• @AgreeableLandscape
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    3 years ago

    In Europe, while stepping over other, especially poorer and non-white countries.

    Seeing how they’ve only made timid attempts at criticism against the human rights disaster that is the US (especially Trump’s US), they clearly don’t give a shit. It also hasn’t done anything against the rampant homophobia and erosion or women’s rights in Poland, as an even more close to home example.

    • @Peter1986c
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      33 years ago

      I hope my reply is polite enough esp. given you are an admin, but I would like to give some nuances/counterpoints.

      It also hasn’t done anything against the rampant homophobia and erosion or women’s rights in Poland, as an even more close to home example.

      This comment of yours is fair enough to make. However, Poland is still a sovereign nation, so there is only a small amount of “ordering around” that the EU can do. Not only because that is how the EU is “designed”, but also because Polish nationalists/conservatives would love to shout out to anyone hearing them that they are being overruled by the EU (thus only gaining more power). So to be honest I do not know what could be a solution to this, but I agree something needs to happen.

      In Europe, while stepping over other, especially poorer and non-white countries.

      Are you sure this would not somehow happen without the EU? Haven’t you noticed e.g. the rising Chinese “imperialism” in Africa?

      Seeing how they’ve only made timid attempts at criticism against the human rights disaster that is the US (especially Trump’s US)

      1. We were in the middle of a pandemic when Trump was Potus, so we were kind of having our hands full
      2. Trump’s government would simply have done a tu quoque and stated something like “as if you are better” (given “we” are not 100% clean ourselves, as well as given the power Trumpers have found in reflecting and projecting flaws).
      3. What measures beyond “strongly worded letters” would actually have made a difference?
      • @AgreeableLandscape
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        3 years ago

        I’m not going to ban you unless you’re a fascist, or you start insulting people (me or otherwise) personally, etc. That said however:

        This comment of yours is fair enough to make. However, Poland is still a sovereign nation, so there is only a small amount of “ordering around” that the EU can do. Not only because that is how the EU is “designed”, but also because Polish nationalists/conservatives would love to shout out to anyone hearing them that they are being overruled by the EU (thus only gaining more power). So to be honest I do not know what could be a solution to this, but I agree something needs to happen.

        Okay? But at the end of the day, that means nothing to the oppressed LGBTQ+ people in Poland.

        This isn’t a criticism of the EU anymore, but I feel like the European countries that claim to be LGBTQ progressive, like Sweden or the Netherlands, should at least be putting some actual political or economic pressure on explicitly homophobic countries right there in Europe.

        Haven’t you noticed e.g. the rising Chinese “imperialism” in Africa?

        You mean the billions that China has poured into Africa in the form of supplies, infrastructure and now vaccines without requiring any of it to be repaid? China is also famous for outright cancelling debt for African nations especially in times of crisis like the pandemic. If they’re trying to be imperialist, they’re not good at it.

        More importantly, many, probably most Africans themselves think that their countries’ relationship with China is a positive one. I don’t think we, as distant, detached westerners, have the right to think we know the China-Africa situation better than Africans themselves.

        What measures beyond “strongly worded letters” would actually have made a difference?

        Breaking economic ties? The EU was pretty quick to ban Huawei’s 5G hardware on a rumour they they were spying on users (rumours spread by the US mind you, a country that has been confirmed to have spied on EU countries in the recent past). Why not do the same with US companies if they wanted to stick it to them?

        Or… at least tell the US to remove their nuke bases from EU countries?