#eupol

[moosemonstrous]

I'm incredibly excited but also the 'oh' made me snort my drink

[on-a-lucky-tide]

Eastern European anon here. I think the main difference here is that Leftists (well, communists, because anarchists are more or less hated everywhere equally lol) are strongly connected with totalitarianism in people's mind because of Soviet past. I know that same shit exists to some extent in USA since Cold War, but honestly I feel like here people realize even less that USSR has never been a communist country and that communism (or socialism) does not equate totalitarianism. Can't blame them with the shit Soviets did, but it's kinda baffling to me that even a very close and VERY well-educated in humanitarian disciplines friend of mine just recently began actively getting uneasy because her boyfriend is "turning into a radical communist".

I'm sitting with my mostly anarchist family and friends here like... yeah... what a scary thing, love... can you imagine how terrifying those lefties are...

On the other hand, most of post-soviet countries still have at least partially benefits like free education and medicine and even the ones who are strongly anti-communist agree that things like this are a must. At least in my experience, of course.

Sorry for going on a tangent. But there are also regional differences based on basically how well Soviets treated some republics and such.

Thank you for sending me this, it's so interesting, and an important reminder that many eastern European countries have only been free of the soviet union for slightly longer than I've been alive and that leaves a cultural/social scar. It's sobering, really. Could these countries still be in a healing phase after that? It's only 36 years. People who lived it as adults are still alive.

Interesting point about how attitudes depend on how well different countries were treated (makes me wonder about the differences between places like Czechia/Slovakia and Hungary versus.. like, Romania?) Also, that crazy Romanian MEP who is a major Russian shill - she's far right, but has Russian ties. How do they square that circle with tying "leftism" to the USSR? Before we even get to wanting all the benefits of leftwing ideology as "well, obviously, yeah".

Huh. Lots to think on. Cheers, Non.

Edit: I forgot! The AfD in Germany are the majority party in former East Germany. Resurgence of far right in Eastern Europe perhaps directly correlated to failures of ussr?

[oze250]

sorry but if I ever have to send my ID to use youtube or any social media then I'll just stop using it. I'll just read or go out or smth. I guess I'll self improve in spite of myself.

[clangpan]

Still can't get over how the EU Conversion Therapy ban bill barely had any support for a year until some french influencer got enough and activated the "organize" button in France, reaching 1200% signatures in France and reaching the threshold in 8 other countries in the span of not even a week

Like I am both so impressed at what we managed to do but also, why did we even allow it to be this close? We had a full year to do that and all it took was a single Instagram lady in a few days near the end to succeed

[aspiring-weird-old-man]

Germany, please make good choices today...

[nederlandsespoorwegen]

Hallo NS,

Morgen kunnen we allemaal gaan stemmen voor het EU parlement. Als we de kansen voor meer treinen willen maximalizeren, waar moeten we dan op stemmen?

Ik voel me niet bevoegd om hier een inhoudelijk antwoord op te geven maar dit is inderdaad een belangrijke vraag. De shift van luchtvaart naar treinen moet voor een heel groot deel vanuit de EU komen dus wat we morgen doen maakt echt veel verschil

[there-are-4-lights]

Is there any media (in any language) about the EU's proposals about hate speech legislation?

Time to criminalise hate speech and hate crime under EU law | News | European Parliament

MEPs call on the Council to finally make progress on legislation to ensure an adequate level of protection from hate for everyone in Euro

We need this to be an issue people talk about ahead of the election and to hold our politicians to account. Ask them in person when they're campaigning on the street, email them. Ask them if we want Scottish-style hate crime legislation in the EU.

Links about Scotland:

Women have every right to be concerned about Hate Crime Act

Scotland's new Hate Crime Act is fraught with danger

[ratatattatas]

seeing a lot of news surrounding Jonathan Jacob Meijer and that netflix doc, and i'm a little perturbed by how so few news outlets are pointing out the deeply racist, eugenicist beliefs that Meijer and his cronies are trying to spread using sperm donations.

this is exhibit #5,000 of a fascist being caught and slapped on the wrist for the harm he committed against white European families while those most victimized by his actions and ideology are ignored because they're Black, so it's not new, but it remains so incredibly frustrating.

what should be done about this (likely growing) movement to "bleach Africa", as Meijer's buddies put it? how will European countries hold their citizens accountable and prevent them from travelling abroad to weaponize black women's bodies for their eugenic ego trips?