The /r/Geopolitics subreddit is surprisingly solid!
Political bias is (supposed to be...) moderated to a maximum to foster only useful discussion. It has better days than others, but know I've definitely learned a lot from the discussions over there.
There is a pie-slice of Antarctica that is unclaimed under the Antarctic Treaty System. Some guy in LA has claimed it as Westarctica[1], which is a pretty good name. You could probably go down there with a pistol and claim it yourself. Dress warmly. Would rank in the top 20 countries in square km (1.6M square km)
Nobody recognizes even the claimed pie slices (except the 7 claiming countries), just as none of the parties would recognize any claim on Marie Byrd Land (aka Westarctica).
It still remains a fact that no country claims that territory. And that's interesting in some abstract way to people with the fantasy of forming a country. Which is exactly what the parent comment was referring to.
The whole thing is just meant in fun. Aside from the fact that the treaty binds only the signatories.
Indeed. The closest you’ll get to this would be the Café Central in Vienna, circa 1913. A recreation of this on the internet would be fascinating.
The café was opened in 1876, and in the late 19th century it became a key meeting place of the Viennese intellectual scene. Key regulars included: Peter Altenberg, Theodor Herzl, Alfred Adler,[2] Egon Friedell, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Anton Kuh, Adolf Loos, Leo Perutz, Robert Musil, Stefan Zweig, Alfred Polgar, Adolf Hitler, and Leon Trotsky. In January 1913 alone, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud, and Trotsky (the latter being regular) were patrons of the establishment.
I haven't used these myself, but I read that discussion on betting sites is less emotional and troll-y. Presumably because people are more focused on being actually correct, rather than on ideology.
Sounds like it might not even be intentional, but sometimes it's just really wanting something to happen, or betting on something because you really expect it to.
Very interesting observation, my own experience with GJP, metaculous, and other betting fora agree with this.
I wonder if an HN-like forum with prediction at its core would have legs? I always found the best comments in prediction tournaments at least as interesting as the actual estimates, but none of the platforms really support back-and-forth conversation.
It's just objectively impossible to have neutral politics discussion in reddit because of the upvote system. Not to mention mods in almost every subreddit are (naturally) biased and heavy handed.
I've been reading r/neutralpolitics for a while now, and it definitely is less left than r/politics, but conservative points are still buried in the comments. For any post talking about Trump or anything related to him, you have to browse comments using the "controversial" sorting method to see anything not progressive focused.
That would be true for the entire country as well. The amount of support for left vs right is pretty lopsided. This isn't reflected in number of seats because of gerrymandering and electoral college.
Yes, that was my point. The 2016 election was roughly evenly split on the popular vote, with a slight advantage to the democrats. Meanwhile the media believed that the democrats a >90% chance of winning.
As a HKer I am at the stage of my life when I suddenly realise how much geopolitics influence the course of our lives, and yes I would love to find a forum where smart and informed people have their discussions about the world's events. Should the world's affairs be left in the hands of only politcians? But most of them are so awfully dumb and self-serving! And why do ordinary citizens get no representation in world bodies like UN and WHO? The knowledge, understanding and application of politics and human rights apply to each and every person (even sentient being) on earth, yet most of us pursue spend our time only on economic or entertainment and not about the collective course of our species.
edge.org has the intellectual capacity of discussing multi-disciplinary issues however not in a forum style. This would be a great addition to the internet
"full of pedants who like to spend days at a time reinventing economics from initial coin offerings when the topic is about bolstering worker efficiency through company metrics, but keep absolute silence as soon as the topic gets too technical like code optimization or sensible object models"
If you want one that's genuinely similar to HN in terms of politics, in being excessively pro-capitalist and woefully dismissive of social justice issues, try https://reddit.com/r/conservative.
Like HN, they touch on geopolitics by assuming whatever the US is doing is generally positive and good for the world, despite evidence to the contrary.
It's not the most intellectual forum, but let's be honest, this place isn't really either.
Not a forum but I had been looking for a good geopolitical podcast and “Bro History” is pretty solid (don’t let the name fool you). Two guys from NYC, one lib and one libertarian/lean right. Good balance of real takes and banter. They do some domestic stuff too.
Political bias is (supposed to be...) moderated to a maximum to foster only useful discussion. It has better days than others, but know I've definitely learned a lot from the discussions over there.