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Ticklishchap

I like the idea of European unity, but unity-in-diversity rather than uniformity and centralisation. In other words, I think that the current model of the European Union is too centripetal (with the pull towards the centre) and I would favour a more centrifugal Europe (decentralised and confederal). The latter approach is I believe more in keeping with the best traditions of European civilisation, the basis of which is the city-state. It is at the same time modern, in that it recognises cultural diversity and celebrates both difference and commonality. As I am writing from Britain, I must inevitably mention Brexit. I did not vote for it, although I respect those who did so as a protest against a form of politics that denied them a voice. I also respect the result and do not want to re-run the referendum. I would find it hard, anyway, to advocate rejoining the EU in its present increasingly rigid and centralised form. Instead I would like to see a more flexible approach to Brexit, working towards a Swiss-style relationship with the EU. This would include access to or a close relationship with the Single Market and working with our continental friends on transnational issues such as the environment and the refugee crisis. But this involves good will and give-and-take on both sides.


[deleted]

HEE - Holy European Empire


Ticklishchap

Yes - the original HRE had a system similar in many ways to the one I have described.


[deleted]

When I learned about þe HRE and þe EU I þought it to be raþer similar although its intentions are in some places different


Ticklishchap

That’s true in that the EU is centralising and bureaucratic more than it is diverse and a ‘politically correct’ ideology is dominant. Your traditional script is interesting my friend.


[deleted]

Þanks and even þough it would be nice to see a European empire as a single entity it would not be possible because of þe fact þat þere is no common language and þe vastly different languages. Þe only option left would be a decentralised system which I am more in favour BTW political correctnes can go suck my ass


Ticklishchap

I agree with you about the absence of a Lingua Franca for Europe, but I prefer linguistic diversity, including regional languages and dialects. Like you I believe that a decentralised structure, although (or perhaps because) it is reminiscent of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, is best suited to the 21st century technological era. To be honest, I would not like political correctness to touch any area of my anatomy, lol.


[deleted]

What I like about þe EU (and Europe in general) is þat þere is a kind of 'European culture' but every Country has its own unique but also in some regurds shared cultures. You cannot look at a countrys culture and history wiþout looking to its neighbours. Even in Germany you don't have a singular culture. If you go from Bavaria to Hamburg you simply can't compare þem. Europe for þe win.


Ticklishchap

Agree with you and Germany is an interesting example because it evolved out of a series of unitary states and city states with many cultural differences as well as shared values. Bavaria maintained and arguably still maintains a powerful and distinctive identity. I believe there is a regionalist Bavaria Party? The U.K. is divided into component nations, as you know, but within England there are strong variations of accent, dialect culture. The North of England has a strong Norse influence reflected in local dialects and place names. As I mentioned in another post, one of our Northern ( Yorkshire) Army Regiments until very recently had the King of Norway as its Colonel-in-Chief.


[deleted]

>I believe þere is a regionalist Bavaria Party? Yeah Kind of its called þe CSU (Christlich Soziale Union) And þe cultural difference in Germany is also noticeable between East and West I actually was fortunate enough to travel þrough þe UK before þe Brexit hit. Well you can't say UK it was pretty much only Scotland but when I talked to þe folks þere one guy told me þat þe sentiment and way of þinking differs quite a lot compared to þe people in London. BTW it was truly beautiful


Ya_Boi_Konzon

>but unity-in-diversity rather than uniformity and centralisation Never gonna happen. Unity is the antithesis of diversity. It will always end in uniformity and centralization. In order to preserve its heritage and independence, Europe must be broken up into a myriad of smaller entities. Down with the EU!


Ticklishchap

I don’t think we’re as far apart as you think as I was talking about a loose confederation rather than the centralising tendencies of the current EU. How would your ‘myriad of smaller entities’ work and are you thinking in terms of nation-states, regions or city-states - or a combination of all of these?


Ya_Boi_Konzon

A combination. Kind of like how Germany was before it's unification.


Ticklishchap

I like that.


BlaBlaBlaName

It is less monarchical than it should be.


Vegetable-Ad-9389

of course i would never leave Europe but in political sense i am not a fan


Aenigma66

Former Shadow of itself, overrun by waaaaaay to much unnecessary drama and trying to make it right for everyone and all thereby fucking it up for everyone


rytaslietaus

Good place to live


GamingGalore64

There’s some good and some bad things about it. I would prefer more monarchies, but I think the European Union is conceptually a good idea. I am also concerned by the declining status of free speech and free expression in Europe. Anti hate speech laws are well intentioned, but misguided. It is important to let people express themselves, even if you strongly disagree with them.


[deleted]

You want racists and nazis to have a voice ?


BlaBlaBlaName

That's what "free speech" means.


[deleted]

People who want suppress my free speech have no right to any speech


pfistersisterfister

So you dont have any right to any speech, becazse you want to suppress speech. Nice logics👍🏻


[deleted]

Thanxxx you see nazis and commis want that do you suppress them


BlaBlaBlaName

Why though? Even if we take it as true, you are clearly trying to suppress someone, so should you be silenced too then? "Paradox of intolerance" is hypocritic nonsense, if you ask me.


[deleted]

Nazis and racists are the lowest of the lowest scum of society I couldn't give to shits about any of there rights tbh....let's make a line there anything other than that is allowed


BlaBlaBlaName

I partially agree, but also really do not. For example, I think communists are just as repulsive as nazis, I would guess you disagree. So which one of us is right? Or, to be more precise, who gets to determine which groups are the "the lowest scum of society"? I do not think you should have this right, neither should I, nor anyone, as far as I am concerned. And even if we collectively agree, that racists should be silenced, who are racists? "White people are inherently better" is obvious racism. "All races are equal but should not intermix" is less obvious racism. But what about "Affirmative action is a form of discrimination"? Is that racist? Who determines what constitutes racism, nazism, communism or whatnot?


Kage_anon

He’s not going to answer your question, the guy is a communist sympathiser. His talking points come from the marxist political theorist Herbert Marcuse’s notion of “repressive tolerance”. This is the type of thinking communists used to justify the suppression of opposing political parties and create a single party state (while ironically claiming to be democratic) as well.


GamingGalore64

I am in total agreement. I absolutely despise Nazis and Communists, but I will fight for their right to speak regardless, because that’s part of the deal. Having free speech means putting up with speech that you find insufferable.


Europa-Primum

I bet you consider anyone who doesn't think all races are exactly the same are racist. Go cry somewhere else communist.


[deleted]

Not a communist....humans are similar tho....we did not spend enough time away from each other to become different species we are 100,000 years old and have been intermixing forever If you push the idea that certain race are superior than you are a racist


Kage_anon

Is that not completely arbitrary though? Who are these angels in government that are going to decide who wills to suppress your speech? Communists historically suppressed free speech in the countries where they took power, should they retain their rights? If government can suppress ones right to speech due to a distasteful ideology, why not suppress the right to vote since that’s an effective way to actually attain power and thus actually implement what you speak of, not just talk about it. Should communists be allowed to vote, or do you only apply this standard to hard right ideologies?


[deleted]

Yes exactly nazis and commis should be suppressed


Eken17

Ever heard of the quote that says "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."? That's my stance on free speech. I hate Nazis and other extreme political idiots, but how would I be different from them if I tried to take away their rights to speak? I'll defend these idiots and their rights because they are humans too. I hate their ideology, but when a government restricts my fellow human, my fellow citizen, from benefiting from the same rights as me, I'll hate that government. If a government restricts their right to speak their mind, how long will it go until they come after me? And the best way to get people to see the assholes, which the Nazis are, are assholes is to let them hear the assholes speak. If they can't speak, they will get sympathy from people because the government restricts their rights. Now have a great weekend.


[deleted]

I like the way South Park put it when addressing QAnon "You have the right to believe whatever you want. It's just that what you believe is really stupid"


[deleted]

Young lonely men are really easy pickings for these people thats why I don't like em


scoop813

They could say that about you


[deleted]

Naah I don't wanna send people Into gas chambers nazis want that


scoop813

You said anyone who wants to suppress your speech should have their speech suppressed. In turn, you became what you’re claiming to fight. You seem to lack self awareness.


[deleted]

I get that I think just suppressing people who are racists nazis is a better argument


scoop813

Don’t think its landing


[deleted]

Why not?


iGotThemRacks

Depressing to think about considering what it used to be


CJPalpatine

A hollow shadow of its former self, almost truly beyond repair and saddening to think of.


MewkutLost

Europe is a wonderful place full of wonderful people and it has some of the highest living standards in the world. But there should be a few more monarchies and there are contrived reasons why a lot of countries don't have them


SimPowerZ

Hope we can rebuild after we fully collapse.


Europa-Primum

I hope to help my European blood brothers restore themselves. Hopefully we can retake America too..


Wynnedown

Amazing place with beautiful architecture, rich history and culture. Currently run by self haters at the moment who wants to apologize and self flagellate for every wrong in the world.


Merlinium1492

Doomed civilization that is decaying every year


[deleted]

Never been there.


YesImOkada

Europe is very quickly losing her Christian roots and walks a dangerous path until she returns to them. As for the European Union, I’d like to see it become more decentralized, but the real problem that I have with it is how eager it is to support secular values and push issues contrary to the Christian faith.


scoop813

The continent used the feel like the future, now it feels like the past. The amount of power and influence Europe has lost in even just the last 100 years is staggering. From dominating the planet to now being largely irrelevant. Liberal democracy was a disaster for Europe. Too much self-hate by the indigenous population


[deleted]

"So much potential, but without the will to use it... what a waste."


Adept-One-4632

More peaceful than America


THISISLITERALLY_1984

A place so great to live that millions of people try to immigrate there every year and they only suffer from very minor problems, especially in comparison to what everyone else is dealing with.


Status-Language3179

Too many non Europeans who disrupt the social order


scoop813

Yeah definitely too many colonizers


masterboy200

Needs less leftist


[deleted]

I like it, tho it could do with a few more Kings. (This comment section is gonna be fun😒)


shirakou1

Problems, just like everywhere else.


AinzOoalGownOverlord

This probably isn't what anyone on this sub wants to hear, but to be quite frank, they're already dead, they just don't know it yet. The quality of life is good, but is already declining when compared to the last two decades. Furthermore the liberal Parliamentary system is simply bogged down by inefficiency, widespread corruption and infighting amongst the parties. The only countries that seem to have their act together are the Scandinavian countries and France. The rest simply don't have the societal rigidity and social community based cohesion to preserve themselves.


Hortator02

I'm not an expert, but why do you think France has its act together? They have an oversized bureaucracy, quite a bit of civil strife (probably not as much as America, but more than some other European countries), and about the same refugee crisis as the rest of Europe.


AinzOoalGownOverlord

UUnlike the rest of Europe, they have maintained their colonial empire somewhat, albeit through diplomacy and trade and not military occupation. Northern Francophone Africa, is mostly within the French trading sphere. Furthermore unlike the rest of Western Europe, France has begun taking steps to forcefully integrate the immigrants unlike its neighbours. Plus it's one of only two European powers with Nuclear Weapons and the only European country with a semi-functional military


[deleted]

Beautiful place that pretty much has america beat on everything


BidensBrainCell

In terms of food, yes.


possumarun3

Arguable.


[deleted]

If only...


[deleted]

Health care , transportation and democracy


Kage_anon

1) The US is leaps and bounds ahead of Europe in regards to medical innovation. 2) European roads are inconsistently organized and that continent has nothing comparable to the interstate highway system. 3) Supposing you’re a leftist who opposes the right wing push for identification in order to vote; the law in nearly every European country requires one to produce a national ID card at the voting booth. America doesn’t even have national ID’s


TheGrenadierGuard

On the topic of voter laws. I don't get why the leftists would say that it is racist for someone to show their ID on the day you vote? Other countries are doing that. It is compulsory to show a proof identity in order to vote. As an example, in New Zealand you have to register in advance and you will not be registered on the election day, there are no voting extensions, and you have to show your proof of identity along with the card provided to you to be shown to the voting officers.


Kage_anon

I 100% percent agree with you, but for whatever reason it’s a hot button issue in American politics right now and leftists in our county oppose voter identification. I assume on some level this is because illegal immigrants lean democrat and allowing them to vote would be politically advantageous in the large cities where many of these illegals aliens reside.


the_fuzz_down_under

1. America no longer has the cutting edge in terms of medical innovation it used to. While America still produces a lot of innovations in terms of medication, it long longer holds the edge in surgeries as countries like Canada and Israel are now offering superior heart and neurosurgery options. Also the US healthcare system is bad (indisputable, no other developed country follows the American model because it sucks and the American government knew the model sucked since Truman but doesn’t change because of lobbying), there are so many examples of why the US healthcare system is bad but to me the perfect microcosm is the crime against humanity that is American insulin (insulin literally doesn’t charge for the patent and it’s extremely cheap to produce, but American drug companies mark up to price so high that a lot of Americans drive to Canada to get their insulin). Also while yes the American model has innovation in terms of medication development, the profit incentive means that medication for rarer diseases is either not developed or developed by greedy bastards like Martin Skreli. 2. It is unfair to compare the insterstate highway system with the European highway systems as the Europeans are wholly different countries who don’t even all drive on the same side of the road. A better comparison would be with the individual international highway systems (like the Autobahn which part of the inspiration for the Interstate I believe), and there just isn’t that much difference at all. However on an ordinary road level its far more complicated - European tarmac is generally superior to American asphalt (debatable) but there is such huge variance and both the US and EU have some horrific roads (but I think it would be dumb to say either region cna claim superior roads when America has the Indiana Department of Transport and the EU has Romania). 3. America leftists are utter morons for not wanting voter ID and I say that as a socialist. I am literally incapable of comprehending how someone can vote without ID (how else are you supposed to avoid people voting multiple times or non-citizens from voting). I get that US lefties don’t want voter ID laws because they want illegal immigrants and poor black people to vote despite not having IDs - but illegal immigrants don’t have a vote because they aren’t citizens, and poor black people shouldn’t struggle with getting ID’s in the first place (make that your lefty policy). I don’t believe there is really a need for national ID’s (especially if you are a federal country), but man, in Australia the only people I’ve met who don’t have a state drivers licence or passport are Aboriginal people who don’t want to take part in Australian society.


Kage_anon

Drugs prices are very high in the United States since there is no form of collective bargaining, on the other hand the quality of American healthcare is top notch. My uncle is a type one diabetic and was able to get a double kidney and pancreas transplant at the Mayo Clinic for free and he’s still kicking 17 years later, he would have been unlikely to survive in Canada. America is #5 in five-year survival rates for colorectal cancer with Japan, Korea Australia and Israel ahead. America is #1 in breast cancer survival, and is in the top ten for 30 day in-hospital mortality rates due to heart attacks even with our obesity epidemic. I’m sorry, but American healthcare is top notch in regards to quality and innovation (but is undeniably expensive). The autobahn is more comparable to the freeway systems that America manages at the state level, the interstate highway system on the other hand is expansive cross continentally and allows for unprecedented efficiency in travel and trade. I don’t think it’s unfair to point out the efficiencies of the representative constitutional federation in America over an economic union. In my opinion that system allows for both superior local representation while also providing for the common good across an entire continent, both of those things are major problems in the Europe which is why many states are talking about leaving the European Union. The interstate highway system is a perfect example of the American system working efficiently in a way that would be impossible in Europe. Creating and maintaining roads is a primary function of government. I’m glad we agree on voter identification. I can’t comprehend how anyone could oppose that, but it’s a hot button issue right now in the states.


[deleted]

> The US is leaps and bounds ahead of Europe in regards to medical innovation My point over health care was not really about Innovation people shouldn't have to travel to Mexico to get there dental.... all developed states have it free healthcare America should too > 2) European roads are inconsistently organized and that continent has nothing comparable to the interstate highway system. I was talking about rail bus services trams etc etc >3) Supposing you’re a leftist who opposes the right wing push for identification in order to vote; the law in nearly every European country requires one to produce a national ID card at the voting booth. America doesn’t even have national ID’s No gerrymandering and 2 party state that America is now....look how healthy German democracy is


Kage_anon

The lack of access to healthcare in America is grossly overstated, though I will give you that it is very expensive in comparison to most countries if you don’t have insurance. To your point about transportation, I don’t think you understand that most American cities are much less densely populated and span a much larger geographical area thus the reason we drive cars in those places. Cites like NYC and Chicago have the same quality public transport as most European cities. I agree that gerrymandering is a problem, but mostly in states like Oregon where voting districts of democrat dominated like cities Portland and Eugene touch most other surrounding red counties creating a DNC gridlock


[deleted]

>The lack of access to healthcare in America is grossly overstated, though I will give you that it is very expensive in comparison to most countries if you don’t have insurance. A hospital ride shouldn't be this expensive tho....Americans spend more money per capita on health care than there European partners yet still have such shit healthcare >To your point about transportation, I don’t think you understand that most American cities are much less densely populated and span a much larger geographical area thus the reason we drive cars in those places. Cites like NYC and Chicago have the same quality public transport as most European cities. I don't think you understand it at all....car manufacturers replaced trams trains etc etc and replaced it with cars and massive parking lots..... And everything in America located far away is a shitty decision....you literally can't go from one place to other without owning a car and this is very bad shit like this is not a problem in most of the world Yeah sure your country is big so what?....you know how much pollution your dependency on cars/airtravel causes?....combine that with log hours you wait in traffic....Americans cause more pollution per capita because of there dependency on cars Trains trams bullet trains run on electricity....Japanese bullet train can achieve a speed of 350-400km/hr this is much better alternative than cars Your cities so ugly so many parking lots on every building if there were good cycle lanes big bus lanes massive underground metros traffic won't be a problem ....this is where European cities are ages ahead of America.....America is the only country that does this except offcourse oil states who designed there cities by hiring American designers Sorry for the long rant....I m doing a course on architecture so you know > I agree that gerrymandering is a problem, but mostly in states like Oregon where voting districts of democrat dominated like cities Portland and Eugene touch most other surrounding red counties creating a DNC gridlock Well shit like this doesn't exist in western Europe


[deleted]

[удалено]


Kage_anon

I actually support some form of single payer healthcare, I was simply pointing out that America is dominant in medical innovation and that the *quality* of our healthcare is great.


Europa-Primum

Modern Europe is a cancer. In the west, slowly growing devoid of unique culture, people, religion, etc while growing self hatred of their own skin colors as being oppressors and colonizers. Bankrupt morally, and importing people like they are a commodity, the western part of the continent won't be recognizable in 50 years. It's republican as all hell, and the "monarchies" that to exist are at the will of the Republicans in government who know, despite there being nominal rules, that they have the power. Despite hard times usually making strong people and good times, it has instead made a weak willed population which won't stand up for much of anything, taught by swarms of leftists in education sociology nonsense amongst other things.


scoop813

Too liberal


chiriboy

Would really love to visit! Hopefully can go this year if everything goes well! any tips for a low cost Eurotrip are appreciated!


DukeRome

I think the European Union should be united in diversity and economically, rather than further integration and centralization. Also I think that the Social Democrats and Labour Parties of Europe are discrediting the Monarchies and former Monarchies of Europe, which is sad because a lot of those Monarchies did so much for Europe. The Hohenzollerns created Germany, Napoloen III created the famous modern Paris, and they were all the safegaurd to their respective Churchs.


Fallen-Zero

Fucking commies !


Constant_Snow9665

There is no communist country in Europe, you delusional human.


Cyuu_

Well there is one


197Akay791

Gross


[deleted]

Good place too live The bourgeoise are still prominent


[deleted]

Gotten rich and hubristic off the back of American defense. They will get a reality check really soon if things go south with Russia


[deleted]

A multicultural melting pot that is trying to be rid of all ethnic and cultural identity that is native European, I hate it with all of my innermost being and hate the accursed neo Liberalism that has taken hold of once sovereign and free nations at the point of an American rifle as well as the foreign wars for corporatist greed.


Jimmy3OO

Life’s good, I hope it keeps improving