time-wasting-thread-memorial/raw/pages/2/25.json

{"topics":[{"id":"52f9bb8a6368725648060000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9ba6c6368724af4d80200#post_52f9ba6c6368724af4d80200\r\nwell I'm just pointing out that if Europe had not suffered a dark age it would presumably be more advanced and dominant.\r\n\r\nAnd I'm wondering if there is anything in China's history similar to that.","author":"4fe16df67f123b13e400003f"},{"id":"52f9bbd563687252e9340000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"I have a complicated relationship with fringe beliefs. On the one hand I love stuff like UFO lore, bigfoot, ghost stories and secret societies, but on the other it pisses me off when I see people making money by cynically exploiting people's genuine if absurd belief in these things.\r\n\r\nI also tend to get mouth frothingly furious when people bring truly horrific events into their conspiracy theories. The fastest way to piss me off to the point of physical violence is to claim that 9/11 was an inside job. I have, no joking, hit people in the mouth for that horse shit.\r\n\r\nAnd yet more than anything else I adore secret society conspiracy theories. I will read anything about the Illuminati, that shit is like catnip for me.\r\n\r\nThinking about this statement, I realize a lot of it also applies to my view of religion. I like the imagry and the lore, and if you've got a story about the really batshit parts of the Bible then I am all over that, however I get furious when people use religion to try to impose their occasionally monstrous moral and political views on the populace at large, or who interpret their world view entirely through a narrow religious lens. I also despise people who make a fortune exploiting the faith of others.\r\n\r\nI some times think that there is a part of me that really, really wants to be a believer. I miss the certainty that came with being one, but a larger part of me cannot be, not because of my intellect, which is nothing to write home about as anyone who has interacted with me for any length of time can attest, but because I just can't believe anymore. In anything. There isn't really an ideology left in me anymore, I'm too aware of my own ignorance.","author":"4f41ee04945b701c41002af7"},{"id":"52f9be8963687253712b0100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@Whatevs\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9bb8a6368725648060000#post_52f9bb8a6368725648060000\r\nEvery time a dynasty falls, ther would be chaos, civil wars, factionalism, and even lawlessness until a new dynasty reinstates order. Of course. But we never broke as a culture and people like what happened to the Romans. Chinese explorers sailed to \"Indonesia, India, and and Southeast Africa couple hundred years before Europeans did\":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He#Expeditions. They were ahead until the scumbag Ming Emperor decided to close off the nation and restrict explorations and trade, due to fears of outside cultures.","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9bf1d6368725317830100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"Of course, China was well within range of Indonesia and India. It's basically the Chinese front and back yards, respectively.\r\n\r\nThe Africa bit is the Asian equivalent of Lief Ericson, and a few Morroccon expeditions into the middle of the Atlantic, basically getting half way to the Americas.","author":"4fe4bf947f123b175b000001"},{"id":"52f9bf3163687253178a0100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9be8963687253712b0100#post_52f9be8963687253712b0100\r\nCorrect me if I'm wrong but didn't Japan follow a similar policy until the dutch essentially forced their way in?","author":"4f41ee04945b701c41002af7"},{"id":"52f9bf5c6368725518750100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@AaronMk\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9bf1d6368725317830100#post_52f9bf1d6368725317830100\r\nThe Chinese have controlled the sea route to the Spice Islands for quite a while until the Dutch took over.","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9c0016368725470af0100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9bf3163687253178a0100#post_52f9bf3163687253178a0100\r\nChina had always had limited trading with Southeast Asia, India, and even as far as Europe. Japan was ruled by feudal warlord and completely closed off to foreigners until the arrival of Europeans. So, yes. Same with China, to an extent. Europeans also forced them open.","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9c0156368725648a80100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9bf3163687253178a0100#post_52f9bf3163687253178a0100\r\n[bq=\"gasmaskangel\"]\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9be8963687253712b0100#post_52f9be8963687253712b0100\r\nCorrect me if I'm wrong but didn't Japan follow a similar policy until the dutch essentially forced their way in?[/bq]\r\n\r\nPretty much. But they shut 'er down after the Ming set up shop and the clans all bent the knee to a new Shogunate. And by that point they were already trading with the Dutch out of Nagaski (I think) and Korea and China (for a time).\r\n\r\nThe Japanese maintained a strong-armed isolationist and protectionist policy for a long-ass time. It wasn't until the US sent over a ship to force them to open their ports in the mid 19th-century they got around to integrating into the world. And then they had a minor civil war and the Emperor went on his way so that his son/grandson could burn the Pacific.\r\n\r\nBecause Japanese nationalist policy dawg.","author":"4fe4bf947f123b175b000001"},{"id":"52f9c06a6368725518d70100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c0016368725470af0100#post_52f9c0016368725470af0100\r\n[bq=\"SeraphimDawn\"]\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9bf3163687253178a0100#post_52f9bf3163687253178a0100\r\nChina had always had limited trading with Southeast Asia, India, and even as far as Europe. Japan was ruled by feudal warlord and completely closed off to foreigners until the arrival of Europeans. Same with China=, to an extent. Europeans also forced them open.[/bq]\r\n\r\nLast I checked China just agreed to charge Portugal rent for Macau. The UK and company only really cracked down under the Qing for a number of reasons and disputes, one or two stemming for diplomatic procedural inconsistencies.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd then there was the Boxer Rebellion.","author":"4fe4bf947f123b175b000001"},{"id":"52f9c16763687256aae50200","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@AaronMk\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c06a6368725518d70100#post_52f9c06a6368725518d70100\r\nBritish did it for the Opium Trade. Those bastards...\r\nThe Portuguese were the first to come in contact with China, yes they did establish trade. Foreigners who visited China at that time were still restricted staying in certain trading cities. But for centuries, many Chinese had believed the island of Hainan, off the southern coast of China, as the southern most point in the world.","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9c2d46368725491460300","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"As an aside, now that I'm looking back at the Boxer Rebellion, it did give us the most American fucking painting of all time.\r\n\r\n!https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Siege_of_Peking%2C_Boxer_Rebellion.jpg!\r\n\r\nI swear there's probably a table of hamburgers and beer in the corner by the tower.\r\n\r\n\r\nOh, and then we got this:\r\n\r\n!https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Troops_of_the_Eight_nations_alliance_1900.jpg!\r\n\r\nEight Nations Alliance in left-right order: British, US, Colonial Australian, British India, Germany, Austrian-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Japan.","author":"4fe4bf947f123b175b000001"},{"id":"52f9c49663687239e26e0000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@AaronMk\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c2d46368725491460300#post_52f9c2d46368725491460300\r\nThe Germans ruled my ancestral province.","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9c51363687237506f0000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9bbd563687252e9340000#post_52f9bbd563687252e9340000\r\n[bq=\"gasmaskangel\"]I have a complicated relationship with fringe beliefs. On the one hand I love stuff like UFO lore, bigfoot, ghost stories and secret societies, but on the other it pisses me off when I see people making money by cynically exploiting people's genuine if absurd belief in these things.\r\n\r\nI also tend to get mouth frothingly furious when people bring truly horrific events into their conspiracy theories. The fastest way to piss me off to the point of physical violence is to claim that 9/11 was an inside job. I have, no joking, hit people in the mouth for that horse shit.\r\n\r\nAnd yet more than anything else I adore secret society conspiracy theories. I will read anything about the Illuminati, that shit is like catnip for me.\r\n\r\nThinking about this statement, I realize a lot of it also applies to my view of religion. I like the imagry and the lore, and if you've got a story about the really batshit parts of the Bible then I am all over that, however I get furious when people use religion to try to impose their occasionally monstrous moral and political views on the populace at large, or who interpret their world view entirely through a narrow religious lens. I also despise people who make a fortune exploiting the faith of others.\r\n\r\nI some times think that there is a part of me that really, really wants to be a believer. I miss the certainty that came with being one, but a larger part of me cannot be, not because of my intellect, which is nothing to write home about as anyone who has interacted with me for any length of time can attest, but because I just can't believe anymore. In anything. There isn't really an ideology left in me anymore, I'm too aware of my own ignorance.[/bq]\r\nYou remind me of my cousin in law.","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9c55363687237508a0000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c16763687256aae50200#post_52f9c16763687256aae50200\r\n\"@AaronMk\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c2d46368725491460300#post_52f9c2d46368725491460300\r\nThis discussion really makes me want to read Interesting Times again.\r\n\r\nIts a Discworld book about a country that is sort of a pastiche of Japan and China opening up, though it is written with a decidedly British point of view, where the rulers are all brutally oppressive dickheads, though the protagonist is less great white hero and more bumbling coward who makes for a convenient symbol for the revolution.\r\n\r\nAlso is it just me or are the gents in that last image arranged in order of height?\r\n\r\n\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c51363687237506f0000#post_52f9c51363687237506f0000\r\nOk, how so? In the not believing in anything because I don't trust my own judgement sense, or the really liking insane bullshit sense?","author":"4f41ee04945b701c41002af7"},{"id":"52f9c688636872390e090100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c55363687237508a0000#post_52f9c55363687237508a0000\r\nMy cousin reads a lot about those conspiracy theories.","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9c84d63687237b64a0100","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c55363687237508a0000#post_52f9c55363687237508a0000\r\nI'm sort of in the same boat personally.  A good conspiracy theory is a fun read, but shit like 9/11 \"truthers\" piss me off.\r\n\r\nWhat's even more fun to read is when investigations into such things go, \"we don't know what the fuck that was\" or it turns out to be real.  Obviously 99.99999999% of them are fake, but things like giant squid a couple years ago were thought to be fairy tales.","author":"38b55cdf63616403d7560600"},{"id":"52f9ca6a636872361fd00200","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@uc9\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9c84d63687237b64a0100#post_52f9c84d63687237b64a0100\r\nI buy slimy ocean horrors easier than I do shit like big foot. For starters its a hell of a lot harder to get to the parts of the ocean where the giant squid dwells than it is to get to the pacific northwest, and a lot less people are looking for Cthulhu than Sasquatch.\r\n\r\nThat said one of my life dreams is to start a truly insane conspiracy theory. I mean something completely batshit, like that vampires secretly run the world's banking system or that the last eighteen presidents have been grown in secret CIA vats to produce the most presidential humanoid algae loafs ever seen.\r\n\r\nHell, David Icke did it.","author":"4f41ee04945b701c41002af7"},{"id":"52f9cc42636872371e930300","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9ca6a636872361fd00200#post_52f9ca6a636872361fd00200\r\nSpeaking of ocean horrors.\r\n\r\n\"Any idea what this is?\":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBN56wL35IQ","author":"4fde5cee945b700a970060fc"},{"id":"52f9cd5b63687232fc220000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9cc42636872371e930300#post_52f9cc42636872371e930300\r\nMy money is on Cthulhu.\r\n\r\nYou know, him or some tectonic plate shift or something. Maybe a pocket of natural gas being released.\r\n\r\nJust to be safe we should nuke the site from orbit though.","author":"4f41ee04945b701c41002af7"},{"id":"52f9cdc4636872328c760000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9cc42636872371e930300#post_52f9cc42636872371e930300\r\n\r\nGOJIIIIIRRAAAA!!!","author":"500757fd7f123b75a90003b1"},{"id":"52f9ce8363687233828c0000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@gasmaskangel\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9ca6a636872361fd00200#post_52f9ca6a636872361fd00200\r\nSpeaking of conspiracy theories; what's interesting is contrary to popular belief the government does look into ufo's.  While almost all of them are shot down, it's not that the government's hiding looking into them, rather only a couple of them every year they legitimately don't know what it was.","author":"38b55cdf63616403d7560600"},{"id":"52f9cef563687230b1c40000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9cc42636872371e930300#post_52f9cc42636872371e930300\r\n\r\nTo just apply Okkam's Razor and be done, probably a geologic event.\r\n\r\nWe are talking about the Pacific Ocean. A pocket of gas probably opened when some rocks shifted.","author":"4fe4bf947f123b175b000001"},{"id":"52f9cf2e6368723359a90000","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@uc9\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9ce8363687233828c0000#post_52f9ce8363687233828c0000\r\nAnd in those cases I'm more prone to believe that it is some mundane thing like swamp gas or whatever. It isn't that actual alien UFOs are impossible, its just that on the balance of probability they are extremely unlikely.\r\n\r\nYou know, there is one common thread between alien and ghost lore, and that is that both entities are just _dicks_. They seem to really get off on fucking with us.\r\n\r\nEDIT: By the way, am I the only one who mentally translates Bilderburg Group as Build A Bear Group?","author":"4f41ee04945b701c41002af7"},{"id":"52f9d44463687230b1410300","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"I always laugh when people talk about Global warming killing us all.\r\nThe last arming periods were great for humanity and as far as I know they're just as drastic as the projected new one.\r\n\r\nThe last warming periods gave rise to the Renaissance.\r\nHumans tend to prosper more in warmer climes. Most of Europe being temperate becoming warm is like unleashing the beast.\r\n\r\nSimilar to something I told Seraphim about correlates between climate and cuisine.","author":"4fe16df67f123b13e400003f"},{"id":"52f9d4c86368723068380300","topic_id":"5161dd617f123bd25900013d","body":"\"@SeraphimDawn\":/dis/the-time-wasting-thread/post/52f9be8963687253712b0100#post_52f9be8963687253712b0100\r\nWait, 14th century AD?","author":"4fe16df67f123b13e400003f"}]}