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Samizdata quote of the day – Europe’s fury at Trump’s criticism is breathtakingly hypocritical The EU is anti-populist to its core. Despite all the posturing of EU leaders as the valiant defenders of Ukraine, it’s clear they are opposed to national sovereignty. Instead of viewing patriotism as the sign of a healthy and cohesive society, the EU sees it as a threat to be snuffed out.
The consequences of the EU’s war on the nation state are plain for all to see. According to a recent poll, two-thirds of Germans ‘would probably not defend their country from invaders’. In Italy, a recent survey indicated that only 16 per cent of those of fighting age would take up arms if their country was under attack. Recently, the head of France’s armed forces, Fabien Mandon, said his country needs ‘the spirit that accepts that we will have to suffer to protect what we are’. But French public opinion is not having any of it.
– Frank Furedi
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Trump’s criticism is not only on point, but it is long overdue. We finally have a president that will openly put the US before other nations. For centuries in fact, and definitely for generations starting early last century, European elites and the masses of their population [unless they were trying to immigrate here] have done little but express various forms of contempt for our country, our people, and our governance. This is despite us saving them in WW-I, WW-II, and expending vast amounts of treasure and commitment to defend them in the Cold War. As Europe Islamifies, it is joining our open enemies and it still expects us to support them. I think that those days are over. If Europe does not get its . . . act . . . together; they are going to be on their own.
Subotai Bahadur
The question is why ? And do you think that Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Joe Biden with their electors are better ? I don’t ..
I’m guessing that we in the USA define the phrase “the democratic choices of our citizens” very differently than the EU does.
We in the USA have that icky kind of democracy in which citizens get to express and vote for their own choices, while Europe seems to value the decisions of its self-selected lords. Yarvin is winning over there.
Trump is swinging a sword at those he sees as threats, while the libertarians of Europe limit themselves to critiquing the hollow-ground sword blade he uses.
Good luck with that.
To Bobby R
Indeed. And the Europeans and the American’s democrats are incredibly hypocrits ..
I’ve no wish to defend Western European governments, but your ‘icky kind of democracy’ seems to produce outcomes that, no matter who is president, the likes of Lindsay Graham and Nancy Pelosi always seem to be doing brilliantly for themselves.
I would say many European countries have ‘ickier’ politics than the US anyway because many have multiple parties with representation, whereas the duopoly in America refuses to be broken. Even in Britain the Tory-Labour hegemony is falling apart. Now you could quibble that having a more fragmented electoral politics is no guarantee things will improve. It seems a problem across most democracies is that any dissident energies get contained and subverted. See how Trump administration performs better for GOP elites and plutocrats like Larry Ellison than MAGA masses. See how Brexit was used to deliver the largest increase in immigration in British history, illegal immigration increasing in Italy under Meloni etc etc
“a recent survey indicated that only 16 per cent of those of fighting age would take up arms if their country was under attack”
I wonder if the percentage who want all sorts of benefits and subsidies from the country via government is higher.
The international establishment regard “whiteness” as evil – they openly teach this in their universities and schools and push this in every institution (including the “mainstream media”) that they influence, and they believe it must be exterminated in the name of “anti racism” and |”feminism” – they define this “whiteness” partly in biological terms, but also in cultural terms. For example, if a black of brown skinned person is guilt of such “crimes” as punctuality, a strong work ethic, believing in objective truth, support for the traditional family, opposition to a abortion, and-so-on, they are also guilty of this crime of “whiteness”.
That Islam supports the traditional family and is opposed to abortion (and also believes in objective truth and a strong work ethnic) is ignored – and anyone who points it out is, bizarrely, condemned as “Islamophobic”. As Muslims are, supposedly, a “victim group” subject to “exploitation and oppression” in the “capitalist West” and, according to the international establishment (including Kings and Popes), strongly support the rights of women, and support “Gay Rights” (hence “Queers for Palestine” and so on), and condemn evil “capitalist whiteness”. Anyone who dissents from any of these claims (points out that the claims are lies) risks being sent to prison.
That the above is Frankfurt School “Critical Theory” Marxism is obvious – but if anyone points this out, they are denounced as “paranoid” or “McCarthyite” (M. Stanton Evans book “Blacklisted by History” shows that “McCarthyite” should really be taken as a compliment – as Senator Joseph McCarthy was telling the truth). This does NOT mean that such people as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom are conscious Marxists – only that they serve this “Cultural Marxism” whether they know it or not – as the Italian Marxist Gramsci pointed out more than 90 years ago – when Marxist ideas achieved “cultural hegemony” people in the institutions would serve them without even knowing it – this point has-been-reached now.
So the question is – why should the United States spend taxpayer money, and risk thermonuclear war (thermonuclear war being a rather serious matter) to defend regimes that hate (actually hate) the historic nations of Britain, France and so on that they control – and send to prison people who dissent.
Remember it is not “just” President Trump who the Western European governments (and the Australian government and the Canadian government) would sent to prison for what he says and writes – just about every ordinary Republican or Independent would be sent to prison under European or Australian or Canadian law – if they opened their mouth and said what they believed, only “Woke” (Critical Theory supporting) Democrats would not be sent to prison. For example, Mr Elon Musk (and indeed most of the people on X) would be sent to prison – if these “Critical Theory” supporting regimes (such as the government of the United Kingdom) had their way.
These are NOT allies – allies do not want to send you to prison.
And if the Democrats take total power in the United States they will do the same as their ideological brothers and sisters have done in Britain and other nations.
They will end Freedom of Speech and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms – a few appointments to the Supreme Court will lead to that, the First and Second Amendments will be a dead as the Tenth Amendment (under which most Federal Government spending is unconstitutional),
They will also push “Net Zero” (just as the Biden Administration did) destroying manufacturing and farming – as part of this perverse crusade to destroy “cultural whiteness” – “capitalist” society, including such basic things as the traditional family.
Both economically and culturally the Democrats are a clear and present danger – and so are the regimes of many “allies” who are NOT really allies.
Again – allies do not want to put you in prison, these regimes DO want to put you in prison, if their economic policies (including “Net Zero”) do not starve you to death first.
It’s time for politicians to give us a country worth defending.
decnine – the politicians, or rather the officials and “experts” who they are the puppets of, wish to utterly destroy traditional Western nations.
Take the former “Conservative” Prime Minister of the Netherlands – now the head of NATO.
He has just made a speech about threats to European nations.
Did he stress the demographic, fertility, collapse that “feminism” has brought to so many nations?
No he did not.
Did he stress the massive invasion of hostile populations into Europe and the natural increase (births) of these hostile populations – how they are taking over cities and even going into small towns, and abusing the native population (rapes, murders and so on).
No he did not.
So what did Mr Rutte (again the “conservative” part of the international establishment). talk about.
He talked about the need to prepare for full-scale-war with Russia.
Full scale war can only mean thermonuclear war.
Collapse of traditional society, including the collapse of births of the native Europeans – he is not interested, it would be “anti feminist” to talk about this.
Mass invasion, and natural (biological) increase, of hostile populations into Europe – he is not interested, it would be “racist” to oppose this.
What he is interested in is full scale war with Russia – which, by the way, has many of the same problems that other nations have (collapse of fertility – and the influx of hostile populations, as the late Mr Navalny warned, before Mr Putin had him MURDERED in the prison camp he was unjustly sent to).
Mr Rutte is from the “conservative” part of the international establishment – but he did nothing to save the Netherlands from demographic “transformation” which will, eventually, lead to the destruction of this historic nation, and the other historic nations.
Neither will “centrists” such as President Macron of France – or open leftists such Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom.
They just want “full scale” war instead.
And, in case anyone has missed it, neither will Mr Putin – he has been in power in Russia for 25 years and has not reversed the demographic decline of the Russian people or the influx of hostile populations – the followers of the Crescent Moon.
The final joke (but it is tragic rather than funny) is that Mr Rutte, President Macron, Prime Minister Starmer, and so on – have a lot in common with Mr Putin (the person they want to have thermonuclear war with), for example they all passionately condemn “Islamophobia”.
They, Putin, Rutte, Macron, Starmer….. are all a waste of space – and their peoples would be better off without them.
For example, how many hundreds of thousands of young Russians, who should have been husbands and fathers, has Mr Putin sent to their deaths in his UTTERLY POINTLESS Vanity Project war-on-Ukraine?
Should have also added DOGE – started with some big theatrics, ended within months with barely a whimper. The funds ‘saved’ largely reallocated to departments and many of the firings of government staff reversed by judges. Musk talked about setting another party, nothing came of it.
Admittedly the exposures of how the US state used USAID to spread woke ideology globally and undermine the overeignty of other countries was quite welcome.
Martin – and the person you quote.
President Trump has taken a stronger line against illegal immigration than any President since President Eisenhower – since “Operation Wetback”, a term that would be too blunt for even President Trump to use. Millions of illegal immigrants have either been deported – or have “self deported” – voluntarily chosen to leave due to the crackdown on government benefits and services they, illegally, have been getting.
Nor was “Brexit used to increase immigration” – but independence was also NOT used to stop it, the increase in immigration came because the British government choose NOT to use the legal independence – in-spite-of legal independence, NOT because-of-it. Independence existed in theory – but not in practice (as I feared would be the case when the absurd word “Brexit” rather than INDEPENDENCE was used).
As for DOGE – Elon Musk did indeed want it to go much further, but it is the useless Congress, not the President, who has failed to control government spending. Congress has the “power of the purse”.
Hiding behind “the filibuster rule” (which they could remove at any time) the Republican “leadership” in Congress have done nothing to control government spending – but that is their fault, not the fault of the President.
As for the idea that “plutocrats like Larry Ellison” have fundamentally different interests than the “MAGA masses” – such a view is false.
It is a basic truth of economics, denied by Collectivists for thousands of years, that the basic long term economic interests of “the rich” and “the poor” are THE SAME.
THE SAME economic policies benefit both “the rich” and “the poor” in the long term, and the THE SAME economic policies hurt both “the rich” and “the poor” in the long term.
The Democratic Party has dissented from this position since its 1896 Convention – but they are quite wrong to do so.
Nor are people such as Larry Ellison or Elon Musk benefited by the mass immigration of people demanding government benefits and public services, and filled with hatred (yes – actual hatred) for the United States.
That is not the sort of immigration they want.
Martin – Mr Musk was just as horrified by such things as the victory of the invaders in the recent election in New York City as you were.
To deal with the economic threat to the existence of Western Civilization – Credit Bubble fiance, and the wild-government-spending that such banking antics support, would have to be ended. To do so would violate “modern fiscal and monetary policies”.
And to deal with the cultural, societal, threat to the existence of Western Civilization policies would have to be adopted that, allegedly, violate “anti racism” and “feminism”.
This tells us all we need to know about “modern fiscal and monetary policies” and about “anti racism” (not to be confused with not being cruel to other races) and “feminism” (not to be confused with not being cruel to women).
As I have mentioned before on another thread – the FORM “discussion” takes in the “mainstream” media is interesting.
A mainstream media outlet, such as “France 24” television, has some sort of folk memory that “discussion” means not just having presenters say things – that it involves inviting guests, but the guests they invite have the same opinions is their presenters.
So the “discussion” goes something like as follows, “Trump bad”, “Yes Trump bad”, “Agreed – Trump bad”. No alternative view is presented – on President Trump, or on any-other-matter – be it “Climate Change”, “anti racism”, “feminism” or whatever.
It never occurs to these people that a “discussion” is supposed to be between people of DIFFERENT opinions.
But then in most countries outside the United States (and inside the United States – if the Democrats get to appoint a few Supreme Court justices) disagreeing, dissent, leads to arrest and imprisonment.
That such regimes, regimes that persecute dissent and follow policies designed (yes – designed) to destroy the nation, are not worth defending is obvious – which is partly why, for example, even at a time of increasing unemployment, the British armed forces are short of recruits.
And it is not just the elected part of these regimes that is the problem – as they are puppets of unelected forces, officials and “experts”.
Boris Johnson continues to this day to defend the ‘Boriswave’ immigration on the grounds that he got a mandate to ‘take back control’ and he claims he did that. He took slogans attached to Brexit and subverted them to justify doing precisely the opposite many supporters of leaving the EU wanted, in fact doing something no British government dared do when Britain was in the EU.
Doesn’t change the fact that DOGE was a failure. A lot of bluster and theatrics. That Congress control government spending and won’t reform it proves that the system is containing Trump.
Larry Ellison wants mass surveillance. Does MAGA want that? If so, I have misjudged MAGA entirely. I know Larry Ellison has fundamentally different interests to me. If that makes me a socialist for criticising a billionaire, so be it.
When Musk was challenged on his platform last year regarding H1B1 Visas, his response was:
The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B.
Take a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
Strange issue ‘to go to war on’ if his interests are the same as MAGA.
a recent survey indicated that only 16 per cent of those of fighting age would take up arms if their country was under attack
FWIW, I think these sorts of survey are utterly meaningless. What someone would do were they presented with a real threat to their lives and families and subject to the undoubted endless propaganda the war hawks would produce[*] is quite different than what they would say were they stopped in the street by some random dude with a clipboard. As usual, that fount of all wisdom about government, Yes Minister, has a funny but deeply serious point to make about this.
I have mostly come to the conclusion that most of these opinion polls are almost entirely free of reliable data. I was going to say “useful data”, but that is not true — they are quite useful in convincing people of the sentiment of the public, even if they are not at all reflective of it.
[*] which I don’t necessarily mean pejoratively
I should add that Musk’s companies have received around $38 billion of US government money, and Larry’s Oracle has contracts with US Federal government worth many billions of dollars.
I am sceptical that they are especially perturbed by the current status quo.
Paul,
To be be fair demographics are not within the remit of NATO. Tanks, yes. Births, no.
Is it feminism? I don’t think so. Is it rising housing prices and the resulting erosion of discretionary expenditure (children are very expensive and nobody wants to raise kids 4 to a room in some slum anymore)? Yes.
There probably are a lot of people who want children but don’t have them because they (accurately) perceive they are in no financial situation to give them a reasonable chance in life. People simply can’t afford to live even like The Simpsons, let alone like The Jetsons. We have got used to comfort and we still have this residual idea that the next generation will have it better nagging us. I mean, it should be the case, right? Take that away and, “Why bother?” becomes an extremely compelling answer to the question of having children.
I guess perceptions vary if you’ve come here from some Crapistan and never had a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of.
@Martin
Doesn’t change the fact that DOGE was a failure. A lot of bluster and theatrics. That Congress control government spending and won’t reform it proves that the system is containing Trump.
DOGE was a failure, which is in many ways a disaster. It was not bluster and theatrics — it seems to have been the first serious attempt to cut back government, doing things like introducing the most basic of standard accounting practices. It may also have been the last hope of saving the US from bankruptcy. (FWIW, AI might be another hope, but I personally think it is impossible to know what the effect of AI will be, positive or negative. All you can say is that it will be massive.) But DOGE was a failure because the swamp was just too much for even someone like Elon and Trump to overcome. Plus the truth is that Trump is not by any means a small government guy, so I’m not sure the interests there were aligned as well as I would have liked. The end of DOGE in my mind was when the Department of Defense (as it was then) despite being in a historically peaceful time for the USA somehow got a 20% increase in their budget. Why it wasn’t a 20% decrease I don’t know — except I do, it is because Trump is in his heart a big spending, big debt type of person.
As for the idea that “plutocrats like Larry Ellison” have fundamentally different interests than the “MAGA masses” – such a view is false.
I am not a fan of Ellison. I know his main product the Oracle database, and all I can say is I have no idea why anybody uses it. It is massively expensive, is not particularly fast and performant, is deeply incompatible with other systems even though databases are governed by international standards, and it requires excessively large amounts of hardware. SQL Server from Microsoft is a MUCH better database and much cheaper, and both MySQL and Postgres and equally good as Oracle but are, to all intents and purposes, zero cost.
So why do people use it? Not on its technical or cost merits. They use it because of the sort of seedy sales practices and backroom deals that allow many of these huge horrible systems to pervade our software infrastructure (SAP is another absolutely horrible system that is absolutely everywhere.) Needless to say, that is why it is all over the government IT infrastructure.
So, to me, Oracle is not a great innovator, they are just a highly successful bunch of used car salesmen.
When Musk was challenged on his platform last year regarding H1B1 Visas, his response was:
You see the problem with H1B visas is not the visa itself, it is the implementation of the visa. This visa is specifically designated for people with unique and special skills which can’t be found among the American workforce. However the BCIS has basically implemented it so that anyone with a STEM college degree can use it. Which is why something like 70% of them go to relatively junior, mediocre software engineers from India, nearly all being issued to the largest ten silicon valley tech companies.
Were this visa implemented as it was intended, really for a skill gap in the US workforce (for example, deep experts in AI or rocketry — think Von Braun — or nuclear fusion or so forth) they would be a huge benefit to the US economy. For example, I see no reason not to require at least a PhD before you can enter on that visa. But banning them would be very detrimental. Which is why I think Trump’s plan to charge $100k for them is actually a pretty good idea. You’d better have a lot to offer for them to shell out that kind of cash.
The truth is that the United States needs to completely rewrite their immigration laws to be more in line with those of every other country — namely a points based system that calculates if you will contribute and fill gaps in the workforce. But our congress is entirely non functional right now, so that will not happen anytime soon. So Trump is trying to tweak these things at the edges to maximum effect with executive power, and I think that is a good thing.
But Elon’s rage is very appropriate. Completely eliminating these visas leaves these highly skilled individuals in other countries when they could be working in the engine of creation which is the American tech sector. I’d much rather that AI genius was working at Grok than some CCP controlled AI farm in China.
(FWIW, I have switched from ChatGPT to Grok — it is a significant improvement in my opinion.)
I’d much rather that AI genius was working at Grok than some CCP controlled AI farm in China.
And to be clear — there are no American AI geniuses currently unemployed unless they want to be. The appetite for their skill set is ravenous, and the money they get paid nothing short of insane.
I really need to pull out my old linear algebra books, what the heck is an eigen vector again? 😉
It’s take a little over a century for wars to change from battles between our armed forces and the enemies’ armed forces to involving the civilian populations too. I don’t think that reality has sunk into public acceptance yet – you would have to go back (perhaps) to Sparta to see a society in total mobilization.
Who would now want to live in Sparta? Even if it were possible.
Not really. As people said in response to him back at the time, there are other Visa programs for actually exceptional talents. I strongly doubt that many of the H1B1s employed by Musk and others are new Von Brauns (Von Braun came through Operation Paperclip as well, I’ve no idea if that individual was on a H1B1, but Musk himself previously employed a Chinese engineer who stole a load of company data from Tesla and gave it all to a ev manufacturer in China. The exceptional cases like Von Braun, who came to America in totally atypical circumstances, are used to justify millions of low quality labour entering the US.
From what I’ve read Oracle offer to big clients very generous discounts on initial contracts, but then make it very difficult to stop using Oracle and move to a different platform without causing severe costs and business disruption.
I was being a bit flippant with the bluster/theatrics comment, but I suspect in 5 years (maybe even now,), the main thing people will remember about DOGE is Musk doing the chainsaw act at CPAC. I will say that to set it up with massive fanfare only for it to be quietly abolished within months suggests a lack of seriousness. Unless you’re willing to go revolutionary and destroy a state rapidly, rolling back big government is likely going to be a long game project in the best circumstances. I think the effectiveness of Thatcherism has been exaggerated, but to the extent the Thatcher government did roll back the British state to a degree it took a number of years of careful work to pull a lot of it off. You are probably right Trump is a big government guy, and Musk showed no aptitude to play the long game. So of course it was going to be defeated by people in Congress and courts. These people are reprehensible but they know how to play the long game. Look how long the likes of Pelosi, Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell have been in politics. Look how long George Soros has been working on his political goals.
Just seems to be the easiest way to get conservatives in America to acquiesce in big government is ramp up military spending. Pretty certain Milton Friedman heavily criticises the Reagan administration in one of his books for this (Free to Choose maybe?).
Martin – “Free To Choose” came out in 1980 – Ronald Reagan became President in 1981.
What Milton Friedman did do is point out that military spending had never been a LOWER share of the Federal budget than it was in 1980, and it is an even SMALLER share now.
“But what about as a share of the economy?” – in case anyone asks this, American military spending has not been this LOW since the 1940s.
As for immigration – I have just explained that “Brexit” (that stupid word) did NOT open the door to mass immigration – the door was already open.
What legal independence could have done is close that door – but Mr Johnson followed the “advice” of officials that mass immigration was “good for GDP” – which these cretins (or worse) confuse with the economy.
So legal independence never become real independence.
As for denying the effects of the Social Revolution, on fertility and so on, well you can deny this if you want to – it remains the truth. It had the precisely the effect, of destroying families and so on, that the people behind the Social Revolution (feminism and so on were not organic developments – they were very much “top-down” movements planned by an elite) intended.
By the way – Elon Musk is, these days, very “based” – have a look at what he writes on X.
To people who think that “GDP” is the economy – no it is not.
According to the despicable Economist magazine the main threats to Europe are not the fertility collapse and the rise of hostile populations by mass immigration and biological increase (births) – but nor, according the aforesaid despicable Economist magazine, is the threat from Mr Putin = the threat is “the Populist right”.
But have no fear, DOGE (which, according to the Economist magazine, went too far – rather than not nearly far enough) will not come to Europe. And the conservative Orban government in Hungary will be “booted out soon” – presumably by some Corporate State (and intelligence agency) organized “Colour Revolution” – perhaps backed up by a rigged election (the Economist magazine, like the rest of the international establishment, loves election fraud).
The government of Italy “governs like anyone else” – by this the Economist means (but does not say) that it fails to remove the invaders, or prevent their biological increase – due to the power of unelected leftist judges.
And-so-on.
So the “Populist Right” with their “growth destroying” plans to deregulate the European Union Single Market (yes you read that correctly – according to the Economist magazine deregulation is “growth destroying” and the sickening European Union is a good thing) will be defeated.
Europe, and the rest of Western Civilization, will continue to be destroyed – and the establishment elite will cheer on the destruction.
Till their “friends” come for them.
For Kings or Popes or editor lady of the Economist magazine – they are all just “whiteness” to their “friends” – and “whiteness” must be destroyed.
That the long term interests of “the rich” and “the poor” are THE SAME is a central principle of properly understood economics and properly understood sociology (the study of society). The SAME policies, in the long term, benefit BOTH – both economically and culturally.
This was understood by the School of Salamanca (in Spain) many centuries ago, and by some other Scholastics even in the Middle Ages – and it was not forgotten even in the intellectual revolution against the Scholastics – see, for example, Descartes letter to Elizabeth of Bohemia where he explains what is now called “the invisible hand” a century and a half before Adam Smith.
As long as the principle of justice (the non violation of bodies or goods by force or fraud) is maintained, Descartes explains, people acting in their own material self interest will, without intending to, benefit the whole community.
Not a new discovery of his – it had been known for centuries, I merely point this out to show that the principle was NOT forgotten with the fall of the Scholastics.
However……
None of the above means that people KNOW that their long term economic and cultural interests are best served by THE SAME policies.
The rich may (falsely) believe their long term interests are best served by open door mass immigration, and natural increase (births), of people who want to tear them (and their children) limb from limb – they would be mistaken to assume that this was in their best interests, but they may believe the mass migration will be of lovely people (King Vortigern made this mistake in 5th century Britain – so it is not a new mistake). “How can mass immigration, and natural increase of these populations, be a violation of the nonaggression principle?” – ask the survivors of the “Grooming Gangs”.
And the poor may believe, or be led to believe, that their long term interests are best served by taxation and lots of government spending – again they would be mistaken in this belief, but they may sincerely believe it.
But the fact remains that the long term economic and cultural interests of Martin (and everyone else here) are the same as those of Elon Musk and Larry Ellison – the same policies benefit them, and the same policies hurt them.
People make mistakes – I, some years ago, got cheated on gardening costs.
Elon Musk handed over his son to people who castrated the boy – to turn him into a pretend girl (the Emperor Hadrian did a similar thing to a lad he fancied).
One has to learn from one’s mistakes – understand that one was mislead (in the case of Mr Musk – horribly mislead) and “move on” as modern language would have it.
To the extent that DOGE successfully took a bite out of USAID, it was not a failure. While it didn’t end that agency, it did indeed hobble and shrink it.
It didn’t run the table, granted. But its impact is still significant.
So much of this blackpilling seems to be “it didn’t wipe out progressivism!” Which is fitting, because so much of the critique of the current admin seems to stem from the fact that it hasn’t completely won over the world.
This is why progressivism will likely win in the end. We have too many “experts” on our side.
Progressives win because they’re never satisfied with what they’ve achieved. Once they get a win they look for new castles to conquer. They also play the long game well.
Whatever DOGE was, it wasn’t playing the long game well.
Imagine being a “indigenous” 17 year old Parisienne working class boy. What France would he fighting for? The one his grandfather put on a uniform to defend is long gone. The administration of the New France openly hates him. His neighbours don’t speak his language and since she was a small child his sister hasn’t been able to go outside on her own.
The contract is that you have to believe the idea is worth dying for.
Conceded. But at least these mistakes were ours, and not simply the decisions of the kleptos themselves.
We (the people) need to be much less lazy. We have the ability – the right – to determine our government. We too often watch TV reruns instead. That’s easier than checking out the issues and offered solutions.
But at least we have room, and a chance, to improve. I don’t think the European model does.
It is worth remembering that the international establishment, such as the Economist magazine, do not hate DOGE because it cut government spending too little – they hate it because it, to them, cut government spending too much.
And they do not hate President Trump because he has done too little against the mass immigration of hostiles – they hate him because, to them, he has done too much. And they would hand all of Europe, indeed all of Western Civilization, to populations who would utterly destroy it. To them “the city gates should be open to friends, but closed to foes” has no meaning – as they believe everyone (over the entire planet) is essentially the same – interchangeable.
And we can not reason with the international establishment – because they believe that dissent should be punished, that people should be driven from their jobs, indeed locked up in prison for dissent.
The enemy is very clear – the enemy is the international establishment, the “International Community”, the “rules based international order”, or whatever these swine (these utter swine) call themselves this week.
Well he does tweet a lot of stuff about birth rates and fertility. He also tweets about how he thinks AI and robots will ‘replace all jobs’:
Reading this article, Musk seems to envisage the future as basically Star Trek’s universe of automated opulence due to machines and AI.
If he believes that I’m not sure why we would need higher birth rates. We wouldn’t need so many people, and I think it would probably further depress birth rates anyway.
I don’t think Musk is right but I think the current welfare state along with COVID furlough gives a hint how the majority of people would probably behave if there was no need for anyone to work to make ends meet.
What do they expect the end point of these policies is?
Martin,
They never stop. What do you think “trans ideology” is about? OK we have complete LGB rights (marriage, adoption, the full nine yards) so job’s done? Not if you’re a professional Wolfie Smith it ain’t! “Doing good ain’t got no end”*. They do it because that is what they are. They are “activists” and would shrivel and die if there were no more Worlds to conquer. I kinda grok the mindset but for me it is building better computers or being a better photographer or learning Python properly…
*From “The Outlaw Josey Wales”. Captain Tyrell uses this to justify persuing Josey Wales to nigh on Mexico.
Was one of the reasons I opposed gay marriage. Some people seemed to accept it thinking it would draw a line under the sand and rob the left of future energy. I assumed the LGBTQ lobby would just proceed to make even more radical demands, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence the trans activism ramped up after the gay marriage fight was over.
I remember back in 2008/9 some supposed conservatives saying that while they may not agree with Obama’s politics, they could live with him being President because it apparently proved America was no longer racist and would suck out all the energy from identity politics. In the end the exact opposite happened.
I am a big fan of The Outlaw Josey Wales. Quite a ballsy film to portray Confederates sympathetically, and the Union, or at least the Union irregulars in the film as bastards.
I don’t know why people here talk as though DOGE has ceased to exist. Is this some sort of personality cult? DOGE w/o Musk is no longer DOGE?
Back to the topic of the post, I read reports this weekend of nine boats carrying illegal migrants coming to the UK. We have a navy. What exactly is it doing? Why doesn’t the U.K. have loads of fast patrol vessels .? It could retrofit fast civilian craft if necessary, recruit specialist d and get this done.
This is a matter of will.
Martin’s comments on DOGE are spot on.
The infusion of Muslim immigrants to Europe is only a part of the issue. A broader problem is that the welfare state s of Western Europe have low assimilation incentives. The domestic culture is also ruined by self doubt.
But this could quickly turn. The rise of rightwing populism isn’t going away anytime soon. I also detect something of a rebirth of Christianity among the young. (I may be wrong.)
Johnathan Pearce.
The establishment do not hate DOGE because it cut government spending too little – they hate it because it tried to cut government spending at all.
However, the only way to make really large scale reductions in government spending, which are desperately needed, is to end the filibuster rule and pass a budget by 51 votes in the Senate.
It is not the fault of President Trump or Mr Elon Musk that this is not done – it is the fault of the Republican “leadership” in Congress, it is Congress that has the “power of the purse” – but people like “Leader Thune” refuse to do what need to be done.
I agree that the mass immigration is not coming in to join the West – they are coming to destroy the West.
Sadly there is little REAL assimilation (although there are a few cases of it), not even over generations. Sport, pop music, and so on are indeed NOT a culture. A culture is basic principles that the growing hostile populations utterly reject.
It is partly a matter of a plundering – seeking government benefits and services, but it is also a matter of principle – they hate us on principle, because their principles are opposed to our principles.
The nonaggression principle does not include allowing enemies into your land and allowing them to increase their numbers – quite the contrary, the nonaggression principle is, in part, about defending against such aggression.
If there was real assimilation of PRINCIPLES this would not apply – but there is not, indeed the part of the new population born into Western nations is often more (more – not less) hostile, than the first generation of immigrants.
It is not so much “self doubt” – the schools, universities, and all cultural institutions are dominated by forces that hate (actually hate) Western civilization.
As for the collapse of fertility being created by high population density – Australia and New Zealand have very low population density, and the low fertility of the Western population is also present there. Canada is also facing the destruction of itself as a Western nation – it will not take many more decades to “achieve” death.
The decline of Western fertility is the intended (intended) result of the Social Revolution (feminism and-so-on) that was imposed by an elite (it was a very much a “top-down” matter) from, at least, the 1960s onwards.
We are now entering the end-game of whether Western Civilization will survive at all – economically (the endless government spending and the insane monetary and financial system), culturally, or biologically.
And this may also be true of societies in the far east – Japan, South Korea and Taiwan face some (some) of the same problems.
And mass immigration would indeed NOT help these societies – no more than it has helped the United Kingdom.
Paul,
I’m afraid you let the administration off too easily. If Trump was really serious about shrinking the state he should have sat down with Republicans in the Senate and House and worked on what areas to cut.
Executive orders aren’t sufficient. Legislative action is needed.
But Trump didn’t do this. He likes issuing executive orders.
My worry about DOGE is that it’s been such a mess overall that it discredits the whole idea of shrinking government. Which is a shame, because it urgently needs to happen.
I assume that you’re not arguing that the Navy should escort the refugees in faster, or even just pick them up in France and run them over quickly, but, given your government, wouldn’t that be the most likely way they’d use fast boats?
You need the will before you need tools.
Johnathan Pearce – DOGE was not a mess.
As for “sitting down with the Republicans in the Senate” – that has been done (repeatedly), but it is utterly pointless whilst the filibuster rule remains.
Whilst “Leader Thune” says that 60 Senators have to agree to health care reform, or anything else of importance – even the appointment of vital positions in the Administration, nothing will be achieved – because nothing can be achieved.
Sadly the Deep State is not fiction – it is real, and “Leader Thune” may well be under its influence.
bobby b.
Yes – the point is the will.
The British establishment will do nothing to save Britain – quite the contrary, they will aid in its destruction and punish anyone who tries to save Britain.
They regard trying to save Britain as “racist” – and they believe that this “racism” should be punished.
In short – Britain is a dead-man-walking, its own establishment (all the institutions) de facto working to destroy Britain.
And this attitude is trained into the armed forces and the police – when I types “all institutions” I meant it, and when I typed “the establishment” I meant it – including the traditional head of the establishment.