A statement from the staff of Bulbagarden

[Life]

Part of me would love to sit around on my pc and go at it on this stuff. but i've got a busy couple weeks coming up and i just can't devote any more time to this. i'll leave you all with this


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNu4xU9qOEM

The only two big facts that video offers though is that 1) The top five Muslim-majority countries are not on the ban list.

Going in to that fact deeper though: what should be given greater attention (in my opinion, since what should associate a country with a religion is when most citizens identify as x religion) is not how many Muslims are in a single country, but the percentage of a country whose citizens identify as Muslim, which for Indonesia's case is only 87% (and for India, only 14.2%). Whereas in 6 of the 7 banned countries, 95+% of citizens identify as Muslim (Syria being excluded, though they are still higher than Indonesia at 90%).

The second fact is that terrorism is still a problem. Well, yes, but it's mainly domestic, as I understand it. The narrator appeared to make it seem like not including the San Bernardino shooting was totally throwing off the scale, but one of the attackers was born in the US, and the other an immigrant from Pakistan, a country not on the list. From what I understand, the 7 banned countries have never had immigrants perform an act of terrorism on US soil, which is why people are so upset about this list, whether Obama picked or not. (cough he didn't cough). Yes, he is considering adding more countries, but if the goal was to prevent terrorism why not start with the ones where immigrant terrorists have already come from, which is the reason why people are upset about the list in-particular.

edit: Apparently there was an attack by a Somalian immigrant who attacked at Ohio state. Still, I think 1 example is too small (personally) to warrant this order.

I don't understand why people want to blame Obama for this list. Trump made a conscious decision to use the same list of countries; he literally had all the power to change the list or not to sign the order but he did. But it's not as if Obama had this list lying around titled "Countries to potentially ban in the future." Literally Obama had no part in this order and even if he did I doubt Trump would want to acknowledge doing something with Obama's help seeing how disconnected he currently is with the DMC.

Also not sure where the source was for the graph saying that 21% of Syrians supported ISIS. The narrator also says "Syrian refugees" but the title clearly says it's based on population, misleading people horribly. I tried going to the one website but didn't find a source. I feel like the stats for that survey would need to be known for it to have any sort of validity.

Finally I don't really like how he was trying to play up the fact that certain Muslim-majority countries have banned certain groups of people, making it seem like we have all the more justification to ban them. Okay well great, but we aren't them and using the reasoning of "you started it" is horrendously dumb when our country should be acting as a moral beacon.

If I'm missing any other big facts that the video tried to point out please let me know; I'm open to seeing the pros of this order, but, simply put, there's absolutely none, to my understanding. If I said anything wrong please feel free to correct me.

 

[phidari]

Actually i think you're making it out to be a much bigger issue than it is.

I repeat: This executive order killed a seventy-five-year-old woman.
(This turned out to be fake, and I'm glad about that. Doesn't make the EO a good thing, though.)

This one is very telling. But honestly i suspected it all along... *yawn*

If you don't have a response, why bother responding? America was founded on genocide and land-stealing; why do we then get to turn around and keep other people out? Especially people who we've already said can come in -- permanent residents from these seven countries are being kept out as well.

(In b4 "but Obama" -- Obama's not the president now, darling. You don't get to keep blaming him for everything.)

 

[yun199]

hi, saw this on tumblr (
View: https://abomination-of-gender.tumblr.com/post/156632165865/today-in-denouncements-of-trump-from-places-you
) and just wanted to say thank you. It's things like this that get me through the day lmao. i literally just made an account so i could say this but seriously, thank you so much

 

[wewlad]

I repeat: This executive order killed a seventy-five-year-old woman.

I literally made this account just to tell you;
No it didn't.


Man who claimed mom died in Iraq after Trump's ban lied, Imam confirms

 

[Ifni400]

Why should there be politics on this site in the first place? It makes no sense. This is for discussion about Pokemon.

 

[Iteru]

Why should there be politics on this site in the first place? It makes no sense. This is for discussion about Pokemon.

Politics effects everyone, including the staff who contribute to the site. We effectively decide what is on the site, and this is one issue we felt should be on here.

Our history reflects this - we have forums dedicated to non-Pokémon discussion and we have made our support of the LGBT community clear.

 

[Fig]

Our support of the LGBT community was an extremely divisive and contentious decision when we took it. It has become much less so in the past few years (which is great!), but back then, it was.

If an issue isn't controversial, why bother taking a stance?

 

[Hidden Mew]

While I can understand some of the complaints here, mainly the risk of bringing up politics on a site where people might be trying to forget about it, I think it's also extremely important for people to know where the site stands. I've been terrified about politics for months. Politics have always been kind of messy, as far as I've been aware of it at least, but it has gotten far worse recently. As a woman and as a human being in general, I am sacred about recent developments, I'm afraid what other rulings could happen and my heart broke when I heard about the Muslim ban.

Knowing where the site stands and that we support each other is extremely important because it helps to reassure people who are affected by recent politics, which is quite frankly a lot of people. If there's any good that has come from this recent political debacle, it's that people have come together. Whether it's online or through protests, a lot of people have made their feelings clear and stand together with people as opposed to just going with the government. At the very least, it provides emotional support, reassurance in knowing that we aren't alone and maybe a bit of hope that things will get better eventually if people keep fighting back. I can understand wanting to just forget about politics and it is important to take a break from it if you need to emotionally recharge too, but knowing that the staff wants to support people and take a stand against recent politics is important as well. I would much rather have members know where we stand on the issues and offer support in anyway we can as opposed to just staying silent on the matter.

 

[Life]

The forums have always had room for political discussion (among of a slew of other topics) in the Outside the Box section. Yes this is a Pokémon forum but discussion, threads, and sections are not exclusive to that topic alone.

Felt like that needed to be said. Not everyone comes here just to talk in the Video Games section, there users who mainly frequent the OtB or even Fun and Games sections as well.

 

[phidari]

I literally made this account just to tell you;
No it didn't.
Man who claimed mom died in Iraq after Trump's ban lied, Imam confirms

Well, thanks for the correction. You got anything about the five-year-old U.S. citizen who was detained for several hours without his parents?

I think this case is different though, your support of the LGBT community is commendable and something I support. However in this case you are bringing partisan politics to the forum regarding an extremely divisive and contentious issue which as a result is already bringing that divisiveness and negative atmosphere here as can be seen in this thread.

I just don't see why anything can't be apolitical and above politics these days, I and probably many other come here for our love of pokemon not contentious political issues.

LGBT rights are political, and partisan to boot. In not only the U.S. but also in other countries, LGBT rights are hotly debated, and it's almost always the more conservative party/parties that come down against our right to exist as who we are. So why was it okay for Bulbagarden to support that, but not okay to oppose this?

 

[The_Truth]

I've been using Bulbapedia since 2012 and this is frankly the dumbest thing I have ever heard from it. If you cannot see the hypocrisy of this post, then I am sorry but you need to do more research.

 

[Dorothy]

Why should there be politics on this site in the first place? It makes no sense. This is for discussion about Pokemon.

Can't stay neutral on a moving train, partner.

 

[Gengarzilla]

I might be here for Pokémon, but... wow. Thank you for speaking out.

As someone from the UK who finds himself outraged by this discriminatory order, it's wonderful to know that I am part of a community which will speak out in these difficult and tumultuous times. Even amidst a personal time of loss for my extended family, I found myself smiling as I read this. You've made my day just that little brighter and so I thank you again.

 

[PaulTheProtist]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/us/politics/appeals-court-trump-travel-ban.html?_r=0

It's a non-issue now, as the Supreme Court can go 4-4 at worst if Trump tries an appeal, which will keep the 9th circuit ruling in place. He tries to act against that, and there will be major constitutional issues.

 

[Ereshkigal]

I think this is potentially a mistake, but not for the reasons that many do. Mainly, I suspect that statements like this are ultimately only aiding Trump in turning America into a post-democratic autocracy.

For some insight into how this can come about, I recommend this article. As it shows, the old mantra of "They came for X, I didn't stand up. They came for me, there was no one left to stand up" doesn't work because this particular strategy of creating an autocracy not only assumes people will stand up, but leverages that opposition to further enhance its own base of power and advance its agenda.

Unfortunately, I don't have an easy answer at the moment, beyond stating that I suspect these early events are all tailored to make those who are a threat to Trump expend most of their resources and social capital trying to fight distractions while he prepares the real salvo.

The Republicans play the long game because they know they can't win the short one. It's how it is they turned what's called Obamacare into their greatest weapon for gaining total control over the government yet again. As such, I fully believe it's a mistake to fight too hard against these early moves when the real threat is likely yet to come.

 

[Kisu]

Because anybody cares about the politics of celebrities or a Pokemon forum.

If I wanted to see politics I'd go to political forum.

I'm not denouncing or even disagreeing with your views but I am saying its rude and completely misplaced to view them here

Write your congressmen if you disagree with Trump

 

[PaulTheProtist]

New Trump travel ban order nearing completion - CNNPolitics.com

It rose back from the dead!