maybe he's descended from Mengele's psychic experiments and has the ability to tell you how you feel before even you know.

reasonable conclusions concerning a specific situation and context don't necessarily imply generally applicable rules. you know that of course, it's just a reminder.

so you wont ask him? I can only wonder why.

do we really have to pretend that i'd have to ask him, if he really had some seriously convincing story to support his narrative? he's not a shy little boy who needs my permission to post - i think there's plenty of evidence for that.

so it's 'odd' you'd be suggesting that. 'i can only wonder why'...

well my guess is he has a solid alibi and wanted to string you along for a few more posts to double down further. but since he said he wanted you to ask, knowing santa, he wont until you ask.

but maybe this post will count as proof you'd like to know and now he will.

yeah sure, and i can guarantee i will read every single word of it, and click every single link, probably even do my own research on how likely it is. i'm totally into this, in case you couldn't already tell...

you called someone out, called them a liar, snarkily implied you taught them something, etc.

if you're not invested then you're petty to do all that. why goad someone on something you dont care about, while also claiming there's no grudge in play? that sounds like something i'd do, minus the whole lack of grudge claim.

ok this is actually hilarious. you're assuming i was being sarcastic? i guess i was pretty convincing in arguing that it's not some mystery concept to me. that's awesome.

seriously though, i wasn't kidding in that post. i was 100% genuine and actually looking forward to it. obviously i can't prove that in a court of law, but to support it let me refer you to one of my previous posts, in which i commented on reading the wiki articles about borodino, refreshing and expanding my own knowledge about military campaigns on russian soil: http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=82416076&f=119&p=553951735

Generally "..." is a sign of sarcasm, so yes i did read it that way.

on topic tho, is the fact that Stalin chose Napoleon's fail as his battleground easily google-able information? i'd never heard that factoid.

well, my unreasonable and inappropriate overuse of ellipses is something you should be well aware of by now. if that was an indication of me being sarcastic, the whole 'you're foreign to that concept' argument would make even less sense...
it is, however, undeniable that sarcasm is generally harder to spot in written form, native speaker or not, if you don't explicitly point it out by ending the post with "/s".

that said, while i will happily admit to a certain degree of pettiness not being beneath me (i'm obviously not a saint), i'd agree with you that in this case it would have been gratuitous. i'm serious about not holding grudges though. when someone suggests to let bygones be bygones, i'm the first person to gullibly accept that - even at the 'risk' of people not being able or willing to deal with my reckless 'bullshit' calls, and claiming they 'tricked' me into believing their good intentions - or, of course, genuine trolling...



well, that obviously depends on how you define 'easily google-able', and how proficient you are in online research. the 'every legitimate, quotable source / obscure detail concerning any (historic) topic is just three (a few) clicks away from the wikipedia article about it' claim might not be a common phrase in that exact form, but it's certainly a familiar sentiment in academia and beyond.
that said, i never heard of that story myself, and i didn't even make an effort to check if it's corroborated by credible sources. no matter how much merit there actually is to this specific claim though, doesn't it just RING true, like something stalin would most definitely insist upon? valuing a symbolic gesture for propaganda purposes over strategic considerations, or the lives of a couple of thousand *scoffs in russian* foot soldiers? isn't that exactly how 'the west' tends to think about russian leadership in WWII, and somewhat justifiably so?