Is the hashtag #FightForWesternCivilization the worst thing on Twitter today?

@abars
Yeah, I get it. I unsubbed from TYT (at least in part) cos of that nonsense. I like reading comments, but not when they’re seemingly designed to drain me dry of hope for humanity. The comments on videos with Hannah are a biblical flood of sludge 🙁

@authorialAlchemy : it’s more complex than that. The Crusade were both a political operation to give something to do to nobles, and a way to gain territory. The one we commonly refer to are also the continuations of operations against Muslim country in Spain and heretic in Southern France ; there were a bit of “same player shoot again”.

They also were much more involved than just raid, since real states were instated, who stayed up for like 30-50 years. However, I am not sure the crusader ever actually got a great amount spoils, outside of the sacking of Constantinople.

It’s also worth remembering that:

A) The Crusaders became heavily assimilated into local culture, especially in Sicily and Granada. It was less a matter of westerners conquering easterners, and more a matter of a Muslim society replacing its ruling class and then continuing to function as normal. Ironically, the place where the Crusaders were most successful in spreading western society was in the Baltic, against pagan Livonians and Lithuanians.

B) As the period went on, the Crusaders increasingly relied upon mercenaries and “Turkopoles” (Turkish and Arabic converts to Christianity) for their military muscle. The last battles of the coastal cities were mostly a matter of Muslim Arabs fighting Christian Arabs, with Turks and other ethnicities involved on both sides.

C) The Crusaders in the Levant were extremely bad at getting rid of Islamic influence, but were very good at getting rid of eastern Christians. Prior to the Crusades there had been very large Arab Christian sects (Maronites, Nestorians and Jacobians) plus the Armenian states in what was then Cilicia and is now southern Turkey and northern Syria. The Crusaders didn’t like cooperating with non-Catholic Christians, and by the time they were finally pushed out of the Levant they had weakened local Christianity significantly.

The closer you look at the Crusades, the less “east versus west” they appear.

@Herbert West

The Morgenthau plan (not Morgan, that nutsional socialist can’t even spell) actually existed, it was an initially somewhat supported plan for post war Germany.

Thanks for adding to the discussion.

Please note that we do not “Internet diagnose” mental illness, even when we talk about National Socialists. (See the comments policy.)

So apparently, I’m with ISIL…because I can’t stand Trump. He’s misogynist and ableist as hell and those are just two major problems with him. Plus that hashtag just reeks of aggrieved privilege. Jesus, everything really is black and white with these people. Sometimes I have black-and-white thinking but I am rapidly improving on that front.

Is anyone else getting a glitch where the browser goes to page 3 (instead of 4) when clicking on comments (usually goes to the last page) or even when directly clicking on a link from the recent comments sidebar? Also after making a post, it ‘returns’ me to page 3.

@pitshade
Been seeing that glitch a lot recently. Also does it when clicking on a specific reply in recent comments. For example, click on the most recent comment, get dumped on the previous page.

@abars01

I’m having an increasingly hard time justifying my daily consultation of websites like We Hunted the Mammoth, Right Wing Watch, Fundies Say the Darndest Things, and so on. Seriously, what’s the point? You’re not going to see anything you haven’t already seen.

I don’t think I ever saw anything new here if you look at it that way. I can’t exactly avoid this shit, seeing as I dare to be a feminist woman on the Internet, so even the spaces with awesome moderation get slammed so hard they can’t keep up quick enough to prevent us from seeing it. This place reminds me that that behavior is mockable. It brings new issues I wouldn’t have known about, like Chanty’s harassment, to my attention. It teaches me talking points I can use when people say bullshit like, “Gamergate is mostly just people who want ethics in journalism and those jerks don’t represent us.” It provides a community of like-minded people I can talk to about subtle sexism that most people don’t understand and I don’t always have the energy to educate on.

You don’t have to keep coming here if you don’t see a benefit, but I do see the benefit.

@EJ: I actually wasn’t fully aware about the eastern Christian bit (I was, of course, familiar with the role relations between Rome and Constantinople played, but I was under the impression that the older sects were further East).

One of my colleagues is actually a Maronite from Lebanon, and he claims that the Maronite church is in full communion with and subordinate to Rome. I’m guessing that this was after the crusades. Do you know more about that? You seem better educated in this facet of history than I am.

@Herbert West: Thanks for addressing Mikes error regarding the Morgenthau plan. I was going to address it earlier, but I got so deep into my wall of text that I forgot 🙂 Just, do be careful about ableist language. I understand that used to be a major issue here.

@joekstra: Hey, no foul here.

You actually understood when you did something that wasn’t kosher around here, and you apologized, and are attempting to make right.

That’s much, much, MUCH more than I can say for some of the other commenters we’ve seen lately.

In fact, we had one double down just a few threads ago and insist that they should be able to do what they want because they’re on “our” side, despite us correcting them.

So, in comparison, you’re doing great.

@joekstra

Speaking only for myself (also ADHD), the fact that you’re willing to change when someone corrects you goes a long way. It seems like you want acknowledgment that you’re cool to hang out here? Which isn’t something I’ve seen happen much, but if your ADHD results in social anxiety like mine does, I understand the impulse.

Basically, if nobody is telling you to get out or fuck off, I’m pretty sure you’re cool. Corrections don’t mean poodle don’t like you; it means people believe you can do better if you know what’s acceptable. So far, from what I see, you have.

I get where you’re coming from. You want reassurance that the community at least tolerates you. (Obviously I could be totally wrong, so if I am, please disregard this.) You haven’t been told off or told to go away; that’s the community accepting you. It’s not explicit, but it’s the best anyone gets.

However, especially in text, asking for reassurance, particularly more than once… That’s the part that can be read as self-pitying or passive-aggressive. I don’t think you mean it that way (and I hope I’m right!), so I wanted to let you know, especially in light of the ADHD.

That said: wow. I’m honestly impressed. 🙂 what kind of physician, if I may ask? Do you have any strategies for getting through that much school? I have so many questions and I don’t want to be rude! 🙂

@kupo:
You are an awesome feminist woman on the internet, and you make the internet a better place by being on it. Your posts usually either make me laugh or teach me something, depending on what you’re going for.

I’m very glad that you choose to do it, not least because I feel that you (and others) help me be a better feminist.

@joekstra:
Disclaimer: I am not a Maronite. If we have any Maronite readers or lurkers, I hope I have represented your faith’s history accurately and respectfully.

The Maronites are indeed in full communion with the Catholic church, and have been since the late 16th century. This is a very important piece of wording because it does not mean “part of the Catholic church.”

Pope Gregory XIII was an extremely capable diplomat and was very good at extending Catholicism to far-flung places; as well as Lebanon, he was also largely responsible for Christianity doing as well as it did in Japan and the Philippines. He worked out the diplomacy which let Maronites join the Catholic world rather than being a satellite of Orthodoxy or remaining a Syriac sect like Jacobite or Nestorian Christianity.

The reason I say “diplomacy” rather than “theology” is that the Maronite church hasn’t been theologically integrated into Catholicism at all. Amongst other things they pray in Syriac like other Eastern Christians rather than in Latin like most Catholics. Nowadays most Maronites live in South America (due to the Lebanese diaspora in the late 19th century) which is a Catholic part of the world, but still have their own churches rather than attending Catholic churches like their neighbours.

It’s an arrangement which seems to work well for everybody.

EDIT TO ADD: You fell down, you apologised, you acknowledged it, you amended your behaviour in future. In my opinion, that’s what a male feminist should do when they fall down.

@joekstra

there’s nothing I’ve seen any of you say to other commenters worse than what’s been said to me in real life

Paradoxy, Petal, etc say you’re OK, then you’re OK. However, I do feel the need to make a point here. Or, rather, revisit a prior point. Remember what I said about passive aggression? You have a habit of making us the ‘bad guy’. We don’t want you here or we’re not quite as bad as your bullies (Sorry you went thru that, BTW <3). I'm sure you don't mean it that way, but you've built up quite the defense mechanism, it seems. It's not a huge deal, and, ironically, I've seen worse. Keep an eye on it, is all
(PS, massive possibility I'm being oversensitive)

Oh, and:

I understand that used to be a major issue here

Sure… Used to be… 😛