Super excited to be here! - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Please introduce yourself here.
User avatar
By Bleh
#14896091
Hello! I'm new to the forum and as the thread title suggests, I'm super excited to be here! I've been casually looking for a good place to discuss politics in all its wonderful and hideous varieties for a while now and I'm glad to have stumbled across this place; it seems very dedicated and in-depth!

A little about me:
I recently graduated college with a major in Political Science.
I'm a huge sucker for political theory and philosophy.
My favorite political theorist is Thomas Hobbes and my favorite book Leviathan.
I'm currently living in Guadalajara, Mexico.
My senior thesis was on the legal language used in the Bybee and Levin memos to legitimize torture during the Bush administration.
The other major forum I've regularly visited is alternatehistory.com which I joined in college to focus on something other than politics. Now I've been out of college long enough to miss the environment and politics is all I want to think about! :lol:

Anyway, that's a little about me! I look forward to talking with all of you and listening to what you have to say!
#14896092
Hello Bleh,

Nice to meet you. I am one of your friendly admins, if you need anything, clarifications, instructions, whatever, do not hesitate to send me a private message.

Where do you stand on the Russia vs West current affairs. Do you support the flare up of the New Tepid War?
User avatar
By Bleh
#14896102
Oh man, that's an interesting one. I think I'll start by saying that I don't think it's that surprising. The fall of the Soviet Union happened without a clear transition plan to replace it; there were no institutions to check a return of centralized power so it was very easy for Putin to take the reigns of the FSB and Russia United and establish a style of rule that was similarly autocratic to the various General Secretaries of the Soviet Union before him. And as such a ruler, he's done his work to establish a cult of personality around himself as making Russia independent and strong against the influence of the US. Cold War nostalgia is strong in both countries so it makes sense to appeal to it.

I recently read this article (http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/12/rus ... -ideology/) that captured, if not the whole picture, an element of the current tensions that I think explains Russia's current foreign policy very well. There's a sense among many Russian politicians (and perhaps citizens?) that Russia was betrayed by the US, or more generally "the West", following the fall of the Soviet Union as the former allowed NATO and the EU to expand into former Warsaw Pact countries all the way to Russia's border. Putin has responded by trying to create buffer zones around Russia, either through annexation of territory (Crimea), the creation of frozen conflicts (Donetsk and Luhansk), and by propping up regimes he can hold influence over (Assad, Yanukovych, Lukashenko). Knowing that this would trigger conflict with the West in general, he's attempted to sow chaos between constituent elements of society in western countries by playing upon existing tensions; most obviously in the 2016 Presidential election but also in the Catalonia crisis and potentially others as well.

Insofar as how I feel on the resurgence of tensions, I'm sad about it as I think it would ultimately be beneficial if Russia, the US, and Europe could have mutually cooperative relationships built on trust. As long as Putin is in power, however, that won't happen as it's ultimately contrary to his plans for Russia.

Interesting sidenote: Much of Putin's foreign policy behavior mirrors in many ways that proposed in Foundations of Geopolitics, a book written by a Russian fascist and that has great influence in the Russian military and foreign policy sphere. It's something I've wanted to look into for a while but alas, I haven't been able to find an English copy of the book. Its Wikipedia page is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundatio ... eopolitics
#14896250
Welcome Bleh. I hope you enjoy the forum. Despite all the arguments there is a generally good knowledge of ideologies and some very different points of view.


layman wrote:Welcome.

You seem too decent a person to be here. It’s a seespit of weirdos and hateful types.


That’s not just the forum. That describes the whole world.
#14896255
Welcome aboard.

Stalin or Trotsky?

Also alternatehistory forum? What shenanigans is this? There are no other forums but here is an alternate history question for you..... What if Russia adopted Islam? :excited:
#14896648
Bleh wrote:Interesting sidenote: Much of Putin's foreign policy behavior mirrors in many ways that proposed in Foundations of Geopolitics, a book written by a Russian fascist and that has great influence in the Russian military and foreign policy sphere. It's something I've wanted to look into for a while but alas, I haven't been able to find an English copy of the book. Its Wikipedia page is here:


I think you will find Dugin's "The Fourth Political Theory" to be the better work on the Eurasian thesis and Russia's current trends.

https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Political ... ndre+dugin

Also, here is an English copy of the book you seek:

https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Geop ... ndre+dugin
#14896649
Oh.....and welcome to PoFo BTW....

I am the biggest leftist on here.

Power To The People!! :excited:
User avatar
By Bleh
#14897053
fuser wrote:Welcome aboard.

Stalin or Trotsky?

Oh dear :lol: Preferably neither, though I have a hard time believing Trotsky would have been as murderously ruthless as Stalin was. Even in his youth Stalin had a rather sadistic character. So I can't really envision a scenario where I would prefer Stalin to Trotsky.

fuser wrote:Also alternatehistory forum? What shenanigans is this? There are no other forums but here is an alternate history question for you..... What if Russia adopted Islam? :excited:

Pardon my transgression x) Hmm, for Islam to catch on in Russia, you'd probably need a more influential or more lasting Mongol Empire (hard enough to do in itself!) or perhaps a stronger successor horde in the West that was able to continue to exert influence over the Rus for a longer period of time. It would probably be either a devastating blow for Orthodox Christianity or in the case of more West-focused Mongols, it might result in Orthodox Christianity simply continuing to exist in the Balkans (potentially resulting in a pan-Balkan identity revolving around the Orthodox faith; that would be neat). A big question is whether or not the Ottoman Empire or an equivalent rises in Anatolia as well as what the relations between these two large, probably expansionist Islamic states are like. My guess is that, with the possible exception of battling it out over Crimea (if this Russia is even interested in Crimea) they would probably adopt a relationship of mutual detente: I'll stay out of your interests if you stay out of mine.

What I would like to see in such a world is what heresies develop, both within Islam and within Christendom. The time of the Protestant Reformation, for instance, was one of change for both religions. I can't see something like Islamic Protestantism developing but perhaps greater distance withing the community between Sunnis, Shias, Ibadis, and perhaps even a new 'Steppe' Islam that might, say, give the Khans more reverential treatment (I'm speculating really hard at this point though). Catholic Europe, in turn, might galvanize in response to sort of being surrounded on all sides. More vigorously anti-heretical princes, a more involved Pope and a substantial and perhaps official redefining of Europe as the domain of Christianity (no hemming and hawing over whether Europe ends at the Urals in this world; Europe ends where Russia begins) might result in a more ideologically united but probably more militant, authoritarian, and xenophobic Europe. Of course, this is just one possible take on a question with very big implications.

Okay, nerd mode off.

Reichstraten wrote:Hello. Who do you think is the most interesting political theorist alive?

Truth be told, I'm not that familiar with more contemporary political thinkers! The most recent theorist whose views I hold to be particularly new and interesting is Foucault. Do you have any suggestions?

Victoribus Spolia wrote:
I think you will find Dugin's "The Fourth Political Theory" to be the better work on the Eurasian thesis and Russia's current trends.

https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Political ... ndre+dugin

Also, here is an English copy of the book you seek:

https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Geop ... ndre+dugin

Ah, thank you much! I'm not sure why I wasn't able to find it. I don't doubt that Dugin put the weight of his theory in 'Fourth Political Theory', though I'm interested in 'Foundations of Geopolitics' given its popularity among the Russian military elite, to the point of being used as a textbook. Perhaps I'll give the former a read through once my reading list is lighter, though buying either of them will have to wait until I actually start work at my new job x) thanks again!

Victoribus Spolia wrote:Oh.....and welcome to PoFo BTW....

I am the biggest leftist on here.

Power To The People!! :excited:

My scanning of various parts of the site hasn't exactly given me that impression x) though your views are your own and I definitely don't want to be that asshole who just shits on other peoples' views :lol: My only hope is to engage in civil discourse.
#14897062
You seem like an educated individual and someone who could be quite interesting to read Bleh. If you enjoy Hobbes then I suspect VS is the person you'll be engaging often most on here. He is the resident Righty on here by the way so get ready to spar.

Welcome aboard.
#14897129
Oh dear :lol: Preferably neither, though I have a hard time believing Trotsky would have been as murderously ruthless as Stalin was. Even in his youth Stalin had a rather sadistic character. So I can't really envision a scenario where I would prefer Stalin to Trotsky.


The same Trotsky who founded the red army and slaughtered the treasonous dogs at Krondstat and wanted the red army to invade Europe to force socialism onto people at bayonet point? I love it when people try and pretend Trotsky was some cuddly social democrat. :lol: Stalin was far less violent and far less interventionist militarily than Trotsky.

That was one of their big points of difference, Stalin wanting to bide his time and build socialism in one state and Trotsky wanting to immediately build world revolution by invading the fuck out of everyone.
#14897303
Bleh wrote:Truth be told, I'm not that familiar with more contemporary political thinkers! The most recent theorist whose views I hold to be particularly new and interesting is Foucault. Do you have any suggestions?


It´s been a long time since I´ve read any political philosophy, but I´d say the most interesting is Charles Taylor.
#14897463
Bleh wrote:My scanning of various parts of the site hasn't exactly given me that impression x) though your views are your own and I definitely don't want to be that asshole who just shits on other peoples' views My only hope is to engage in civil discourse.


How dare you doubt my liberal leftism!!! :peace:

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