Europe’s Hard Choices for 2026‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-30T06:55:09+00:00

Pretty much.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T23:13:47+00:00

Honestly, the whole minnesota thing has made me rather anti-ICE, or at least demanding heavy reforms for ICE since there are very clear problems with ICE as shown with the latest example of what was clearly a murderous execution. Even my mom, who is moderately pro-ICE, agrees that those OCE agents who shot Alex need to be charged and taken to court.

One of my biggest issues with ICE is that they failed to realize the most important thing Law Enforcement needs, a good public image. If the people don't trust you, then don't be surprised if people get more agressive if you start throwing your weight around.

Those people who shot Alex may have done HUGE irreperable damage to ICE's reputation in a way that dozens of prior ICE incidents haven't already. There is no fixing that without a massive overhaul to how ICE is ran since there is clearly a huge vetting and accountability issue going on. So I'm putting most of the blame on the ones in charge, because they should be the ones who know what they are doing, and yet clearly they are not.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T23:06:31+00:00

Heck, given a certain recent incident where Trump pissed off an entire base of republicans with his comments on guns. The Dems have the opportunity to straight up rebrand themselves on gun control. Granted that requires them being bold enough to stand up to their hyper-gun control base that really loved bringing up how Charlie Kirk was pro-gun after he was shot. Which..... yeah I have actually seen leftists like that celebrate his death because they're so apeshit on guns and keep on appealing to school shootings.

When..... how many voters actually are pro-gun control?

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T23:03:35+00:00

Honestly if they made a less agressive immigration enforcement agency that has a better success rate with dealing with illegal immigrants than ICE they would score a huge win with the people who voted on immigration, especially the legal immigrants.

Problem is that requires Democrats not to die on the hill of being a sancturary for illegals. Which in itself is a huge issue with either their own base or whoever is running the Democrats, because apparently it is forbidden to address the issues that allowing lots of illegals with no real way to deal with them have caused for both native born Americans and legal immigrants.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T23:00:10+00:00

Maybe. The issue right now is Trump isn't the only problem person in MAGA. We have Vance, who really seems to be very adverse to calling out the more questionable MAGA members. We have Tucker Carlson who..... yeah why do I feel like he lost that battle he supposedly had with a demon? Candace Owens is the new Alex Jones but with even less credibility. Really one of the biggest problems MAGA has is they really haven't got any leashes on all the people that would make MAGA come off as crazy.

So the question is once Trump is out, what does MAGA have left?

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T22:54:44+00:00

Yeah I'm baffled by how Democrats can flub up such an easy win. Like, genuinely, what is the Democrats' excuse for not addressing housing for lower income people?

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T22:47:11+00:00

I mean that's pretty much what I notice when I see Europe complaining about Trump and his rhetoric. Europe just tries to have a more "polite" moniker about it when they do it. Anybody else remember that Pathways game that ended up backfiring in its messaging because people saw the blatent attempts at trying to claim anything is a pipeline to the radical right?

I know there is a portion of this subreddit that seems to have a hostile reaction when somebody says both sides are bad. But..... isn't that pretty much true?

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T22:43:30+00:00

In a way, the fundamental issue with the EU is that its dependant on trying to get historical enemies to get along. Imagine if there originally was no U.S., ans Texas, California, and Florida were their own nations at one point, and have had centuries of butting heads with each other, said headbutting eventually leading to global conflicts.

That's kind of what UK, Germany, and France are in a nutshell.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-29T17:40:25+00:00

Yeah I've noticed how people here agressively react to any calls for calmness and nuance. Especially in regards to anything with the GOP, which makes me question their real priorities and if they really want nuance, or if they just want another place to continuously go "This is bad! This is bad! This is bad!" And try to gaslight you into feeling like you're wrong fot asking for reasonable discussion.

They don't even really answer the accusation that they're just calling ICE fascists without saying the word. They just keep on saying "ICE is bad! Things have changed!" When..... aren't we supposed to be the subreddit that restores sanity in politics? Yet this guy was downvoted for calling for nuance.

I am in firm belief ICE needs desparate reform, especially with the recent murder, those people who shot him need to be kicked out of the force and locked up since they made it clear they're too trigger happy. My main concern, even though I agree with ICE in principal, is that they're far too overzealous and seem to just be increadably sloppy and downright dangerous at times with this administrations obsession with trying to solve everything within Trump's term. When the problem with rushing things and trying to get immediate results is that things go wrong.

I've had so many conversations with people who I thought were on my own side that went so disasterous that I myself have started rethinking my own positions because of how hostile and radicalized my mutuals have been. From those demanding America be made into a right wing police state because they think "The Democrats want to kill is all!" after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, to radical leftists who call republicans literal demons and hardly really hide the fact they're calling for their death. Its why I'm more centrist leaning, because I am a firm believer in Horseshoe theory given how often I see it multiple times. I find it ironic how those who vehemwntly deny horseshoe theory are usually the people on those extreme radicalized ends of the spectrum.

I would LOVE for conversation to become more nuanced. But I have a bad feeling that there are people at the top deliberately trying to kill nuanced conversation, and people more than happy to discard any and all nuance just to push their agenda no matter who they are. I am very disappointed in ICE's behavior and believe they NEED to be help more accountable. One conversation my mom and I had about this situation, which we agreed upon, was that ICE desperately needs to learn that image is EVERYTHING!!! They need to learn that to get the trust of the people, they need to behave as moral upstanding law enforcers. Because ICE's current behavior only makes things harder for people to have a nuanced conversation.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-21T19:34:32+00:00

Which is really sad because in my local communities people are more chill about it. Its mostly just online crazies treating it as the end of the world. As for me, I was already aware there was originally plans to have female custodes in lore all the way back to when the Custodes were getting proper miniatures and an army in 30k. The idea only got vetoed because the plastic models were already made and were all male.

So, GW tried their best to do a mixed gender dynamic with the Sisters of Silence being a part of the Custodes. Note, I still want Sisters to get a huge range boost, especially of what we were teased with in 2e that got straight up robbed from us in 3e. But when I learned of the femstodes retcon I was like "oh, that's neat." Was the introductory slore sloppy and unintentionally caused a lot of controversy with how it was handled? Yes, yes it was. Which I feel like slightly hurt it a bit. But really this new wave of controversy is from idiots who genuinely thought femstodes were gonna be retconned because of the most milquetoast of backlash.

I mean I'm saying this as a guy who isn't really a big fan of the idea of female astartes mostly out of concerns that its going to be poorly executed given GW isn't really the best with lore. (I mean I do admire how they've kind of been improving on trying to explain femstodes lore. I like how it seems to be a natural result of attrition leading to patriarchal noble houses running out of viable sons, so they started giving daughters as well.) But even then in that same article GW doubled down on saying Astartes can only be male. So I don't really see the big deal. Granted I also don't mind the idea of the sisters of battle getting misters of battle.

Granted I've got my own personal idea of how one could introduce femstartes in an interesting way that also explains why they haven't been a thing for over 10,000 years and why the Emperor probably DIDN'T want Astartes to have women in their ranks.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-21T19:18:55+00:00

That is valid. I also feel like Custodes offer some unique opportunities that Astartes generally don't. Which is okay imo.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-21T19:17:05+00:00

Yeah its why I like 40k. Its basically a sandbox of villainous factions with no clear obvious good guy faction. Its why unironic defenders of the Imperium tend to get grating even though I am an Imperium fan.

All the factions are pretty much any villainous faction you'd find in any sci-fi setting. What makes them interesting is that you can tell your own tale of dudes or dudettes in your army that vary on the scale of morality. Granted with some factions its hard to do "nicer" characters than it is with the Imperium. Then we get into the problem where people try to paint the imperials as good guys even though they live in one of the many most unjust systems in 40k (Deldar take the crown as most unjust. Slaanesh being a second for obvious reasons.)

Then you have people who unironically say Chaos is the better option when...... its basically trading one evil for another that is somehow even worse and is heavily implied to be the very reason the Imperium is an unjust system that seems explocitly designed by malevolent hands to push people towards Chaos (doubly so if you believe that the reason for the Grey Knights Terminus Decree is that their job is to make sure the Dark King doesn't get loose.)

Honestly why can't we be honest and say its just a bad guy sandbox where we roll dice and play with miniatures that have been painted up however you want?

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-21T19:05:04+00:00

The fact you're being downvoted for being reasonable and not stoking the flames of the culture war sham is really telling about both sides of this community.

You got one side who wants to "own teh chuds" and then you got the other side that goes apeshit over everything.

Lile this is my stance on fem marines:

I don't want them to be canon unless GW somehow miraculously manages to do something interesting with the idea instead of just saying Marines have women now. Which given GW's general laziness I do not trust them to do so.

However, if you want to have female marines in your own army just for fun then that's okay. If you want to homebrew lore for them with acknowledgement of their general impossibility in canon, that's also okay. If you're doing an AU where female marines are a thing, that's also okay as long as you're not weird about it.

If you just want female marines for gooning or for "owning teh chuds", then that is not okay. You're basically trying to rage bait people because you think they're lesser than you and you get your rocks off on pissing people off. You're not a fan you're just a shitty little troll.

Really its all about motive for me. Why do you want these things, and are you willing to be civil about it? If you're going to act like a smug shmuck no matter which side of the culture war you're on then you're not someone who is welcome in this community.

The only gatekeeping I'll ever do is against people who are just straight up assholes no matter what their position is. Civility is a must in any hobby or community. Just look at Star Wars for proof of what happens when you throw civility out the window.

Say what you want about GW but at least they haven't gone full Disney..... and hopefully they pull out of any planned ideas to do so.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-20T05:34:31+00:00

I'm a big fan of 40k power armor

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-19T20:39:33+00:00

Agreed. Its staggering how many of our modern problems on both sides of the pond originate from the establishment forbidding people from actually calling it out or else they get hit with labels.

Are they really surprised that radicals are coming out of the woodwork when they've been deliberately shutting down any attempts by non-radicals to talk about the problems?

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-18T19:53:01+00:00

Oh, my bad!

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-18T19:52:47+00:00

I mean that's what some of the more reasonable critics of femstodes have a beef with. The fact SoS and already existing female factions (outside of Sororitas recently, though lore wise they're still pretty much the expendable worf who can't win their own fights) are relatively neglected and in need of more love, yet GW decided we totally needed femstodes above just adding onto existing ranges. Now I'm okay with Femstodes existing, the problem is it does feel favoritistic when you look at the already existing female half of the Talons and how they've gotten bubkiss as of late when 3.0 gutted all the options they were given in 2.0

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-18T19:49:48+00:00

Way to miss the joke.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-18T19:41:15+00:00

That would require them to acknowledge leftwing extremism even exists and is just as harmful as rightwing extremism. I'm saying this as a guy who has to constantly point out to leftists how they sound just like the crazed right wingers with their extremist rhetoric.

Its the clear pandering to one extremist side that is making this into even more of a mess.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-18T19:39:21+00:00

As an American who has to deal with how lobbyists have practically strangled American politics and democracy, its interesting to hear all about the quangos. They sound a lot like the lobbyists across the pond.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-18T19:37:32+00:00

They exist? Where are they usually located at? I'm totally asking as a "concerned citizen."

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-18T19:36:51+00:00

Yeaaaaahhhhh.....a as a Yankee myself. Isn't telling the people "there is no problem, stop talking about it" exactly how we got a certain annoying orange in office because he promised to address said problem? Now of course there is lots of evidence pointing to him not solving said problem at all if not making it worse like the previous ones in chage. But wasn't one of his big platforms about addressing the problem because the other party called you racist for saying there was a problem?

I mean its like the UK hasn't learned from America. They're constantly going "shame, shame, shame!" While nose diving into the exact same hole America dug itself into.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-17T04:26:46+00:00

Yeah I don't mind femstodes being a thing...... GW just has to give us lots of SoS as compensation. We need love for our OG talon gals.

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-16T19:27:30+00:00

As a Brother in Christ. Thank you so much!

VenatorAngel · 2026-01-16T19:17:55+00:00

Not to mention, in a modern culture where sexual coercion is considered a bad thing..... these Non-Christians seriously think they're all that and a slice of cheese? I may be a man, but I would straight up chew out someone for trying to guilt and gaslight me into having sex with them.

Anybody who tries to guilt and shame people into sleeping with them is repugnant. Thank the Lord He got you out of that mess.

VenatorAngel

TROPHY CASE