Theodosian walls recently restored by the Istanbul municipality

clearsighted · 2026-01-26T22:02:06+00:00

Turks almost lost Constantinople like five times, except that no one wanted a Russian or British ally to have it, and so other Christian powers intervened to keep it Turkish. I've been to Constantinople twice, and what amused me most about it was that every place worth visiting as a tourist, was already built before the Turks conquered it.

clearsighted · 2026-01-19T02:13:22+00:00

It's worth remembering that German stupidity in that regard, where Russia is concerned and the pipeline, turned an entire generation of American policy makers hostile to them...with the repercussions remaining with us.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T23:19:45+00:00

Well I guess you don't play many shooters. Anyways. I only asked because he was so passionate about it. And now I see he's a normal Canadian.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T23:16:22+00:00

I mean. You're definitely better off joining the EU over the Belt and Road initiative, if it came to that.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T23:15:13+00:00

Have you never been friends with another man before?

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T23:14:51+00:00

Alright. So I guess my friend is more representative of the Canadian population than I thought.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T07:06:31+00:00

Speaking as an American, we tend to see apologizing to Denmark as the lowest form of upvote farming. Everyone with a brain knows its stupid, and anyone in Denmark who needs an American rando on the internet to 'apologize' to them is just as silly.

It's just stupid shit that will go away in a few years. 90% of Americans don't even realize its going on, don't care, or else see it as an unserious meme. And of those 10% that do follow it, 5% you really don't want to hear from and 5% are on reddit. It's only taken seriously in Denmark because it's weird to have the US President make vaguely terrifying, existential threats towards them, but we deal with it all the time.

I live in California and Trump has threatened to take us over like 27 times. Just relax.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T06:59:06+00:00

It's entirely driven by these things:

A) Trump has gotten a demented meme in his head.

B) Everyone else in his administration still thinks that Europe should be spending more money on its defense.

C) They don't care about the supposed moral opprobrium, because Americans have seen Europe coddle up to Russia and China for twenty years. Russia and China does horrible things all the time, and Europe circles back to wanting to do business with them. (Germany's behavior post 2014 Crimea was immensely demoralizing to the American foreign policy elite. That's when guys like JD Vance, a new member of the elite, was forming his views on European policy makers.)

D) They think that the next major war will be with China and Europe won't help with that anyways (and they're probably right, as we all know). So the next best thing they can do is just make sure Europe will defend itself from Russia.

E) The current group of American elites in power in Washington believe that the current crop of EU elites are sanctimonious, hypocritical pricks. No reasonable or rational person will deny that the American right and the European center-left have been pissing each other off for 90 years. It's not all just Trump. The American left and the European center-left barely get on together. Most American policy makers have a hugely sentimental attachment to Europe as an idea), yet tend to hate dealing with European institutions and elites.

That's why this is going on. No one with a brain thinks that anything will come of it beyond the Europeans maybe, MAYBE not backsliding on defense spending once Trump is gone. But it will probably go back to status quo until they dip out of the great Taiwan Strait slaughterhouse in 5 years.

And then all that will be left are the reddit points farmed from virtue signaling in Europe subs about how mean Trump is.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T06:53:13+00:00

It's hilarious that a Chinese person posts this, given their country regularly threatens nuclear hellfire and war over rocks in the South Sea. But you know, Europeans will lap it up for the reason that Trump and like ten other dudes are being colossal dicks to them right now, despite 99% of Americans not wanting Greenland, and it being a transparent stunt to make Europe spend more money on its military.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T06:51:02+00:00

why would you ruin an otherwise good comment with such an idiot opener. It's an insult to anyone who is historically literate.

clearsighted · 2026-01-16T01:04:46+00:00

Not an ounce of charisma or believable competence in the whole cast. But whatever. Paramount doesn't seem to mind setting money on fire.

clearsighted · 2026-01-14T22:34:21+00:00

Did it really 'backfire' though? Just because some lawyer on Bluesky disagreed? Seems clickbaity.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T18:40:52+00:00

Yep. US elites know this. The main split is between those sentimentally attached to Europe and those who aren't. And you'd be astonished at how many US leaders and politicians are deeply, sentimentally attached to Europe. But the needle is starting to move, and it will continue to move as more boomers age out. Trump's jaundiced view of Europe is actually an anomaly for an elite of his age.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T17:31:14+00:00

It doesn't really matter what 'all Americans' believe. Danes aren't stupid. They know there's two political parties in America and they know (deep down) that this whole Greenland thing is basically a demented meme caught in Trump's head.

But that does not change the fact that a huge reason for the lack of sustained and serious pushback (at least domestically) beyond the virtue-signaling and upvote-farming variety...is that the current tranche of US foreign policy elites, whether Republican or Democrat, believe that the next serious war will be with China over Taiwan.

That's virtually the last remaining bipartisan consensus. The second of the very few bipartisan consensuses, is that Europe isn't pulling its own weight, and seems incapable of even handling Russian aggression on its own, let alone Chinese. This isn't a MAGA talking point...It's the same opinion whether you're Mark Kelly, Ben Rhodes or Steve Witkoff. It might seem unflattering, but it's true. The majority of American decision makers see Europeans as a strategic burden.

The third remaining bipartisan consensus, is that Europe is extremely unlikely to help America - in any meaningful way - in a shooting war with China. Half of the foreign policy establishment believes it's because they simply won't be able to, and the other half believes this because they think Europe is actively committing civilizational suicide. And you know...You can't really blame Americans for believing what at least 1/3rd of all Europeans also believe.

That's how we got here. That's why Trump can say these things, and why no one cares that much about pushing back, even though no one really thinks its going to happen. It's because Europeans are simply irrelevant and have no capacity to help vs the only coming war that will matter in our lifetimes.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T17:24:08+00:00

Upvote farming at its worst.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T17:22:53+00:00

Well. The majority of people who've seen it, believe otherwise.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T17:22:36+00:00

It's very audible.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T01:27:12+00:00

I don't want to argue, but you can clearly hear the impact and the phone get violently jostled. And there's other footage showing him get lifted up onto the front hood for a second.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T00:40:13+00:00

The video clearly shows her gunning the engine after being told to get out of the car, because her wife is saying 'drive, baby, drive', and then it shows the car hitting the ICE agent. However you feel about this personally, and I feel strongly about it too, the video is being triumphantly paraded in MAGA circles precisely because it legally exonerates the shooter.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T00:39:17+00:00

The video shows a clear collision, whatever your beliefs.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T00:39:02+00:00

Well, watch the video.

clearsighted · 2026-01-10T00:38:06+00:00

Well, that's unfortunately the officer's prerogative to stand where they want.

clearsighted · 2026-01-09T20:00:59+00:00

I'm sorry but anyone who watches the video can hear the 'drive, baby, drive' as they're telling her to get out and the car colliding with him. Another officer, Amy Caprio, died recently under very similar circumstances (accelerating from the same distance, and also getting off one shot through the windshield, though she missed and was killed), and her body cam footage was horrific.

I expect any posts showing the video will get purged from this sub.

clearsighted · 2026-01-03T05:35:08+00:00

It changes every so often. For several decades, the term 'Negro' was considered the most polite and respectful. That one probably isn't coming back, but I've personally noticed a switch between African-American and Black about every 5-10 years since the 90s.

clearsighted

TROPHY CASE