Ideology traits make for negative relations.

Think US/UK and Russia in WWII and after. You may have an enemy of my enemy is my friend. That doesn't mean you like them. Patton was in favor of immediately attacking Russia at the end of WWII. MacArthur was in favor of using nukes when the Chinese backed North Korea and through us back to the 38th parallel. 

While I think this is a simplistic (dare I say gimicky?) thing. It has parallels.

It is really shocking the more I study history that the "regular" citizen is so uninformed. They listen to sound bites. Nazi Germany really was the leader in modern propaganda and most people are sheep. I am not talking about people on this forum by and large. Just look at any comment thread almost anywhere and it will frighten you on the level of ignorance and hatred.

 Hell, in the 80's I had classmates that noticed my name was "German" (actually it was from the Alsace-Lorraine border, but never mind) so my family must have been Nazi sympathizers! Dude, my family moved to Texas from Iowa before WWI!  About 1/2 of my ancestors were Irish and British!

This is the stuff wars are made of. Small minds, bigotry and nationalism.

The US has been involved in military action more than people think. 1898 Spanish-American war, 1917-1918 WWI, 41-45 WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, El Salvador/Nicaragua, 2 times in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have had several wars with Mexico, Canada until around 1800. Then there are the lesser ones of Libya (2x, as the song goes "from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marines%27_Hymn), Serbia-Croatia, now ISIS. 

So you can think of the Altarians as Americans. We are peaceful, to a point. I am not trying to troll or start a fight, just giving examples. Many of those wars were justified, some not so much. 

I always pursue neutral ideology and in two parties where i met Altarians they acted like drunken thugs. Demanding stuff constantly, treating with annihilation even if i was stronger  and such. Drengin on the other hand were rather reasonable - asked (not demanded) for stuff a bit, traded a bit and stop asking after my military much became higher than their. But i heard they ignore your ideology so no more penalties from that. 

I can't seem to play Terrans as the Pragmatists their AI has them as, or Altarians as Benevolents with out the other DOWing me :/

I should play someone else in a future game and see how frequently the AI Terran and AI Altarians DOW each other.

I have yet to get them as good.  I played as Altarians, I played as Benevolent, the Terrans went Pragmatic and hated my guts.

In a word, "no".

I've already pointed out the three alignment choices for this game are "Neutral Evil", pure selfishness, which the Altarians embody, "Lawful Evil", obeying the rules until it benefits you directly, and you can get away with it, which the Iridium embody, and "Chaotic Stupid", which the Drengin embody, attack-attack-ATTACKing themselves to death.

There's no "good" guys in this game, everyone behaves in exactly the same fashion.

Something about the moment any strategy is acceptable to destroy an enemy, you become indistinguishable from that with which you fight?

This is something akin to "a friend is just an enemy that hasn't attacked us yet".

I like to think of good and evil as two extremes on a continuum. both are very very bad.

Being good also doesn't mean sitting back and doing nothing while the Dregin murder, eat and enslave others.

the alignment system is mostly based on the coloization choices you pick, so in a role playing sense i guess the civs that pick the benevolent option are actually the good guys. those choices sort of reflect how you treat native life and your own ciolonists. i think that also makes sense in a real world comparison. you can't act "benevolent" in the face of some ruthless rival power - they'd just perceive it as weakness and attack you. the colony events are a different matter. when you get the choice to leave the natives alone, steal half their stuff and leave them alone or steal all their stuff and eat them, you can actually show your character, since you are fully in control of the situation and they are subject to your decision. picking the noble answer in that case is an act of benevolence.

on the galactic level where you interract with rival powers, that's a different matter entirely. you are not in full control of the situation, so every decision you make must be pragmatic to some extent. 

But I had not attacked anybody. I wasn't an aggressor safe for how I treated worlds I colonized.

I really hate the Altarians. Which is ironic given how much of my life has been dedicated to telling their story.

I guess hate isn't the right word.  They are unusually familiar with real evil and as a result tend to be very aggressive in rooting it out.  Which is ironic since this (desire to eradicate "evil") is what may ultimately destroy the galaxy in the first expansion.  

There's an interesting comic book series called Injustice:Gods Amongst us.  The Altarians are like Wonder Woman in that (or another analogy, Wonder Woman in Kingdom Come).

Snathi taste a bit nutty ...

You can't act good to be good. You have to act evil to be good.

*head explodes*.

Your ideology is determined by the choices you make.  People take the best choices available to them on a colony-by-colony basis.

So, you mean, "pragmatic"?

*head explodes*

Good people can't just stand idly by doing good, they need to do evil to combat evil!

*head explodes*