desitrader wrote:Since it was you who brought it up in the first place, and especially now that you have had your say, we must not discuss politics any more.
...because heaven fobid, what if someone expresses the opposite view and hurts some delicate sensibilities?
If you're curious why the moderators discourage the discussion of politics, you might be interested in re-reading the relevant section of the forum rules:
Religion and politics: Some families have a rule that says, "No political or religious arguments during holiday dinner." This forum has a similar rule year-round, for much the same reasons. We have people here from all over the world, with incredibly diverse political and religious views, and we all get along much better if we avoid these subjects.
If the politics or religion is genuinely related to language learning, then you have a small amount of leeway—as long as people remain respectful and refrain from fighting. But if a moderator asks you to stop, please stop. You can fight about politics and religion on almost any other site on the Internet. This site is for language learning.
Basically, political discussions on online forums are like kudzu in the southern US: Once it starts, it rapidly drives out everything else. For example, we've had discussions of language politics in the Baltic states turn into bitter 20-page threads. We've had forum members whose countries are at war with each other. Because of situations like these, the original HTLAL forum banned politics the better part of a decade ago. This rule probably reduces the time we need to spend on moderation by 80%.
I'm going to leave this thread unlocked for now, just in case people can find a non-political way to discuss "The countries: good or bad things". If this proves impossible, we can always lock it later.