Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

7 minutes ago, Donw said:

Edwardian I feel it is wrong of you to expect your parishioners to only post true facts On here we are in 1905, I am fairly sure that in those days there were plenty of useless patent medicines, totally unproven theories peddled as fact and some adverts that were pure fantasy. 

 

Don

 

They also had the Daily Mail, too, so, yes, fair enough.

 

And they also had their version of the BREXIT debate, in the form of free trade v. tariff reform. Logically only one side could be right about the benefits of its policy, so one side must have been deluded and deluding. Plus ça change ....

 

But the fold in the map and the West Norfolk Railway are real! Cling to that certainty, for all else is illusion!

[MrWolf]

My inner cynic suggests that both sides may know full well that they are both wrong about any number of issues but using the resultant confusion to continue stuffing their pockets..

[Regularity]

15 hours ago, Donw said:

Edwardian I feel it is wrong of you to expect your parishioners to only post true facts

No one here is that dim as to feel expected to do that in a thread about a fictional railway serving locations loosely based on reality. Well, I hope they aren’t.
 

But I also think of this topic (and the pregrouping forum generally) as being somewhat “above” the standards of everyday social media, otherwise, why bother with RMWeb at all: we could just go over to Facebook.

[Edwardian]

57 minutes ago, Regularity said:

No one here is that dim as to feel expected to do that in a thread about a fictional railway serving locations loosely based on reality. Well, I hope they aren’t.
 

But I also think of this topic (and the pregrouping forum generally) as being somewhat “above” the standards of everyday social media, otherwise, why bother with RMWeb at all: we could just go over to Facebook.

 

"fictional"?!?

 

Why did no one tell me?!?

 

I feel imposed upon, and shall refused to believe it!

[Compound2632]

Of course we only post true facts; an untrue fact is an oxymoron, otherwise known as a falsehood. The reader's task is to sift the facts we post from the falsehoods we post.

Edited May 18, 2022 by Compound2632
Corrected per Simon's post below.

[Regularity]

Just now, Compound2632 said:

an untrue fact is a tautology

No, it’s an oxymoron.

A true fact is a tautology, which is saying the same thing twice in two different ways. (See what did there?)

[Edwardian]

11 minutes ago, Regularity said:

No, it’s an oxymoron.

A true fact is a tautology, which is saying the same thing twice in two different ways. (See what did there?)

 

I assume an assassin has been dispatched to Compound Towers .....

 

 

 

[Compound2632]

OK! OK! I blundered and have corrected my post. Too much d-limonene and RVW is evidently addling my brains.

[Edwardian]

10 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

OK! OK! I blundered and have corrected my post. Too much d-limonene and RVW is evidently addling my brains.

 

No worries.

 

It happens to the best of us.

 

And, indeed, to me.

[alastairq]

2 hours ago, Regularity said:

No one here is that dim as to feel expected to do that in a thread about a fictional railway serving locations loosely based on reality.

It may be accurate to suggest most of us on here have but a tenuous grip on reality?

[Regularity]

27 minutes ago, alastairq said:

It may be accurate to suggest most of us on here have but a tenuous grip on reality?

True, but I think that a tenuous grip on reality is quite possibly a sign of high intelligence - and sense enough to hide here away from the “real” outside world.

[alastairq]

54 minutes ago, Regularity said:

True, but I think that a tenuous grip on reality is quite possibly a sign of high intelligence

 Or, perhaps, stubbornness in refusing to let go?  :)

 

[Donw]

9 hours ago, Regularity said:

No one here is that dim as to feel expected to do that in a thread about a fictional railway serving locations loosely based on reality. Well, I hope they aren’t.
 

But I also think of this topic (and the pregrouping forum generally) as being somewhat “above” the standards of everyday social media, otherwise, why bother with RMWeb at all: we could just go over to Facebook.

 

I think you missed the point in that there was plenty of misinformation around in Edwardian times.  As for being fictional, I feel lots of people live in somewhat fictional realities many involve definite contradictions.  Castle Aching seems more anchored in reality than much today.

 

I would certainly support your contention that this thread (among others) is well above the standards of everyday  social media. Which rather than just rubbishing someone's post I related an alternative view from experience. 

 

Don

[Hroth]

Yes, fake news abounded in the Edwardian period, especially concerning the threat of German invasion; the Daily Mail was full of the stuff, complete with publicity stunts, employing actors to march about towns and cities wearing German uniforms.

 

And there was "The Riddle of the Sands" too...

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Hroth
A gratuitous image for the afflicted...

[Edwardian]

31 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Yes, fake news abounded in the Edwardian period, especially concerning the threat of German invasion; the Daily Mail was full of the stuff, complete with publicity stunts, employing actors to march about towns and cities wearing German uniforms.

 

And there was "The Riddle of the Sands" too...

 

 

 

 

Spymania and Xenophobia, all very Daily Mail, and yet that is not to say Britain and its Empire and Europe did not face a very real threat that ultimately came to fruition. Without novels like Riddle of the Sands, the political climate for the re-armament that ultimately proved necessary may not have been there. 

 

Consider ....

 

A powerful nation, an ascendant nation, with a strong military tradition and no significant democratic one, conscious of its decisive role and sacrifice in defeating a tyrant who had waged war across Europe, after which this victorious nation had become more powerful, with hawkish generals presiding over a much vaunted military, an illiberal autocratic regime and a leader piqued at the thought that neither he nor his great nation was being given the respect he felt they deserved.

 

Putin's Russia? Yes, of course.  But also Kaiser Bill's Germany. Both started a dreadful war.   

 

Hence the core lesson of history; when contemplating the horrors and blunders of the past, never complacently assume that something similar couldn't happen here, couldn't happen now. 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Is that real or “deep fake”? Either way, I genuinely laughed out loud.

[Donw]

I hear so called experts on TV spouting on about the Ukraine situation and just think you should really just learn our modern history. There are strong parallels with Germany in the late 30s. Hitler was arguing about the germans living in neighbouring countries we allowed him to grab parts of Czechoslovakia that satisfied him well. Emboldened he went on to march into Poland. We are perhaps fortunate that the Russian army does not appear to have the same competance as the German army of 1939.

We have all accepted the concept of Nuclear deterrence however now it is being used as a threat against us. Dont do this or we will start a nuclear war.

Apologies for the thread drift but perhaps on here we consider these things more rationally.

 

Don 

[Edwardian]

7 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is that real or “deep fake”? Either way, I genuinely laughed out loud.

 

No, I assure you, she's real

 

 

Or, not to beat about the Bush, have you answered the wrong topic?

 

4 minutes ago, Donw said:

I hear so called experts on TV spouting on about the Ukraine situation and just think you should really just learn our modern history. There are strong parallels with Germany in the late 30s. Hitler was arguing about the germans living in neighbouring countries we allowed him to grab parts of Czechoslovakia that satisfied him well. Emboldened he went on to march into Poland. We are perhaps fortunate that the Russian army does not appear to have the same competance as the German army of 1939.

We have all accepted the concept of Nuclear deterrence however now it is being used as a threat against us. Dont do this or we will start a nuclear war.

Apologies for the thread drift but perhaps on here we consider these things more rationally.

 

Don 

 

 

I don't think anyone sensible would take issue with that, Don.

 

For CA purposes, I was picking up on Hroth's point and sticking to a pre-Grouping analogy. Clearly Putin's strategy and modus operandi have greater and striking similarities with Hitler's and both are/were tyrants.  Further, for years the West allowed itself to be complacent about Putin and its ability to accommodate this funny little man into our rules-based system, just as we did with Hitler.  Indeed, in some quarters he and Mussolini were positively admired for the way they tackled the problems facing all nations, seemingly with more success than the broken democracies of the West; see the Daily Mail and its support for Fascism here and abroad in the 1930s and Donald Trump's admiration for Putin. Finally and decisively, the failure to discourage the tyrant sooner is a common factor: Rhineland, Anschluss, Czechoslovakia or Georgia, Syria, Crimea, Donbas ....

 

But I think the wider consideration of Putin's war and it's parallels with Hitler's is best conducted on the Proceedings topic.  Here I was interested in the point Hroth made about Edwardian Britain's perception of and reaction to the threat posed by the Kaiser's Germany.  Besides, I have a bit of a 'thing' for the 'invasion literature' of the day.  

 

 

[Edward]

8 minutes ago, Donw said:

I hear so called experts on TV spouting on about the Ukraine situation and just think you should really just learn our modern history. There are strong parallels with Germany in the late 30s. Hitler was arguing about the germans living in neighbouring countries we allowed him to grab parts of Czechoslovakia that satisfied him well. Emboldened he went on to march into Poland. We are perhaps fortunate that the Russian army does not appear to have the same competance as the German army of 1939.

We have all accepted the concept of Nuclear deterrence however now it is being used as a threat against us. Dont do this or we will start a nuclear war.

Apologies for the thread drift but perhaps on here we consider these things more rationally.

 

Don 

Agree , quite chilling.   A recent documentary on how WW2 started was sobering watching.  By chance a few years ago I was at a lecture in Tallinn where a lady described her experiences as a child when forcibly sent to Siberia from Estonia.    Her family managed to survive there  and eventually return...  

 

Just to say what a fascinating forum this is!  Always something new to enjoy.

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Edwardian said:

 

No, I assure you, she's real

 

 

Besides, I have a bit of a 'thing' for the 'invasion literature' of the day.  

 

To say nothing of the 'thing' he has for...

[Andy Hayter]

14 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

To say nothing of the 'thing' we have for...

 

[Compound2632]

True. I've not just seen but deliberately watched Logan's Run, a film which otherwise has little merit but plenty of cheese.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Compound2632

[Nearholmer]

18 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Or, not to beat about the Bush, have you answered the wrong topic?

Apologies, slipping in and out of parallel realities/unrealities.

 

Struggling a bit to cope with a reality that has been created by the deliberate cultivating of unrealities.

 

My mother told me with firm assurance 20+ years ago that “Putin is evil; another Hitler”, which I remember well because I was building wardrobe for her at the time. Not sure how she knew so clearly and so early.

[Northroader]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

Spymania and Xenophobia, all very Daily Mail, and yet that is not to say Britain and its Empire and Europe did not face a very real threat that ultimately came to fruition. Without novels like Riddle of the Sands, the political climate for the re-armament that ultimately proved necessary may not have been there. 

 

Consider ....

 

A powerful nation, an ascendant nation, with a strong military tradition and no significant democratic one, conscious of its decisive role and sacrifice in defeating a tyrant who had waged war across Europe, after which this victorious nation had become more powerful, with hawkish generals presiding over a much vaunted military, an illiberal autocratic regime and a leader piqued at the thought that neither he nor his great nation was being given the respect he felt they deserved.

 

Putin's Russia? Yes, of course.  But also Kaiser Bill's Germany. Both started a dreadful war.   

 

Hence the core lesson of history; when contemplating the horrors and blunders of the past, never complacently assume that something similar couldn't happen here, couldn't happen now. 

 

 

Why have they got a midget for their occifer?

[Edwardian]

6 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Why have they got a midget for their occifer?

 

Yes, I noticed that.  IIRC there was some system of cadets - unbelievably I used to know this stuff - so you'd go from a military school to 'work experience' in a regiment or some such.

 

These are Prussian Guards units (complete with heirloom Eighteenth Century grenadier caps). The core of Imperial Germany was Prussia, not without reason once described as not a State with and Army, but an Army with a State.