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A place to discuss topics/games with other webDiplomacy players.
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orathaic (1009 D(B))
17 May 17 UTC
Tax dodging and capital flight
Ok, this youtube video discusses it. In brief, company extracts mineral wealth, sells for a low price to parent company based in a tax haven, declares no/very little profit. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ocm42ytXto )
13 replies
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Hauta (1618 D(S))
12 May 17 UTC
Probably not in the Bible but...
Before Jesus took over John's ministry what did people think of the fact that a man in his upper 20s wasn't married and had no children? Wouldn't that have been exceedingly rare at the time?
24 replies
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Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
18 Apr 17 UTC
Survivors-Win Scoring
What is this?
91 replies
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brainbomb (295 D)
15 May 17 UTC
(+8)
I am retiring from Trolling
I will henceforth focus my efforts on promoting games, offering opinions on actual issues and an occasional contribution that may be amusing. My goal was never to see the forum overrun with nonsense. Sadly its becoming unreadable and the threads are so abundant that trolling is now all thats happening. Sorry webdip for ushering in this era.
14 replies
Open
orathaic (1009 D(B))
15 May 17 UTC
Completely unrelated thought
You can easily walk out the door and abandon your life, start over and become a new person. But can you do the same to your mindset? Can you drop all previous prejudices/perspectives/opinions, (but not facts) and build a new world view? A new model for interacting with reality?
Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
15 May 17 UTC
(+1)
I don't think most people can easily do the first thing, never mind the second.
orathaic (1009 D(B))
15 May 17 UTC
At least they can easily imagine the first. If not bring themselves to do it...
brainbomb (295 D)
15 May 17 UTC
(+2)
Probably not without trauma and some catharsis. The man sober 30 years takes to the drink when his father dies. While the man who drinks for 30 years may give it all up when he loses someone.

Drinking isnt the only example there are many examples of people who can change their mindset out of the worst of conditions. Theres many examples but former KKK members becoming reformed and accepting is an example that has happened. Former gang members becoming community involved.

Im not sure the mindset can change but it is mutable. Someone with prideful mindset can have their pride demolished by circumstances: bankruptcy , divorce, death
orathaic (1009 D(B))
16 May 17 UTC
Interesting take BB, thanks. I do like that these changes occur spontaneously, in moments of crisis. And i guess upping an leaving your everything behind would be crisis driven aswell, but can you choose? If our free will capable of giving up the attitudes we're een taught/grow ourselves??
Octavious (2732 D)
16 May 17 UTC
(+1)
You can't abandon your life. You only have the one, after all. Your past will remain stubbornly unchanged and the actions you have taken in the past will continue to impact the future regardless of whether or not you attempt to blind yourself to it.

As for beliefs and opinions, how could you even go about such a task? I would rather like to be religious. I suspect that a belief in God and Jesus and a devine plan would have positive impacts in terms of oneness with the universe, coping with bereavement, a greater sense of community, and many others. However, whilst I suspect I could effectively fake such a belief there is nothing I can do to make it real.



orathaic (1009 D(B))
16 May 17 UTC
I never imagined that one could choose what their new system of belief, merely asking whether you can give up what you know and grow a new set of beliefs/opinion/outlooks and attitudes.
Hannibal76 (100 D(B))
16 May 17 UTC
If there are people who can do that without some kind of crisis in their lives (like bb said) they're few in number. I do think it's possible though. It would have to be a strong willed intelligent person. But not too much intelligence. And just a bit of wisdom. Yeap.
MajorMitchell (1605 D)
17 May 17 UTC
(+1)
A glimpse of an idyllic Nirvana, but seriously, the fire breathing MemSahib, Her indoors lying around on a sofa eating cakes is never going to release me from bondage and servitude.
Octavious (2732 D)
17 May 17 UTC
@ ora

Sorry, I misunderstood. In that case, how can you not? When I was five I believed in magic, to such an extent that I put on a magic show for my Mum which involved me putting a toy car under a hanky for ten minutes and getting increasingly furious with it for not vanishing regardless of how intently I stared at it. (The background to this, incase you are thinking I was just a particularly stupid child, is that my grandad had taught me this "magic" by setting up the same process and removing the car when I fell asleep. Being a trusting youngster I took it at face value).

Anyway, the long and the short of it was I went from being a child who believed he could do magic, to a child who believed magic existed but was beyond him, to a teenager who thought magic was bollocks, to an astrophysicist. Beliefs change, usually slowly, sometimes in a rush, but rarely I'd say all in one go without a medical cause.
orathaic (1009 D(B))
17 May 17 UTC
As an astro-physicist, you must inderstand the different between Newtonian mechanics and Special/General relatvity. Both 'true' for a certain degree of accuracy, and useful (over a certain domain space: like spec rel is only useful in inertial reference frames, and general rel is only useful outside of, say, singularities, or more generally when the scales relevant to quantum mechanics aren't signifigant).

So over time we have developed new (scientific) perspectives. But personally we have our own perspectives, like (and i stereotype) the working class person who believes 'the system' has never done anything but shit on them. Or the upper class person, who believes the working class scroungers are a waste of oxygen.

These sorts of social perspectives will colour our reactions to what politicians say. But how you interact with the world depends on your perspective. You can't imagine going faster than the speed of light if you only see the universe through Spec rel, (whereas general rel allow the warping of space to expand space behind you and contract it in front... Al la warp drive) So we are limited by our perspectives.

Yes, they naturally change over time. But can you choose to change them?

Usually i would say people use their perspectives to reinforce beliefs about themselves, to make them feel safe and good. Like they are moral. So my working class stereotype might not be doing very well due to economic circumstances and would blame society, because blaming yourself means you are a flawed human being; or the upper class stereotype might be doing well economically and think 'sure i'm great, so it is natural that wealth comes my way' - again reinforcing a positive view of oneself.

Now as others have pointed out, trauma can lead to a kind of break, a traumatic shift in perspectives. It challenges your view of self, your identity, and can force you to re-evaluate your perspective (perhaps to adopt one which is more useful - you could compare this to scientific revolutions).

I think it would be an interesting idea to explore what would happen to a person who flipped the table, as it were. Gave up and started again (for whatever reason). Like throwing out all scientific knowledge, and testing everything from scratch - except personal belief systems don't tend to have the self-correcting features of science, so you might expect to become a very different person.

Actually in a way, having children does this. Each generation is given the opportunity to create their own set of perspectives...


10 replies
Ogion (3817 D)
16 May 17 UTC
(+5)
Apologies to the community
I seriously lost my cool last night, and I'm quite sorry. Although we discuss very serious, and sometimes life or death issues for some, that tone is way out of bounds.
67 replies
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A_Tin_Can (2234 D)
08 May 17 UTC
(+1)
The forum
Has been unusually good lately. What do you attribute this to?
46 replies
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DammmmDaniel (100 D)
16 May 17 UTC
Anyone in the Dallas Area?
I will be staying at UT Dallas for all of June and was just wondering if anyone lived in the Dallas area? Do the mods have a list of where everyone lives by any chance?
5 replies
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fourofswords (415 D)
16 May 17 UTC
unit placement
I ordered my builds, and one of the units did not show on the map in spring. How do I contact a mod, and can it be fixed?
5 replies
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JEccles (421 D)
16 May 17 UTC
Need 2 people
We need 2 more in the next 5 hours.

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=198310
0 replies
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steephie22 (182 D(S))
16 May 17 UTC
About those earth rays..
Years ago, I started a discussion (and an infrequently used meme) about how I used to have severe headaches as a small child until a small metal device that my parents can't describe very well was buried in the frontyard and my headaches disappeared overnight. My parents cited mythical earth rays as the cause of the problem. The brilliant minds of webdip saw a placebo effect as the only possible answer. I found another possible explanation and would like your thoughts.
4 replies
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Hauta (1618 D(S))
14 May 17 UTC
Can the President dissolve Congress?
McConnell is fine with Comey firing. Would he be ok with Congress being dissolved? Can it be achieved with martial law in a national emergency?
178 replies
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Hauta (1618 D(S))
15 May 17 UTC
Barron von Trump just got admitted...
to middle school at St. Andrews Episcopal in DC. "Melania Trump cited the school’s diversity and academics as the reason behind the selection"
This was reported by Time Magazine.

Is anyone here aware of what kind of diversity a school with 38k tuition has? Even CAPT_Brad can't afford that!
10 replies
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AlexFH (100 D)
15 May 17 UTC
Death
Who here wants to die
12 replies
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Jacob63831 (160 D)
15 May 17 UTC
Metaphysics
Since webdip loves debates and analyzing things such as does .999= 1
Why should we leave out metaphysics?
8 replies
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TrPrado (461 D)
13 May 17 UTC
(+1)
Are paredy thredz achulee funneeey?
Meh
7 replies
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Hippopankake (80 D)
15 May 17 UTC
Commies
Commies are bad
4 replies
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brainbomb (295 D)
13 May 17 UTC
Unanswerable Questions
Lets play a game. In this thread you may post only questions which have no right or wrong answer. If you post a question which can be answered with empirical evidence you are eliminated. Example: Are aliens real.
54 replies
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Chaqa (3971 D(B))
15 May 17 UTC
(+1)
Can the President Dissolve the Moon?
McConnel is fine with the Comey firing. Would he be OK with the Moon being dissolved? It might increase the area for his turtle people to live.
3 replies
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Fat backstab (25 DX)
15 May 17 UTC
Namejeff
Namejeff
1 reply
Open
chairman meow (280 D)
15 May 17 UTC
(+1)
Can the President?
McConnell is fine with Comey firing. Would he be ok with the can? Can it be achieved with can, in a national emergency?
0 replies
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xy4 (100 D)
15 May 17 UTC
The Player: namejeff
Well, this guy name a namejeff, says that myself and another player are linked. He says that we are the same person. I am here to tell you that these claims are false. namejeff is himself, a multicultur-- sorry multiaccounter. Ask him when he replies to this forum post.
5 replies
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Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
15 May 17 UTC
(+1)
Can the President dissolve?
McConnell is fine with Comey firing. Would he be ok with the President being dissolved? Can it be achieved with sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, in a national emergency?
1 reply
Open
Namejeff (10 DX)
15 May 17 UTC
Diplomacy
I believe that Xy4 is Hippopankake's second account
8 replies
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xy4 (100 D)
15 May 17 UTC
Enjoyable Post
Разместить ниже
1 reply
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Carebear (100 D)
07 May 17 UTC
(+1)
Online Diplomacy Championship - Second Round Signup
The deadline to signup for the second round of the Online Diplomacy Championship @ PDET 2017 will be May 19 with games starting shortly there after. Players who did not participate in the first round may join the second round.
19 replies
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Hippopankake (80 D)
12 May 17 UTC
(+3)
Brain bomb
Who is brain bomb
33 replies
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MajorMitchell (1605 D)
14 May 17 UTC
Football Diplomacy
Port Power give the Gold Coast Suns a flogging in Shanghai
9 replies
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Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
14 May 17 UTC
Sassy Donald Trump
He's so sassy, your president. He's the sassiest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V6nysX2gU8
5 replies
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Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
12 May 17 UTC
(+1)
Would a chimpanzee wearing a suit be more effective at advancing the republican agenda?
Trump has failed to advance most of his agenda. At what point are the investigations such a distraction that it would be better for the republicans to put in a chimpanzee wearing a suit instead?
12 replies
Open
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