Only here to say that this picture REALLY makes the scandanavian countries look like a droopy dick n balls.
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True.
Maybe they need to appoint someone to be in charge, who can make decisions and really get things done.
I like a democratic parliament more. Otherwise we may have a Trump in Europe. I don’t want a singe person as powerful as a medieval monarch to decide over about half a billion people.
Otherwise we may have a Trump in Europe.
You have at least two, and arguably more, right now. Historically you’ve had some real fucking doozies too, people that make Trump look like a school child.
I don’t want a singe person as powerful as a medieval monarch to decide over about half a billion people.
That’s what you’ll get eventually.
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Cant tell if youre being sarcastic or not
Always
I recognise you’re just expressing frustration towards current affairs – a frustration I often share, but:
Decisions require a mandate and the reason the EU has problems making decisions about some things is that it wasn’t designed to address them in the first place.
It’s simply a slightly over-grown trading union with occasional federalist aspirations.
Responding to tariffs - fast and coordinated.
Responding to external military threats - scattered and complicated.
Tap for spoiler
As a sidenote: According to John Bolton Trump, at least during his first term, was completely oblivious to how the European Union worked and was somehow also under the impression that Juncker, then president of the European Commission, got to decide the NATO budget. Crazy, right?
That’s why the EU’s response to defense was based on financial instruments.
To become a “superpower” and/or make quick decisions regarding e.g. military threats, it would need to actually become a state-like entity and begin building several bureaucratic arms it currently lacks which doesn’t usually happen overnight. Not to mention establishing actual policies.
Before we get to that stage though, a consensus between member states needs to be formed and all manner of legal documents drafted. Centralising power means less independence for member states which is usually a hard sell. It would likely also require member states to alter their constitutions which could be an incredibly slow process even without resistance from all the respective governments. Not to mention the fact that a popular vote in all member states might be a good idea democracy-wise.
I’m not saying necessarily it’s something we shouldn’t pursue and hey, under extraordinary circumstances even bureaucracy can move quickly but it is a huge deal and moving quickly could also mean skirting around established democratic principles. (Actually iirc European bureaucracy is generally quite efficient as is –contrary to popular belief)
I guess I wrote this in the hopes of fighting disillusionment even though it’s not the core message here. We’ll do what we have to and I’m positive we’ll get to wherever we need to be in order to survive and thrive in this century. It will require patience, nerve and active participation from all of us though.
Last thing I want us to become is like the folks over in the States claiming it’s all already over. (A minority, I hope)
Sorry for the wall of text, I guess I had some stuff pent up.
One thing I remember from the Brexit “debate” was that many viewed the prospect of the EU having an army as a terrible thing that couldn’t be allowed.
“It’s the Germans wanting to re-militarize under a different flag”
Fast-forward 6 years and Russia invaded Ukraine and the mood has certainly shifted on that one.
“Come on Germany. Get those factories going.”
The inefficiency of democracy is not a flaw, it’s a fundamental feature
I would say it is more of a tradeoff. Being able to quickly make decisions is nice. But I rather have a strong and democratic parliament than a president as powerful as a medieval monarch.
Double-edged sword, as it were.
Yo when tf did Switzerland join?
Same year that UK rejoined lmao.
The top US export is oil.
If you want to do something, wean yourself off oil. Big push for solar, wind, and anything else that doesn’t rely on digging up bits of dinosaurs.
Electric vehicles, public transport, bikes, walking.
And as an added bonus, the world gets a little cleaner. Might be important, you know.
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In 2022, renewable energy sources contributed 31% of the electricity used in Texas. Fucking Texas.
Get those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.
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One of the ironies of the Texas electricity grid - ERCOT - is how it accidentally created huge incentives for new solar and wind energy by trying to prop up the natural gas markets.
ERCOT operates via an auction system, wherein the electricity carriers put in bids for GWhs and producers meet those bids. When demand is low, electricity is very cheap - $10-25 MWh. But it rise rapidly during a heat wave, peaking at $3000 MWh in some instances. Gas plants don’t have any incentive to sell onto the grid at this point, so they turn themselves off until the price rises. But when a bunch of gas plants operate as a cartel, they can coordinate when they release electricity and drive up the price.
The problem is that the auction price is set on the last GWh sold but it applies to the entire sale of energy for the auction cycle. So if you’re selling continuously across the day, you can accidentally trip into a ahem windfall when gas producers surge the price.
Because green producers can’t really control how much they put out onto the grid, they’re at the mercy of the market. But if they know, in advance, that the gas companies are going to fuck with things, they can anticipate enormous profits during these strategic moments. And because wind/solar don’t need a supply chain like gas does, you can just keep building and building and building wherever you find opportune spots for harvesting (which Texas has in spades).
So the gas companies inadvertently kicked off a green energy boom by their periodic price spike scheme.
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Don’t worry Texas is going to fix that. They’re getting ready to pass a bunch of laws that limit renewable energy usage in Texas.
They’ve been making a lot of threats. But there’s a ton of money in renewables, too. It’s a hard lift
It’s way more than just threats. They’re already passing legislation.
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2025/04/16/texas-senate-passes-anti-solar-wind-bill/
This is what I always have to bring up when people go “bUt cHInA!”. So what? Energy independence is valuable and should be pushed for.
reminder that the world did not enjoy it the last time Europeans were super powerful
Europe is not the Germans.
This time you’ll get the Vikings, the Romans, the Conquistadors, the Spartans and the people who ruled the world by the cunning use of flags all teamed together.
The British imperialists genocided more people throughout their history than the Germans. Just that the Brits took their time with it. The French, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgians, Dutch and Italians also have many million skeletons in their closet and the French massacred millions of people trying to gain independence after World War 2.
If you go to any place in the world outside of Europe there is a good chance that Europeans committed a massacre there to steal land and resources at some point in the past few hundred years.
But not now, now for the most part they’re all democratic countries.
You hang on to the past so hard and you get Gaza, India Pakistan war, the Middle East etc.
A country being democratic for some people has absolutely no indication of whether it is an imperialist threat to other countries.
Do you think the countries being invaded by the US or having their legitimate governments overthrown and fascist puppets installed care about the US being democratic on the inside? Do you think Pakistan is less threatened by India because it is a democratic country? Do you think the Serbian massacres in Bosnia were acceptable and the Kosovarians were welcoming the Serbian invaders because Serbia became democratic a few years earlier?
Also the Middle East like many post colonial areas in Africa are unstable precisely because the French and British democracies designed artificial countries in a way that will cause tensions by separating people such as the Kurdish people into many states and throwing together different people into single states. Continued military “interventions”, arming groups in proxy wars and other meddling certainly doesn’t help either. Take Libya for instance where France is helping the Haftar regime to continue waging war against the internationally recognized government alongside Russia, Wagner, the UAE and Egypt.
Take Libya for instance where France is helping the Haftar regime to continue waging war against the internationally recognized government alongside Russia, Wagner, the UAE and Egypt.
Pretty sure France is not there to be along with Russia and Wagner but because Russia and Wagner is there. Russia’s interest is to grow influence and cause issues to Europe.
You would be surprised. France and the US are having a proxy war in Africa for decades. When it comes to shady business they don’t give a shit who’s who
France is there to get cheap Libyan oil from a warlord. If that means partnering with Wagner they are fine doing so.
If France was interested in challenging Russian influence they would support the internationally recognized government and help its fight against Haftar. You know, like how limiting Russian influence in Ukraine is done by helping Ukraine, not by helping Russia allied separatists in Luchansk.
France is there to get cheap Libyan oil from a warlord.
I will need more convincing on that. But I do see that France’s involment does have pretty bad optics - and maybe reasons. But because France is not the only one there, it sure isn’t something black and white.
And I wouldn’t draw comparisons to Ukraine as the Libya has unfortunately have had so much internal instability that is not comparable - though one could say something Euromaiden and the aftermath of it but that is still order of magnitudes different starting point.
So many good points in one post. People have to get off their high horse on democracy. My goto is every US president since WW2 is a war criminal. Do you think the people suffering war crimes care about democracy? It would be laughable if it wasnt infuriating.
Just to bolster your argument on the Middle East all anyone has to do is look at Sykes Picot. The whole middle east is just some brit in an office drawing squiggly lines, so that the west can extract as many resources from them as possible.
Its like people forgot the ottoman empire even existed and instead just get real racist with lines like “prone to war” “stuck in the past”. Bro the US is still creating nation states in the Arab world. Of course they are going to go to war, the west is standing on their neck.
.
Europe is not the Germans.
The English ran laps around the Germans in terms of human attrocity for centuries.
The French weren’t far behind.
Hey, don’t forget Belgium. They didn’t have much, but it’s quality over quantity!
Hi Americans!
Yeah, they all hated each other and their internal beer hall brawl spilled out over the borders. It wasn’t that Europe was any kind of united force. Maybe it’s time. We’re fucked in the US, now.
Though I gotta admit it’s ironic AF that the Allies set up Germany with a far better constitution/Grundgesezt and government framework than our own Constitution which ended up essentially frozen because politics have gotten so bad that opening it up would have probably destroyed whatever good remained in it thanks to talibangelicals and corporate money.
I think they were talking about colonialism, not WW2
Ah, yeah that was a bad time for the rest of the world too.
But Europeans loved it
Not even most Europeans.
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Eh, power vacuums don’t last. You’re basically just asking for a Somalia situation where there’s n small powers continuously at war.
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World federation, superpowers, small powers. As far as I can tell it’s just a question of how big the blocs are. I don’t see how you move laterally to continuum that in any lasting way; humans are going to act like humans.
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I didn’t excuse anything. We’re shit. But, it’s the way things are.
Although, come to think of it, we’d probably just elect a world government if we weren’t shit anyway. Just to coordinate things as we’re being understanding and reasonable with each other.
In my uninformed understanding of humans and their history, unifications happen only in the face of crises and threats (and far from all the time, clearly). Maybe–hopefully–the world eventually makes common cause in order to stabilise the world as things spiral out of control in a few decades, but right now our species appears more concerned about whom gets to dictate what and how humans should live and behave like.
A unified world power, for instance through a competent UN that is achieved through diplomacy sound pretty okay.
Europe is the biggest provider of independence days !
Well, not the EU after the UK left. Spain and France tried but they were up against WASPs and that’s simply not a fair contest of evil.
The EU is mostly on a peninsula. The only direct threat right now comes from Russia, with maybe some sort of Ottoman Empire style Muslim Empire being a potential problem. Europe has enough coastline to easily trade in resources. As long as the US and China leave Europe alone, there is no real reason to even become a global superpower.
Seriously if Ukraine wins, then Europe is rich and secure for quite some time.
Even if it doesn’t formally unite (which it won’t in the near future), a US-independant Europe would be a superpower by virtue of economic might.
with maybe some sort of Ottoman Empire style Muslim Empire being a potential problem.
Yeah, don’t hold your breath on that one!
Europe puts a ton of international shipping through three choke points. Gibraltar, Suez Canal, and the English Channel. The US Navy is more than capable of locking down all three. So would a Chinese Navy that’s built more for blue water operations than they are now. Europe doesn’t have the air or naval capacity to counter that.
The options left are land routes and going north of England. And even going to the north of England wouldn’t be safe for shipping.
Europe would have more aircraft in the air and European navies are also rather more capable then you might believe. There are reasons the US does not train against European submarines.
You have to use more sticks …
Sadly a lot of MEPs are in cahoots with Russia and hell bent on destroying the EU.
Cahoots is a strong word. They’re all ethnic nationalists who sympathize with the wave of anti-Muslim hysteria echoing through the continent.
But when push comes to shove, they’ll start shooting at one another over the border happily enough.
At least for the Dutch alt-right party Forum voor Democratie there’s definite proof that they get money from Russia
No, it isn’t a strong word at all. They are literally being paid by Putin. They exploit racism and bigotry, right wing populism, in their campaigns, but they aren’t necessarily doing that out of personal conviction.
or they just like money and power and ride the racism wave
Part of the problem is that - between mass media and the industrial exploitation of foreign workers - there’s enormous profit to be made in bigoted social policies.
The money feeds the media cycle. The media cycle generates economic growth for misery profiteers. You can blame this on The Russians if you like, as United Russia has cemented itself in the foundation of this cycle of misery. But (until very recently and even then still kinda) they’re bound up in the same web of systematized ethnic-nationalism as their neighbors.
The Saudis, the Turks, the Italians, the Israelis… vast economic empires are predicated on the profitability of hate.
Why is the forsaken UK still on the map ?
Not only EU beurocrats are slow to process informations 😖
Still too close. The mistake of Brexit was taking such an important decision based on a slim majority, you need at least an absolute majority, 66%.
Interesting. Are those poll results sampled amongst the general population, or something more specific like from the parliament ?
Switzerland and Liechtenstein are also not member states, and Estonia’s islands are not shown.
They bothered to remove the non-EU Balkan states and Norway, but filled up Switzerland. This map is just terrible.
Scotland has islands on this map, but in a really weird way: all of the five biggest ones are missing, and I’m 95% sure that one of the two depicted is actually a peninsula that the map has chopped off from the mainland
Alternatively we can just assume Norway took the islands back
'cause we know this relationship has its ups and downs but isn’t over yet
Right, like the UK is a sibling that you hated growing up, but as adults it’s not so bad and you know you’re going to be friends again once they go through their binge drinking phase.
Our island is full of idiots but I swear we can make this up to you
The continent is full of idiots too. Their are no reasons for us to feel superior about this on this side of the pond.
France, Germany and Italy are giving it a good go too. I think our position on Ukraine has made the UK a lot of friends in Europe. That and voting out the Tories.
They’re working on it
It’s hard to get them to agree on anything let alone actually coordinate real world actions together. You are going to be waiting a long time.
Economically and culturally, Europe is already a superpower. Militarily it isn’t, and maybe that’s not a terrible thing. Politically, it just seems to have a bias for moving slowly and by consensus, although it responded quickly to COVID and the assault on Ukraine, so it can do what’s needed?
Unite, but first, launch Orban into space, one-way-ticket kind-of way.
We’re united in in-action, politically and economically!
Superpower is such a joke to call yourself. if russia is a superpower EU is superpower x100.
Goku would still beat them tho.
