GarryB Tue Jul 21, 2020 5:38 am
To be fair if it was a verbal conversation in a pub you could excuse people for not knowing what had been said but if you are interested enough in a thread to post a reply it makes sense to read through the thread to find what has already been discussed.
I don't think anyone did anything wrong as such, it was more the way things were said and past tensions released.
Thank you for apologising Mike... a mature thing to do.
Can I add that for decades I have been flitting from usergroup to usergroup... and finding western people who think everything the BBC and CNN say about Russia is true... all the stereo types are true, and I think more than 80% of my time is correcting the same BS over and over... and you do get sick of it.
Vlad told be he had a similar experience which is why he created this site.
When I first came here I was just a member so I didn't have any control or power... in fact a few times I pissed Vlad off with my excessive optimism and pro Putin stance... neither of which sat well with him.
We both agree that having all pro Putin pro Russia anti west members would make the chat a little boring... which is what this forum is about... I see it as a place where like minded people can get together and share information and opinions on topics we are interested in.
In the 1980s I was alone... none of the people I knew could care less about military weapons let alone Soviet ones. Sources were difficult to come by and were of course filtered through western experts who applied their spin to any news or piece of information.
Now we have the Kalashnikov website... the only problem is that it is oriented to sell to Russian citizens in Russia, but it is progress... if I keep pestering them I am sure they will come around....
Anyway sorry for this rant, but even if you don't agree on somethings at least appreciate members seem to be able to think for themselves and if you are upset because someone doesn't change their world view the instant you put forward a reasoned argument to show they are wrong then you just learned a bit about human beings. Some people are happy with their world view and who are you to burst it. I am an athiest but I don't actively try to convert anyone... I think going through life thinking there is something called heaven where everyone you know and love will be waiting for you when you die or if you go first will catch up to you when they die is kinda nice and comforting. I think the concept of hell is rather unnecessary... if it was my religion I would get rid of that bit... if you don't want to join that is fine, I wouldn't threaten people with eternal damnation if they don't agree to believe because if one family member does not believe doesn't that mean heaven wont be so good for their loved ones when they don't go to heaven... isn't that punishing believers for not converting everyone they love?
I'll shut up now.