Festavo said:
Kylia Quilor said:
Festavo said:
TITO is a hive of defender extremism that is no better or worse than raider purism.
I'm not a fan of 'Raider Purism' either, Festavo. Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be as many Raider Purists as there are Defender Extremists.
Unfortunately, many people seem to view defender extremism as if it isn't an issue.
Defenderism is, at its core, an ideology founded upon the principle that an in-game tactic that is specifically allowed by the rules of the game is immoral. Having this as your organizing principle, rather than viewing game play as a forum to pursue the interests of a regional community (as we independents do) is naturally going to lead to results that are silly, and sometimes disturbing. For example, although RL events seem to have given them a dose of sanity, until recently many (most?) defenders felt that even Nazis deserved protection from "evil" raiders.
I'm not sure it's helpful to distinguish between "moderate" and "extremist" defenders. Defenderism is a philosophy that elevates tactics in a game over real, human concerns and needs. It's therefore not akin to a political philosophy like libertarianism, progressivism, conservatism, and what have you -- each of which might be good in moderation, but dangerous when taken to extremes.
In lieu of a moderate/extremist paradigm, I would suggest that we judge defenders by how they treat us. TITO doesn't like us, but they are not (so far as I am aware) committed to our destruction and they largely leave us alone. However extreme they may be in their commitment to defenderism ideology, I have no quarrel with them. On the other hand, TGW is committed to our destruction and appears to be trying to infiltrate our politics. They are therefore a threat to us and should be dealt with accordingly, even though they are arguably less "extreme" than TITO in their defenderist ideology.