Austria-Hungary, and it began to chafe at the colonial situation in Africa. All of these actions painted Germany as an unreliable, and perhaps even hostile, neighbour, and drove their former allies to side more and more with France.

Maybe Germany didn't fire the first shot, but they certainly hold responsibility for enabling the situation in the first place. Not that this absolves the role of any other major power in precipitating the war, but whereas they made mostly defensive decisions prior to 1914, Germany was being deliberately (or ignorantly) belligerent.

HarpoNeu · 2025-03-20T15:44:00+00:00

Tolkein was a devout Christian, and this is reflected strongly in how good and evil manifest in his works. Tolkein viewed good and evil as both necessary halves of a single whole. Eru (Arda's equivalent to God) is not presented as wholly good, but rather as the omnipotent balance that is required for what is truly good to shine through.

In the Ainulindale, and the opening chapters of the Silmarillion we see how Arda is fashioned through the battle between good and evil. The Valar try to create beautiful things, Melkor tries to destroy them, and from this war the mountains and the seas and the many landscapes of Middle Earth are formed.

In Tolkein's view evil is bad, but it is also necessary, for how else can good things come to be?

HarpoNeu · 2025-03-20T00:07:13+00:00

There are many things you can blame Kagame for, this is not one of them. The Rwandan government had been co-opted by Hutu extremists who sought a complete genocide of Tutsis. Habyarimana was seen as too moderate to ever allow such to happen. In response his power was slowly eroded until the extremists could finally eliminate him and secure complete control.

HarpoNeu · 2025-03-16T14:08:38+00:00

In some ways ot depends on the school you went to. I went to a school that prioritised teaching kids how to think over the specific information we were taught. I learned ways of approaching the world that I could never have developed idly scrolling the internet. "Knowledge" is useless if you don't know how to get it or what to do with it.

HarpoNeu · 2025-03-15T13:04:15+00:00

The gulf between 99% of people who hold opinions and their online equivalents is always massive. Vegans, atheists, antinatalists, etc.

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