Armenian Genocide.

[Oberyn]

I find it particularly ironic when you consider how pissed off so many turks get when you call Istanbul "Constantinople".
And no, the whole point of the information age is that war is very, very different from the way it used to be. The whole "strong defeat the weak, no shame attached to it" is of course still true, but it is buried under a ton of fake justifications. Being weak and victimized is now a moral highground, when it used to be...well, a weakness. I mean, Israel/Palestine? If your interpretation was true, Palestine would have ceased to exist decades ago. The israelis could drive out all palestianians out of "greater Israel" tommorow if strength was the only factor. Israel knows this of course, which is why their ethnic cleansings are extremely slow and guarlanded with bullshit justifications of "security".   
Of course most of the justifications for modern wars is pure theater. NATO could never have intervened if the plain truth about Kosovo (i.e it was ethnic cleansing warfare all around, with no moral high ground) was known. You needed poor opressed "innocent" albanians and evil racist serbs for the story to work. War is all about the "story" these days. The serb's biggest mistake was how honest they were about their intentions. If they had done it israeli style they would probably control Kosovo today and albanians of the region would be in a highly militarized ghetto controlled by them. 

[the real god emperor]

I find it particularly ironic when you consider how pissed off so many turks get when you call Istanbul "Constantinople".

The people you mention are completely idiots. Who the hell cares if someone calls a city with another name? 

[Ronin]

As a citizen of Istanbul/Constantinople, I use both.

[zagibu]

It's always about bigger fish eating smaller fish. You can try to make a moral story out of it and make someone look better than the others, but beneath the civilized facade humans still are animals and that shows in every war.

Animals don't wage war. Please don't make unfair comparisons here.

[Butan]

Whats the difference though? instead of small clan-tribes of animals, we have ethnicity/countries/political entities/nationalities.

[Leshma]

Nature has arranged that most animals have counterparts and it wasn't possible for one specie to dominate all others. Until nature "gave birth" to human race. If you look closely at our behavior, we're more like viruses. There really isn't any greater goal for humans other than reproducing and spreading. Evolution helps us to achieve that goal.

Human being, the most complex virus on earth which isn't infecting any particular living organism. Planet earth is our host.

[Panos]

There really isn't any greater goal for humans other than reproducing and spreading. Evolution helps us to achieve that goal.

All animals reproduce and spread, not only humans, the difference between humans and other animals, is that we evolved into smart living beings.

[Gnjus]

we evolved into smart living beings.

That is highly questionable. 

(click to show/hide)

Oh and what use of our "brains" if we can only apply it in destructive ways, for ourselves and our surroundings.

[Oberyn]

Leshma by that interpretation all life is a "virus". Like Panos says, the only difference is humans are just much, much better at it than all other lifeforms. We're still beholden to "nature" in many ways, but our greatest glory is in trying to escape the darwinian wheelhouse that all other life on earth is shackled by. Everything that is considered progress, not only in material manipulation (agriculture, domestication, science in general) but also in politics/social terms, is directly opposed to what is "natural". I can't stand neo-malthusian misanthropic hippies who embrace appeal to nature fallacies. Natural =/= good. When people start making arguments along those lines it makes me want to chuck them in the Amazon on their own with no other human help.

edit: Also many, many species have come to dominate over others, and then disappeared, or evolved down a different path. Nature is not in a constant state of perfect equilibrium. It is a chaotic war of life that is never stable, if you take a long enough view. The entire history of humanity is barely a blip when you consider the emergence of life in general.

[Leshma]

Don't blame me for that theory, blame Agent Smith

[zagibu]

Leshma by that interpretation all life is a "virus". Like Panos says, the only difference is humans are just much, much better at it than all other lifeforms. We're still beholden to "nature" in many ways, but our greatest glory is in trying to escape the darwinian wheelhouse that all other life on earth is shackled by. Everything that is considered progress, not only in material manipulation (agriculture, domestication, science in general) but also in politics/social terms, is directly opposed to what is "natural". I can't stand neo-malthusian misanthropic hippies who embrace appeal to nature fallacies. Natural =/= good. When people start making arguments along those lines it makes me want to chuck them in the Amazon on their own with no other human help.

edit: Also many, many species have come to dominate over others, and then disappeared, or evolved down a different path. Nature is not in a constant state of perfect equilibrium. It is a chaotic war of life that is never stable, if you take a long enough view. The entire history of humanity is barely a blip when you consider the emergence of life in general.

While what you say is certainly true, Leshma's point of view is not wrong either. Since mankind is on this planet, the amount of different species of animals and plants living on the planet has plummeted rapidly. The total amount of living beings has plummeted as well, because we transform diverse biosystems like forests into lakes of concrete or seas of wheat and corn. And last but not least we're hard at work poisoning the water we drink and the air we breathe.

[Leshma]

All animals reproduce and spread, not only humans, the difference between humans and other animals, is that we evolved into smart living beings.

Are they dumb for eating the shit we produce or are we dumb for producing that shit no one on earth except us has any use of?