theacharnian

joined 2 years ago
[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca -1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Disengaging, this is not a good faith discussion. Cheers.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 hours ago

I did not say you changed wording. I am saying I started replying when your comment only contained the line "Yes through hybrid warfare and illegal police. Also our extreme right is oddly pro-China." and did not see what you added until after. You can either accept that asynchronous communications sometimes has this issue or you can believe that I'm an evil manipulative person whose trying to win internet points. 🤷

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca -2 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Now that I took a peek at the articles you posted, here is my sense (and it's just a sense): none of these things are existential. They are all problems, but they do are not at the level of needing to start clamping down freedom of extreme speech in Europe, the way the Czech law does. The same cannot be said for the very real and existential threat to democracy that the resurgence and mainstream-ization of far right extremism is a threat. Meloni, Orban, Lepen, Wiilders, these kind of fascist assholes are much more of a threat to European democracy than Xi is at the moment.

China is friends with Russia. Yes, so are the rest of BRICS: India, Brazil, South Africa. How high do you want to build the wall?

This is not "whataboutism" by the way. It is looking for the balance. Liberal democracy is striking a balance and that means managing the "about these" and "about those". In this balancing act, the kind of no holds barred demonizing of China that I think you're pushing for is NOT where European democracy needs to be.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

You edited your article afterwards, I responded to your post when it was just the first line.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca -1 points 8 hours ago (10 children)

I don't know what Chinese hybrid warfare you are talking about. Any articles I've found with these keywords always seem to lump China with Russia, which I find just sensationalist. China is one of our biggest trading partners and I don't see any reason why Europe cannot find a live and let live modus vivendi with them. I mean if we can stomach the Palestinian genocide at our doorstep without a fucking peep, the Uighurs are far enough...

The illegal police issue is nowhere near an existentially serious problem that affects the viability of European democratic institutions.

And the danger of the far right has nothing to do with China.

China is an authoritarian state, yes, but it's one that for 3 decades at least has played nice with us. They are far less disruptive and threatening than the Trumpist Americans are. If Europe can find a way to work with Trumpist USA, why not with China too?

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Putin hates Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Yes, he lionizes Stalin, but only to the extent that he can cast it as Russian imperialism. The beef is with Russian nationalism, there is zero need to drive a wedge with European left parties eg in the South, there is no reason to distract from the actual danger which is Russian imperialism and authoritarianism and it is in fact extremely dangerous to be building the legal infrastructure that fascists can and will use to crush the left.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago (12 children)

Is China threatening European democratic institutions in any way shape or form?

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 hours ago

Hitler did away with the SA, you think Trump is going to worry about some disappointed magas?

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 hours ago (18 children)

Sure, like right wingers fight pedophilia when they target LGBT people.

But ok, let's take it at face value. There is no threat of a Soviet style takeover in Europe. They're beating a dead horse. So as far as dead horses go, why stop at Soviet oppression, start passing law legislating I don't know, glorifying Roman imperialism and Ottoman expansionism. Ban glorification of hussites and violent Anabaptists. Take your revenge on history. I hope the orgasm is worth it.

But then remember that there is however a rabid far right that calls European institutions "Soviet" and that has no interest in any checks and balances. They love calling social democrats "communists" and they love to talk about the threat of antifa and they love giving police more power to crack protestor skulls. If you can't see how these laws today are going to be used tomorrow by the fascists, even after what Trump is doing at the US, I don't know what else to tell you.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 hours ago

He was widely lauded as a pro-western anti-populist liberal when he was elected. His political positions as re generally aligned with liberal parties across Europe.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 30 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

So much stupidity in this article. The hospitals were worried about ambulance delays, when the proposed bikelanes are two way, i.e., they are wide enough to serve as a dedicated emergency lane in a pinch.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 5 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (23 children)

It's fascinating that in a world where to far right is surging everywhere, having captured the only superpower, with the richest man in the world throwing sieg heils on live primetime television, where we are entering an era of new concentration camps, these kinds of liberals find it useful to do stupid shit like this. Do they not see that if/when the fascists capture their presidency they will use exactly these laws to turn the screws on everyone to the left of the far right?

 

The Reverend Sue Parfitt, from Bristol, was detained for holding a placard that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” She was among more than 27 people arrested on Saturday for acts of defiance against the proscription.

 

Bob Vylan gets flak for supposedly preaching hatred and wishing death to the IDF at Glastonbury, as if wishing for the destruction of a genocidal army is the same as advocating for violence against people, much less a People.

Well, in 1998, Bob Dylan sung these lyrics, addressed to the "masters of war" :

And I hope that you die and your death will come soon
I will follow your casket by the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave 'til I'm sure that you're dead

Hear it here, on 37:04: https://youtu.be/fHE6XBWM_yA?t=2224

In a sense, Bob Dylan was in fact more extreme than Bob Vylan, since he's talking about actual dying people as opposed to institutions.

In any case, Bob Vylan with their "Death to the IDF" slogan is in very good company.

 

Women, children and elderly people among at least 24 killed by attack that turned beach spot into scene of carnage

 

“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,” the duo said on Instagram. “A machine whose own soldiers were told to use ‘unnecessary lethal force’ against innocent civilians waiting for aid. A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza. We, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story. And whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction.”

 

Leading economists endorse Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral plan to freeze rents, expand free buses, and launch public grocery stores.

 

Comment: this is what actual argumentation for increased military spending looks like, not the cheap shots and smears of being propaganda vectors levelled against dissident points of view like those of Sanchez or Varoufakis. Europe deserves better than paranoia and McCarthyism.

 

Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy on what's driving Netanyahu and why this will be a defining moment for Trump's MAGA movement.

 

The House of Representatives is trying to pass a resolution making the term “Free Palestine” an official antisemitic slogan.

Republican Representative Gabe Evans from Colorado introduced the resolution in the wake of the attack on a gathering for Israeli hostages in Boulder this week. Mohammed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been charged for the attack, during which he yelled “Free Palestine,” according to the FBI.

“Whereas, while shouting ‘Free Palestine,’ an antisemitic slogan that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and Jewish people, Mohammed Sabry Soliman attacked the peaceful demonstrators with homemade Molotov cocktails,” the resolution reads. House Republicans are expected to vote on the nonbinding resolution next week.

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