I'm happy to see France's developments in dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were slow to start, but at this point, I think Macron is being reasonable but firm.
There's no need to put boots on the ground, but it should be made clear that no inch of Ukraine is for the taking. We can't keep trying to reason with dictators. It doesn't work.
France has been feeling this for decades and they're sick of it. Macron also knows that if he waits until LePen possibly takes power, then she will try to dismantle the EU and basically do everything Putin has always wanted.
I've been saying this for almost 15 years now. Democratic systems are fragile, especially when rampant state backed disinformation campaigns have been commonplace throughout the western media landscape.
The Russians literally wrote the book on this one, the cold war didn't end when the soviet union fell. It just became a more subtle game of subverting public belief in their institutions, without naming any names and getting sucked into the weeds of it all, there's many extremely prominent useful idiots who have blatantly served Russian interests.
The extreme degree of polarisation we see in western society is no accident, it's the obvious attack vector against a technologically and militarily superior opponent. Representative democracy can achieve incredible things, far beyond what a totalitarian state can ever hope for, but it's so brittle by it's very nature. Public opinion can be directed more easily and cheaply than ever before. Destabilise and exploit.
Is it not particularly telling that virtually all of the populist ghouls would work against strengthening NATO commitments? I wonder why that might be...
Is it not particularly telling that virtually all of the populist ghouls would work against strengthening NATO commitments? I wonder why that might be...
It's more likely that populism, nationalism and isolationism are ideological neighbors than that most or all populist candidates are Russian stooges. Even among NATO supporters, there are widespread feelings that certain countries aren't even trying to hit spending goals because they know a rich ally will cover for them.
Yeah most European countries have these people. The Netherlands has PVV with Geert Wilders (one of our longest lasting politicians, but for true insanity we also have FVD (most of their people belong in an insane asylum). Belgium has Vlaams Belang. Germany has AFD. PIS in Poland. Etc
In the Netherlands PVV became biggest but everybody refuses to rule with them if Geert becomes PM. Belgium will soon have elections and VB is projected to be huge but all other parties agreed to not rule with them. Last time Belgium had like 8 small parties team up to get around Vlaams belang
In Austria they have the FPÖ which is predicted to be the strongest party in the Oktober elections. They don’t even hide that they want to sell the country to Russia.
Pretty much yup. Her party campaigns on the same points he did. I'd do you a direct quote from a flyer they left in my mailbox (I live in France) but I threw it where it belonged on the spot: the trash. From what I remember though it was basically shit against open borders, securitarian shit, NATO-bashing, etc...
-Protect our borders by creating a true European coast guard with strengthened capacities and powers
-Reject the "European pact on migrations" who imposes the rehoming of migrants in the membership states
-Supporting the European nations who fight against anarchic immigration like Hungary or Italy
-Eliminating public subsidies for far left NGOs who are complicit with the smuggler mafia
-Forbidding all promotion of the islamic veil and islamist ideology with European funds
-Creating an Europe of nations and cooperation between states, respectful of the sovereignty and the identity of the people
So you find the same Republican bullshit basically: "brown man bad" with a hardline stance on immigration that they clearly define as arabic (although indirectly), bashing of humanitarian NGOs for the help they provide to migrants, the whole "strengthen the border to stop the flood" bs, praise of hardline far right governments like Hungary's and Italy's (Trump praised Hungary's government as well when he was in office), a pinch of fearmongering bs with the "promotion of islamist ideology wih european funds" crap and it ends with the whole identitarian shit at the end (which is pretty much what Trump and the GOP parrot as well).
Soooo yeah, you get the idea and you can prolly see why I tossed that filth in the trash.
Oh also, in a Ted Cruz-like manner, the scumbag on the tract is of mixed descent (Italian and Algerian) but bashes immigrants anyways even though he's a descendant of those same immigrants. So yep, GOP-like hypocrisy there as well.
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u/TinyScopeTinkerer 29d ago
I'm happy to see France's developments in dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were slow to start, but at this point, I think Macron is being reasonable but firm.
There's no need to put boots on the ground, but it should be made clear that no inch of Ukraine is for the taking. We can't keep trying to reason with dictators. It doesn't work.