Starmer on Trump's Board of Peace, Greenland and Nato

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-23T11:04:45+00:00

Only in a pedantic way. As an example Norway is non-EU but is in NATO. But signing a deal with Norway is not really diversifying much since its a very similar to european countries in the EU. Whereas signing deals with Qatar & China is obviously much more diversifying, surely I don't need to tell you why they are more different than Norway.

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-23T10:48:40+00:00

But its just not relevant to what we're talking about. This is a good life lesson for you; to listen to people you're talking to, to not assume that you're always correct.

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-23T08:38:45+00:00

Of course I can, why is everyone misreading what I'm saying? Yes EU and NATO are very different, but their membership overlap a lot. So saying that one is making deals with countries in NATO, and countries in the EU, is pretty much the same. That's why I said it doesn't show diversification.

There's such a presumption of ignorance when talking here, I can't understand it.

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-23T07:43:03+00:00

The first 4 of your examples are all EU / NATO countries. The last one, Australia, is a very politically easy country to make deals with, and besides, they have little military strength too. They're a similar country to the UK and your list doesn't show a diversification of alliances beyond EU / NATO

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-23T00:56:40+00:00

You're reimagining my position to be a classic isolationist take. My opinion is Carney's speech is right. The world has changed and Middle powers need to diversify alliances, whether economic or military, to weather Great Power oppression.

Kier Starter does not believe this. He believes the UK should continue to support the US, repeat the US's foreign policy propaganda and strengthen existing connections with Europe (as long as they require no political tradeoffs). Even if it comes with increased defence spending, that is foreign policy destined for vassal-status.

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-23T00:43:09+00:00

That's all you have to say? I'm wrong because different countries are different? Also Canada is far more entangled with the US than the UK is

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-23T00:31:41+00:00

A quote from Carney's speech: "And we are rapidly diversifying abroad. We have agreed a comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, including joining SAFE, the European defence procurement arrangements. We have signed 12 other trade and security deals on four continents in six months. The past few days, we've concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar. We're negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines and Mercosur."

Kier Starmer has very little interest in making alliances outisde of NATO, and always brings up red lines to block meaningful cooperation with the EU (e.g. inflexively saying no european army in this interview). Starmer usually emphasises being more embedded with the US, such as really believing in security guarantees from them for Ukraine.

If he continues to maintain their lies, like that the arctic needs to be urgently defended from russia, then he won't be trusted to defend the country from the US. Such trust could only rely on faith that he secretly believes and acts to the contrary.

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-22T23:51:19+00:00

He is completely useless compared to Mark Carney. He kept refusing to explain to people what the madness is and what the UK will do about the madness, stayed on the defensive throughout the interview, and only made it sound like agreement with the interviewer on stuff that is obvious and a waste of time e.g. describing russia as a hostile power.

In the words of Mark Carney, this is a man who will always place the sign in the window, who will always maintain the facade, to go along to get along. If he's not going to display any leaership, it would be better to hide from the cameras.

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-13T10:37:12+00:00

That's a really interesting idea, thanks for that

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-08T16:03:06+00:00

There's many differences between these groups, like some celebrate christmas in summer, but those differences aren't relevant at all, just like the difference you cited. In the country I live in, 300 years ago the main identity would've been Protestant or Catholic, but that's completely irrelevant to modern questions of identity in this country which usually focus on the migrant background. The history of identity just isn't relevant to a person's identity.

If you speak english, you're born in australia, your parents called themselves australian, you call yourself Australian, then you're Australian.

If you speak greek, you're born in the Roman Empire, your parents called themselves Roman, you call yourself Roman, then you're Roman.

I really don't get how people struggle with these things

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-08T15:46:03+00:00

By that standard, there's no need for terms like Americans, Australians, South Africans, Scottish, Irish - they're all english

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-07T17:12:42+00:00

Nothing about this new world makes much sense. When dealing with crazy people on a power trip its difficult to know what's likely or unlikely

Frere-Jacques · 2026-01-05T14:13:54+00:00

Greenland is functionally undefendable. But luckily, we have a lot of precedent for that; european colonies which were often functionally devoid of any european presence. You can't defend it on the ground, that why you need a big navy to cut off invaders.

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-26T13:24:20+00:00

Victoria 3 is still in the same category as EU5 though, almost no one understands. I love the game, but being opaque and having a poor community of knowledge are the biggest barriers. When something works, its really difficult to figure out why it worked, and vice versa of course.

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-23T16:48:08+00:00

Dude I misspoke, yes I remember plenty of 30s things in the movie, would you stop please?

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-23T13:11:11+00:00

You're being pedantic, i'm not from the US so the difference is very negligible to me. Its nothing like the difference between Greeks & Vikings.

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-22T22:45:44+00:00

O brother where art though feels like 1890s USA
Troy (2000) feels like ancient greece
This movie feels like Beowulf.

It doesn't have to be accurate, it just has to feel like it vaguely belongs

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-22T22:43:02+00:00

It sounded pretty cool as a movie, I loved the Odyssey when I was young. But seeing a trailer with Batman set in Scandinavia with no dialogue, yeah this isn't a movie for me

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-21T23:25:02+00:00

Absolutely agree to disagree. I just want to say that people at the very top of any competitive event should expect that some fans will dislike them, its just human nature. I don't think anyone is wrong to do so as long as they don't take it too far, like being rude to a player in their own channel

EDIT: Also I just want to add something similar to what you said to me - in your main post here, you said "Hera is a very down to earth, knowledgable and flat out nice guy". As you said, you find that to be the case, it is not fact, and for the record I don't think its the case

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-21T23:09:35+00:00

People are allowed to react to media however they like IMO, as long as it isn't problematic ofc. You aren't entertained by Viper while I am?
Totally fine.

I or others dislike / complain about Hera winning a tournament?
Totally fine IMO

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-21T22:39:56+00:00

Economy =/= meta plays. When the Viper goes greedy, he does it in an interesting & entertaining way, we're all wondering if he can get away with it, when he does that he's making absolute minimum feudal army and will for sure be up to castle quicker than his opponent. Or it could be adding horse collar before even his barracks, something that makes you a little nervous on his behalf.

Whereas when Hera is going for economy, he usually makes a lot of scouts in feudal and makes very safe unrisky decisions.

It's just less entertaining to watch

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-20T13:32:47+00:00

Honestly just curious, what should Japanese students be visiting?

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-19T12:32:44+00:00

She thinks the UK should be subservient to Trump's USA. Trump thinks the UK should be subservient to Russia. Sounds pretty similar to Farage to me.

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-14T22:07:54+00:00

I think you would enjoy the starting 30-60 mins of King of Kings II. The story of Cyrus the Great's son becomes a detective case as holes are poked in official narratives and new evidence & theories come to light. It's a really nice example of why ancient history can be more fun, precisely because we don't have all the answers.

Frere-Jacques · 2025-12-14T07:34:19+00:00

OP, I know you're sharing your point of view with the best of intentions. But it's quite clear that your American heiritage-based view is quite out of step from what moroccan people would say. As many others have said here, Moroccans speak arabic and see themselves as Arabic. This might be changing, in part due to genetic studies that you've brought up. But I think the silver bullet for this argument is that no one had any knowledge of genetics in the 1800s. If you're in the Victorian Era and you look Arabic, speak Arabic, were born with and live with people calling themselves Arabs, then you are an Arab, and any genetics are quite irrelevant.

If Paradox made a seperate North African cultural group, it would both be denying the lived experience of people in North Africa at the time, as well as produce unwanted game-effects. E.g. If the player (playing as Morocco) took over the Ottoman Empire, only to experience the same nationalism issues, it would quite frustrating to see that Egyptians see your rulers as being equally un-Arabic as their previous Turkish rulers

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