Two Realities Not Even Vaguely Alike In Dignity

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

It’s getting increasingly difficult to talk to Europeans. Or read their books. Or–

And if you’re going to say “Why would you?” Well, because I’m related to a lot of them. Or they are dear friends from either so far back in childhood that they’re basically family, or from my misguided youth. I’m not fond of Europe, but I like the people.

Until recently, this was an easy circle to square. I just didn’t talk about politics, or really lean too hard into their preconceptions. And usually when they started on a tirade, say about our high crime rate, and I just sat there and looked, really looked at them, they’d stop and go “Well, at least that’s what I heard.”

As for their fiction and their attempts to give us what can only be called “helpful hints” which usually had nothing to do with who we are and how we live? Mostly I rolled my eyes and skipped, as I do badly written sex scenes.

This… er…. has changed.

Look, i got a hint this was coming during my trip to Europe last year.

It wasn’t just that — prior to the election — these people were doing all but offering to air-lift me out if Trump should win, or that my mother — who speaks not a word of English — was sure she knew Trump was “low IQ” because of “the way he talks” (Yeah, I looked at the translations. We adjust to Trump’s funny speech patterns, but they don’t need to be translated to toddler level.) I mean, she was shocked when I pointed out she doesn’t speak English and can’t tell, really. But then she was “sure.”

She was sure because everyone around her is sure of the same. And apparently she doesn’t remember that everyone around her also thinks socialism is the way of the future. Eh. But–

But. The media there is doing one hell of a job to portray everything Trump does as “just like Hitler.”

Part of this is easy. No, really. Listen to me.

It’s on the level of “Hitler also drank water” okay? It’s just that there’s a set of behaviors/beliefs that Europeans are taught from the cradle on are very bad and basically fascism. That they have nothing to do with fascism, and no, didn’t bring about the long war of the 20th century never occurs to them. Because all of them were told/taught this. ALL OF THEM BELIEVE IT. (I believed it till well into my thirties. I just have a way to want to figure out if things are true and go poking. And we have a ton more sources of information than they do. And did, even in the nineties.)

One of them is nationalism. They’re absolutely convinced that nationalism brought about WWI and WWII. HOW they can believe that when WWI was caused by the European attempt at growing various empires and their bizarre set of internationalist alliances, I don’t know. It goes something like “People fought for their countries, therefore evil bad and war.” Even though they themselves admit it was sold as “the war to end all wars”: the most internationalist goal of all.

As for World War II, well, Hitler talked a lot about loving Germany (while strip mining it, but never mind) so nationalism causes fascism. ELEVENTY!

The fact that the British too fought for dear old England apparently doesn’t mean they were fascist though. BUT if they loved their country now? Total evil bad fascism. Because, reasons.

Another is militarism/military preparedness. Trump actually is far less war-like than any of his predecessors. Something I approve of, provided he doesn’t destroy the military. Because he is a business man, his approach to keeping other countries in line is to hit them in the face with a bag full of money.

HOWEVER he’s not running around saying “military bad.”

The USSR sold Europe on the idea that America was Imperialist, because we had a military. And our military could beat theirs every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And they knew it. It never seems to have occurred to the European hit-on-the-head bunnies that our military was their military. In the sense we protected them. No, no. We were militarist and therefore fascist.

Then there is the whole immigrant issue. I can’t blame their press too hard, I guess, because it starts in our press. These arrant idiots don’t seem able to distinguish between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. Or, for that matter realize that illegal immigrant isn’t a RACE.

This shouldn’t surprise me, since in the last quarter of a century I found out all sorts of things were race: religion for instance. If you said anything bad about Islam, or for that matter voodoo or tree worship, you were told you were “racist.” Language was also racist. If I objected to the school trying to force my kids to attend classes in a language no one in our family speaks or has spoken for generations (Spanish) I was suddenly “racist.” If I made sounds of gagging when I got an advertisement in Spanish I was racist. (No, no I’m not. I’m Hispano-lango-phobic. It’s an awful language in most accents. I’m fine with the people. I just hate the sounds. There are other language sounds I hate. Press one for a list that will keep you rive– Are you stupid? Stop pressing.) DISAPPROVING OF VAGRANTS was also racist. I once wrote a post here about how the homeless were turning the library in downtown Colorado Springs unusable and the usual babble brooks of the left called me racist. I was so surprised I actual sat the family down and asked them what color of homeless they’d ever seen, and then SPECIFICALLY when they’d seen a non-white homeless in town. (We all thought there might have been one or two some years ago, but we couldn’t remember. Yes, that’s changed now. The whole town has changed out of recognition in the last four years.)

And because they’re not here, not shopping where we shop, not attending cons here, not … living here, it’s easy to believe that Trump is rounding up everyone who tans — citizen or not, thank you to our media for all the cases of publishing false stories of citizens deported! — and deporting them.

Then there is the fact Trump is fighting race preferences. (As he should, because hiring or promoting people based on ANYTHING but competence degrades competence, and we’ve done enough of that, thank you. Also race preferences is basically titles of nobility. We’re preferring you because you were born to these parents. This is specifically against our founding.) But of course, the idiots over there think what this means is that we’re going to discriminate against anyone who isn’t blue eyed and blond. The whole jeans advert thing is probably playing right into that, despite the fact almost all our top models are some flavor of tan.

No, the Europeans who frankly never saw any reason not to discriminate for conditions of birth are going to interpret this as a preference for Aryan characteristics. (True, there are a LOT of Indian H1B Visas. But we’re not all Vivek R. and we don’t think they’re superior.)

Of course, without question, and despite the fact that your average man-on-the-street European is way more racist than any American except perhaps the three non-FBI members of the KKK remaining, racist equals Nazi.

And from those three points they hop skip and jump. They whisper about the long night of fascism falling on us. They cry about they know how people felt looking at Germany in the thirties. They try to give us “warnings” about “tyrants” who “stop our ability to speak” and they talk about … defending our borders and sending back interlopers (most of whom are being supported by the welfare state to some extent, btw) as though we were building camps and were about to start gassing people in batch lots.

If you try to point out they’re completely off their tiny little unstable rockers, they pat you on the shoulder OR back away from you in horror and say something like “I didn’t realize you were a good German.”

PEOPLE.

Yes, I do check. I check all the time. If we were about to go Nazi I’d want to know. I’m in my sixties now, and running around the mountains totting an AK-47 doesn’t look appealing anymore, but frankly there are other ways to fight tyranny.

If the current administration is trying to suppress speech, they’re going about it all wrong. Unlike Biden, they have yet to even attempt to install a “disinformation tzar” (How come the left is obsessed with tzars? You are what you murdered? Is that it?) The attempts at debanking people stopped cold (Though strype needs to clean house. Part of the reason I haven’t arranged to monetize this blog yet. WordPress, also, goes through strype.) Throws hands up in the air. It’s like they’re not even trying.

Then there’s the racism thing. The left and PARTICULARLY Europeans keep telling me Trump is racist, sexist, homophobic. AND definitely anti-Semitic. I’m looking at his administration and having serious trouble buying this line. I mean, look at these people. Worst Nazis ever. True, true, his VP married a true Aryan. But all the same.

As for anti-Semitic, this administration aren’t the people pushing to recognize the rule of Hamass as a state. Yes, yes, I GET it that these days support for Israel is the true antisemitism or something, but surely you don’t expect me to turn my brains into that kind of pretzel. That just doesn’t work. Antisemitism is antisemitism. I.e. it is discriminating against Jews. You should see the expressions I get when I inform Europeans that Trump in fact has a daughter who converted to Judaism and he has grandchildren being raised Jewish. This just breaks their brains. So they deny it and go back to screaming. Or mutter darkly about Hitler being Jewish. (Maybe? or maybe it was a rumor. But at any rate not “was Jewish” but “might have had some Jewish ancestry” which, dear Bob EVERYONE does. Because yeah, mobile minority gets around. Deal.)

Look, we have joked about annexing Canada and Mexico, yes. (I wonder how much of this is done to drive Europeans bonkers, actually.) And no, of course, we’d not do it. Mostly because it would be like cleaning out slum housing.

But until we actually put boots on the ground and head to Toronto, I’m not going to be all jumpy about our invading Poland, EITHER.

On the serious side, I keep tilting my head, but I just can’t see what they see.

Is Trump more authoritarian than I’d like? Well, yes. But then traffic cops are more authoritarian than I’d like. I have a baked in, intractable “leave me the heck alone” streak. I’m willing to accept minimal government but alas our crazy mess of a government isn’t minimal. (I want a government small enough to fit in the Constitution.)

Is Trump Hitler? Well, they both are/were air breathing mammals who drink water. So, yeah, I can totally see a resemblance.

Seriously. This would be rich and all the hints about the oncoming Nazification of America very stupid (because we heard it about George W. Bush, for crying out loud) if Europe were SIMPLY its normal elitist, regulated, stultifying mess.

But no. They’re pointing at us and screaming fascist as they codify things you can’t say on the internet, not even as a joke; as they ensure parents have fewer and fewer rights over their children; as they codify precisely which incoming cultures and skin colors have more rights than the others. They’re pointing at us and screaming, even as they’re all upset we didn’t frog-jump and put boots on the ground to fight Russia. They’re pointing at us and screaming even as we can no longer be sure if we visit we won’t go to jail by telling them to put one of their pronouncements up their arses on twitter.

It’s like being in a fun house mirror.

Even as used as I am to the IMAX like qualities of the American left, seeing this amplified all over Europe (and Canada, and probably Mexico) is … horrifying.

Sure, when the rest of the world disagrees with you, sometimes they’re right. In this case, though, they’re mainlining mescaline and tripping balls.

And we really can’t do anything about the blue air-breathing squid they’re trying to fight. For one, they’re not real. For another we are tired of hearing them scream about the blue squid engulfing us, while they’re the ones getting tangled in tentacles.

It’s sad. And it makes it likely I won’t see my dad in this world again, which makes me very angry.

But at this point, and until such a time when they choose to snap out of it, I don’t know what else to do.

188 thoughts on “Two Realities Not Even Vaguely Alike In Dignity”

  1. Look, we have joked about annexing Canada and Mexico, yes. (I wonder how much of this is done to drive Europeans bonkers, actually.) And no, of course, we’d not do it. Mostly because it would be like cleaning out slum housing.

    We have always been at war with Augea.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I’m working on a cure. But I’m a deathly slow writer (I think in symphonies, not words or images, so the translation process a bear).

    Lots of “American education-liberal” in my family, so I’ve quite the personal stake.

    I will endeavor to hurry.

    (I’m glad of this post, thank you, it serves as the inverse of gaslighting, while also lighting a fire under my efforts)

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Every so often I go to DeutcheWelle (German “not-government media, seriously, really”) and read the English news. Then I make it flip to the German language news. Big difference in topics covered, how they are covered, and what the priorities are. But both are consistently “The US is terrible and fascism lurks in the bushes and we must save the world and environment! Minorities! Women! Fascism is rising from the soil.”) The BBC likewise. AlJazeera is a known evil.

    I look at the German news, then at the US, and back at Germany, and wonder what they are smoking, other than having been indoctrinated to the point that they’d rather burn in purity than admit that AfD has some valid points about uncontrolled immigration of military-aged males who do not care to assimilate, and that nuclear energy and clean coal are NOT tools of the Antichrist.*

    *Not that most of them truly believe in Christianity, I suspect.

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    1. Probably because they’re scheissing themselves looking at the massive rise of the AfD in the polls and getting ready to pull out every stop they can find, legal or otherwise, to block it. Likewise the UK and Reform (although Reform is so all over the place I can’t tell if they’re Tory 2.0 or actually going to be useful if they win).

      One thing to note is that despite the fact that they call parties like Reform and AfD “far-right-wing,” they aren’t monolithic. It’s a combination of populism, nationalism, and Euro-skepticism that holds them together. For example, Germany considers them oh-mein-Gott-far-right for just opposing gay marriage but being fine with civil unions. Hell, the Sagra Wagenknecht Alliance party rides with the AfD on being anti-immigration and they’re straight-up economically Communist.

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    3. But both are consistently “The US is terrible and fascism lurks in the bushes and we must save the world and environment! Minorities! Women! Fascism is rising from the soil.”

      They should kick us out of the UN and NATO and stop sending students to our universities and stop coming here for vacations.

      Y’know, really ostracise us like we deserve.

      /strong sarc

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    4. But both are consistently “The US is terrible and fascism lurks in the bushes and we must save the world and environment! Minorities! Women! Fascism is rising from the soil.”

      They should kick us out of the UN and NATO and stop sending students to our universities and stop coming here for vacations.

      Y’know, really ostracise us like we deserve.

      /strong sarc

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    5. The other thing that the European media has is a 1930s Germany level loathing of Jews; they blame Jews/Israel for EVERYTHING, and given that most people in Europe are exposed only to this noxiousness, is it any wonder that hatred of Jews and attacks on Jews is rapidly increasing and the tenor is very 1930sish. Frankly if you are a Jew in Europe, get out now while you still can.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Too true, too true—especially now as we see UK and France trying very hard to hand Hamas the victory in Gaza. Seriously, what are they smoking?

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        1. Now Canada is talking about “Recognizing Palestine.” I guess this means someone found a map of the late Roman Empire and pointed to Syria Palestina on the map when the PM could see it.

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              1. I think that’s ‘Recognize Quebec as a country independent from Canada’ not ‘Annex Quebec as a state’. Which would be doing the rest of Canada a big favor.

                Follow that up by merging Ottawa into Independent Quebec and you’d really have something. :-P

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                1. for that I say “Peut etre?”. Although the Quebecois would be such an eternal pain in the posterior that really one wouldn’t want their mercury fulminate personality as a neighbor. Right now they’re Ottowa’s problem and I prefer they remain that way.

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                  1. A few decades back, Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice had a future-Earth story where there was a war between various fragmented parts of the former US, former Canada, and Quebec. And the latter were portrayed as having a bit of divine right complex to them, though since the war was background, that’s as much as the reader got.

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          3. THAT nonsense has actually been around for 15-20 years. The claim is therefore that there was a Palestine before there was an Israel, neener-neener, so move back to Europe, settler-colonials.

            This is the point that you realize you’re dealing with the criminally insane, who hate you and can’t be reasoned with, because criminally insane. And then you treat them as enemies-general of human-kind, because there’s no other way to treat them.

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            1. There is apparently a movement in India to tell the brahmins to go back to Europe, because genetically they are more closely related to Europeans than to other Indians.

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        2. They both have significant “immigrant,” communities, many of them in their capitals, mostly Islamic. And some of them have learned enough political techniques to set up plain old machine politics.

          Starmer and Macron are afraid.

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          2. And they should be, since they’ve recruited enough Muslims into their police / security / military to fall to a domestic insurgency.

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          3. It’s almost bad enough for this joke:

            What’s in Keir Starmer’s Letter of Last Resort?

            “Check if BBC 2 is still broadcasting the call to prayer…”

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    6. *Not that most of them truly believe in Christianity, I suspect.

      Remember that Olympics opening ceremony that mocked the Last Supper? I truly think that the French don’t comprehend why US viewers were offended, because they can’t understand what actual faith means. To them, it’s a story with no deeper meaning, so why not use it as a jumping-off point?

      Liked by 2 people

  4. Would someone please tell me why we should defend Europe from Putin? 😦

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      2. Putin can’t even make it to Kyiv but somehow he’s going to do a double back flip summer salt and attack Kansas next week…

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        1. Just because we know Putin, given the ability, won’t stop with Europe, etc., doesn’t mean Putin can. OTOH that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take him at his word that he would if he could. Also just because he can’t move on Kansas next week doesn’t mean there isn’t something that can’t make it a very bad day if we’re wrong.

          Another way to say this is “We know that. But does Putin?” After all Putin thought he could wrap up Ukraine. Putin still thinks he can wrap up Ukraine.

          Pointing and laughing isn’t a good idea either.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. “Putin will/can do this” is far too limited in thinking. Tsarist imperialism is virtually indistinguishable from Soviet imperialism, is just about identical to Russian Federation imperialism. The man on top changes, but the intentions do not. (I’m not excluding either of the Catherines or Elizabeth here – just as imperialist as any of the men preceding or following their reigns.)

            The same can be noted about the Chinese, for that matter.

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              2. No! Do you know how much paperwork is involved with ruling the world?? And I’m allergic to paperwork.

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      2. I’m thinking more “Stalin sans ‘stache,” but ymmv. His head is shaped more like Gorbie’s was, but without the port-wine mark, and both, in their general greater-than-average roundness, bear a certain sort of comic resemblance to potatoes. Ditto Brezhnev’s, but there was too much lard on it in the pictures I recall.

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        1. Putin. The Author has a rather odd name thing going. Go look at pictures of Rasputin. The eyes. Yeah. Ras-Putin. Anyone know what Ras could mean in Russian?

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        2. Well as a prefix, according to AI (so salt) it means either “dis” or “giving rein to” or “not quite” Um… SIR — glares up at ceiling — NAMES. Get a Writers GROUP.

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    1. I was going to say it was weird, but it really isn’t, but it looks like a bunch of the EU is following right on their heels to require face ID for age verification, and I’m hearing bits that there’s a bi-partisan crew in Congress pushing a similar law for here. Apparently the magic word to get Republicans to jump to attention is no longer racist, but another highly Democrat affiliated word that might attract the search spiders.

      Does explain the sudden focus on the guy who didn’t kill himself. Spadework and all that.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. The Vulcan was one of the British nuclear bombers.

        In 1961 the US performed “Operation Sky Shield II” to test the effectiveness of the NORAD detection and interdiction system. 250 USAF bombers formed the “aggressor force” simulating Soviet bombers. Someone thought to invite the British, who sent eight Vulcan bombers to act as faux-Soviet aircraft.

        All of the American “aggressor” aircraft were successfully detected. Of the Vulcans, one was briefly detected, but none of the American fighters was able to to intercept it.

        The entire exercise was classified after people started asking uncomfortable questions. The news blackout didn’t apply to Britain, who made political capital out of it. The British were not invited to participate in Sky Shield III or IV.

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      5. As Noted the Vulcan was one of the UK’s Three V bombers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_bomber) the Vulcan, the Victor and the Valiant. They were all nuclear and conventional capable medium range bombers. Victor and Valiant were all retired by mid 1960’s but the Vulcans were in service well into the 1980’s being part of the Black Buck raids on the Falklands in the Falklands War.

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        1. The Reader observes that some things were not meant for men, or dragons, to know. The workings of WordPress are numbered among those.

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  7. It might just be an artifact of who you are talking to. I’ve seen and heard reports of people visiting Europe who are talking to natives that are telling them things like, “we need a Trump here.”

    There is a reason why the German establishment is trying to out law AfD and the British government is establishing draconian censorship laws while the Reform party continues to gain ground.

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    1. No. It’s not. Sure. I’m convinced a lot of people are fed up, but more than half are fully on board. I’m going by their indie published books.
      AND the ones who aren’t? A lot of them also think Trump is a fascist. They just would like them some fascism. (Not even joking.) I.e. they’ve had enough of international socialism and would like some national socialism. getting them out of socialism is MUCH harder.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. This…didn’t even occur to me. It should have, really; I guess it just shows where the American blind spots are. It makes sense that the Europeans who aren’t culturally suicidal would be looking longingly at fascism, because it’s their “we are united and strong” mode; despite the best efforts of snakes like FDR and our “progressives,” it was never ours.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. On needing someone like Trump there; we ran into a few such people on our trip to Berlin last year. Generally people who worked for a living. Clearly they didn’t get the ‘proper’ programming all the Elites are privileged to have.

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    3. I am told there is positive opinion of DJT across the ex-Warsaw Pact countries. Not universal, but generally they prefer a strong leader in the U.S. to a cabbage Autopen, even if some of the positions gave them some heartburn. They also like that he slaps around the French and the Germans, who are not very popular in the E.U..

      And many of the nations in the Middle East are purely delighted, mostly because the Foggy Bottom folks under the Autopen were pure torture for them to work with.

      I don’t have insights into Asia.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. “It’s getting increasingly difficult to talk to Europeans. Or read their books. Or–

    And if you’re going to say “Why would you?””

    So one of the bog standard narratives of the folks who apparently walked through university by rote and stopped thinking before or after is that if you study a people, you are suddenly okay with all of their customs, and are never going to be belligerent towards them.

    News to me. Okay, yes, I definitely have had a tendency in that way sometimes, but studying Carthage and the Aztec Triple Alliance does not give me a major urge to try to live peacefully as neighbors with those folks.

    Anyway, talking to Euros, and reading their books is a way to study them, and studying Euros is useful to more efficiently kill them.

    Knowing about a culture or a population can be quite orthogonal to the question of whether one thinks that they should be killed. What are the standards that your native culture, or the culture that you adopted, has for evaluating peace and war? Every culture has opinions.

    The degree of contact that your culture has with another culture, your culture’s standards for evaluating peace, and how that culture behaves are maybe going to inspire your culture’s evaluation fo the level of peace or of war.

    Americans and Euroland have had some way different views. Now, our Brahmandarins are pretty aligned to their Brahmandarins, but our Brahmandarins have frustrated themselves, and might no longer matter as a result.

    Their Brahmandarins, and their university trained get alongs, seem to have a profound cultural difference from Americans, and to have hung their sense of identity and mental orientation on the model that American, French and Pole are all basically the same culture. Their internal peace deal, or at least their Brahmandarin view, is that peace is caused by Brahmandarins making the correct mouth noises at the correct times.

    An American view of peace in Europe is that Spain and France should be able to raise and equip real armies, with expeditionary capability, without invading each other. The talk talk talk stuff, we filtered out, and it was never real to us. We go “Whelp, when was the last real Franco-Spanish war? They are basically at peace, and could both have real armies, and the armies would not pose any danger to peace.” Our thinking is slightly more complicated, and nuanced than that, but we really don’t understand why French and Spainish politicians might feel like they cannot afford to do that spending, nor to have the capabilities proportional to their economies.

    The Europe consensus views of course filter out all details of American psychology with regard to internal peace in America. So they do not realize that their model could never have really held for us.

    Anyhow, these recent developments are all very darkly hilarious.

    Starmer’s oddities of policy may merely be a Remainer determined to fuck over the UK status quo, the way that the Remainers felt fucked over by the exiters.

    The European politicians are expressing a lot of ideas about US politics which inspire responses of “What did you think would happen?”

    Most recently, Trump negotiations with the EU. The Financial Times seems to have done great work for the US by convincing Euro speakers that they could go into a Trump negotiation unprepared, and just walk all over him.

    Of course, EU, so what they say, and what they deliver on may be wildly unrelated, especially if the wheels are coming off the EU.

    They’ve been listening to what some of us /say/.

    We’ve been watching hands, internally. We have been watching where the Europeans had their hands, and what they were doing with them.

    We’ve mutually been observing different actors in different ways, and have distinctly different estimations of the state spaces. They are shocked that what we are seemingly saying now breaks the pattern that they were expecting.

    Us? That speech control shit they are doing is unnerving to the extent that we are aware of it, and it tends to exacerbate the problems we inflicted on ourselves by doing the stuff that they think is smart.

    There is a very slight chance that they could have mitigated the Trumpward movement in American politics by not mirroring and amplifying what our hubristic idjits were doing.

    If they want what they are experiencing, they should probably keep on doing the same things.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. **presses One*** **presses One*** **presses One*** *squinty eyes, look left, look right, **presses One***

    What??? It was practically a command!

    I have wondered how much of the “America bad” is people keeping their head down and doing protective dancing that everyone else is doing. There is still a lot of folks alive from WW II around, and speaking out during that time would have been a very short lived. And the folks at the top are definitely worried about keeping their place at the top, so doing what previous folks did that worked, until it doesn’t.

    Not sure conveying the thought I had, I’m a programmer, not a writer!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Losing the WWII generation more and more.

        Mom, her younger sister, dad’s younger sister, some of mom’s friends, etc., are still around. But as you say with your dad, they were children during WWII.

        Not even mom’s younger brother, or dad’s last surviving brother, hubby and hubby’s surviving siblings, all 70+, remember WWII. They were all born after the war ended. We’re (I’m in the < 70, though not by much) now the “old generation”, all post WWII.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Yeah, nobody in my extended family who was beyond diapers during the war ($OLDEST_BROTHER was born in April ’45) is alive now. Health for the older ones was iffy, though Mom made it to 99. Both her younger sisters died several years before her. Dad and uncles, all passed away years ago.

        All gone.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. Plenty of those folks alive from WWII are that way because we, once again, bailed them out. My mom’s dad was sent over there to fight WWI. My father and my uncles, the next one.

      May I humbly suggest next time, they are on their own. It would be stupid to expect gratitude. It might, just for self interest, be time for the adults over there who say they are our allies to act like allies.

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  10. “I’m in my sixties now, and running around the mountains totting an AK-47 doesn’t look appealing anymore, but frankly there are other ways to fight tyranny.”

    I don’t know who needs to hear this, but: Red Dawn meets Bubba Ho-Tep.

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    4. Akshully, it is the very true story about how Biden’s Artemis landing shut down the NASA AGW research project at the NSDAP moon base more commonly known as Area 420.

      The Gracetastic-69 is the body which elects the Majestic-12 to represent it, and it is now unable to meet quorum for nominating replacement members. A great tragedy to science, entirely caused by Harris and her confusion of a Chabad (Solomon ben Solomon) for a Saudi (Salmon bin Salomon.)

      The Jew turned out to be working for the Mossad.

      Much tragic.

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      1. Anyway, my artistic vision is for an FPS set on the moon.

        My patience and skill level is for getting partly into a badly scripted visual novel, and then abandoning the project. Which would almost be an acceptable format for a game with an extremely limited supply of working moon guns and moon gun ammunition.

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  11. “Look, we have joked about annexing Canada and Mexico, yes. (I wonder how much of this is done to drive Europeans bonkers, actually.)”

    Oh, no, that’s a bonus. We tell those jokes because they make our nearest neighbors go batty and they are fun to work up. It also reminds them that no, we don’t take them as seriously as they take themselves – or us, for that matter. “Rah, rah, we’re not America!”

    “Nope, you’re America’s hat and basement, respectively.”

    :cue instant steam coming out of Canada and Mexico’s ears while Uncle Sam tips back with a beer and a smile:

    Liked by 3 people

      1. Which is precisely why we do not want to invade. We’re having enough trouble getting snakes out of the “Everglades” – and other locales. Mexico can have the basement, but we reserve the right to deal with any snake that sticks its head up through the floorboards, moves into the dryer, or tries to crawl into the kitchen.

        They don’t like it, they should manage their own problems so we don’t need to take notice of them. Their flag has an eagle eating a snake, for cryin’ out loud. They should know this by now.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. That’s a little like calling in a B-52 Napalm strike to rid a house of termites. You’ll be rid of the termites but most of the neighborhood would go with it.

          There is almost nowhere we’d want as a state in Canada, it has always been offended to be in our shadow AND it is super liberal even compared with Northeast US. I’m not sure Greenland would even have enough population to meet the entry requirements of a state. And the Mexican States you just do NOT want. 70+ years under PRI and then random other socialists since the 90’s mixed with PRI mean their average status is on a par with (or slightly below) that of Detroit, Gary In, Youngstown, OH or Camden NJ. And the Graft makes the Massachusetts state house look positively angelic.

          Somedays I think Trump played WAY too much Risk and he’s trying to collect the 5 extra armies per turn for North America.

          Like

    2. Both Canada, Mexico, and Greenland, also go batty when you point out that to become a state the specific geographic population (so we don’t get all of Canada as one state), has to come hat in hand and beg (ask) to be admitted as a state which then has to be approved by the US legislature (house and senate), and signed by the US President. The US does not have to get off it’s duff to invade anyone. Given the snakes in the basement, the US won’t admit Mexico. Besides the US had a bite at that apple 100+ years ago, and declined.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. And, if that population is not super free, and or has serious problems with tolerating tyranny and criminality, we would not have a reason to accept that request for admission as a state. There would be grounds to argue that we could not accept.

        Governing as a territory is more possible, but also a massive possibility of expensive suckage.

        Arguably Charlie Ilrede’s stunt about Kamloops could be understood as a renunciation of sovereignty, and extinguished sovereignty over Canada could be a step towards governing it as a territory. Said argument is only useful for trolling, and Canada is too much to want to handle that way anyway.

        Our hope as Americans is that the enemy to the north, and the enemy to the south do not become so much of a disaster that we have to change our minds about staying clear.

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      2. My beloved keeps finding you Tubes swearing on a stack of Bibles that Alberta is going to secede and come to the US. Honest, cross their hearts this is a done deal, a matter of time, and so on…

        They tend to make me want to reach for the salt shaker.

        Liked by 1 person

        2. Alberta would be okay. Another Montana. Does have Calgary, but Montana has Helena …

          We like Banf, Jasper, Waterton, etc.

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          1. Montana also has Missoula – amazing scenery and recreation opportunities and good food, but typical crazy university town.

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    4. We don’t want anything to do with the froggish part of the hat.

      OTOH I find it fascinating and hilarious that the response from western chunks of said hat to “We should annex Canada” was to launch a “pick me!” effort.

      Liked by 1 person

  12. am married to a French woman and even though she lives here now her main, if not only news sources are all French … mainly La Monde … no matter how many times I point out that they have their story or facts wrong she refuses to believe that they would LIE in the news … the French are BIG on experts and yes they think the media are EXPERTS … they love to be told how to think about many things … after all their Government would NEVER do anything that wasn’t in their best interest … during COVID when I would point out that it was only killing old already sick people … her response was it must be much worse and they don’t want to tell us the truth and panic everyone … yes, her take was it must be worse but they CAN’T tell us about it to keep people from panicing … (i.e. for out own good we have to be lied too)

    If Trump did the exact same policies but presented a public persona more like a polished Ivy league professor she would love him … but according to La Monde he’s a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, mysogonist, moron … and thats the end of her research into what Tump actually is …

    just look at Ukraine … even here we hear people say Russia can’t beat Ukraine (and thus far they haven’t) yet these same people claim Russia wants to invade Europe … ???? can’t beat Ukraine but wants to invade Europe, logic much … In Europe EVERYONE believes Russia wants to invade everyone …

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      1. The folks I talked to in the Baltic had no illusions about the Russians wanting to take over again.

        Interesting aside: Some of the biggest smiles I got was when I praised the troops from the Baltic states who had served in SW Asia and A’stan.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. At this time, Sarah.

        In 1933, Germany was a basket case. Hell, even in 1936, Hitler’s generals were convinced that he was entirely mad – if only the French responded to the reoccupation of the Rhineland, the German Army would have been quickly trounced.

        Like

      1. This, with expansive recent empirical evidence.

        I have been saying for a while that Russia is more likely to be invaded as the Middle Kingdom rediscovers their “undeniable historical claims” to Siberia than they are to actually have a go at the Baltic states, or especially at the resurgent Poles.

        Liked by 1 person

  13. Tried to reply on the blog, not sure it went through.  I’m just discovering you, and I believe it’s through some of my Discord buddies.  Thank you. Very well said.  I feel less alone now.  Even though you just ripped off the bandaid that I’d been using to hide the pain/grief of this very thing.  I reached out to a friend (Canadian) that I had allowed to go silent…perhaps nothing will come of it, but I had to try.  I shared the article, and Facebook acted like it was going to block it completely.  Then WordPress didn’t want my comments, so….I’m going to go read a book.  But thanks.  Debbie Reynolds  

    Liked by 2 people

  15. OMG! H|tler drank water! My wife is trying to turn me into him!

    I don’t care tho’, because I’m darn sure never gonna write a book called “My Struggle”. Because even after multiple layoffs, divorce and remarriage, multiple moves around the country not really at my choice, and recovering from two cancers, I’m not really struggling.

    My friend M’s wife of over 40 years, however, is watching him in a hospice for terminal liver cancer.

    That’s a struggle.

    I’m not arrogant enough to think I’ve ever had a really tough day after talking to them.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. PLUS!!! Even though I’d like to visit Poland one day, it would be to praise them for saving Europe so many times, not to split it with Stalin.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. My wife and I were able to visit Poland, primarily Warsaw and Krakow/Auschwitz, and saw many historical things. All the Polish people we got to know were very nice, and we came away with a high regard for the country. (Several of my coworkers were born in Poland, and so set the stage for that positive impression.) We would love to go back, but the situation seems to be that my wife’s physical condition abrogates against it. She would find the flight difficult, and she does not believe she would be able to do much of the sight seeing she would like to without ending up in a lot of pain.

        When we were there several years ago, we spent most of our time touring Warsaw. One of our guides explained about the tallest building in the city, the Palace of Culture and Science is colloquially called ‘Stalin’s Penis’ which expresses their appreciation for his gift, since they would much rather have had the money invested in a good subway system. I haven’t been able to find that particular tidbit in any article, but looking up that nickname associated with Warsaw gives a lot of interesting links.

        So, if you get a chance to visit Poland, I heartily encourage you to do so, and enjoy the experience and the people you meet.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I second this. I was mostly in Krakow and Wroclaw, Zakopane, and Czestochowa, only part of one day in Warsaw. Wonderful people, and a beautiful country. Once you get away from the bigger cities, English speakers are not so common, but we managed. I felt much, much safer in Poland than I do in Germany or Austria now.

          Liked by 1 person

  16. Its hard to talk to people when all you can see is the little invisible toothbrush mustaches when they talk.

    Very distracting, those mustaches.

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  17. Yeah, I’ve been picking up some of the weird, blinkered Euro/international vibes about the US. Came up on Quora – basically, “Ugh – how can you live when your Prezzy is a crooked felon?!” and “How badly is the US crashing/is dysfuctioning under Trump?!” and I am thinking, reading these posts — “tell me that you only read mainstream/international media … without telling me that you only read mainstream/international media…”

    Thanks, we’re doing fine.

    Now, again — the Brit government is going all hot to trot on censuring social media, arresting and convicting people for posting bad-thought, and even going after long-retired military for so-called war crimes in the Irish Troubles?

    Hoo-kay.

    I am so glad that my UK grandparents emigrated, around the beginning of the 20th century. And that they are all dead, now. They would be horrified at how Britain is devolving.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “Ugh – how can you live when your Prezzy is a crooked felon?!”

      My response to that kind of thing is: “Political show trials do not count. Berea would be so proud.” (Yes, of course, Berea would actually be disgusted at how incompetent his ideological children are, but that would spoil the joke.)

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Reminds me of the scene in ‘Blaze’ when one of Earl Long’s political enemies calls him “a drunken n*ger-lovin’ skirt-chasin’ degenerate!”

      To which Earl replies “Seems to me most folks think that ‘ud be an improvement.”

      Trump is a hell of a lot better than any of the alternatives they presented.

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    3. I’m getting dim echoes ofmthis at Pennsic. Our friends are all from the northeast. They don’t all believe the same things, but they have great certainties that are unquestionable and therefore are never questioned. Mostly environmental. We have avoided major political discussions so far.

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    4. Came up on Quora – basically, “Ugh – how can you live when your Prezzy is a crooked felon?!”

      My answer to that would be, “I don’t know, I’m not Canadian. You should ask one of them what life was like under Trudeau.”

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  18. Solcialbrainrot Disease;
    The inability to see reality because of the Socialism lenses sewed over your eyes.

    Expertbrainrot Disease;
    The inability to see that the experts lie to you to try and control you and remain in power.

    It is clear to me that most Europeans are in truth a form of vampire, because of that, they can’t see themselves in the mirror, so they can’t see how cracked their socialist facades really are. Then again bringing them into the light of day will only make them bust into flames.

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  19. Yes, I do check. I check all the time. If we were about to go Nazi I’d want to know. I’m in my sixties now, and running around the mountains totting an AK-47 doesn’t look appealing anymore, but frankly there are other ways to fight tyranny.

    Eh. If the US really went tyrannical, I figure I’d end up fulfilling the first part of the old saying that ends “than live on my knees.” I’m okay with that.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Seriously. This would be rich and all the hints about the oncoming Nazification of America very stupid (because we heard it about George W. Bush, for crying out loud) if Europe were SIMPLY its normal elitist, regulated, stultifying mess.

    I’m pretty sure I saw it used for every Republican candidate since Nixon at least (earliest of when I was even a little bit “politically aware.” Some more than others, perhaps, but everyone got hit with it.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Didn’t they throw that one at Barry Goldwater? They called him almost everything else.

      Dad told me about the 1964 election. “They said if we voted for Goldwater, we’d go to war in Southeast Asia. Turned out they were right. I voted for Goldwater and sure enough, we went to war in Southeast Asia.”

      Liked by 2 people

        1. I was 8 and vaguely aware, since Dad and Mom were Goldwater voters in the South before the South went Republican. They basically also said he would lead us into nuclear war, so that slur has been around since at least 1964.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. Pretty sure the Democrats have called every Republican presidential candidate since 1944 a Nazi.

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      1. Nope, it’s 1940. “Keep Hitler Out of the White House” was a slogan used by FDR’s VP candidate, Henry Wallace, against Wendell Willkie. (A prominent businessman who, several years before, had been a registered Democrat. Hmmm, where have I heard that before?)

        If further research discovers that the smear was used against Alf Landon, I will not be that surprised.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I doubt it was used before 1940. In 1936, all the great intellectuals of the day LOVED Hitler. Yeah, he said some kinda nutty things about the Jews, but that was just red meat for the base, he didn’t really mean it. Meanwhile, he was taking top-down control everything, starting up a planned economy run by experts, giving the workers their due (at least, workers of the right race, and “their due” as he defined it), and forcing businesses to work for the common good. He was exactly what Germany needed!

          (I feel like I shouldn’t need to say that the above is not MY view, but it’s the internet: of course I need to say that.)

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Dorothy Sayers had a minor character in one of her Lord Peter Wimsey books express this opinion, and it was published in the mid-30s. “What this country needs is an ‘itler.”

            I did catch some authorial disapproval over that view, as her principal characters were (rightly) disturbed about the growing issue in Germany, but she called it like she saw it.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. You forgot that he was Scientifically And Ethically reducing the deadweight by “taking care” of the disabled, and even so kindly euthanizing the ugliest cases.

            It was just so sad that the disabled had such weak systems they died within a few months of reaching the Ethical, Scientific care centers.

            Liked by 1 person

          3. In ‘The Forgotten Man’, Amity Schlaes identifies a Republican congressional candidate that it was used against in *1934*, iirc. That’s the year after Hitler became Chancellor.

            Though that early on, it wouldn’t have had the same power that it did later as an insult, except maybe among the communists.

            The irony of using it against Wilke is that he was successful in leveraging the Nazi threat as a campaign issue, which caused FDR to start pushing harder for rearmament. And as a result of the rearmament push, Wilke had one of his biggest issues coopted by FDR.

            Liked by 1 person

  21. We have a political party right here in the USA that lives in a different realty and its views and reactions show it well; as summed up by America’s Newspaper of Record:

    Liked by 1 person

  23. As far back as 1944, George Orwell wrote that “fascist” had just become a general term of disapprobation. It could just as easily be translated as “I don’t like you.” “Racist” is going the same route. Racism has been so defined-down that avoiding the accusation is increasingly hard.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. There is a large set of people who HAVE to have “Racism” to justify their lives and livelihoods (Sharpton, Jackson, David Duke et al). If it is not around, they become irrelevant sacks of excrement.
      Some have reached that point, but the rest need to be shoved out of here asap.

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  24. i have come to the conclusion that there are just a lot more really stupid gullible people with no clue what being free and independent should look like.

    glad im old

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    2. I thought it was because the Europeans have a political model that is not based on reality. Far left are commies, far right are nazis, there is no concept for limited government/libertarianism/American constitutionalism. So in Europe they are trying to walk that narrow line between being Stalin or Hitler. While their institutions all insist that Hitler was sooooo much worse that they need to emulate Stalin…

      Liked by 1 person

      1. The problem is they are walking within the triangle between Stalin socialism (communism), Hitler socialism (nazism), and Italian socialism (fascism). They need to be outside that triangle, where freedom of the individual and capitalism reside.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. We visualize it differently, but we both agree that Europeans think all governments are supposed to be some combination of communism and fascism, and that there is a teeny tiny sweet spot where they aren’t TOO much of either.

          Limited government is outside their comprehension.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Didn’t note that the triangle is very, very, tiny, making their balance, more of a dot, than a line.

            With the rampant antisemitism and pro islam (if christian doesn’t have to be capitalized, neither does islam, so there), I would argue they are trending toward nazism.

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      2. Well, in Europe, center is nazi too.

        Lenin’s right hand is widely suspected in EuroIntellectual and European Media circles (but I repeat myself) of having been nazi.

        Liked by 1 person

  25. The Euro Intullekshuahls have never forgiven The Masses for failing to Rise Against Their Oppressors in WW One and kick off the Revolution. Stubbornly the Serfs stuck to loyalty to Country, weirdly ignoring their own self-interests and thus missing the opportunity for Communism Now and the Radiant Future.

    Seriously. Ahem.

    The Marxoids have been futile-badmouthing folks and nations accordingly ever since.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. Yes they do.

        https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2025/07/31/the-morning-briefing-everyone-on-the-american-left-wants-to-kill-you-n4942253

        My contention may seem extreme to some, but I stand by it. It’s not just “the Left” who wants to harm all who oppose them politically — it’s “the Democrats.” We have to be specific about that. The Dem hierarchy is all about “fight” these days, and its not-so-subtle message is that you should be physically assaulted for disagreeing with them.

        I will finish with this: It’s not a stretch to think that the people who gleefully champion abortion would like to kill their political “inconveniences.”

        Liked by 1 person

  26. I’m viewing this whole American Eagle ad thing (not to mention the Dunkin’ Donuts one–getting a bit less attention (probably because no boobs), but it involves a straight, white, attractive young man who is happily married and (I think) has kids (I haven’t yet tracked down the actual commercial)) as a positive sign. The usual suspects started screaming, and…no one cares. The company and the model/actress have not apologized (though there is a very funny false “apology” floating around out there (Sorry, we didn’t realize Sydney Sweeney’s boobs would be so big, please stop emailing us about it), and AE’s stock has actually gone UP. I am 98% certain, in fact, that AE knew exactly the kind of screaming from the looney lefties this ad would create and did it on purpose. The cherry on top being that all the profits are going to a charity that helps survivors of domestic abuse (ostensibly one of the left’s pet causes–of course, we all know it’s just words with them, but even so). So the screamers look like extra large a**holes. And more than a few conservatives–many of whom might otherwise ignore the ad as “Yep, sex sells, big deal” are going out of their way to buy the jeans/invest in AE just to annoy the leftists. AND it taps into both nostalgia for the 90s and the rising backlash to the really unattractive “models” companies like Calvin Klein have been using the last year or two. I consider this the marketing coup of the decade, if not the entire 21st century thus far–and I think pretty much ALL of it was deliberately designed for just this reaction, while ALSO being innocent (for a given value thereof–it’s very deliberately sexy) and doing nothing more than what it says on the tins, with a bad pun/dad joke involved.

    And…it’s working. It’s illustrating that in the US, at least, woke is in its final death throes. We’re done.

    And Trump’s peace through strength thing–I am especially fond of the whole “hitting them in the face with a big bag of money”–is working with those places that still have some semblance of sanity (not Iran, and not Russia, but Iran hasn’t been sane since the 1970s, and I’m not sure Russia ever has been). But I’m not shocked that Europe doesn’t understand this: they seem to hang on to the old nobility idea of pretending that money is nasty and only peasants talk about it/openly seek it :D

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Honestly, my main beef with American Eagle is their past history of restricting sizes because they don’t want to be associated with overweight folk. (Seriously, their CEO outright said that at one point.) But hey, if they want to leave money on the table, that’s their right.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. They have historically been twerps like that. Abercrombie & Fitch as well. But yep–that’s their choice, not gonna try and get them cancelled over it, I just never bought their stuff (honestly, still won’t, because I’d rather blow my budget on books than designer jeans lol)

        Liked by 2 people

      2. The “OMG, they had UGLY FLAT PEOPLE!!!” ad campaign was actually when they announced they were doing normal human sizes again.

        I kinda suspect a lot of the screaming is from their ad center.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I’ve been seeing some pushback supposedly from the right, that basically attack people for cheering on the ad because encouraging men to lust after a woman is bad, and the ad is the equivalent of porn. I’m a bit suspicious about those attacks, though, and I’m wondering if at least some of them are coming from the same ultimate sources as the critics shrieking about Nazis.

      In any case, my view – which I’ve previously stated elsewhere – is that the AE ad isn’t problematic. It’s not like it’s an ad featuring the Swedish Bikini Team (as one beer ad did back in the ’90s). And it’s far better than those Secret deodorant ads running right now that have so-called “real woman” models in their underwear all but stating they use Secret Spray on their genitals. Funny how I haven’t seen the supposed right-wing voices complaining about the Sweeny ad complaining about the Secret ads, which are far more objectionable.

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      1. Now, I say this as a devout Mormon: if they’re calling that porn…Yeah. I’m calling false flag on those ones.

        Frankly, you see more skin on your average network tv evening show than that. I mean, the jeans were baggy, for crying out loud!! And she showed some cleavage–though that girl, having the impressive boobs that she does, would have cleavage even in a high necked shirt, lol. Frankly, it was a LOT less racy than the infamous Brook Shields Calvin Klein ad–in which, iirc, she was only FIFTEEN YEARS OLD. Heck, she had on more clothes than the LAST round of Calvin Klein models (okay, yeah, CK is underwear mostly, but still) who were overweight by quite a lot and one was trans…something…

        Liked by 1 person

        1. A lot of the “war between the sexes” twits adore the claim of “porn.”

          At one point I got to see a spin up of a mob arguing that if a love story was emotionally satisfying, it was porn.

          See, women like to have an emotional component to sex– implied, men don’t– thus, if the characters have an emotional connection, it’s porn.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. That’s…an icky way for them to view the world. But then, given that a lot of those folks can’t even view same-sex friendships without bringing sex into the equation, I suppose I’m not surprised.

            Liked by 1 person

        2. Yes, I’m also LDS.

          The complaints are part of the bigger culture war that we’re seeing right now, particularly in the most recent Gamergate battle. The big western (and some Japanese, possibly under the influence of their US offices) game developers, with the encouragement of outfits like Sweet Baby Inc., have been trying to do everything they can to remove any real female beauty from games. Their games have frumpy looking women wearing shapeless outfits. If there’s a character customizer for female characters – as in the recent Dragon Age disaster – the breasts on the “Type B Body” tend to be small enough at their largest to the point that women will actively go onto X to complain that their own breasts are considerably larger than what the game allows.

          For obvious reasons, this makes gamers – both men and women – unhappy.

          It’s caused a great surge in attention for games like the Korean game Stellar Blade, which has a woman named Eve as the main character. Eve is quite lovely, and has a wide variety of body-hugging outfits available. And she looks very good in them. To top matters off, the game is fun (as evidenced by the fact it sold very well when it released on PC one year after its PlayStation release). So while critics point and shriek “Gooners!”, the game stands on its own.

          Eve, of course, is sexually provocative in her looks (though not necessarily her in-game character), particularly if you put her in some of her skimpier outfits. And as a result games like Stellar Blade have drawn fire from some claiming to be on the right with accusations that it’s too much like porn. There has been a backlash against those in the conservative video game media claiming this, but it would be ignorant to argue that there isn’t a potential concern. We don’t want an industry overrun with female characters in pasties and thongs. But at the same time, those who attacked Eve from the right definitely seem to be missing the mark, imo.

          And into this mess, the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad has dropped.

          So, yeah, I’m not surprised by the complaints from sources claiming to be on the right.

          Getting back to the video game topic, I will note that hot looking women will draw eyeballs to a game, but they won’t retain them. Only solid gameplay will do that. And that’s why something like Baldur’s Gate 3 can do so well with players despite the lack of hot-looking Korean women in skin-tight outfits. Gameplay that the players like is what wins in the end.

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          1. Yes, among other things Baldur’s Gate 3 definitively proved that good storytelling and gameplay trump…pretty much everything. Not that the female characters in BG3 weren’t unattractive–they just made pretty much everyone look, well, a little more real and interesting. They just didn’t oversexualise everyone–which, considering how, ahem, “thirsty” most of the major characters in the game are, is frigging hilarious. Although you can, of course, still get your hands on sexy armor if you are so inclined. So they struck a good balance between “fun and eye candy” and “normal looking people”–but again, ONLY the fact that the writing was top notch, and the gameplay loads of fun, made that work. They also approached the sex stuff with tongue firmly planted in cheek–really, the entire game didn’t take itself TOO seriously, while also having great dramatic moments and not descending into stupid parody. While I can take or leave sex scenes, the whole “bear” thing was an absolute RIOT. Especially in hindsight after the man vs. bear thing (I think this was done before that happened, so sadly it can’t be a direct swipe at it, but it’s still funny as heck).

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