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You don't even sound like you have any idea what's going on inside the EU atm. Do you know that in Italy already a right-wing party just got elected into gover

You don't even sound like you have any idea what's going on inside the EU atm. Do you know that in Italy already a right-wing party just got elected into government? Do you have any idea about rising sympathy for the right-wing AfD in Germany? Do you have any idea about rising energy prices and how they are about to mass destroy businesses? How people are beginning to struggle paying for their energy bills? This oblivious attitude to what's going on is exactly going to be the reason for the downfall of the EU. Why do I never see these types of people address the facts and numbers? All I see is mockery and complete oblivion to reality. Probably the same thing the US did in Afghanistan up until the moment they suddenly had to gtfo.

shadowgovt 4y ago
Nah. People knew holding Afghanistan was a cluster from day 1. It's the "graveyard of empires." Just took a long time to get a leader with the guts to do the needful and admit the country couldn't be remote-controlled. National pride is a hell of a thing. Blinds people to reason.
hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
I live in the very center of Europe and fortunately not much changed for me - yes, the prices are slightly higher, and electricity and gas quite a bit, but we knew about it from the moment Putin started the war and fortunately it's manageable. Yes, businesses depending on huge energy consumption will need to find a way to deal with it, and it's something that could be good for us in the long run. Just like COVID increased digital transformation, the war accelerated our plans to make us less dependent on fossil fuels.
- jdthedisciple 4y ago
  > make us less dependent on fossil fuels Sounds good on paper except that it's a complete and absolute pipe dream in reality. Even without the war that transition would've taken at least half a decade if not a decade. Believing that this can now somehow be magically achieved even faster than originally planned despite what's going on is basically the definition of wishful thinking. Also, I have no idea how you live, but I wouldn't be surprised if you have but yourself to feed, live in a small apartment and happen to be among the few with a good income. That's unfortunately not very representative of your average family household.
  - hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
    I think you are being optimistic - I don't believe the transition can happen in a decade, even two seems wishful thinking. But it's about something else: about making sure everybody in our society understands the transition is necessary and they are willing to adapt. This wasn't obvious before the war, with many people or even whole societies preferring the old comfy status quo. As for myself, I have a quite large family, and of course as all human beings we have worries about the future, but nothing really serious happened to us, and our lives are more or less as before. My electricity bill rose by 30% but it's still ridiculously small. I see no any signs of Europe falling despite of what Russian media are actively trying to tell their viewers. Maybe it's to stop emigration, but the ones likely to migrate (=young & talented) know better already. Many of them are staying only because they don't want to leave their older parents.
    - jdthedisciple 4y ago
      Again, I can see you're one of the few who are well off and have a nice, comfy financial buffer to fall back to. Congratulations! But I don't get how you can brush off fuel prices that have almost doubled since 2 years ago, almost double the butter and egg prices, rocketing energy prices, to just name a few examples as "ridiculously small" and "nothing really serious" when a good chunk of the populations live more or less hand-to-mouth and can barely afford such a drastic and sudden increase of living costs? This to me is simply willful oblivion, and it's sad to see how people never learn from the past.
      - hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
        I don't know where you are taking your data from. In Berlin, you can but butter for €2.20-€2.50. Do you want to say that in 2020 I could buy butter for €1.10? Same with eggs - €2.70-€3.00 a dozen. I don't think you could buy them for €1.35 (that could be the price 10 years ago). I don't think I'm particularly well off. I rent my apartment and I don't even have a car. I regularly meet with the members of my family living in different places and the amount of complaining hasn't increased considerably. There are more Ukrainians everywhere mostly women with kids, but they're nice people and many of them are working wherever they can, it's very good for our economy.

shadowgovt 4y ago

Nah. People knew holding Afghanistan was a cluster from day 1. It's the "graveyard of empires." Just took a long time to get a leader with the guts to do the needful and admit the country couldn't be remote-controlled. National pride is a hell of a thing. Blinds people to reason.

hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago

I live in the very center of Europe and fortunately not much changed for me - yes, the prices are slightly higher, and electricity and gas quite a bit, but we knew about it from the moment Putin started the war and fortunately it's manageable. Yes, businesses depending on huge energy consumption will need to find a way to deal with it, and it's something that could be good for us in the long run. Just like COVID increased digital transformation, the war accelerated our plans to make us less dependent on fossil fuels.

jdthedisciple 4y ago
> make us less dependent on fossil fuels Sounds good on paper except that it's a complete and absolute pipe dream in reality. Even without the war that transition would've taken at least half a decade if not a decade. Believing that this can now somehow be magically achieved even faster than originally planned despite what's going on is basically the definition of wishful thinking. Also, I have no idea how you live, but I wouldn't be surprised if you have but yourself to feed, live in a small apartment and happen to be among the few with a good income. That's unfortunately not very representative of your average family household.
- hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
  I think you are being optimistic - I don't believe the transition can happen in a decade, even two seems wishful thinking. But it's about something else: about making sure everybody in our society understands the transition is necessary and they are willing to adapt. This wasn't obvious before the war, with many people or even whole societies preferring the old comfy status quo. As for myself, I have a quite large family, and of course as all human beings we have worries about the future, but nothing really serious happened to us, and our lives are more or less as before. My electricity bill rose by 30% but it's still ridiculously small. I see no any signs of Europe falling despite of what Russian media are actively trying to tell their viewers. Maybe it's to stop emigration, but the ones likely to migrate (=young & talented) know better already. Many of them are staying only because they don't want to leave their older parents.
  - jdthedisciple 4y ago
    Again, I can see you're one of the few who are well off and have a nice, comfy financial buffer to fall back to. Congratulations! But I don't get how you can brush off fuel prices that have almost doubled since 2 years ago, almost double the butter and egg prices, rocketing energy prices, to just name a few examples as "ridiculously small" and "nothing really serious" when a good chunk of the populations live more or less hand-to-mouth and can barely afford such a drastic and sudden increase of living costs? This to me is simply willful oblivion, and it's sad to see how people never learn from the past.
    - hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
      I don't know where you are taking your data from. In Berlin, you can but butter for €2.20-€2.50. Do you want to say that in 2020 I could buy butter for €1.10? Same with eggs - €2.70-€3.00 a dozen. I don't think you could buy them for €1.35 (that could be the price 10 years ago). I don't think I'm particularly well off. I rent my apartment and I don't even have a car. I regularly meet with the members of my family living in different places and the amount of complaining hasn't increased considerably. There are more Ukrainians everywhere mostly women with kids, but they're nice people and many of them are working wherever they can, it's very good for our economy.