I think the UK has already mortally wounded itself with Brexit in many of the same ways. Also its liberals are ineffectual and have abandoned the working class in many of the same ways as ours have, which leaves a gaping opening for authoritarians. I think Starmer is no better than Biden was at holding back that particular tide. Even though he’s not doddering, he seems equally unable to seize the moment.
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I think you might be right!
UK Atheist
Indeed, my worry is that Starmer might preside over our own “Weimar moment”.
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I think there’s a connection between Brexit and Trump - both stem from working class fears. Their response is to circle the wagons.
And the reason the liberals have been ineffective is that fear isn’t easily nor quickly mitigated. It takes time to realize the fear is unfounded. The world is shrinking so fast that many people have trouble keeping up. They are encountering foreign cultures that bewilder them.
Besides, liberals are more curious than fearful of new things, so developing a countermeasure requires some time to realize there is a problem and what works to fix it.
I don’t see this as a short term thing.
To my mind, this sums up why “we” will always fail.
We’ll never win hearts and minds while we call such people stupid.
UK Atheist
These people are indeed stupid and racist - and ignorant. We can’t fix stupid and we can’t fix racist, but we can fix ignorant - but it takes time. We need to be at this constantly, but it’s hard work and not very rewarding.
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Diplomacy at its finest! Atta way to conduct relations with a superpower, Donny! Rage posting is definitely the way to go. We should all take a lesson.
It may be getting a little better. Today, around 48% of Americans have passports. That compares to only 5% in 1990, so Americans are presumably getting out there and experiencing other cultures firsthand. The percentage of Americans with passports in the deep south and bible belt is lower than the rest of the country, in the low 20% range, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone.
I travel widely, and I’ve encountered fewer “ugly Americans” abroad than I have in the past, so perhaps that’s another sign things are improving.
Not that different an idea from the way Hitler centred every aspect of Germany social existence aroung the Nazis party with himself as the leader.
Autocrats of this nature tend to give only two choices, servants, or enemies. The enemies dont fare very well, and of course, many don’t even get a choice…
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Orange gives even Warren Harding a run for his money as one of the least intelligent or sophisticated Presidents.
Harding appointed people so corrupt and unfit for office that the inevitable post-Presidency scandals came one after another, to include prison time and escapes to other parts of the world in some cases.
I’ll be surprised if the current administration works out much differently.
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Trump and his minions must know that once Trump is out of office in 2029 they’ll be subject to prosecution for much of the corruption and criminality that has occurred so far and is highly likely to continue in the next few years. They’ll need to do something to protect themselves. The best solution, for the country, is for them to go somewhere where the U.S. can’t touch them. The worst case is them doing something to ensure they don’t relinquish power come 2029.
To this end, Harvard has just opened up several of its basic classes and lectures in citizenship, the US constitution, and democracy to the public – for free. Probably would have been better to have done it 10 years ago and promote the hell out of it, but even then, I don’t know that Bubba from Chester’s Hole, Alabama would have heard of it, much less enrolled.
I’m particularly interested in how they got things coaxed around so that the common greeting people hailed each other with in public was “Heil Hitler” plus the trademark salute. If something equivalent to that emerged in the US, I would die a little bit (okay, quite a lot) every time I had to do it to go buy groceries or whatever. I can imagine insufficient enthusiasm, much less non-participation, would mark you, too.
I think we will need something like the Nuremberg Trials so fully see justice done. But it would take a level of conviction, ruthlessness, and anger that I am not sure we as a society possess anymore. The last living Nuremberg judge died past the age of 100 and I saw his last interview, which he asked be released after his death. And I can see why. He got most of his convictions with overwhelming evidence, literally reports from the front boasting how many Jews had been shot, signed by the perps themselves. They didn’t even have to put them on the stand. But he got it by traveling from town to town, having the leadership dragged before him, pulling out his side arm and declaring that he wanted evidence, he wanted it now, and anyone lying to him would be shot.
Somehow I don’t see that happening in 21st century America.
Maybe a “truth and reconciliation commission”, a la South Africa … but not sure we even know how to pull that off. There’s something terribly timid about our national character … I hope I’m wrong about that.
I don’t think that’s likely. He may be boring and might not be doing it quite the way I think he should but he’s not that far up himself IMO.
UK Atheist
I’ve been watching free lectures from Harvard on Youtube for more than a decade. This is probably my favorite: Stats 110. It is a lot more interesting than it sounds, lol.
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Here’s a fun one for you all to spread far and wide.
We all know about the Satsuma Streicher’s recent episode of nappy shitting, over Harvard’s refusal to kowtow to his whims. As part of his toddler strop, he announced he was going to remove Harvard’s ability to enrol international students, kick the existing ones out of the country, and then launched into his usual fit of rage tweeting, involving the usual lowbrow racist stereotypes aimed at anyone with more than a microgram of epidermal melanin. His most recent claim being that these students purportedly pose some sort of threat to the USA.
Well, it transpires that there is some hilarious fallout from all of this.
Turns out one of the international students being subject to his ravings and imminent deportation, isn’t the caricature Smelly Brown Foreign Person™ that is the go-to stereotype for the hate-filled, swivel-eyed MAGA’Qaeda crowd.
You’re all going to love this.
Now only is this student white, but … drum roll …
She happens to be none other than CROWN PRINCESS ELIZABETH OF BELGIUM.
You can enjoy a little more about this FAFO episode here.
Yes, the orange Scrotum is kicking out of Harvard, a bona fide member of a European royal family, one who is scheduled at some future date to be crowned Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. I find it difficult to imagine a more ridiculous piece of fallout than this.
But, it gets better.
It turns out that Crown Princess Elizabeth, is a former graduate of Lincoln College, Oxford, here in the UK, with her degree subject being history and politics. It was then that she decided to enrol for a Master’s degree in public policy at Harvard. The idea being that her parents, the current King and Queen of Belgium, sought to bestow upon her the best education in statecraft available.
As a consequence, Crown Princess Elizabeth’s toenail clippings know more about competent administration and proper policy formulation, than Cheetolini and his assorted minions put together.
Pretty much the first thought that crossed my mind, upon learning of this, was to wish to be a fly on the wall, so to speak, when, after her coronation, she discusses foreign policy with ministers of the Belgian parliament. I suspect that conversation will be hilarious to behold. Especially when US-Belgian relations feature.
This truly is a Trump fuck-up one can relish, not least because once crowned as Queen, Elizabeth will be in a position to influence not just Belgian, but European, foreign policy for a generation. She has been handed the perfect reason to regard the USA not merely as untrustworthy on the global political stage, but backward and in serious need of the international version of the padded cell and straitjacket.
Of course, her royal upbringing and cosmopolitan education, will probably mean that she handles the matter with grace and decorum. Ministers in the Belgian parliament may adopt a more, shall we say, abrasive stance on the matter. I suspect the current US ambassador may find himself being handed an early vacation.
But, once again, the Tangerine Harkkonen lives down to his reputation.
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And now, something much more serious: RFK Jr, aka worm brain, has just unleashed this threat to scientists:
So this twat has declared war on the world’s top peer reviewed medical journals, calling The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA “corrupt”.
What a total fucktard.
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Oooh, I’m definitely going to have to watch that one, and search for other interesting classes. Thank you for the link!
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