• bunnygirl [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    Eh, I’m not holding my breath tbh

    at least from what I’ve seen the minister of foreign trade says the current export restrictions are purely based on national security and is pretty much fine with them, so I don’t really see them changing soon? It’d be a pleasant surprise tho

    • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      That’s not happening. This is meaningless talk.

      They’re still withholding the machines and maintenance to the top end processes from China on national security grounds. They’ve already committed economic suicide. Germany is blaming Ukraine for the Nordstream attacks.

      They lost their chance for independence this decade with the blowing up of Nordstream and when they all jumped onboard with anti-Russia sanctions and supplying weapons. The US has an interest in keeping the war in Ukraine burning or ending in a Korea type situation without a clear winner to keep Europe off Russian gas and reliant on US gas. Meanwhile the US poaches their talent, empties their industry into its pockets (some goes to China but that’s the way the cookie crumbles), and so on.

      The idea of an independent Europe is laughable, it was happening but in too weak a way to ever succeed and the us sabotaged it easily and will again. After Ukraine the US is going to use Taiwan as an issue, there will be a big thing about it declaring independence, Europe will of course have to “stand with European values and democracy” and antagonize China and commit more economic suicide in decoupling from China to abide by US suggested sanctions, and so on. Europe is cooked. They’re going to go to the hard right parties after that happens since the left is not allowed at which point they’ll either start doing imperialism with the US while brutalizing migrants or they might actually take a more skeptical stance against the US and adopt a more mercenary position under the banner of white supremacy and reaction. Either way I’m sorry to say I don’t see socialism in Europe this decade or probably even the 2030s.

        • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          Well obviously. But I didn’t feel like writing for hours. Any geopolitical analysis of this scale that is only two paragraphs is going to be simplified.

          Whether it’s overly simple, I don’t think so. I think I captured the gist of how things seem to be going. Of course I can’t know the future, there are twists and turns and happenings no one expects.

          But I do know this. Europe is bound to the US by the bonds of white supremacy and settler-colonialist legacy and the threads of neo-colonialist interest they still have. Their interests are one in certain ways and that makes it exceptionally hard for them to truly gain independence from the force that’s been occupying them (literally) and bailed out their capitalists at the end of WW2. Like a bunch of evil Captain Planet planeteers through their powers and colonial legacy, tricks, and support combined the US became capitalism’s consolidated champion as well as the global defender of the white supremacist world order.

          Let’s not forget the NSA was spying on Germany’s prime minister among many others. It’s not just that they have troops in these countries, it’s that hey have dirt, leverage, ways of pushing people into or out of power when it comes down to it if they really need to make a change. They haven’t used these for decades because they’re unseemly and don’t fit with their new image so it’s a problem if they’re caught and because the EU is close enough in interests to them that it’s never been a problem. Gladio is a reminder of the tip of the iceberg of how far they’d go. Much as Google keeps Mozilla funded and alive to stave off challenges of monopoly the US allowed Europe some independence to lend legitimacy to their claims of different opinions and the idea that the EU and western Europe and most of NATO aren’t just a bunch of vassals for the US.

          As Parenti once quipped, if you never go beyond where you’re supposed to go you never notice the tug of the leash, it’s only when you stray that you feel that and realize the limits imposed on you.

          The Nordstream bombings was the tugging of the leash and we saw Europe very obediently heel and they’ve with a whimper accepted the US narrative lie about it being Ukraine that did it.

    • imogen_underscore [it/its, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      it will never happen. most european states’ “sovereignty” is not real and they are more or less de facto vassals of the empire. the idea that a state like NL could “pivot to china” just isn’t feasible. quick way to get US marines running up your beaches.

      • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        Unfortunately I fully agree but I kind of posted this out of a sense of dreaming.

        That being said, for any European comrades do you ever point out to reactionaries that they are agitating to further their respective countries as vassal states for the US? Both the Tories and Reform might as well start calling for Britain to apply to be the 51st US state, especially with the rapid Americanization that’s happened to the UK since Brexit.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 months ago

      I think the quote refers to Dutch saying they have their own independent interests that don’t necessarily align with the US.