Reacting to those 5yo provocative actions may lead to a war that no European wants.
Not sure it’s just cowardice though, economical interests might have a role in the decision-making process.
Agreed. In fact the money and opportunism lies at the heart of tons of European problems. As long as we let our societies be guided by a profit motive instead of what we actually want and cherish and aspire to, things will only continue to devolve into chaos.
If they make small incursions into the Baltic nations, would you also support appeasement and enabling such actions?
The reason I ask is that I have close friends living in the central EU and they’ve definitely mentioned the presence of an attitude of cowardice among certain people “let them have the Baltics, they probably won’t get to us”.
What are those economic interests? What is the number? What is it as a percentage of annual EU GDP?
Exactly. It’s the classic salami slice method. Push a bit more, and if nothing happens go a bit further. They’ll keep doing that until they’re standing in Brussels or there is a serious reaction and pushback.
Have you seen Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal? There is a scene when he first starts out filming, and he shoots a scene, and a cop tells him to step back, and in a split second you can see in his eyes, “and what if I don’t?”. And he doesn’t move, and the cops goes for him, so he sprints away.
That’s this.
“How far can I push this? What are the consequences? If there aren’t any, I’ll keep doing it.”
I’m not supporting anyone, I don’t know what’s the best way to deal with Russia, what i know is that if any European country decides to retaliate, that would be enough material for russian propaganda to legitimate further acts of war. But I may be wrong :)
enough material for russian propaganda to legitimate further acts of war.
You should watch some russian propaganda. They already show “news” pieces about how their nukes can reach London and other European cities. That ship has sailed.
I think those are more emergent properties of many separate individual interests looking out only for themselves. I’d say “because money” is a big one in explaining why the working class is often less revolutionary than they are scared and pacified. Nobody wants to fight a war. Except Russia.
I don’t disagree (look at Schroeder, he is still walking free), but my point stands, the number is a tiny percentage of EU GDP.
Even the costs saving of using russian gas were something along the lines of 0.2% of EU GDP (and thats ignoring the cost of the caustic effect that the russians have had on democracy and governance in EU).
Reacting to those 5yo provocative actions may lead to a war that no European wants. Not sure it’s just cowardice though, economical interests might have a role in the decision-making process.
Agreed. In fact the money and opportunism lies at the heart of tons of European problems. As long as we let our societies be guided by a profit motive instead of what we actually want and cherish and aspire to, things will only continue to devolve into chaos.
And appeasing them has not led to war?
If they make small incursions into the Baltic nations, would you also support appeasement and enabling such actions?
The reason I ask is that I have close friends living in the central EU and they’ve definitely mentioned the presence of an attitude of cowardice among certain people “let them have the Baltics, they probably won’t get to us”.
What are those economic interests? What is the number? What is it as a percentage of annual EU GDP?
Exactly. It’s the classic salami slice method. Push a bit more, and if nothing happens go a bit further. They’ll keep doing that until they’re standing in Brussels or there is a serious reaction and pushback.
Have you seen Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal? There is a scene when he first starts out filming, and he shoots a scene, and a cop tells him to step back, and in a split second you can see in his eyes, “and what if I don’t?”. And he doesn’t move, and the cops goes for him, so he sprints away.
That’s this.
“How far can I push this? What are the consequences? If there aren’t any, I’ll keep doing it.”
I’m not supporting anyone, I don’t know what’s the best way to deal with Russia, what i know is that if any European country decides to retaliate, that would be enough material for russian propaganda to legitimate further acts of war. But I may be wrong :)
That’s fair.
You should watch some russian propaganda. They already show “news” pieces about how their nukes can reach London and other European cities. That ship has sailed.
I think those are more emergent properties of many separate individual interests looking out only for themselves. I’d say “because money” is a big one in explaining why the working class is often less revolutionary than they are scared and pacified. Nobody wants to fight a war. Except Russia.
I don’t disagree (look at Schroeder, he is still walking free), but my point stands, the number is a tiny percentage of EU GDP.
Even the costs saving of using russian gas were something along the lines of 0.2% of EU GDP (and thats ignoring the cost of the caustic effect that the russians have had on democracy and governance in EU).
But I bet that that 0.2% of EU GDP made a HUGE difference to a handful of key players who lobbied their way into a position of profiting from it.
Exactly