User blog comment:Zippertrain85/Why the Stormcloaks are right./@comment-3217145-20130507102424

A couple points:
 * 1) Ulfric annihilating the Reachmen to retake Markarth is exactly what he should have done if he wanted it. If you want to kick some people out, don't just skin their knees and shove them out the door, or they'll come right back. Personally I haven't read up that much on the history of that event, IIRC the city was doing pretty well under Reachman control, but I hate those Forsworn guys after being attacked so many times for no reason and I don't blame Ulfric for taking the approach he did. I respect him for that. The Forsworn are a nuisance now, but not a true threat, and they're only that bad because someone doesn't go and clean house in the wilderness where they hide out.
 * 2) Unfortunately, that doesn't show much in the way of principles. Independence for one group while subjugating another? Call it what it is, but don't say you have the moral high ground.
 * 3) Quoted from another comment: "that's sounds like a bit more than just a little tolerance on his part." Ulfric graciously "allowing" other races to live in his city? That's the barest minimum of tolerance he could possibly show! To me, the fact that Ulfric is a magnet for racist scum ("if you know any TRUE sons and daughters of Skyrim, blah blah blah") implies something about his view and policies. At the very least, he's not making the slightest effort to correct that image, which you'd think he would do if he cared at all about "equality."
 * 4) If a united Empire puts down the Dominion, they'll surely allow Talos worship again (he was one of their own freakin' Emperors after all, there's even a Talos Plaza District in the Imperial City itself), then the Nords can quit their whining and go back to work. The Empire may be a feeble old machine that needs tuning/replacing, but I long ago lost track of exactly what they're hoping to accomplish by rebelling against it.