World War II was totally unrealistic • Hacker News Board

Re: World War II was totally unrealistic

#151

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 1:37 PM UTC

borism wrote: post #141

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cute, get the last shot in, then pretend its reasonable to stop discussing. Books have been written about the "Stalin Personality Cult", his enormous personal power and his perfect control over all matters of state. And you dismiss this with a few cute remarks. For your remarkable claims, you will have to provide MUCH more evidence. Try this: google Stalin and start reading.

we can continue to debate if you insist, but judging by your other comments it may not be exactly pleasant experience. also let me caution you that probably unlike you I have actual experience living in Soviet Union (not under Stalin, fortunately) and getting to know the "evidence" first hand.

Right, under enlightened Soviet rule your education in history and politics is wide-ranging and complete. I believe that.

Re: World War II was totally unrealistic

#152

Post by cturner » Wed, Jul 14, 2010, 5:49 AM UTC

brazzy wrote: post #61

cturner wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Evil" is a concept useful for propaganda and little else. Really? Can you read _Lord of the Flies_ and conclude that what the boys are doing isn't evil, because all ethics are relative?

It's not about ehtics being relative, it's about "evil" being a label that's used to condemn (often falsely) and discourage discussion. Seeing WWII completely in terms of how valiant US soldiers defeated the evil Nazis is a great way to avoid noticing tendencies in the US that the Nazis would feel right at home with.

    It's not about ehtics being relative

That's the message from the post I responded to, and that's what I'm responding to. You contradicted arethuza, and basically implied that arethuza'a ideas about pure evil were invalid. They're not.

It's easy to become so consumed with something that you throw the baby out with the bathwater, which you did above in claiming that evil had little use apart from propaganda.

That's false. Evil is an idea that stands on its own, and is important in our thinking.

Re: World War II was totally unrealistic

#153

Post by sliverstorm » Wed, Jul 14, 2010, 11:07 AM UTC

Churchhill did have a frikkin amazing ability to produce one-liners. In retrospect it was almost inhuman.

Re: World War II was totally unrealistic

#154

Post by sliverstorm » Wed, Jul 14, 2010, 11:11 AM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #21

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #12

At first I thought the author might be poking fun at the war -- then I realized that he was actually poking fun at himself. People have high standards for fiction, yet some of the strangest things are real-life stories from history. A couple of my favorites from the Pacific Theater: 1) Radar detected the Japanese strike force approaching Pearl Harbor, but the guy in charge said it was a glitch. 2) The Japanese planne…

As I mentioned before, not only do the Nazis have an urgent plan to conquer the world ASAP, but they also have super science weapons research. Stealth bombers, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and jet planes. Yet, at the beginning of the war, they faced cavalry charges ! There are real life super-scientists engaged in real-life super-science intrigue to keep nuclear secrets out of Nazi hands. And on top of that,…

Speaking of the intrigue to keep secrets out of the hands of the Nazis, there were some truly inspired espionage that would make Bond look like an unimaginative phony.

Re: World War II was totally unrealistic

#155

Post by pozorvlak » Wed, Jul 14, 2010, 12:50 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #73

arethuza wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about bombs bouncing on water or giant weaponized Catherine Wheels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjandrum

Wow, never heard about that one. Did they never duct-tape bottle rockets together as kids? Might have taught them a little humility and saved some time.

Duct tape, IIRC, was only invented in World War II, so no :-)

Re: World War II was totally unrealistic

#156

Post by dreyfiz » Fri, Jul 23, 2010, 1:58 AM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #151

borism wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we can continue to debate if you insist, but judging by your other comments it may not be exactly pleasant experience. also let me caution you that probably unlike you I have actual experience living in Soviet Union (not under Stalin, fortunately) and getting to know the "evidence" first hand.

Right, under enlightened Soviet rule your education in history and politics is wide-ranging and complete. I believe that.

You would be surprised. People who grew up under Soviet education are a lot more cultured and worldly than Americans. Hint: if your worldview is a cartoon, it's probably inadequate to reality.