Multiheaded comments on Rationality Quotes November 2012 - Less Wrong

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 18 November 2012 08:37:56PM 4 points [-]

The crusades are often portrayed as violent Christians invading Muslim lands, which forgets that the Muslims violently took those lands from Christians in the first place.

On the other hand, no one complains that the battle of Normandy consisted of violent democracies attacking the lands of the Third Reich.

Comment author: Multiheaded 19 November 2012 01:45:26PM *  -1 points [-]

the battle of Normandy consisted of violent democracies attacking the lands of the Third Reich.

Um... technically that's a geographical impossibility. Once the democracies liberated French territory (violently taken by the Third Reich from France in the first place) and launched offensives beyond the "lawful" borders of Germany as drawn under the Treaty of Versailles, it wasn't called the "Battle of Normandy" anymore. Normandy is a mid-sized region on the northwestern French coast. (Wikipedia article)

Comment author: TimS 19 November 2012 02:10:10PM 2 points [-]

You are being extremely uncharitable to Eugine's point. D-Day or "Battle of Normandy" is a reasonable shorthand for the Allied liberation of France and followup invasion of Nazi Germany.

Comment author: Multiheaded 19 November 2012 02:16:04PM *  0 points [-]

I know, I know. It's just that I'm a pretty hardcore (read: obsessive) World War 2 geek :).

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 20 November 2012 12:58:06AM 0 points [-]

The Third Reich considered northern France a part of itself.

Comment author: Nornagest 20 November 2012 01:11:50AM *  1 point [-]

That depends where you draw the line. The Third Reich considered Vichy France a client state, dependent on but legally separate from itself. The north and west of France, including Normandy, fell under German military occupation after 1940 (as did the rest of the country after 1942), but that ostensibly represented wartime defense needs rather than a permanent territorial claim.

Germany did administer some French lands as part of itself during the war, all in France's northeast along the German border. There's some indication that territorial expansion would have proceeded further had the Nazis won, but most of the Third Reich's annexations took place east of Germany's prewar territory.