apart from you and krellin, that's true, but since you like what he says you won't spew back. also ssorenn, interested in a game? we could make a putin memorial game. i don't have many points to bid, but i'd really like to play with you (i think we did play some time ago in a school of war.)

I will play with you kasimax, that would be fun 5 pts is fine. Prefer anon WTA 24-36

"Why is Santa still here?"

Why would I not still be here? I haven't left or actively campaigned for my own banning.

Honestly, everyone who joined before 2010 should probably be banned. We're all lost causes.

I couldn't agree more ;)

"Honestly, everyone who joined before 2010 should probably be banned. We're all lost causes."

god bless, i missed the cut by five months

Putin33 was NOT the type of person to engage in actual, serious conversation with. He may have known a thing or two about a widely-ranging assortment of topics, but he lacked the ability to actually discuss controversies. Instead, he would lay down his position and then back it up by 1) belittling the intelligence of the opposition, 2) making emotional appeals that completely abandoned his original factual basis, 3) misshaping the words of those who disagreed with him, and 4) arguing personal qualities instead of the (de)merits of the issue at hand. Conspicuously absent from his arsenal of persuasive weaponry was direct engagement with the opposition and careful instruction of the erroneous in the error of their ways.

Of course, none of this is reason to ban him -- and fortunately, none of it IS the reason he was banned. Some people actually like his style of "discussion" and are willing to overlook what I consider his faults more patiently than I am. Which probably says good things about them. Nevertheless, I do not feel that we will be a great deal worse off intellectually (never mind socially) without Putin's presence.

Also, ssorenn needs to chill a little more than just a little bit.

Theres this idea that Putin had this wide ranging knowledge base, as anyone who argued them in their own area of study can tell you, Putin simulated a wide ranging knowledge base by scouring the internet for anything he could find on the topic at hand, gleaning a couple excerpts, often out of context or completely misinterpreted then act like they were his long standing opinion and that even the threat of death couldn't get him to change it. I can't tell you the number of Quixotic arguments I've had with Putin, where he is just factually wrong, yet continued to defend an opinion, which he had formulated an hour earlier based on wikipedia and a book review. Whether its shouting to high hell that a left wing historian is a "Jacksonian Apologist" when he's never read a book of his, or completely confusing sects and teachings of orthodox jews because he did 15 minutes of research on it and therefor is an expert.

Putin acted like he knew what he was talking about, and sometimes he was an expert. Yet many other times he just threw together an argument in 5 minutes and let his inability to even think of opposing views pass as knowledge.

Anyone who argued him in something they actually studied saw the seams in his argument from the start and what he did to try to patch them up or obscure them. After that it's hard to take him seriously.

OutsideSmoker27: Really? Where have you been. Look over Putin33's recent Threads:
http://webdiplomacy.net/profile.php?detail=threads&userID=7661
I only saw intelligent discourse in them.

After looking through the most recent 4 or 5 threads that he created (minuscule and unrepresentative sample, of course), I found remarkably little controversy, though he did have some interesting and informative things to say. And perhaps if he had remained outside of argument/attempts-at-persuasion mode, I would have been much more impressed with him.

I tried clicking on "replies" to see examples of where he put in some good, solid, sticking-to-the-question-at-hand arguments, but got a "fatal error" message when I did that.

I actually think Putin was on the Russian payroll. He put out the sort of nonsense that Russia Today broadcasts!

"I actually think Putin was on the Russian payroll. He put out the sort of nonsense that Russia Today broadcasts!"

Capitalism at work right there.

To consolidate multiple threads on related topics, I'm going to close this thread and make a new one soon. The discussion can continue there. Thank you for your understanding.