I have a letter from my father awaiting a reply. He wishes to talk by correspondence, he says. Which is fine. I do get we’re both somewhat deaf and talking to each other on the phone is more difficult than in person.
The problem is that the older he gets the tinier his handwriting, to the point he can cram a normal letter on the back of a postcard. And I’m in the dreaded lands of presbiopia. So I didn’t understand ALL of his letter, only parts of it, enough to get the gist. (And he’s going to be strangely discommoded by mine, because my handwriting used to be merely ugly, but — in case you don’t know this — each country has a distinctive cursive, and my cursive changed with time. now it’s caught in an unholy land between Portuguese script — a lot like old German — and American Script. Not only does it remain the same insane scribbling hand I always had, but now there’s not guarantee of any given letter being rendered the same twice. (If you ever compare my signatures, you will see.) This means I often take notes while reading a book and then sweat trying to interpret what I wrote. This without the charming spelling issues which were always bad and are now worse.)
Most of it is, as it should be, family stuff and a lot about how much he misses mom. Some is world affairs, and I’m afraid being a wretched creature I’m going to have to answer those. Oh, he’s mostly worried not combative, but–
This is in a way an attempt at explaining what happened between Europe and America and why it’s much worse now than it’s ever been.
First, guys, since most of you are born and raised in the US you need an explanation dad probably doesn’t require. It’s like this:
Europe never loved us. Some Europeans did but those of us who did were always an odd bunch and this put us at odds with all other Europeans. They tolerated and encouraged the Soviet Union in the hopes it would “Show up America.”
If I had to guess, since I wasn’t around two hundred and fifty years ago, it started with the certainty that the republic would fail, since it negated the forever European way of living, then moved on to being upset we didn’t. And the fact we saved their asses twice didn’t help at all.
As Heinlein says in Stranger, all “thank you” implies some amount of resentment. Okay, I’m not sure that’s true, because it’s not what I experience. Mostly from me all thank yous involve some number of confusion and fear of trespassing.
But I think the difference is that I was taught how to accept help/charity BY HEINLEIN. I’m not so much accepting help/charity, as I’m taking what I need right then, and it flows outward again when other people are in need. So I’m just borrowing, and pay it forward.
And therein lies the rub. Our intervention in the long war of the 20th century was never paid forward by Europe. it just didn’t happen. In fact it just couldn’t happen, since Europe took the long wars as their signal to go on a self-hating spiral of self destruction.
(I’m not sure how much of that spiral was native and how much was USSR propaganda. Someday maybe we’ll figure out how much cognitive pollution the USSR put into the world, including destroying our own academia and a lot of our political thought. The entire anti-colonial boondoggle is something that the Europeans hold against us — the ones that realize what a disaster it was on both sides — but we were on it because of the extreme lefty academics and air-dreamers were trying to let the USSR grab lands without resistance. Most colonies Europe left were immediately taken over by the USSR de facto if not de Jure.)
On top of which, they outsourced their culture and the production of cultural product to the US. Look, that’s not what they meant to do, you know? they were subsidizing their film and novel production, to make sure the “worthy art” got all the money it needed. I mean, they got enough trash from the US, right. Except that in fact “trash” is what people read and watch. See, for instance, Shakespeare, who wrote plays for apprentices and groundlings. While the promoted art of the cognoscenti goes nowhere. So the result of European governments paying for the “approved art” was to make the only art people watch and read American. (Reading in Europe has been plummeting, in commensurate response to their getting as their only offerings from America the precious darlings of trad pub. Different for those countries to whom Kindle is readily available, but there again… There’s culture. More on that later.) And the problem is the culture they’re getting from us is what Hollywood is selling, which they take deadly serious as “modern” and “advanced” leading to far greater destruction there than here.
This again feeds a hatred of America and a wish to see us stumble.
But until recently, they largely kept their mouths shut where Americans could hear. Oh, sure, their news imputed all the worst vices to us, and generally blamed us for their problems, etc, and also gave them an idea of how we live that meant we had much fun online with Europeans who thought we shoot each other in the streets and also that we’re like Latin America where you’re either very rich or destitute. (This is vital, because the only way their elites can keep hold of the populace in their neo-feudal soft socialism is to project the horrors of what they think naked capitalism would be onto us, and then drive them to think we live in some kind of Dickensonian horror, compared to which their managed decline seems like paradise.)
However it used to be that Europe knew which side of their bread was buttered and that the US has — pardon me the graphic nature of this — a mighty generous tit on which to suckle.
They have now lost what remained of their tiny little minds, and I believe I can explain it.
First of all, they’re completely broken over 2020. At some level they have to know it was all a hoax, and they were not even — as I yelled at mom when she tried ordering me to take the vaccine — the main aim of the hoax. The aim was to steal US elections. Terrorizing Europeans was just stage dressing.
But oooh, boy, were they terrorized. Not even the crazier state in the US locked down as fast, as hard, as long or as stupidly as Europe did. And they had a ridiculously high buy in to the dangerous vaccines, too.
At some level they know they were hoaxed, but they can’t process how their old mechanism of trusting the authorities and the “best people” so they have a lot of free floating anger which their media and reporting is encouraging them to attach to us.
Okay, this is the part that I need to explain to my dad: the media over there really has them utterly convinced that we are repeating fascism.
This is partly their hatred of Trump whom their elites hate because our elites hate him, and how bad a person do you have to be even those American know nothings hate you? And partly that they absolutely believe that our media is absolutely truthful, when our media has also lost its tiny flipping minds and is now reporting completely imaginary stuff.
Partly though is that they absolutely believe that history repeats itself and have been on the lookout for Hitler anywhere a shred of patriotism remains, because patriotism causes Hitler. (DUH. That’s what they were taught in school. DUH.) And of course keep fitting the little they know onto this model.
The thing is the model they were taught in school was not how to find Hitler, but how to find anything that was antithetical to the USSR swallowing them whole. So sure signs of Hitler are: a strong military. Patriotism. Any reduction in social net spending. Self sufficiency or the encouragement thereof. Etc. etc. etc.
And in that light, we look terrible.
They also believe our country is convulsing itself with people trying to fight Trump. That ICE really is deporting anyone who tans. And other fantasies. Which is even more Hitlery.
AND the crowning thing in all this: They haven’t embraced the digital revolution as much as Americans have.
Oh, don’t get me wrong: Everyone has a cell phone. But political blogs are rare and for reasons that evade me, so are groups where people from all over just gather.
I KNOW my dad is going to ask me how I know that the rest of the country isn’t in revolt against Trump, that it’s just Minnesota.
And I’m going to answer that throughout most of the weekday I hang out with my writing group, which is spread out all over the US (and a couple from Canada/Japan.) SO I know. I know that in most cities the actual “resistance” is a dozen boomers with walkers and oxygen tanks.
Because between the work from home, and our just swimming in the digital sea, we all know people all over the country and can verify reports and rumors. (EXCEPT aged boomers of course.)
Which is a divide with Europe that I don’t understand and can’t explain.
But it contributes to their worry for us and their certainty we’re about to fall to Hitler2, this time it’s Orange.
And we have no way to reach them, because it would take explaining all this stuff.
It’s not just that they’re watching a different movie. It’s that someone has locked the theater doors and keeps amping up the sound, till they only see what they’re shown.
This will end in tears.
According To Hoyt 
They locked the theater doors, the gas is leaking, and someone has lit a cigarette . . .
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The most the Reader is willing to do for Europe at this point is to airdrop AR-15s, ammo and Starlink terminals to worthy resistance groups. Presumably, Musk will activate the terminals with free service
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Thank you for a perspective I had no idea about. Learning is a good thing.
Sent from AOL on Android
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Of course, Europe has gotten more senile since WW2 so of course, Europe cannot understand the US.
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I’m sure it’s difficult to even reach the internet in the EU on purpose, courtesy of the EU. But now that I think about it, it’s not just throttled internet it’s that the green commies have nearly killed every bit of power in that continent. I’m sure the nomenklatura would love to throttle our internet but that ship has sailed.
But once upon a time in the eighties when the wall was still up there were a couple Germans who knew what Russian occupation meant. Those dozen or so old Germans were OK with Americans.
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It isn’t actually.
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I never had trouble getting to the ‘net when I was over there, unless I was in a dead cell area (more common than one would think, “even” in western Europe). However, I was very aware that everything I did was tracked, so I avoided most of my usual sites and stayed with BBC, CNN, DW, and local information searches.
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And another thing. I wanted to see Europe again. I don’t see a way forward because I believe that our authress is correct. They don’t want Americans around and I can’t pass for, anything EU, and don’t intend to try.
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We had a couple from church take a Viking cruise through Germany a few weeks ago, to celebrate the wife’s finishing chemo. Unfortunately, one side effect of that chemo is brittle bones, which is how she broke her ankle tripping while leaving their cabin bathroom.
So aside from the trip to the hospital, they barely left the boat. The boat did not have a wheelchair for just-in-case, so she spent most of the cruise in the cabin and he didn’t want to leave her.
That said, perhaps because it’s a tourist situation, they were happy with the way they were treated and missed any negative views on Americans. I’d wonder about medical service, since the hospital they were taken to set (more or less) the ankle and told her she needed surgery but they couldn’t do it. Note the local orthopedic center took her in for the surgery the afternoon they got back.
But they didn’t come back frothing about billionaires, like my cousin who went to France with her husband just before they locked down hard. Sheesh.
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Ah, the wonders of socialized medicine, under which doctors are treated like slaves and patients are property to be sold, traded and depreciated until they’re deemed ‘not worth’ expending any more resources on.
If it’s a Viking Cruise, why aren’t you allowed to sack a few towns along the way? 😁
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Interesting.
BIL and sister had a cruise covering the Japan Islands, then a few days later for South China Sea, including Vietnam. Viking, I think. She stepped off a curb on one of the *sanctioned Vietnam tours, slipped on mud, and broke her left ankle, both bones, multiple breaks (spiral and other, bones did not move). Took three to get her back on the bus (BIL, driver, and another passenger). A good 90 minutes back to the ship/boat. The cruise medical was able to X-ray and put her in a soft cast. Cruise did have a wheelchair so they could participate somewhat on the cruise on the ship. All on the cruise’s dollar.
On the cruise another 3 days before the ship was at a port with a major airline airport. Five flights to get home to Eugene (heaven forbid, only one flight once they got into the US). The only snag was port entry in LA.
(*) Sanction tour is why her medical was free. Another passenger fell and broke her hip, but they were doing something not part of the cruise; they had to pay for the medical.
Change in the flights home were on sister and BIL. Because of the medical nature, BIL was hoping to get reimbursed, at least partly by their travel credit card. But haven’t heard on that.
Sister got into urgent care then Slocum (local orthopedic) within a few days of getting back. Surgery 3 days later (had to stop prescriptions).
They were on a smaller ocean liner cruise.
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You could probably pass for Australian. When I was in Spain and Turkey some years back people assumed I was Australian for some reason. Evidently, they get a lot of tourists from there and I certainly didn’t seem European. Apparently, Europeans treat shop workers, etc. as lower class and don’t say thank you or chit chat with the help.
Australians and Americans are friendly to everyone.
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Old (post WW II) Polish saying, which might even still be current.
Only idiots and Americans smile at strangers.
Maybe we ought to add Ozzies to the mix, too. (Not that their own politics of the moment doesn’t have a bad case of the Yurrrps, see “can’t get to the Internet [legally] without proper ID” etc.)
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Back when I was gallivanting around warmer climes, I was advised by a more experienced expat that if I were in a tight spot I should try to pass as Canadian. Pronounce any ‘out’ combinations as Oot and throw in an occasional ‘eh’ and most folks would be none the wiser. Helps that I am Minnesota born & raised, and spent some of my misguided youth actually in our neighbor to the North.
This did not assist me with avoiding spending the longest 1/2 hour of my life at AK-47 point in Panama shortly before the ’89 party. Mostly because I was in a van packed with my American co-workers . . .
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Back in the day when I first did the youth-hostel and rail-pass summer in Europe (in a group of Girl Scouts) most Europeans we encountered assumed that we were English … because we spoke English. I wondered at the time what would it take to be IDed at first glance as American … probably dress like a cowboy in garments with the American flag all over them, wear a 10-gallon hat and loudly sing the national anthem at every opportunity…
The second time around, six years later and in Britain with my brother and sister, people we encountered during the first weeks pretty much sussed us as Americans by our speech. Then it became “Are you from the US, or Canada…” and by the end of the summer, it was “You really don’t have much of an accent for an American…” (Well, we were off the well-trodden tourist circuit for most of the summer, and picked up their local pronunciation in self-defense. I’m told that I still sound sort of trans-Atlantic when I talk. My English grandparents were an influence…”
When I lived in Greece for almost three years, I got into the habit of passing my Harpers, Atlantic and Smithsonian magazines to an English neighbor. (She was English and about my mother’s generation, and married to a Greek gentleman.) Penny loved those publications, and confessed to being absolutely blown away that there were such intellectual publications in the US. (Well, they were intellectual and pretty high-faloutin’ back then. Fit for fishwrap now…) Only at that point did I begin to realize that Euros and Brits had some huge holes in their knowledge of the US…
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If I wrapped a dead fish in today’s Atlantic, I’d expect to be haunted by the fish’s irate ghost. 😛
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On Instagram/FB-Reels there is an English guy and his friend who do UK, specifically British Isle, comparison to US. Not disparagingly either.
One of which was why a lot of US citizens do not have passports. “Because US citizens don’t bloody need a passport.” US citizens can fly an entire day, and never leave the country.
Note, he hadn’t visited Texas, or driven lengthwise California or Florida, so hasn’t gotten the concept that some US citizens can drive over a single day and never be out of their state.
US citizens can visit a big city, mountains, timbered wilderness, deserts, volcanoes (had a bit to say about one of the super volcanoes, greater Yellowstone caldera). Lately, he has been comparing posts of Great Lakes, then someone pointed out Great Lake Snow and ice fishing.
Haven’t seen anyone point out to them the concept of in the US 100 years is a long time, in Europe it is yesterday. In Europe 100 miles is a long distance, in the US it is a daily commute and will not get you out of most states, let alone the US.
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We had a couple from church take a Viking cruise through Germany a few weeks ago, to celebrate the wife’s finishing chemo. Unfortunately, one side effect of that chemo is brittle bones, which is how she broke her ankle tripping while leaving their cabin bathroom.
So aside from the trip to the hospital, they barely left the boat. The boat did not have a wheelchair for just-in-case, so she spent most of the cruise in the cabin and he didn’t want to leave her.
That said, perhaps because it’s a tourist situation, they were happy with the way they were treated and missed any negative views on Americans. I’d wonder about medical service, since the hospital they were taken to set (more or less) the ankle and told her she needed surgery but they couldn’t do it. Note the local orthopedic center took her in for the surgery the afternoon they got back.
But they didn’t come back frothing about billionaires, like my cousin who went to France with her husband just before they locked down hard. Sheesh.
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Why isn’t Europe involved in the digital revolution? It’s more a case of why America is involved. It’s the phenomenon that de Tocqueville pointed out as peculiarly American: our penchant for forming voluntary social associations. What is an Internet chat room, or a sub-Reddit, or, well, this blog, but a voluntary social association? What is following someone on X but associating voluntarily with that person?
For whatever reasons, it comes naturally to Americans, and does not come naturally to Europeans. Well, it did to some Europeans at one time, but a lot of them decamped for America.
Republica restituendae, et, Hamas delenda est.
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Sometimes, I forget just how odd our American culture, compared to Europe and Asia. We tend to be fine with voluntarily organizing for civic activities. And, we mix up socially with differing income levels, religions, and even – to some extent – racially/ethnically. It’s often the minorities, particularly those who are immigrants, who are resistant to our informal interactions.
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Funny thing is, you know who is really really mandatorially Great Patriotic War Reenactor patriotic? Yep, those cuddly Rooskies. Dress your stroller-age toddler up as a WWII cannon fodder draftee in the glorious Red Army patriotic.
So one wonders why the whole Vlad thing is not at the level of yoorupeen concern as our Orange Man.
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One also wonders why Leftist terror groups survive in Europe for decades without being arrested or even hassled, while normie political groups get banned.
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Because *EPTB cannot recognize the proto-Nazi/Communist groups because it would be looking in the mirror.
(*) European PTB
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because their culture comes from America.
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I realize that there are different cultures involved, and that’s likely part of it. But I wonder if part of the reason why political blogs and groups aren’t more common in Europe is because of governmental pressure? Look at what’s going on in places like the UK and Germany right now, with reports that protesting the criminal sentence of a migrant got the complainer more prison time than the migrant? Or the heavy-handed attempts of the German government to suppress AfD? Or the current attempts by European governments to censor American websites? That’s got to have a chilling effect.
On a completely unrelated note…
When reading the post I was reminded of a YouTube short that I saw the other day. It was part of a reaction video by a black guy to a young Chinese woman in the US who was complaining about what she saw as Chinese “aunties” (a Chinese term referring to women in their forties and older) who were entering into relationships with MAGA men. She claimed that “thousands” (an exaggeration, I’m sure) of aunties are doing this, and that her own mother knows “several”. But that’s not the important part. The important part is why she was ranting. See, she *knows* that the MAGA men that these aunties are involved with are all misogynist. But according to her they’ve learned to hide their misogyny, often during a prior marriage (she stated that many of them were divorced), from these clueless aunties. Additionally, as she knows, MAGA types hate all immigrants, so the only reason why these MAGA men are getting involved with the Chinese aunties is because of yellow fever (for those who don’t know, a slang term meaning attraction specifically to Asians because they’re Asian). So according to her, “thousands” of older Chinese women are getting involved with (and married to) men who hate women in general, and immigrants in particular, and are only interested in the women because the women are Asian.
Racist much?
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Eh, she’s just jealous.
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Of course they’re racist. Always have been. If you’re not Han, you’re not human.
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Women who are “too old” for Chinese men are getting American men. And they don’t have to get a brideprice for the family and bankrupt a man before marrying him. And the women don’t have to deal with the family adding last minute money demands.
And they can get the heck out of China.
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Given the decidedly American accent of the young woman who was ranting, I suspect that the aunties in question moved to the US before they met their MAGA men.
However, I don’t rule out the possibility that “move to US and meet a nice American husband” was a plan on their part, as part of an inverse of what the “passport bros” do.
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It’s a younger woman who thinks she has support to count coup on, and regulate the behavior of, older women.
I’m sure the PRC thinks it owns these women, no matter what the formalities, and that the PRC does not entirely like MAGA.
Anyway, if hundreds of women were marrying in X way, or if hundreds of men are marrying in Y way, most of them would be people I don’t know, and I would not know a lot of different things about what the couples are thinking.
There’s a joke that this younger lady must be soo much smarter than I am.
Really, I am a smartass, and a bit of an arrogant and overconfident twit. But, the history of my mistakes tell a tale, and it is a tale not entirely devoid of learning from error.
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PRC entirely does not like MAGA?
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The phrasing I used was what I intended.
I was probably being too cute in trying to be very cautious in my assumptions about what the PRC is really thinking and feeling.
I interpret a lot of domestic US political acts as being PRC surrogates cheesed off at Trump. That does not mean that I am correct, and it does not mean that I actually know what the PRC security men see as in their interests.
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Very well, Sir. I sit corrected.
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“We’re both somewhat death”
i had to read thst three times before i figured it out.
one of your better typos.
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In my working life I traveled a lot in Europe. One night I went to dinner with a Norwegian, a Swede and a Finlander. I know, it sounds like the beginning of a joke… anyhow, I was shocked by the level of viciousness they had for each other. All smiles but constantly insulting and denigrating each other. Seen similar behavior all the time. The worst was on a trip to Ypres (Belgium) and the week before two Ukrainian workers were killed next door to the place I was. They were trying to grind the copper bands off a WWI artillery shell that had surfaced when the thing went off. The plant manager just laughed and said it was only a couple of dumb Ukrainians so who cares?!?
The problem for Europe is Americans see them for who they are, and we just don’t care anymore. America is not going to get involved in their stupid little wars anymore. America is certainly not going to do anything as they sink into the demographic swamp. We’ll miss the castles and art galleries, but the Taliban will probably dynamite those things in 20 years anyway!
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They believe they are still the planetary center of gravity, as they arguably were, at least economically, during The Great War (episodes 1 and 2).
I noted at the time the yoorupeen cognicenti’s absolute panic back when The Mighty Barry did his “Pacific Pivot” shtick (which was actually just an excuse to loot the defense budget – there was no spending on the ships or planes with the range needed to actually do things in the Pacific theater). That died down when his backchannel explained the grift, but then DJT1 came in and threatened it again, and now DJT2_the_sequel is actually moving monies around as if he actually intends to (gasp) let the yourupeens pay for their own defense! The horror! And the implication that we will probably be busy when the shoe drops and the balloon goes up, since Vlad and Xi actually both have each others phone numbers and will likely coordinate, is frankly terrifying to everyone but the Poles, who culturally expect Murphy.
So the youropeens collective underlying daddy issues that drive their fear of abandonment to face the consequences of their choices, combined with Daddy DJT not signing up for those child support payments since yoorup is technically geriatric now, all put the skewer in them at a very basic level.,
To which I say “well done, indeed.”
And “Send all our old tanks to the Poles.”
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They’re also terrified of Trump because they fear he is the harbinger of a tide which will wash them away, and put the filthy unwashed rightwingers like Le Pen and Farage in power.
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Worse, those are populists! Nationalist populism is double plus ungood, since it appeals to the actual aboriginal natives of a country to actually control their country, rather than letting their unelected betters in the EU doo it as is obviously their birthright.
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“…they absolutely believe that history repeats itself and have been on the lookout for Hitler anywhere a shred of patriotism remains, because patriotism causes Hitler.”
This is not only what school taught them (and they uncritically accepted, because Authority) — this is a whole major undercurrent of just-post-World-War-II thought. How could a Greater Than Great War, with all its quite-genuine horrors, ever have happened? How do we prevent it coming back?
(My main introduction to it was… science fiction. No, really; look at the themes at work even with people who ought to know better, or did. Early Poul Anderson, most notable by contrast to his more politically and writerly mature self. Even ultra-down-to-Earth H. Beam Piper, and his taking for granted that with nuclear weapons, it’s one planet, one nation, or else disaster later or sooner. For other writers, it’s not even an exception, it’s the — sigh — rule.)
Patiotism, nationalism, causes Hitler causes super-war causes mass human misery and (possibly in the wake of Trinity and Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Castle Bravo and all the rest) human near extinction. So, survival equals anti-nationalism, globalism, UN-ism, etc. It might even help explain their almost-mania for computer-guided or machine-ruled society, look carefully at things people wrote and said right out loud… today’s WEF-o-crats would’ve fit right in, back then. Mainstream!
So, it seems much of Europe is stuck somewhere about 1950 plus-minus half a decade. Figures.
Of course, there was a big current of propaganda reinforcing this, mostly USSR-genic. Which is really “embrace the power of and” with a not-impressive bonus insight that while the old Soviets were not-good at a lot of things, propaganda to the gullible could be one of the exceptions.
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Have they ever stopped to consider that Hitler and the National Socialists were a strictly European phenomenon? That Yuurup was lousy with fascists and communists for decades before it all erupted into World War 2? And then we had to bail them out. Again.
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This means I often take notes while reading a book and then sweat trying to interpret what I wrote.
This is why I always transcribe meeting notes into a computer ASAP. If I wait a few days or a week I have a hard time interpreting them.
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Same.
My handwriting isn’t bad. Not compared to son’s and hubby’s. Notes I took in classes, seminars, and meetings, OTOH, are OMG bad. It wasn’t an option for classes or seminars to use a computer for notes; too old for that. I do touch type, however inaccurately. So now for meetings I can use a preset format and add notes. At least work notes, and even most of the work seminars, had pre-printed pages I could mark up. Still ended up with some interesting “what the heck is that?” situations.
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Many in the U.S. have ancestors that fled Europe. Their ancestor’s reasons are now probably all forgotten, but I doubt it was a rash decision to do so instead of a vacation.
Europe is Europe, and it doesn’t fit well with the liberty attained through a Constitution demanding it shall be so. Many don’t understand us, and that’s fine, but I think it’s a huge waste to try and teach them what over two centuries created. The pattern to achieve the same has been available for a long time, but those in power in Europe can’t allow that to happen.
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My dear friend, this is just a quick suggestion about ONLY one topic, not the main and typically excellent remainder of your post. About your correspondence.
Can you simply type and then print out your letters to Dad? Using as large a font as he might find easiest to read? AND can you scan HIS notes or letters into your computer then enlarge it as big as you can read and comprehend?
I do understand how hard it can be to interpret and decode some handwriting. My cursive is not great but more or less legible; but a very precious friend who prefers to type or text, will occasionally send me a letter and her writing is almost like a cryptogram= the letters are not small, but large and “loopy” and sometimes overlap from one word to another. Anyway, just my thoughts and I hope they might be useful- letters from a loved one like a Mom or Dad, are treasures to most of us. Even at my septuagenarian age, I wish I had some letters from my parents to look back on, now that I have no family. God bless you and yours, j
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no, I can’t. I would have to suppress the touch typing because I take dictation from my ears and without complete control, I’d end up typing Portuguese in English Phonetics.
And yes, I understand dad’s impulse. He’s a man of words, so letters would precious. And he’s on the down slope of 90, so…
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I have long had an impression that Europeans, post-1945, were like alcoholics who’d been on one bender too many, survived by the skin of their teeth, and were clinging to sobriety with fanatical strength. Anything that looked even slightly like what had set off the World Wars was taboo. Of course, the USSR and its running dogs in Western Europe were happy to stoke this idea, thinking that it’d be easy to charge in and take over (If it weren’t for those meddling Americans—and their dog!)
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I have three younger brothers. One is anathma. His ex and his son refuse to be in the same area code. He lived in France for some years, and the hatred of the USA just got engrained.
Oddly enough, he was accepted as a Texan. Because reasons. He’s an a$$hole.
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I enjoyed being around Poles, and the Baltic folks (OK, Finns are Finns, and sui generis). But lurking in the back of my mind was how they treated anyone who refused to get the vaccine in 2020. The tribal protective instinct is very, very strong up there, and when push came to shove, “group over individual” kicked in. There are very good historical reasons for that, but it tinted a lot of my observations over there.
Poles seemed a bit more hang loose, Moravians ditto, Austrians … depends on where you are. Vienna’s a different world from way the heck up the Mur River and other remote corners of the country. But they are not Americans, and likely never will be. I’d just love to see the governments let them be themselves, and not try to make everyone Homo EUensis.
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All of our enemies hate Trump.
So do the Democrats.
Somebody should get a clue from that.
Don Lemon was with a shrieking mob that invaded a church yesterday. “I’m a Journalist™!!”
Somebody needed to say: “No, you dickless moron, you’re a propagandist. A professional liar. The exact opposite of a journalist.”
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