Greatnate

Europa Univeralis IV Crusader Kings II Sim City 2000-4 Civilization 3-5 Age of Empires 1-3 Total War: Rome and Medieval 2 (There would be more, but I wish they were closer to Paradox Games) Saints Row 1-4 Kerbal Space Program Mount & Blade + Warband Sins of a Solar Empire + Expansions The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim Company of Heroes IL-2 Octodad and Octodad: Dadliest Catch Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Even 98 was better, the bar is set pretty low.

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Tibet

You are probably right that a fair number of their recruits are there to address just and legitimate concerns, whether they be about western influence in their countries or the internal corruption of their own governments. Both of these things should be ok to struggle against, but radical Islam offers a false hope for solution. It might seem that Islamic fundamentalism would address local corruption and foreign intervention, but the result is so very reactionary and oppressive that the Islamic regime would likely be worse than the current dictatorships. At the end of the day many people view their local Imam's are their best shot at a voice in a semi-democratic state, but relying on religious figures results in a government that is too easy to exploit by religious extremists.

WBC isn't shut down because their message is not an incitement to violence. ISIS's message is a call to violence. I probably should have added a harmful in front of the second censorship, but most people would agree that very limited censorship is a net benefit to society (i.e. shouting fire in a theater or calling for a lynch mob). We absolutely can censor based on net harm to society, the whole rational behind American freedom is freedom unless it infringes on another's rights.

Springfield

192

It really doesn't. There is a stark difference between living by your religious code and expecting all of your fellow citizen to follow the same code. The problem with ISIS is trying to establish a religiously fundamental state. If the American revolution was about the Puritans establishing a Puritan state, you can bet that the country would be drastically different. In the US, censorship is not censorship if it targets hate speech, if a group of religious fundamentalists were preaching that everyone of their religion had to follow their rules and everyone outside of their religion had to leave the area or be murdered, that would very much be hate speech. Hate speech, fundamentalism, and religious extremism are all things that run counter to western democracy, Allowing an extremist minority to dominate a moderate majority is always damaging, whether in the middle east or in the USA.

Azerbaijan

If pizza grows on trees, is it a fruit? Either way, welcome Lardbelly!

Welcome to P&W Ifee II!

Djibouti

189

The formation of the nucleus of an Islamic state is so far against the interests of the United States that it isn't even funny. The US wants a peaceful and divided middle east, if ISIS had it's way the middle east would be united and belligerent, what would the possible benefit be?

Argentina

182

David Attenborough.

As weird as it seems, the difference between Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism is that at this point African states have a lot more to gain by pulling together than the Arab states. The African states need each other to develop in any coherent and independent manner. An argument like this could've been made for the Arab states in the 1950s, but not now. The Egyptians see themselves as Egyptian, not arabs. An Islamic union is more likely than a pan-arab union, and most of the arab governments would rather retain independence than form a new caliphate. No nationalism is natural. All nations are constructed ideas. The natural state of humanity is tribalism, all organization above that revolves around find similarities and using those similarities to unite smaller groups to gain competitive advantage over slightly different groups. Germany hasn't had a common religion since 1517 AD. If it wasn't for the development of vernacular bibles in that same period, they wouldn't even have a common language. There was no German ethnicity until there was a common German language. The national identities of the Swiss people as Swiss and the Austrian people as Austrian are more of a hindrance to them uniting with Germany than the alps. The would be more likely to unite with Switzerland and Austria by forming a new national identity than trying to reassert the German identity that has been mostly abandoned in those countries. The Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Mongolian are just as not Chinese as the Miao, Tujia, Dai, and Manchu. China is composed of 56 ethnic groups, it is incredibly relevant which of these groups are assimilating and which are not. The fact that the government is trying so hard to Sinicize the Uyghurs and Tibetans should be evidence of that. Their aggressive actions in the South China sea aren't going to result in any real change in control of undersea resources, delays the extraction of those resources, and reduces the likelihood of Chinese corporations being able to extract them.

178

Yemen

163

Albania

If Germany takes the nationalist route rather than the pan-nationalist route with the EU, the endeavor will eventually fail. If Germany goes the imperialist route, eventually the rest of Europe will get fed up with rule from Berlin and the union will collapse. If German nationalism and the nationalism of other countries continues to exist, even with in an egalitarian EU, division will eventually cause the state to fracture and re-balkanize. If however pan-nationalism wins out and they are able to form a new identity as European, rather than German or French or whatever, they can form a powerful and lasting state. Hindu nationalism in India probably does more good than harm in the short run. It enables the Indian government to attempt to cement dozens of ethnic groups into a single national identity. However, it's also responsible for conflict with Pakistan and Bangladesh. By seeking to create a nation for the Hindi (Hindustan) the Muslim minority was alienated and sought its own state. Actions taken to benefit the Hindi at the expense of the Muslims has resulting in decades of conflict. But as long as significant sub-nationalist sentiments exist in areas of India, Hindu nationalism will continue to be a net good. In case of China, the failure of the Chinese to get the Uyghur, Tibetian, and Mongolian peoples to consider themselves Chinese by this point, the international criticism drawn by their actions in Tibet, and the fear generated by their loud demands in the south China sea means that Chinese nationalism is a net harm to the country. Focusing on economic development and international cooperation are far more effective for China than internal efforts of Sinicization and external efforts to increase their control of the south China sea. Arab nationalism was a nice idea, but is at this point dead. Nationalism in the potentially constituent countries will prevent it from returning to relevance any time soon, maybe forever. The African union is a great idea, and barring the effects of nationalism in its constituent countries, it could one day form a great state.

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