EU Politics: I miss Renaults(don't make fun of me)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > EU Politics: I miss Renaults(don't make fun of me)

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

steinrokkan posted:

im afraid that if the brexit goes through i wont be able to buy cheap cheddar and proper bacon any more

British Bacon comes primarily from the Netherlands and Denmark, so the only thing holding you back is your fellow countrymen not being big enough fans of it.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2016 08:49

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:33

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Tesseraction posted:

No, it's the same thing. There appears to be a perception that bacon from Britain tastes nicer but by and large we get ours from Denmark and the Netherlands, so if anything it's merely theirs which is nice.

Traditional British bacon is a different cut though, from the back of the pig rather than the sides. But yeah, generally the only British part is it possibly being cut in the UK, though from what British politicians are saying it's because they treat their pigs better making them too expensive compared to the tortured ones they get from Denmark and the Netherlands.

A Buttery Pastry fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Mar 13, 2016

# ¿ Mar 13, 2016 15:04

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Tesseraction posted:

Of course, as I said previously, British pork has a 25% hepatitis E infection rate, so hope you enjoy the aesthetic of your local hospital.

This is why you don't let your politicians molest your pigs.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2016 15:14

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

GaussianCopula posted:

There is neither a French nor a Greek thread.

Yes there is, they're just closed to Germans.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2016 18:09

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

GaussianCopula posted:

Well, considering that NGOs printed this map and spread it in Idomeni

Why is the map written in Terrorist?

e: I have been informed that this is what Arabic looks like.

A Buttery Pastry fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Mar 14, 2016

# ¿ Mar 14, 2016 20:35

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

goethe42 posted:

b. ...calling Buttery Pastry a German because of his (ironic) racism, which is triple ironic, because it's additionally stereotyping one of the currently least xenophobic western countries(Germany) as racist and BP is the most rabid anti-german posters in D&D

I'm not anti-German. I love Germany so much that I prefer to see sixteen of them

# ¿ Mar 15, 2016 00:40

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

ReagaNOMNOMicks posted:

Somebody set up us the bomb in Berlin.

We get signal: The Guardian

Shoddy German engineering strikes again.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2016 13:22

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Gaj posted:

So as a terrible American leftist college educated waste I have to ask, how is Denmark's "seize all refugee property" working out. I know it was a proposal along with increasing pork production by 200%, but when compared to the German elections, how has the Danish proposal to migrants been met. This is just a general question as to how Denmark's position has been accepted by other Euro-Nations.

I think half of them are considering whether they could implement something similar. Maybe it's Google doing their thing and deciding that I, as a Dane, isn't interested in reading about reactions to the law, but I can't find a single mention of it fresher than the law itself.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2016 11:49

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

shrike82 posted:

Muslim bombing?

Definitely Flemish separatists.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 08:53

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

waitwhatno posted:

Holy poo poo, the Brussels thread has the shittiest rating in D&D, what the hell is going on in there?

It's the Fins and Eastern Europeans again, isn't it?

No, the topic is just "Islam: Religion of Peace???"

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 20:59

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Friendly Humour posted:

I don't think abolishing civil liberties as a response to something that resembles a natural disaster is a reasonable response. These things just happen occasionally nowadays, and there is precious little to be done about it.

I agree. The eastern menace is as inscrutable as the wind.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 21:37

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Friendly Humour posted:

I guess we could try bombing them back and see if things improve.

We should bomb the Saudi royal family to kingdom come.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2016 21:41

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

What's with the (Greater) German far right and crashing their cars?

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 11:41

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

LemonDrizzle posted:

what the actual gently caress Sweden what are you doing how could you possibly have thought that was a good idea

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/sweden-cuts-maximum-mortgage-term-to-105-years-the-average-is-14/

No, HSBC, it is not the "pace of acceleration" that points to the existence of a bubble, it is the fact that you have normalized taking out a mortgage that is longer than a human lifespan.

The Swedes are counting on their health care system extending their lives a bit more.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2016 10:01

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Greatbacon posted:

It's hard to pick up the pieces of your country after the Belgians cut off your hands and feet for not harvesting enough rubber.

Also, quite a lot of progress is actually happening in many countries, even if others are having a real hard time.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2016 19:03

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

GreyjoyBastard posted:

Honestly I am mostly okay with the "give Turkey and Lebanon assloads of money and NGO personnel to defray refugee costs" solution. At least until / unless Erdogan finds a way to screw it up / siphon off an unreasonable amount of the dough.

If the refugee centers can be made not poo poo, everybody wins.

*Erdogan uses the eventually semi-permanent Syrian population within his borders as a pretext for reconquering Syria.*

# ¿ Mar 30, 2016 21:42

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

ChainsawCharlie posted:

They also state that they presented at first the minimal set of measures that they would accept at the negotiating table, but the greeks understood that as the basis to start the negotiations , which is not an entirely unreasonable position.I,.e. they hosed up and clearly have never read the "Art of Deal".

If Trump fails to win the presidency, the Greeks should ask him to negotiate for them.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2016 17:44

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

computer parts posted:

They are, however, systems imposed by Europeans that were abolished after independence.

Doesn't change the fact that US cultural dominance is so powerful that it assimilates people outside its border, to the point that US history is as natural a reference point as their own, if not more.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2016 19:52

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

computer parts posted:

Or it could just mean Europeans don't want to point out their own shameful poo poo, like the types here.

It's actually because we dislike cultural imperialists like you denying the way your cultural dominance strips other cultures of their history.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2016 20:16

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

computer parts posted:

A European calling someone else a cultural imperialist is ironic.

The ironic part is you treating all of Europe as a homogeneous entity worthy only of contempt, ignoring that many peoples in Europe have more often been the victim of imperialism than the benefactors, especially as you move east. I guess that serves the purpose of justifying American cultural imperialism pretty well though, so no need to question it on your part.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2016 21:19

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

computer parts posted:

Right, I should respect your cultural contributions, like dressing up in blackface for Christmas.

That's the Dutch, but then you don't distinguish between Europeans.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2016 17:23

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Friends, Europeans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Socialism, not to praise it.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Socialism. The noble Sch�uble
Hath told you Socialism was irresponsible:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

# ¿ Apr 5, 2016 21:24

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

GaussianCopula posted:

Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

Whose?

# ¿ Apr 6, 2016 18:50

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

GaussianCopula posted:

EU Mark Antony

So you've abandoned your former views and embraced the light of socialism?

blowfish posted:

Mark Antony crashed and burned spectacularly though.

But Caesars spirit lived on in other men.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2016 19:09

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

GaussianCopula posted:

I'm not sure why you believe Hitler, Mussolini and Mao to be recent examples of direct democracy. I was referring to multiple Swiss referenda (free-movement, deportation of criminals, deportation of not really criminals without judicial oversight), the Brexit referendum and the recent referendum in the Netherlands. You could throw in the referenda on treaty of Lisbon as well, but those might be a bit controversial. Maybe you can come up with some referenda, who resulted in the outcome different from that advocated for by the relevant authority, that actually had a positive impact on society.

The Danish European Union opt-out referendum.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2016 17:34

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Helsing posted:

Not to mention the fact that the whole article has this glaring hole in the centre of it that he never addresses. The author is a zionist, so presumably he celebrates the survival of a distinct Jewish identity over 2,000 years. Yet in this article the upshot seems to be that it can be quite logical for a government to try and suppress or dissolve distinct ethnic and religious identities into a single hegemonic culture, such as Turkey attempted to do after World War I. If European governments in previous centuries had followed through more completely and successfully on those kinds of objectives there wouldn't have been a Jewish people around in 1945 capable of forming a new state.

That's not what I'm getting from it. The point seems to be that you can retain some level of diversity in a country, as long as you share some specific liberal beliefs. Which, in the case of at least German Jews, they absolutely did. Problem being that German society in general did not, which is why it didn't work out. In short, the single hegemonic culture that should have been enforced on Germany should have been one that went completely counter to the Nazis, as opposed to enforcing "Germaness" on the Jew.

Of course the same sorta applies to Israel presently, with there being far too many Israeli Jews who would likewise need to have their ideology realigned for a pluralistic society to function. (Though the Palestinians/Israeli Arabs probably aren't as assimilated into Israeli society as the German Jews were, for obvious reasons.)

My Imaginary GF posted:

I think one of the issues is that, in America, we have a clear idea of what it means to be a success in life, and a clear idea of what failure looks like. We have one dominant, white, priviledged culture, and a history of ethnic out-groups assimilating into being as white as anyone else regardless of their skin color.

Being as white, or acting as white? Which group in the US has overcome skin color to the point that they're treated as white by the majority?

# ¿ Apr 10, 2016 08:11

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

My Imaginary GF posted:

At this point, pretty much every European ethnicity other than Turks. Hell, even Iranian expats who escaped the revolution are white in America. Germans, Swedes, Norgies, Finnmarks, Russians, Ukranians, Belorussians, Baltics, Greeks, Hungarians, Germans, Swabians, Hessians, Irish, Italians, Austrians, Romanians, and Croats are all ethnicities which have become white in America whereas they were originally one step above slaves or just as out-group.

You claimed they'd overcome skin color, but most of the people you've mentioned are about as pale as Brits. Yes, the White label was expanded to include more people than Englishmen, that does not mean Swedes had to overcome skin color to be classified as white as opposed to swarthy, they just had to largely abandon their roots and assimilate.

My Imaginary GF posted:

Also white these days: 3rd generation and beyond Asian-Americans from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, non-communist China, sometimes even Vietnam and the Phillipines!

This does not align well with what I've read from Asian-Americans. Model minority, not white, seems to be the general gist of their experience in the US.

Cat Mattress posted:

The article's main goal is to push forward the thesis that Arabs are bad, and therefore should be oppressed, because not oppressing Arabs would be a defeat for democracy. Really, that's all there is to it; all the rest is just padding.

Yeah. It's a neat trick really, using padding that people will argue about to let the message that Israel is democratic and good slip under the radar and become an accepted truth by default.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2016 15:54

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Helsing posted:

I'd argue a pretty basic liberal value is not caring whether your child marries and reproduces with people of the same ethnicity as you. If that had been a widely held Jewish value prior to the 20th century it's hard to imagine how the Jews would have lasted for long enough to eventually establish a zionist movement.

Fair point, though I think the context of "Do their beliefs result in inter-group friction in a liberal society" it might not be that big a deal, compared to someone who believes they have the right to tell other groups what to do. That said, it did not have to be a widely held Jewish value prior to the 20th century for it to be true 3 decades in, within Germany. And even if it was a widely held value among Jews, inter-ethnic marriages are a two-way street. Many Jews might have been happy to marry Germans, but if Germans weren't happy to marry Jews as a general rule, then that wouldn't really matter much.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2016 19:55

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Ligur posted:

Yes, you exactly proved my point right here.

Please do not be so stupid you don't see it.

Yugoslavia.

drilldo squirt posted:

I don't see how you got this out of what I said, can you walk me through it please?

Think he missed the "don't".

# ¿ Apr 11, 2016 22:02

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Ligur posted:

The Yugos didn't want to hang out with each other. They needed guns to resolve this. Which they did. Much like in the Middle-East or North-Africa.

The Swedish-Finns and Samis in Finland can manage without that.

The difference is that neither of those groups are anywhere near threatening/challenging to the majority. That is generally what causes instability, when no group can effectively be confident in their dominance, instead having to worry about those other guys doing poo poo. Especially when the country does not have a democratic tradition, which usually means the ones on top have been making GBS threads on the rest for decades, and would be rightly worried about the balance getting turned on its head.

Ligur posted:

Case in point, they needed to shatter the nation to find some semblance of piece. Exactly what I meant.

That's an entirely different argument from "they don't want democracy, they need a strong hand to rule them." You could say that, given the history of those places, the choice is either between an anti-democratic leader who holds the country together by force, meaning oppressing at the very least the (political) minorities within the state. Or a democratic revolution and breakup of the state into less diverse states which have political legitimacy in the eyes of their citizens.

Brainiac Five posted:

France when it was divided into Occitans, Burgundians, Alsatians, Bretons, Provençals: Great continental power.

France when it was all French: goes through 11 forms of government in a century.

It was also non-democratic, with all those peasants not really having any reason to care about the language of the king, while the nobles of course got an easy life out of the whole thing by being enforcers for the king. And before they were reduced to that, they did basically blow up France until the king's authority was limited to Paris itself.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2016 05:47

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

My Imaginary GF posted:

Yes, I agree with these parts. How'd life in Indonesia turn out following the Dutch's cowardly withdrawal? Genocide, that's how.

To be fair, America assisted on that one.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2016 17:53

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Tesseraction posted:

And given that a lot of the diaspora are fleeing from religious extremists, I'd say moving to nominally secular countries like France or Sweden makes sense considering if I was being persecuted for being atheist the last place I'd want to go is a) another Islamic theocracy or b) a Christian fundamentalist country like Hungary or Poland.

Neat little rhetorical trick here. Just because people are fleeing from religious extremists doesn't mean they're atheist, or even secular.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2016 18:33

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Cat Mattress posted:

True, but lots of people have no qualms in holding the opposite but similar assumption that just because they're from the Middle East, they are deeply religious fundamentalist Muslims.

Just because the view is opposite does not make it equally unlikely though. Muslims from the Middle East are in general deeply religious, with support for abhorrent religious laws ranging from somewhere around "Jesus Christ!" to Muhammad. Obviously refugees might not be completely representative of the general population, but chances are many of them are going to at least be the Muslim equivalents of our own Christian right.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2016 19:40

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

It's pretty racist to call the 9/11 attacks "accidents", like Arabs aren't able to put their mind to an intellectual pursuit and succeed.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2016 21:11

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Cardiac posted:

The Green party is obviously suffering from entryism by islamist organisations, that proclaim themselves to be spokespersons for all muslims. Apparently the Green party is also on the verge of electing a dude, who refuses to shake women hands due to religious faith, to the party steering committee. It is kinda ironic with the Green party, who consists of former left wing radicals, that they don't understand the concept of entryism. It is like they haven't learned anything from history.

Green being the traditional color of Islam is clearly useful camouflage.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2016 09:33

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Friendly Humour posted:

Tapped out in Europe.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 18:49

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

CommieGIR posted:

Its not like dams are not known for causing mass destruction when they fail or anything, along with loving up ecology....

Turning the Mediterranean and its surrounding land into a scorching salt desert would be a small price to pay to stop the stream of refugees heading north. It can be periodically flooded to clear out anyone attempting to make it across.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 19:23

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Hammerstein posted:

And we reserve a special form of antipathy for the former region of Prussia.

Don't hate on the Poles.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2016 05:42

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Is Turkey even anywhere near being able to join the EU? I mean, just according to the rules, ignoring the rightful and not so rightful opposition to their ascension within EU members.

LemonDrizzle posted:

Michael Gove saying that there's no danger in leaving because we could be just like Albania, Ukraine, Serbia, and Bosnia, no amount of magic is going to save the Leave campaign.

I assume that point was made to subtly undermine the Leave campaign?

# ¿ Apr 25, 2016 15:46

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:33

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Rappaport posted:

Hasn't the carrying theme of everything the EU has done at least since the crash of '08 been that the rules don't matter a whit, we just have to keep The Project going no matter the cost or insanity involved? If the insane mandarins who run the show want Turkey in, they'll get in, screw everything and everyone else. And what the mandarins want is of course utterly opaque to the average fellow on the street, so

After all, who today speaks of the massacre of the Armenians, we have a Europe to unify!

Germany gains Turkey, loses the rest of the north, stands alone against the forces of irresponsibility until unfettered Turkish immigration secures Germany for Erdogan who is proclaimed sultan of the Erdogan Empire, uniting the remainder of the EU. The execution of every satirist in Germany does not make the papers, as Erdogan's empire posts an impressive 5% budget surplus.

Pluskut Tukker posted:

Haha, no.

Are you telling me a person in favor of the UK leaving decided not to use Switzerland and Norway as examples, and instead went for a bunch of post-Communist countries?

# ¿ Apr 25, 2016 16:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > EU Politics: I miss Renaults(don't make fun of me)

«‹›31 »