@JimboSaturn No, but I read (and posted above) the article which has the same content. On this, he is exactly right.

@Persephonee Given my age and my politics, it probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that I was on demonstrations against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. American-led war crimes that our own government was complicit in.

Also, when we were a world superpower in the 18th and 19th centuries, we were absolutely a colonialist bully. The annexation of India (as one example) was a far worse crime than anything Trump has done.

Having said all this, I do think that what is happening now is a profound change. Trump does say the quiet bit our loud, but what he is doing is even worse.

@BabyLonia I agree. Over a longer period of time, we probably killed more people, and we definitely enslaved more: Both literally and figuratively.

Hitler derived inspiration from his own genocidal racism and also from two other nations: Britain and America. Britain's colonial expansion is something he envied, and he saw parallels with his attempted conquest of the USSR and the subjugation of native Americans.

@CountScrofula In a sense, neoliberalism has already ended in the last two decades with hyper-financialization, cloud capitalism and monopoly takeover ending the pretence of the free-market. This isn;t open competition for goods and services.

Though you are completely right. European nations are arguably sliding towards Trumpist authoritarianism anyway. Sometimes from far-right parties and sometimes from centrist adaptation. See Starmer's authoritarian policies on policing and data as classic examples.

The potential resistance of surviving liberalism needs to make the European far-right own everything that Trumps American is doing and call out the brazen hypocrisy. It might well not be enough but it is something. ~

The left (with the arguable exception of France) is not in any position to replace the existing liberal framework with something better. I have to agree with Yanis Varoufakis on that. If we have any hope of winning, we need time.

@Burnley123 Right. And Carney, although very much being a Liberal is extremely high-handed and authoritarian within the rules. There is nothing gentle about his behaviour he just knows how much power the Prime Minister has and is using it with great purpose. He's probably going to be remembered as one of the great PMs (not by me lol) although the human cost for his project will likely be significant because there's no kindness in this as the welfare state gets carved off and put into Arctic sovereignty, more resource extraction, and trade with China. This is a Project and he is very very sure of it.

@Burnley123

You speak about the actions of Europe in the past tense.

It is the present.

I support the natives of Greenland.

I don't support the narrative that Europeans, espacially the European union as an entity are fighting against colonialism.

@Miram Well, the Greenland people themselves have said clearly that given the choice, they side with Denmark.

I do support their actual independence, btw

@Burnley123

That is a preference under constraint, and it isn’t really what I was getting at.

Once colonialism is acknowledged in the present tense in its current forms, European resistance looks less like prîncipled opposition and more like anxiety over losing exclusive control of a system it never truly abandoned.

Should Europe oppose Trump? Of course. A U.S. running amok does not help regions where Europe itself continues to run amok.

Yet that argument is strategic devoid of morality and strategy without moral clarity doesn’t meet all standards being claimed here. And it will often run to the same problems. You cannot build "order" with strategy alone. The rest of the world is very much so disillusioned that they see a war between western powers as an opportunity to be spared of the attention for a good while. Whether they are right or wrong, it is also a byproduct of strategy without ethics.

@bookerdana 88% would mean that even MAGA is split. 60% means that pretty much every republican is open to buying it. The latter isn't a good figure

@Elessar https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3945

numbers don't lie

@bookerdana Yeah, but give Fox News, X. etc enough time and that 88% will reach that other 60%. They always fall in line

@JimboSaturn Simple. We've started a new era, a time of monsters. Godzilla is a monster, but it helps humankind to survive nevertheless

@val70 Well I think the monsters are the hegemons, the super powers, not the middle powers like Canada. I think Carney's point is that smaller nations should stick together to weather the whims of the big countries.

@JimboSaturn He's someone who stands up to Trump. In his eyes he's not weak even if Canada is just middle size. I'm afraid that the thinking these days needs to be almost reversed. It's the words from The Godfather with the characters of a Japanese monster movie. The Belgian Prime Minister is right about the choice given by Trump: happy vassal or miserable slave. We need all to stand up to him like Carney does. I'd just sell every little US stock, dollar or money order. One sudden action that will sink his boat. But that's again monsterous indeed