I think this issue is exactly the same as many others that are, in principle, supported by an overwhelming majority: it is the influence of lobbying that makes it possible for the will of the people to be ignored. While this phrase is widely used, it doesn’t quite capture the essence of the matter - it is simply corruption.
Indeed, I do believe, however, that neo-Nazi parties like the AfD are by no means successful on their own merits.
As in the U.S., I think, this is only possible thanks to the active support of the very same billionaires who, in the U.S., ensured that a pedophile serial criminal could become president. In my view, this is only made possible by an artificial illusion of public opinion, which is now predominantly propagated through mainstream social media platforms.
If one considers public opinion according to the definition by the renowned political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, I think it becomes clear what I mean:
“Public opinion is the sum of those opinions on a given issue that individuals express publicly because they believe they are socially acceptable and will not lead to isolation.”
Elisabeth Noelle-Neuman, The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion - Our Social Skin
Mainstream Social Media platforms are, after all, controlled unilaterally by billionaires who use them to advance their interests - something Musk for example makes particularly obvious. In doing so, they control public discourse and make Nazi ideology appear socially acceptable again by artificially amplifying it to make it seem like a majority opinion.
Unfortunately, this has by now eliminated the effect of social isolation, which explains why, even in Germany and despite its terrible history, Nazi ideology appears to be a socially acceptable viewpoint - which, in turn, has a very significant effect on political discourse.
And I wouldn’t exactly call it subtle - quite the opposite, in fact: in Germany, for example, politicians step in front of the camera and openly spout Nazi slogans. Just 10 years ago, they would have had to resign for that, and rightly so.
Try explaining that to the people in Iran who rose up against the regime, were shot by the hundreds, and are now being bombed by the U.S.
Yes, that is the consequence, and it will remain that way as long as US citizens do nothing to change it. It will remain a self-fulfilling prophecy until the curse is broken. It won’t happen on its own; instead, things will only get worse if people don’t take their fate into their own hands. There are plenty of examples that prove this is possible - and all of these are examples where much more was at stake than just a job.
Please don’t get me wrong: It’s difficult on your own, but there’s strength in numbers. That may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s the only hope for a better life.
I can’t tell you exactly how that was possible, or why U.S. citizens allowed it to happen, but I think one of the main reasons is likely the U.S. Constitution itself: It is old and was originally designed for a nation that included slave-holding states. Added to this is the fact that it was a constitution conceived exclusively by very wealthy landowners. Of course, this was the standard worldwide at the time, but since this constitution remains by far the hardest to amend of all democratic nations, it was never fundamentally revised - which is, of course, absolutely absurd even for countries with a comparable system.
One consequence of this is that the current administration won the last presidential election by about two million fewer votes. And that’s just scratching the surface: there are numerous reforms that have been blocked for decades by a minority of ultra-conservative states, since there is no proper mechanism that would be based on the population of these states. There is also no democratic country in the world in which constitutional court justices are appointed for life.
What I mean to say is this: The almost religious belief in the effectiveness of their Constitution is, in my opinion, the main reason why U.S. democracy cannot survive - at least not without far-reaching reforms that are not even remotely realistic with either of the two major parties.
The only option at this point, in my view, would be a general strike that paralyzes the country until it simply forces through the reforms that have been overdue for more than 100 years. In my view, there is no other option within this system.
In that sense, American citizens could actually bring about something fundamentally good out of the reign of terror imposed by their orange despot - it would be a blessing for the country and for the world. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that will actually happen.
Yes, I think so too. It’s pretty obvious, after all: ICE has a budget equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country. By U.S. standards: This “agency” has a larger budget than all other U.S. federal agencies combined - that is, the FBI, CIA, etc.
ICE was founded after 9/11 by Bush Jr. At that time, its purpose was essentially to enforce the conservatives’ absurd immigration policies outside the democratic decision-making process.
Today, it is clearly a secret police force that is exclusively loyal to the regime. Of course, this is once again about the self-enrichment of unscrupulous MAGA people, but I think it’s still pretty obvious that the main goal is to field a force that, if necessary, can crush resistance from the military - possibly also from the police, though I don’t think resistance from that side is very likely.
In that case, the orange mob boss has nothing to worry about…
Lately, I’ve been wondering more and more often what it would take for the American people to oust this regime from office.
The situation will not change on its own, not unless the US population rises up. The US president may change, if there are still free elections at all, which I think is highly doubtful given the establishment of an obvious secret police force in the form of ICE (the budget of this “agency” is equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country).
Even under a new, less aggressive administration, however, the fundamental problem will not change: The US is exclusively concerned with itself and does not shy away from using its power to its advantage – this was already the case under Obama, for example, who was eloquent and likeable, but also pursued the usual neo-capitalist policy of exploitation; even under him, it was difficult to say that the US was an ally of Europe. The US may be entitled to this as the most powerful nation in the world. However, it is a dying world power and will soon be overtaken by China. This is entirely foreseeable, and as Europeans we should almost be grateful to Trump, because his insane policies make it obvious how the US feels about its “partners.” - I think he accelerated the decline of the US by at least 10 years as it stands.
But please don’t misunderstand: based on my socialization alone, I would prefer the US to China, but I am not naive. When it comes to autocracy, the difference between the US, Russia, and China is becoming increasingly small. So it seems to me that Europe needs to sell itself as expensively as possible in order to save democracy here - and I think China would be willing to accept the continued existence of democracy in Europe in return for Europe turning away from the US.
The US, on the other hand, can only be expected to follow its own line and continue to undermine democracy, which is what billionaires are already doing in the EU as well, by the way: In Europe, the same social media giants that are enabling right-wing extremist parties to win elections in the US are also highly relevant. They are quite successful in doing so here as well: one example is the neo-Nazi AfD party in Germany, which is the equivalent of MAGA and is hugely popular because it is massively supported by the same billionaires who made Trump big in the US.
Yes, it is unfortunately becoming increasingly clear that even in the EU, billionaires and their companies are above the law. The legal situation should be clear here and there should be consequences - but there apparently aren’t any.
Unfortunately, this applies not only to Twitter, but to most US tech giants in particular, to meta, for example. I have already stopped counting the massive violations of the GDPR that meta and others are constantly committing, because nothing happens anyway. If anything, the fines are so low that violating the law brings these companies far more revenue than it costs them.
So unfortunately, the same major issue that brought the US to the brink of a straight up dictatorship also applies in Europe: even the most blatant violations of the law have no serious consequences for the richest of the rich – and that is why billionaires are becoming more and more powerful.
The situation may be better in the EU for now than in the US, whose legal system obviously no longer even maintains the appearance of fairness, but even in the EU, the enforcement of the law is miles away from anything that could even remotely be called justice.
The reason seems to me to be the same as in the US: concentration of power in a tiny billionaire class that asserts its influence through corruption.
I think that if things continue like this, and I see no indicators that they will not, it will not be long before even the appearance of justice is abandoned in the EU as well.
Edit: Here is an example of how this is possible - it’s just plain old corruption, but in the highest ranks of our institutions: From Meta to the EU Parliament: Former chief lobbyist negotiates data protection (German article)
Aura Salla was Meta’s chief lobbyist in Brussels for many years. Her task: to convince politicians to weaken EU digital rules such as data protection in order to generate even higher profits with Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms.
Don’t hold me responsible for this, hold Trump responsible.
It’s in my comment above, but I’m happy to repeat it for you: By threatening to invade Greenland, the US has threatened a founding member of NATO with a war of aggression.
NATO isn’t pissing itself off, just one of its member countries is pissing off all the others: the US.
Yes, absolutely. And that is precisely why we should see to it that all politicians who have benefited from this system are eliminated in democratic countries. For western democracies, this is basically synonymous with eliminating US lobbying and therefore includes most established politicians.
However, the democratic process for doing so is significantly hampered by the fact that social media in particular, but also legacy media is owned by billionaires. This ensures that only a minority in a given country is informed about the fact that only of a tiny fraction of the population, the richest 1%, in all Western democracies has benefited from this system while the population got exploited.
For Germany, for example, this means that under no circumstances one should vote for the AfD, because it is MAGA with the same goals and the same influential financiers - just a different brand.
I understand your point, but I disagree. I think NATO effectively no longer exists anyway - better to get rid of it sooner rather than later. The US recently threatened a war of aggression against one of its founding members. Now would be the right time to punish the geopolitical excesses of the criminal US-regime by creating a new alliance. The US is only a world power because of its military apparatus, which is financed on credit.
I see no reason not to let the existing world order collapse, because it has brought nothing but misery since the end of World War II.
Edit: There can no longer be any talk of a community of values with the US, as the regime there proves on a daily basis. It is more than unlikely that this will change, as the US population remains passive and will therefore soon be living in a dictatorship that will no longer pretend to be any different from oligarchies such as Russia. Therefore, I think, it makes little difference to orient oneself towards China instead.
That goes without saying, given that this is a completely illegal war of aggression. It is inconceivable that the EU is nevertheless acting as if these were allies. This war is a crime and serves to distract from further crimes: in the US, from the fact that the country is run by a fascist pedophile ring, and in Israel, from genocidal fascists whose agent, Epstein, made all this possible in the first place.
It is outrageous that the EU has not withdrawn from NATO and continues to supply weapons to the monsters in Israel.
We really need to see that it is in our own interests to eradicate US lobbying. This also means that all EU politicians who have allowed themselves to be bribed must be removed from office.
In my opinion, this includes the majority of politicians from established parties who have been in government in EU countries in the last 10 years.
It is simply necessary to hold them accountable, as voters have rightly lost confidence in them. If there are no consequences, parties such as the AfD in Germany will prevail, which has “Alternative” in its name but absurdly tries to conceal the fact that it is nothing more than MAGA with that: a neo-Nazi party that propagates fascism and is controlled by the same billionaire financiers who helped Nazi ideology succeed in the US - for the same reasons: the realization of the omnipotence trauma of fascist billionaires.
I think it’s fair to say that pretty much all the dystopian visions of the future from literature and films have now become reality. Brave new world…
The thing about licenses is that they only work if they can be defended in court. In the US system in particular, it is simply impossible for a private individual to do so (even multi-billion-dollar corporations with their highly paid lawyers seem to be powerless against artificially inflated AI giants such as OpenAI).
Therefore, it must be assumed that even restrictive licenses will simply be disregarded.
I just can’t understand how anyone could possibly vote for the CDU—given its racism and anti-social policies—but I also can’t understand those who consider it competent. This party somehow has a reputation for being competent in economic matters, yet its shameless schemes are largely to blame for Germany’s current dire economic situation.
Until 2003, the country was a global leader in photovoltaics, but the CDU cut funding to benefit its fossil fuel cronies, causing this now multi-billion-dollar industry to go to the dogs.
The internet infrastructure is abysmal because the Kohl administration chose to lay copper instead of fiber-optic cables to accommodate their cronies in the cable TV industry at the time. The problem persists to this day and has cost the country billions.
The CDU decided to phase out nuclear power without an alternative, presumably yet another favor for the fossil fuel cronies. Electricity in Germany is now more expensive than in almost any other industrialized country.
The CDU is on the verge of blocking progress in electric mobility as a favor to the auto lobby. Clinging to a technology that is simply outdated will cost the country billions in the medium term, just so that car manufacturers—who are themselves to blame for having completely ignored the signs of the times—can continue to generate high sales until, at some point, they can no longer sell anything because nobody wants their products anymore
The CDU is one of the key forces responsible for the one-sided orientation toward the US, which makes Germany vulnerable to blackmail and causes enormous harm to innovation within the country.
These are just a few examples—this party lacks economic competence on a unfathomable level: They are just lining their own pockets and so they have been making decisions for decades that have caused extreme economic harm to the country and continue to do so.