Thread: University of Tartu, University of Latvia

Originally Posted by bad manners

joysof, it is you who appears to have been deserted by logic. I made one very simple statement: 'The Jews in Germany were labeled, and that label entitled them to less rights and more suffering than those non-labeled. Replace "Jews" with "Russians", and "Germany" with "Latvia", and hopefully you shall see that the rest applies verbatim.' Is there anything in this statement you want to dispute? (You need not mention 'less' again.)

Why, yes. But today I'm not going to play your well-worn 'contradict my statement' game - it's a punt at sophistry in your part. Rather, I'll approach the matter as I see fit, thanking you kindly.

Your mentioning some other nations and states is more of that stinky red herring. I do not eat it, thank you very much.

We do like to discuss things on our own terms, don't we? By we, of course, I mean you. You're an obfuscator-supreme. As well you know, the 'some other nations and states' mentioned are very much to and of the point: they illustrate plainly that ethnic minorities (or, indeed, majorities) can endure suffering within a nation without the laws of that nation necessarily being directed specifically towards that end. I have never sought in this thread to defend Latvian government policy: Russian-speakers should, of course, be able to see their geometry textbooks printed in Cyrillic. In truth, I entered the fray only to challenge a flight of fancy. You, let the record show, haven't responded straightforwardly to anything I have written here

In essence - because I'm sick of this - there is a difference between sanctioned persecution and the bastardry, to coin a phrase, of circumstance. Ethnic Russians in Latvia bear the brunt of the latter, not the former. German Jews - a whole 'nother story. No fish.

Originally Posted by joysof

Why, yes. But today I'm not going to play your well-worn 'contradict my statement' game - it's a punt at sophistry in your part. Rather, I'll approach the matter as I see fit, thanking you kindly.

As you please, my dear fellow, as you please.

We do like to discuss things on our own terms, don't we?

And who does not, who does not!

In essence - because I'm sick of this - there is a difference between sanctioned persecution and the bastardry, to coin a phrase, of circumstance. Ethnic Russians in Latvia bear the brunt of the latter, not the former. German Jews - a whole 'nother story. No fish.

Not quite so. Take the "trials" on whom they call "Soviet occupants"; they surely will qualify for your "sanctioned persecution". It could be 'nother story, but not wholly.

the trials? So Latvia passed a law wanting all education taught in public schools in their national language. Did Russia not try to pass a similar bill last year stating that the russian language and cyrillic should be used in the public sector such as on passports, documentation, etc, leaving many with the same problem.

This law claims that the national languages must use Cyrillic when being written, but it doesn't prohibit them. National languages are still taught in schools, freely used in conversations and TV programs. Duma passed this bill in response to stupid nationalistic movements which want their national languages to be written by Latin letters. People have been writing their national languages in Cyrillic for decades and now they have to change their skills because somebody consider Latin letters «more convenient» for reading.

Originally Posted by drew881

the trials?

Yes, the trials. I don't suppose you understand what I'm talking about, do you? You just know that Latvia is a nice democratic country and the Russians living there deserve whatever the Latvian state thinks they deserve, correct?

So Latvia passed a law wanting all education taught in public schools in their national language. Did Russia not try to pass a similar bill last year stating that the russian language and cyrillic should be used in the public sector such as on passports, documentation, etc, leaving many with the same problem.

Clueless but opinionated. Typical. You must come from the US, right?

You never counter points with facts. You just insult people and bring up irrelevant information. Good job.

Originally Posted by drew881

You never counter points with facts. You just insult people and bring up irrelevant information. Good job.

Points? I detect no points in your blathering. How can I counter your absurdity with facts if you don't understand the facts (such as those on the trials)? And where is insulting in what I wrote? Coming from the US is an insult for you? What kind of inferiority complex is that?

Coming from the US is not an insult to me, but it is irrelevant to the conversation. Just because I am from the United States must mean that I am opinionated on the issue? No...

What you do is make a broad statement. Latvia is almost like Nazi Germany or something along that line. Then when someone refutes it, all you are doing is shooting down their claim with no facts, but stupid little ploys like attacking one's grammar. Very lame.

I may repeat that 'almost' sentence again. For me, it is almost the same. For somebody else 'almost' implies some other kind of likelihood. Arguing about the definitions and the perceptions of 'almost' would have been lame indeed.

As for "with no facts, but stupid little ploys like attacking one's grammar", could you show me one instance of the latter in this thread? I can attract your attentions to "the trial" again, that's facts for you.

To conclude, you lied about "no facts" and I'm pretty sure you lied about "attacking one's grammar". You're a liar. It also was you who started personal attack. You are a rude ignorant liar, drew881 my dear opinionated USan (hmm, that sounds like a tautology).

Originally Posted by drew881

What you do is make a broad statement. Latvia is almost like Nazi Germany or something along that line. Then when someone refutes it, all you are doing is shooting down their claim with no facts, but stupid little ploys like attacking one's grammar. Very lame.

I think I was the grammar fascist in this particular exchange. Not proud.

You are a rude ignorant liar, drew881 my dear opinionated USan (hmm, that sounds like a tautology).

I'm an AMERICAN, dammit, proud viewer of FOX news, the most fair and balanced news program in the history of television. All AMERICANS watch Fox News while at their Great AMERICAN Barbecues. CNN and NBC are run by Axis of Evil Islamic Communists. Peter Jennings is a TERRORIST! TERRORISTS are people who want to turn our great country AMERICA into opressive freedomless terrorist states such as Canada. TERRORISTS try to destroy our unique AMERICAN freedoms such as being able to vote, a freedom not granted to the unhappy citizens of all other countries, for example, England. Hell yes I'm an opinionated USan! I'm opinionated for FREEDOM!

PETER JENNINGS beat up my GRANDMA! And he STOLE HER CANE!

AND HE'S A COMMIE!

I give {{{{{{Bill O'Reilly}}}}}}} hugz!1!!!!1

Originally Posted by Pravit

TERRORISTS try to destroy our unique AMERICAN freedoms such as being able to vote, a freedom not granted to the unhappy citizens of all other countries, for example, England.

что ты?? Everyone knows it would be напрасно to give the Englandanians выборы, since they would all vote for the Queen anyway!

Originally Posted by waxwing

что ты?? Everyone knows it would be напрасно to give the Englandanians выборы, since they would all vote for the Queen anyway!

Don't be silly, the Englandishers would obviously vote for His Majesty Sir President Bush II like all good Americans! They love him lots and lots like me and {{{Bill O'Reilly}}} do! I say we should let them vote in our next elections!

Gawd I love you guys...and Bill O'Reilly.

Originally Posted by Tambakis

Gawd I love you guys...and Bill O'Reilly.

I was going to say that Bill is MINE AND YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM, but then I remembered that Billy is VERY JESUS-LIKE and therefore probably advocates SHARING. So I guess we can both love him. Hugz!!!11!!1!!!!111!

Well, thats all nice and good, but HE'S MINE AND YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!

I have written a little essay (it's here) Please, write your comments there.

waxwing wrote:

Could we make a list of how much Russian is spoken, and how it's perceived, in each of the ex-Soviet states?

i second that and i'll add eastern europe countries))

i've been to prague and russian was pretty helpful but i guess this has to do with the similarities between czech and russian languages. when i was in budapest though, the only persons who were speaking a bit of russians were the elder.

does anyone know about poland?