And has worked tirelessly to create it, yes. Europeans have looked at the chaos in the US with a sense that it represents some kind of moral failing specific to Americans, but the reality is they themselves have been part of the same decades long social engineering campaign by Russia and China.
The only difference is the goals have been slightly different for each target and the type of trolling and propaganda exploits slightly different social and cultural weaknesses. But ultimately the goal has always been to drive a wedge between the US and Europe, and weaken both.
100%. Its a classic divide & conquer strategy, albeit that the technology has changed over the centuries, and the methodology (hybrid) has become more finetuned. I mean, objectivelly and strategically it’s how the world has been working forever: " in war and love there are no rules", it is said.
On the otherhand, how the world has been working forever, is exactly the whole issue. Speaking for European (or worldcitizens) we really hate wars and catastrophic results, so we’d like to move away from the old world, towards a more balanced world with more equal partnership; ideally.
It’s impossible to move to that point, when your supposed partners apperantly don’t have the same wish ( Ruzz Mir for example, isn’t peace). At the end of the day I perceive this as a clash between systems, democracies & authoracies.And, even this comparance may be too simplified. I hope and trust, we can find a proportionate and adequate response to these negative developments and actions.
Also it should be a joint responsibility between all the citizens from the whole world ( if your country is fucking up, try to do something if possible, stay safe ofc). Instead, as it appears now, we have just some head of states deciding everything for billions.
Kinda of like a modernised slogan from yesteryear," citizens over the World Unite; against idiotic head of states! " thing. Wouldn’t that be something . Cheesy John Lenon shit. Yet maybe he’s right; because here we are in this mess.
It often feels like we’re all reformed drunks, knowing perfectly well what would happen when you touch the booze again and fists start flying and trying their hardest to keep it from happening. And now some neighbors is having loud parties and leaving bottles everywhere.
Among other things, members and supporters of the group allegedly planned to sail a ship into Russian territorial waters and make contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
They had hoped for military and political support from Putin in the founding of a new state, according to the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office.
When you develop your collective fantasies in an echo bunker with no one to say, “Do you think that actually happen? What if he says, ‘No’? What if you get caught?” they grow and become more and more ludicrous.
Yeah apparently they’re happy with Mr Security leaving the door open and running a skeleton crew at the border on the 50th anniversary of the last Yom Kippur war.
They can’t remove the obsolete claim because China’s Anti-Secession Law promises war if they do. Last time it was 1992 when they agreed about “one China, ROC or PRC, not both”.
Or maybe, just maybe, America is not the shit hole the propaganda is trying to make it out to be.
Don’t get me wrong, we have our problems and it’s not all peaches and cream, but it’s overall a pretty good place to live, even if you are poor. Maybe especially if you’re poor due to our services and access to things like clear water. Obviously not comparing to some of our peers, but across the world it’s pretty good.
As a European I agree, visiting the US I’m always shocked how nice places are, like Baltimore has got a great atmosphere and a lot of really cool places, Pittsburgh was really cool too with the big fountain and everyone enjoying the river and stuff. They’re both cities I hear people shit on endlessly but compared to most cities I’ve visited in Europe they’re really nice.
My main culture shock in the US is how friendly everyone is, I told a crackhead I didn’t have any cash on me and he recognized my accent said ‘welcome to america’ and it felt like he meant it, my top ten friendliest interactions with strangers are all in the US or Germany.
Your police and boarder control are absolutely crazy of course, it’s scary that there are so many nuts with guns and some of your prices are just fucking wild but all in all anyone saying it’s 3rd world or dystopic is living in a weird fantasy.
I’d agree with you. I live in the UK, but just recently went to Florida. When I came back I couldn’t get over how much of a shithole the UK was - compared to Florida!!
I have been living in Botswana for the past two years, and I’m genuinely surprised where it is on this list. Yeah, people here don’t have the greatest deal, but there’s freaking universal healthcare here. The country has been extremely politically stable since independence. There’s no way people are less happy here than those who are in active war zones.
How integrated are you into the local community? How well do you speak the local language? I’m a foreigner living abroad and I would never trust either my own perception of this place nor 99% of other foreigners’ perceptions.
I see your point. I know that there are folks unhappy with the current government, but to be fair, who isn’t? The San have also been pretty fucked over by the government.
My wife is finishing up a global health pediatric fellowship. She arrived in 2021, and I came out about a year later because I was finishing up chaplaincy training and I had a contract to finish out for a synagogue I was working for.
If airbnbs faced a heavy imposed cost all those years ago, designed to keep them from squeezing out legitimate hotels and causing a real estate bubble, where would we be now, one wonders.
The auto industry has so much better protection than we do.
A quick search shows that hotel industry analysts do feel the pinch. How could they not, when airbnbs have earned something like $65bn since 2018. That isn’t extra spending generated outside of hotel bookings. I can’t think of a reason to suppose otherwise.
Funny, this is actually the second thread in the past couple of days where eating insects has come up for unrelated reasons. I’ll repeat what I said in the other thread on a few points:
We should be eating cricket flour. […] And if we got over the “ick” factor, our carb-filled food would be a lot healthier.
No, you won’t be picking legs out of your teeth.
…
I’ve actually eaten insects when it’s clear that they’re insects. I once even bought some from a Thai grocery and cooked them myself just to see if I could. I’m not a great cook, so it wasn’t exactly a meal with four Michelin stars, but most of it wasn’t too bad. The longicorn beetle larvae tasted nutty and the ants tasted citrusy (I assume because of the formic acid). I didn’t like the giant water bug though. It did look like a massive cockroach, which didn’t help, but it also had a sort of juniper/gin flavor and I don’t like that flavor.
I’ve also had Oaxacan Mexican crickets in chili and lime. They used to sell them on street stalls near Dodger Stadium when I lived in L.A. Pretty good.
What’s funny is that people who don’t blink an eye at eating shrimp, crab or lobster can’t handle the idea of eating arthropods.
Insects can be farmed sustainably, they are high in protein and many other nutrients, and there’s really nothing wrong with their tastes unless you don’t like the same flavors in other foods.
Ma Laeng Tod (Thai street food- fried insects,) is delicious. The grub were like spicy-savory gummy bears.
As some one who’s perhaps too adventurous for their own good (I’ll eat almost anything, once.)… I find this whole idea that it’s going to be forced patently ludicrous. Even if there was a push towards it.
Italians, or at least Sardinians, already eat bugs. As expected, they make it into something delicious.
Casu martzu[1] (Sardinian: [ˈkazu ˈmaɾtsu]; lit. ‘rotten/putrid cheese’), sometimes spelled casu marzu, and also called casu modde, casu cundídu and casu fràzigu in Sardinian, is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese that contains live insect larvae (maggots).
Never eat those maggots live, unlike mites they actually can fuck you up from the inside. Which isn’t the reason it’s outlawed though, that’s because Sardinians have no sanitary source for the maggots.
There are plenty of amino-acids in plants, there’s no need for wasting resources on insects.
In reality, the subsidies meant for these invertebrate animal farms will be lead to more feed for the vertebrate animal farms, in the shape of “concentrated protein feed”.
It has been suggested that the ecological impact of crickets as a source of dietary protein is less than conventional forms of livestock due to their comparatively efficient feed conversion and ability to consume organic side-streams. This study measured the biomass output and feed conversion ratios of house crickets (Acheta domesticus) reared on diets that varied in quality, ranging from grain-based to highly cellulosic diets. The measurements were made at a much greater population scale and density than any previously reported in the scientific literature. The biomass accumulation was strongly influenced by the quality of the diet (p<0.001), with the nitrogen (N) content, the ratio of N to acid detergent fiber (ADF) content, and the crude fat (CF) content (y=N/ADF+CF) explaining most of the variability between feed treatments (p = 0.02; R2 = 0.96). In addition, for populations of crickets that were able to survive to a harvestable size, the feed conversion ratios measured were higher (less efficient) than those reported from studies conducted at smaller scales and lower population densities. Compared to the industrial-scale production of chickens, crickets fed a poultry feed diet showed little improvement in protein conversion efficiency, a key metric in determining the ecological footprint of grain-based livestock protein. Crickets fed the solid filtrate from food waste processed at an industrial scale via enzymatic digestion were able to reach a harvestable size and achieve feed and protein efficiencies similar to that of chickens. However, crickets fed minimally-processed, municipal-scale food waste and diets composed largely of straw experienced >99% mortality without reaching a harvestable size. Therefore, the potential for A. domesticus to sustainably supplement the global protein supply, beyond what is currently produced via grain-fed chickens, will depend on capturing regionally scalable organic side-streams of relatively high-quality that are not currently being used for livestock production.
Animal products, i.e. meat, milk and eggs, provide an important component in global diets, but livestock dominate agricultural land use by area and are a major source of greenhouse gases. Cultural and personal associations with animal product consumption create barriers to moderating consumption, and hence reduced environmental impacts. Here we review alternatives to conventional animal products, including cultured meat, imitation meat and insects (i.e. entomophagy), and explore the potential change in global agricultural land requirements associated with each alternative. Stylised transformative consumption scenarios where half of current conventional animal products are substituted to provide at least equal protein and calories are considered. The analysis also considers and compares the agricultural land area given shifts between conventional animal product consumption. The results suggest that imitation meat and insects have the highest land use efficiency, but the land use requirements are only slightly greater for eggs and poultry meat. The efficiency of insects and their ability to convert agricultural by-products and food waste into food, suggests further research into insect production is warranted. Cultured meat does not appear to offer substantial benefits over poultry meat or eggs, with similar conversion efficiency, but higher direct energy requirements. Comparison with the land use savings from reduced consumer waste, including over-consumption, suggests greater benefits could be achieved from alternative dietary transformations considered. We conclude that although a diet with lower rates of animal product consumption is likely to create the greatest reduction in agricultural land, a mix of smaller changes in consumer behaviour, such as replacing beef with chicken, reducing food waste and potentially introducing insects more commonly into diets, would also achieve land savings and a more sustainable food system.
Yes, I read it. Plants are still the superior option. I was being generous for your middle ground position.
If you knew anything about animal farming, you’d know that “garbage” can mean a lot of things. This hope of waste feeding gets trickier with invertebrates who don’t regulate their own body temperature. I’m saying that you’re being excessively optimistic about it.
I expect you to understand that some topics are more ambiguous, which means that there are more contradictory bits of information which are tied to different setups in context.
As the practice of raising these invertebrate animals is not happening at a large scale, the data for it is also weak and based on immature research. The ambiguity with decline over time, if there’s more research into this and it actually happens at a large scale.
In terms of food traditions, eating land insects is usually a luxury, which reflects the scarcity: finedininglovers.com/…/insect-delicacies-around-w… The simple notion that “insect protein is cheap” is misleading.
Yet, in typical European fashion they would much much much rather interpret “reduce immigration” to mean “be mean to poor people here” than to mean “help stabilize developing nations and allow their economies to grow without squeezing them out using our country’s dominant economic position (so people don’t become economic migrants) and without support for bombing them every other decade (so people don’t become war refugees)”, which of course includes “address climate change (so people don’t become climate refugees)”.
No upstream thinking, just fascism fascism fascism.
Yeah … that is one way to look at it. But the experience of a lot of people out in the world is that migrants who lived their formative years in dog eat dog situations have a different way of dealing with the world… and that shit is also scary.
I have encountered kids as young as 12 with machetes on a chain around their neck under their shirt… like what the fu…
The article does not address any of that, it’s your interpretation. I would like lower immigration into my country and that absolutely requires raising other countries up economically and preventing war and climate catastrophe. This was just a survey on what issues people are concerned about. It did not ask for solutions.
Yea right, I’m sure AfD voters are all for raising up other countries.
Buddy, I’m Greek. I know first hand what German right wingers think of “irresponsible southerners”. So far up their righteous asses that expending economic resources for a European country that basically buys everything Germany produces was too hard for them to swallow. Don’t tell me they would not turn uber-protectionist the moment helping some brown people place comes up.
Funny that you’re Greek. I recently had a conversation with the middle aged son of Greek migrants where he complained that the suburb he grew up in changed because of the later wave of migrants from elsewhere. No self awareness at all.
Wasn’t it the Czech who rolled up a stone and found a lot of stuff wriggling underneath recently? Is this just tearing the weed up and finding that the roots go far and deep?
Also, wasn’t it the Czech who got that recent stopgap artillery shell deal together for Ukraine?
Vietnam historically had a tighter relationship with the USSR and now Russia, than with China. The Viets have been fighting the Chinese off and on for hundreds of years, most recently in the 70s.
The answer is to move it out of Asia, with northern Mexico being especially appealing, for several reasons.
Vietnam and the U.S. are getting friendlier all the time. And, unfortunately, Asia is just cheaper for manufacturing than a lot of the rest of the world. The lowest bidder will almost always win.
From the poor people who want to be middle class. My father was an autoworker till they moved it to Mexico. My whole neighborhood was autoworkers as a kid. High tech stuff can be built here with American labor.
This is an extremely reductionist take on Vietnam and ignores, y’know, the Vietnam War.
In fact, it’s a completely reductionist view on the entirety of ASEAN. Just as Canada and Mexico are forever coupled to America’s industrial gravity, ASEAN is forever coupled to China’s industrial gravity. You can have infighting, but you don’t piss off both your largest trade partner and the country that simultaneously supplies the market and expertise for your continued economic development. The ex-United States of the Philippines is an exception because of obvious reasons
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