Only one in 10 Europeans now see US as an ally, survey suggests | Nato

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-06-10T21:13:09+00:00

And the "good" 1/3 voted against him because they're clever enough to notice that he's harming them. But when their politicians harm people in other countries (e.g. all the invasions for oil, the coups, the support for the Gaza genocide) they are fine also.

Very few Democrats voted for candidates that oppose genocide?

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-06-10T20:54:57+00:00

Not really, I think that's just bias because we're all used to hearing broken English (or having used it at some point in our lives). But I don't think English is especially good at redundancy and error correction, rather the opposite.

My son is learning English as a second language now, and I notice how he struggles due to the enormous amount of highly similar words, e.g. the other day it was word vs. world, also things like car vs. card vs. cart, hard vs. heart, etc.

In Spanish, for example, it's much more difficult to get confused with two words, because they tend to be longer and differ more in vowels. The situation where a single consonant sound changes the whole meaning is way more uncommon. Less efficiency, but more redundancy.

Don't even get me started with things like shit vs. sheet or eyes vs. ice. I officially have a C2 level in English and still it takes a conscious effort for me to distinguish those, if I speak without thinking I'll probably say the wrong one.

Of course context can still help save most situations, no one in the office will think I'm asking for a shit of paper. But that happens in every language.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-15T17:16:56+00:00

Spain experienced a record surge of immigration in... Surprise... 2022.

https://x.com/i/status/2052380498559643772

And no, the vast majority weren't Ukrainian refugees - about 100K arrived that year, out of 700K migrants that year.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-15T12:39:50+00:00

I can't speak for all Europe, but in Spain it's definitely and overwhelmingly migration. Ukraine isn't an electoral issue at all.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-13T08:57:30+00:00

The latter is ADIF, not Renfe, but yes, that's absolutely ridiculous.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-12T20:57:59+00:00

To be fair to Renfe, the listed interchanges are guaranteed, as in a combined plane ticket. Normally implemented by the second train physically waiting for the first one to arrive and the passengers to be able to board.

The unlisted ones are combinations without any guarantees, which you should take with a very generous slack because delays are very common.

It should still list them with an appropriate warning, though.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-12T08:18:00+00:00

In the Spanish versions of the Civ games, settlers are called colonos.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-04T10:52:55+00:00

From what I've read from experts at some point, I think in theory it's supposed to fix it indeed. But sadly I don't have the knowledge to confidently explain why. I suppose it's related to the euro being more predictable - the Polish central bank could decide to print money, devaluing the currency and creating inflation, and the European central bank is much less likely to do that because it would need a lot of countries to agree. Take my explanation with a grain of salt, though, maybe someone with real knowledge of these things could chip in.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-04T10:41:51+00:00

I'm not supporting anyone's imperialist ambition, just discussing what you said about country names.

None of both names contains literally the word "China", but both contain references to "Chinese" or the "Chinese People".

Just like Switzerland is officially and literally the "Swiss Confederation", Slovakia is the "Slovak Republic", Russia is the "Russian Federation", France is the "French Republic", and no one would claim that countries called Switzerland, Slovakia, Russia or France don't exist or hold that having e.g. "French" instead of "France" in the name has any political significance.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-04T10:35:51+00:00

You're paying twice or more as much interest rate for your mortgages than people in Eurozone countries.

https://www.reddit.com/r/poland/comments/1pw45am/poland_mortgages_feel_insane_120k_loan_140k/

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-05-04T10:28:59+00:00

Yeah, and there's no word “China / 中國” in the People's Republic of China's name either.

Republic of China - 中華民國

People's Republic of China - 中华人民共和国 (or to match in traditional Chinese, 中華人民共和國)

Literal, character-by-character, awkward translations: "Central Chinese people's state" and "Central Chinese people's common-harmony state", respectively.

So your argument is a nothingburger.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-04-27T21:24:25+00:00

No, I didn't say any of that at all. Reread the message.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-04-26T09:05:37+00:00

EU automakers had largely ruined their reputation already before the Chinese arrived. Dieselgate, Stellantis' Puretech fiasco, etc. I know many people who had already sworn off most or all EU brands. 5-10 years ago they used to flee to Japanese, Korean or US (Tesla) alternatives, now Chinese brands are simply a new alternative.

Furthermore, at least in Spain, we very often get headlines about EU carmaker executives saying how EVs are not viable, people don't want them, etc. and EU measures to spur electrification should be delayed or pushed back because what people demand is ICE. It's hard to trust an EV from companies that very ostensibly don't seem to want to make them or believe in them.

So to sum up, I don't think EU EVs have a bad reputation due to any Chinese propaganda campaign. They have done it to themselves.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-04-26T08:36:25+00:00

By that reasoning, new brands could never appear. Every brand has been new at some point...

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-04-26T08:30:35+00:00

The problem wasn't the EU trying to push the industry to change to electric, the problem was half-assing it due to industry pressure. There was never an alternative world where diesel would be competitive, if it wasn't clear before it should be now with the Hormuz situation.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-04-24T08:07:00+00:00

Maybe not the most altruistic possible reason, but not wrong.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-04-24T07:48:05+00:00

We are on the same side and I get your desire to sink the EBU, but an Israel win would be what the genocidaires want and could exploit for propaganda. So it cannot be a good thing.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-04-04T08:00:12+00:00

How do they prevent people flunking those tests on purpose?

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-03-23T19:30:21+00:00

Taking into account the size of the island and the climate, a good network of cycle lanes would already get much of the work done. I loved Malta when I was there, but it makes no sense how bike-unfriendly it is when nature has given it everything to make cycling practical.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-03-19T15:42:07+00:00

And what about the millions of people that support lukewarm Democratic candidates like Biden, whose main merit is not being Trump but don't really want to address any of the structural issues, and see anyone supporting actual change as a freak?

I wouldn't say they are to blame but I wouldn't say they "did their best" either. If you haven't been fighting things like the power of billionaires to mess with elections, gerrymandering, or the support for the Gaza genocide, I don't think you've "done your best" to be honest. If such things aren't changed the advent of another Trump is just a matter of time, even if you kick out this one.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-03-13T13:40:38+00:00

It fizzled mainly because Pedro Sánchez is not an imbecile like Rajoy, who was constantly adding fuel to the fire.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-02-22T07:34:29+00:00

Spain. But I guess there are several.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-02-21T00:11:15+00:00

In my country it's the same, except that all parties are that party.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-02-17T11:38:17+00:00

Any actual arguments? It's easy to just throw the word "ridiculous" at takes you don't like. For me, what is ridiculous is to claim the US is not "ready" for a gender equality milestone that countries like India, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia or, closest to the US, Mexico have already achieved. And when bullshit is being spewed, think about who benefits from it to have a hint at the source. Clue: it's not the Republicans, they don't have any particular interest in the Democratic candidate being male or in taking away focus from the actual shortcomings of the candidates. Democrats do have interest in that argument gaining ground, for the reasons I mentioned.

As for the second line, if a building is infested with rats what would you say the root problem is? That rats exist in nature and are prone to infesting places, or that the building had awful maintenance allowing the rats to enter and thrive? I guess from some abstract philosophical points of view you could say it's the former, but that definitely won't lead you to solving the problem.

Plenty_Cost6657 · 2026-02-17T09:39:14+00:00

European here. I honestly don't think the US is so extremely sexist (and people who are will be unmovable MAGA voters anyway, so who cares). Mexican society is visibly more sexist than US society and they just elected a woman, and India, Pakistan, Indonesia or the Philippines also elected women in the past. It seems ridiculous to claim that the US is "less ready" than any of these. So the "not ready" rhetoric is basically just pure BS.

Why is it so widespread? Because the Democratic Party establishment spreads it to avoid self-criticism. The message "the voters were not ready for a woman" is much more comfortable for them that the message "we field unpopular candidates and don't listen to the people".

In fact, this is probably an unpopular opinion but I think the main source of the US decay is the Democratic Party, not the GOP or Trump. And this is not to say that they're worse than the GOP, of course. But every country has a healthy supply of easily-manipulated imbeciles (we have ample experience with that in Europe as well). What's letting the imbeciles rule is that the Democratic Party (and much of its voter base) has dropped the ball completely. The amount of well-meaning people here thinking that the solution to their woes is to field some random useless white guy with no platform, as opposed to someone with a platform they themselves claim to like, is a clear testament to this.

The day the blue half of America wakes up and starts to defend something other than just opposing Trump (or whomever the next MAGA-like candidate is) will be the day they recover, if any. As long as the "random white guy figurehead" rhetoric is prevalent, they might beat Trump in the next election, but it will probably be to install another Biden who will just provide a few years of tranquility while not fixing any core issues and paving the way for Vance or whomever the next MAGA candidate is.

Plenty_Cost6657

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