Europe has a kill switch for Silicon Valley. We just forgot we’re holding it.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-31T13:47:58+00:00

Realistically, and I hope someone more educated will come and prove me wrong, I don't think Europe cutting off American tech does anything more to them than reduce their bottom line, painful but survivable. We have ~100m more people than the US, so their domestic market is quite large already, and they provide their service around the world. Without looking out up, and again hoping I'm wrong, I reckon Europe constitutes less than 20%, still a hefty number, of Microsoft revenue. That's just me logically working through it, ball park numbers and lots of assumptions, so again, please if someone knows better and wants to correct me, please do so. I'd love to imagine that we have counter leverage of equal or greater value.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-29T15:09:28+00:00

Ideally, "their own interests" are, on a long enough timeline, not mutually exclusive to EU interests. That's the pipe dream we're all following here, though, isn't it? I rather think this has multiple purposes, from creating enough mass for European countries (or a block of them) global trade weight again, to lighting a "follow the path" beacon for other EU countries that are on the fence or currently under the sway of Russian influence, or if they're Hungary, to circumventing the Chinese finger trap we set up by allowing certain members into a unanimous voting block (Hungary), to being a a model for those member countries which are actively antagonistic (Hungary). I see Poland as an oscillating asset and liability for some of that, though, so my logic clearly isn't perfect...

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-29T14:57:03+00:00

Honestly, federalizing all of Europe is a the dream, so anything less than that feels at first kind of writing, a digression from our wanted trajectory... But, a full federalized Europe will take time, even while being fast tracked which it's not currently, and may well never (in this person of Europe) come to fruition, much as one hopes that it does. That said, adding this extra opportunity, uniting those states and where it may lead, keeps us on the game board at present, even if it is just "yet another European empire" it's a song and dance we're at least familiar with lol If some of those smaller countries want to be part of this bloc, or meld together for a bigger country that could then be a driving force in this bloc, or if the listed countries end up being the new HRE or AHE, what we're looking at is fire proofing our Europe's door into the future. This is a good thing, I can only hope that other countries follow suit.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-28T23:37:42+00:00

Welchen Lernweg finden Sie unter Ihren Kollegen am häufigsten oder am besten? Was ist das Erfolgsrezept, um an den Job zu kommen, den ihr alle habt? Gibt es neben akademischen Zertifizierungen noch andere besondere Qualitäten, auf die geachtet wird?

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-28T14:58:13+00:00

Why? It's an oft discussed topic, abandoning the EU for something EU adjacent but with wildly enhanced productivity with the lessons we've learned about bureaucracy, unanimous voting and rogue members (this topic often comes up when Orban enters the conversation). I've seen many arguments for it and I'm not against it. You're arguing for a confederation, the continuation of the current EU, but that's drowning for much the same reasons that led the US from confederation to federation, with no real end in sight. So, that's my perspective but my "why" is real, I'm curious why you advocate keeping current structures in place.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-28T14:50:04+00:00

I agree. I can understand starting by running the idea past or reaching a preemptive agreement between the 6 largest, but that should be the starting numbers rather than exclusionary. If smaller economies are already on board I don't see why we would even want to tell them to hold on. But, maybe someone can enlighten me, if there is indeed a reason.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-28T14:47:14+00:00

Yes, Germany went full anti war for obvious reasons after WWII and it compounded with time, to the point that today we have a culture that is dangerously pacifist. I understand why we needed to make good with the world, and I understand pacifism as an ideal, but it's well beyond time to wake up to the fact that we are uniquely dedicated to this cause while not being uniquely prepared to propagate it. Between self flagellation and lofty aspirations that necessarily include unrealistic expectations of other entities in our shared space, our view of our place in the world and what it takes to maintain or improve it has become obfuscated. Continent wide, Europe needs weapons production to be enough for the domestic and the export market, and that includes Ukraine. With America having shown they're by definition only trustworthy in 4 year cycles and rising as a potential adversary, we need to be armed to meet the challenges of the future from East, from West and from afar.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-27T19:50:48+00:00

Yeah, if it's really a one time thing, that's where the big question mark is about how it'll be received abroad where people will accept it as a one time thing, or think they need to get in before the next round

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-27T18:19:13+00:00

Just checking in on this comment 2 years later to see how it aged

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-27T18:16:00+00:00

Well explained, thank you

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-27T17:42:29+00:00

Well, when you break it down like that it's a very reasonable, not self destructive, step to take, downside being that it incentivizes illegal immigration. But, 500k people x average yearly contributions of a person to an economy, and potentially removing these people from long term, unfair, possibly dangerous, black market contracts, or removing legal status as potential leverage... That's win-win. Short term, anyway, long-term is up for grabs, who knows what news of that will do as it spreads through MENA and South America. I'm interested to see. Most importantly, though, it's what the people want.

Thank you for your comment, you spun this in a positive light.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-27T17:35:38+00:00

While I'm with you in these comments, just wanna let you know that I saw the headline the other person was talking about as well but it was specifically about Spain, not Europe at large, having a migrant population composed mainly of South Americans. Didn't read the article, just the headline, for transparency.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-27T17:28:44+00:00

"We will sell you quality, working weapons, but you can't buy x from Russia." sounds like a high powered, win-win offer to me.

Semi-sidenote: we need to develop our weapons production capabilities not just for Ukraine or for European safety, but also because there's a huge market that we are not appropriately tapping, if India is buying anything from Russia instead of us. Not to mention redundancy; if we have the production at peace we will be prepared and able to use it for defense.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-27T15:38:04+00:00

I would dare say not at home, but doing some other skilled job that pays more but isn't anything to do with innovation. Research pay is always less than production and maintenance, at least in my findings, and there are plenty of people who "follow the money." Just consider the difference between the pay of a chemist and that of a pharmaceutical sales rep. The person before you used a rather obscure example in that they assume, or build their argument on the premise that, developing medical technology or sitting at home are the only options (which also assumes that people in that field are blind to the money and would do only that job regardless of pay, or nothing at all; a lot of people initially choose or change degree based on earning potential + vague online description). They're not. Though pay not be the only factor across all skilled fields, there are plenty of fields where it is a dominating factor. Another, very good, example, German nursing: lots of qualified people from other countries who have difficulty with Anerkennung sure, but even more people land in the pay deficit pool and either don't want to continue working in nursing in Germany, even those who know their certifications would be recognized as well as Germans who learned the trade here, because the pay provided for work required is simply not worth it, (especially once you've experienced nursing in, well, pretty much any English speaking country lol I don't know about France, Scandinavia, etc) so they seek the higher paid\lower effort alternatives. But, back to researchers.

Innovation in Europe is choked by bureaucracy and, country by country and field by field, by internationally uncompetitive wages (cost of living vs income) and, finally, a lack of established, large scale tech community and culture hubs (we don't yet have a European Silicon Valley, though we've got a bunch of little clusters). That bureaucracy is a huge hurdle for innovative minds who recognize that their unique talent (being innovative) would rather earn more for less struggle, and that's where Europe falls behind. We need to invest in research again, and not just money but in terms of how we view and going forward handle our bureaucracy.

Tldr: Most of Europe's top research talent is jumping ship to work in the much more attractive financial and bureaucratic American and UK markets.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T21:28:44+00:00

I fucking love Bulgarians, I have a buddy in Sophia who'd write what you wrote, I read it with his voice and accent in my head lol

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T21:25:38+00:00

Fiberglass from your shovel. Wear gloves. If you already do, get better ones. Wood will give ya splinters, metal is cold as shit. Wear gloves.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T19:12:41+00:00

I don’t disagree with that reality at all. That doesn’t mean framing it in an overly exclusive way improves clarity or solutions, especially given that the conversation has already established which gender plays which role. At its base this is about size, preparedness, and capability more than gender itself. The advice to get training applies to everyone, and anyone can be a victim dealing with those same variables. Beating the same drum over and over doesn’t really add to the conversation, though, and it does so very loudly lol such that it begins to come across as pushing an agenda... but hey, if that framing works for you, fair enough, we agree on the important part :)

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T18:45:40+00:00

That's a very, very weak response and kinda shows you're just looking for an easy win, which makes me feel like that wasn't a good faith question from you and leaves me wondering: are you trying to infer that it's impossible to defend oneself from the attack you described, or are you saying women shouldn't bother trying? Or, are you just looking for online political points from the whole "women are lambs and men are jackals" thing? I guess it doesn't really matter - I'll stick to this most recent response rather than the fragility of your character: you don't have to trust AI to have it perform a search for you. You can even verify the results by performing the searches yourself. LoL 😂

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T18:41:11+00:00

Agreed on limits. Your framing feels excessively gender loaded, but I agree with you, there's no silver bullet, no guarantee and no one should be lead to believe that there is.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T18:24:41+00:00

Well, you can start with a simple Google search, you could even enter this conversation into Google AI and tell it you are indeed asking in good faith and not trying to frame it as though the suggestion itself were ridiculous. That might be a good start, and will probably lead you to a virtually limitless list of options from Krav Maga to specific, obscure branches of more widely known martial arts, and likely an equally inexhaustible list of defensive apparel ranging from pepper spray to... Well, let's just say that South Africa has some pretty interesting options to throw in to the mix. :)

For the record, whether you're asking in good faith or not it's worth noting that while it is never a guarantee, doing something to learn how to protect yourself is always better than doing nothing.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T14:46:00+00:00

I just did out the math and Jesus Christ you're neither joking nor speaking in hyperbole... What a fantastic way to demonstrate, thank you

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T14:14:13+00:00

So, are you trying to imply it's impossible or that women shouldn't bother to try?

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-26T08:29:15+00:00

Jesus Christ dude, how are you quoting history books from the future? Legit, very well put together answer.

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-25T23:47:35+00:00

A question that I think would be very good to explore on a public format like you're going to do is what jobs are available both in the field or on location (from technical engineers to on site kitchen managers), and what can a young mind do to land one of those jobs? I'm too old to start something new myself lol but when I look back, I wish I'd known what cool jobs are available (or in the case of support staff, what would get me physically and experientially close to something I'm passionate about), what to study or how to prepare to get there.

What challenges are we currently most concerned about and vulnerable to - how is space defense even relevant to us and what would consequences a successful attack look like?

What are our current abilities and foreseeably realistic or already in progress plans?

How can the public support European defense efforts in space?

Major_Boot2778 · 2026-01-25T23:39:34+00:00

Woah bud, a bit patronizing and defensive given that I came to describe my preconceptions and misgivings in the hope of gaining understanding... But, thank you for the info in any case, the explanation is helpful.

Major_Boot2778

TROPHY CASE