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I would equally blame the stagnant and supine institutions on the other side of the Atlantic that obsess over preserving the status quo while providing no meani

I would equally blame the stagnant and supine institutions on the other side of the Atlantic that obsess over preserving the status quo while providing no meaningful alternative to American leadership. Whether it's culture, innovation, finance, it's all the same. Europe has become reliant on America and will accept anything in the name of Diplomacy through Trade.

DarkWiiPlayer 6y ago
Excuse me? Germany tries buying gas from Russia and the USA sanctions the fuck out of companies that are even just marginally involved in it. As for innovation, that's relative. Europe, for centuries, was the undisputed worldwide leader in innovation, now that has shifted a bit to the USA and seems to be on its way to shift to China or maybe India in the next few decades. There's also the problem that Europe can't really focus on organizing itself in a self-sufficient manner because there's still separatists bitching about everything and always screaming for separation instead of forcing governments to address issues, and the impending rise of fascism in east-europe that may or may not become a huge deal for the rest of the 2020es. The USA has this problem as well, but to a far lesser degree.
- kanox 6y ago
  > Germany tries buying gas from Russia and the USA sanctions the fuck out of companies that are even just marginally involved in it. Good! Russia is an enemy.
  - chishaku 6y ago
    Why?
  - remarkEon 6y ago
    Why? The Cold War is over.
    - kanox 6y ago
      Russia still wants to dominate Eastern Europe and must be opposed. The US is an excellent partner in that, much better than Western EU.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - notriskfree 6y ago
      Exactly; when there was a clash of civilizations between a free west and a repressive soviet union; it made sense that Russia was the enemy. Now it is just a conflict between different European powers with varying levels of dysfunctional democracy and corrupt elites. So what is the basis for hating the Russians now; racism?
      - remarkEon 6y ago
        Yeah I’m fine with framing it like this. It’s just run of the mill geopolitical conflict. Calling Russians “the enemy” today is just shallow and lazy.
      - kanox 6y ago
        Russians are not the enemy, Russia is the enemy. And this is based on Putin's foreign policy towards smaller neighbors that it historically controlled.
      - IOT_Apprentice 6y ago
        Putin and his policy of destabilization of the West, from financing Brexit supporters, to poisoning his political opponents.
      - burntoutfire 6y ago
        Russia's whole political culture is the one of conquest. Their ambition was pretty much always to conquer as much of Europe and Asia as possible, and the mindset haven't changed in XXI century - neither among elites nor among common folk. They're still pretty much a typical XIX century empire, they didn't yet go the shift to focusing on economic domination that UK, Germany, US, Japan went through since.
- 0xfaded 6y ago
  The whole gas thing is classic Diplomacy through Trade. Similarly for continuing to abide by the treaty with Iran to the degree possible while avoiding sanctions across the whole financial system. Concrete example of European reliance on the US. 1. NATO 2. The US Fed for liquidity in the EU banking system 3. Acquisition market for companies 4. AWS, Azure, GCE, DO 5. Netflix My take is that cultural boundaries will erode once it becomes clear the prevailing cultural identity throughout Europe is not French, German, West or East, but unemployed millennial onward. As you say, it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
  - DarkWiiPlayer 6y ago
    I partly agree with those points. 1. There's still a narrative here in Germany that the big bad USA / trump is wrong for demanding we spend money on our military when we literally signed a contract agreeing to do just that. At the same time, we're in a bit of a unique position where our defence is also in the best interest of the USA. 4. Yes, technological reliance on the USA when it comes to the internet is amazing and terrifying at the same time. Mind you, there is no lack of European alternatives, but somehow these big companies injected a brand-oriented culture into the web-development world on a scale I'd usually expect to see in regards to clothing, not software. I'll risk sounding ellitist, but I do believe this only works because of the recent influx of newcomers to the world of web and their mentality of doing only what gets them employed. This is a way bigger problem that I could write many pages about, but in this context the important detail is that these people often choose to learn products rather than methodologies, buzzwords and brands rather than theory and logical principles.

DarkWiiPlayer 6y ago

Excuse me? Germany tries buying gas from Russia and the USA sanctions the fuck out of companies that are even just marginally involved in it. As for innovation, that's relative. Europe, for centuries, was the undisputed worldwide leader in innovation, now that has shifted a bit to the USA and seems to be on its way to shift to China or maybe India in the next few decades. There's also the problem that Europe can't really focus on organizing itself in a self-sufficient manner because there's still separatists bitching about everything and always screaming for separation instead of forcing governments to address issues, and the impending rise of fascism in east-europe that may or may not become a huge deal for the rest of the 2020es. The USA has this problem as well, but to a far lesser degree.

kanox 6y ago
> Germany tries buying gas from Russia and the USA sanctions the fuck out of companies that are even just marginally involved in it. Good! Russia is an enemy.
- chishaku 6y ago
  Why?
- remarkEon 6y ago
  Why? The Cold War is over.
  - kanox 6y ago
    Russia still wants to dominate Eastern Europe and must be opposed. The US is an excellent partner in that, much better than Western EU.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - notriskfree 6y ago
    Exactly; when there was a clash of civilizations between a free west and a repressive soviet union; it made sense that Russia was the enemy. Now it is just a conflict between different European powers with varying levels of dysfunctional democracy and corrupt elites. So what is the basis for hating the Russians now; racism?
    - remarkEon 6y ago
      Yeah I’m fine with framing it like this. It’s just run of the mill geopolitical conflict. Calling Russians “the enemy” today is just shallow and lazy.
    - kanox 6y ago
      Russians are not the enemy, Russia is the enemy. And this is based on Putin's foreign policy towards smaller neighbors that it historically controlled.
    - IOT_Apprentice 6y ago
      Putin and his policy of destabilization of the West, from financing Brexit supporters, to poisoning his political opponents.
    - burntoutfire 6y ago
      Russia's whole political culture is the one of conquest. Their ambition was pretty much always to conquer as much of Europe and Asia as possible, and the mindset haven't changed in XXI century - neither among elites nor among common folk. They're still pretty much a typical XIX century empire, they didn't yet go the shift to focusing on economic domination that UK, Germany, US, Japan went through since.
0xfaded 6y ago
The whole gas thing is classic Diplomacy through Trade. Similarly for continuing to abide by the treaty with Iran to the degree possible while avoiding sanctions across the whole financial system. Concrete example of European reliance on the US. 1. NATO 2. The US Fed for liquidity in the EU banking system 3. Acquisition market for companies 4. AWS, Azure, GCE, DO 5. Netflix My take is that cultural boundaries will erode once it becomes clear the prevailing cultural identity throughout Europe is not French, German, West or East, but unemployed millennial onward. As you say, it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
- DarkWiiPlayer 6y ago
  I partly agree with those points. 1. There's still a narrative here in Germany that the big bad USA / trump is wrong for demanding we spend money on our military when we literally signed a contract agreeing to do just that. At the same time, we're in a bit of a unique position where our defence is also in the best interest of the USA. 4. Yes, technological reliance on the USA when it comes to the internet is amazing and terrifying at the same time. Mind you, there is no lack of European alternatives, but somehow these big companies injected a brand-oriented culture into the web-development world on a scale I'd usually expect to see in regards to clothing, not software. I'll risk sounding ellitist, but I do believe this only works because of the recent influx of newcomers to the world of web and their mentality of doing only what gets them employed. This is a way bigger problem that I could write many pages about, but in this context the important detail is that these people often choose to learn products rather than methodologies, buzzwords and brands rather than theory and logical principles.