Wtf. How I hate muzzle velocity politics. Put those guys in camps, they are a threat to public safety.

Not sure how 0.00006 helmets per capita is the better figure, but there you go.

Yes, I mean, for Germany, being the 3rd largest economy in the world (only surpassed by the USA and China), it would be a real shame if they were not among the topmost supporters in total. Here, it makes much more sense to use per capita numbers, relate to GDP or whatever. Compared to it’s economic potential, Germany is merely #15 in supporting Ukraine with Denmark, Finland, and the Baltics doing at least twice as much.

If you deem the bit about the 0…6 helmets per capita to be false, what’s the correct take?

Remember how it took like two days to overturn 70 years of precedence of “no weapons delivery into crisis regions”?

Oh, thanks. Yeah, now I remember making that jump, too, although it took me more than two days. Wild times.

Hofreiter (Greens) put it quite well … something like … not our ideals have changed, but the world has changed, brutally so.

I think you did well in dialing back my comment and adding more context, although I still think there was truth in it.

Truly a shame, but does not lead to your conclusion. If you cannot get the irony about you publicly complaining that you cannot publicly complain much like in Russia, then I’m afraid I cannot help you further.

We either stop them and oppose their military spending

You notice that’s a luxury exclusive to one side in that conflict? This freedom of speech, even forming a vocal political opposition. There have been people trying to do exactly that in Russia, but they all have died, vanished or gone silent.

If the dictatorship takes over (for example, due to a lack of resistance), you lose these privileges and are then sent to the grinder anyways.

Hah, strong reply. 👍

Them not being involved in the peace talks underlines again how indispensable nuclear weapons are, sadly.

The DSA playing hopscotch with whose ally they are underlines how worthless a shared nuclear umbrella can be.

So a grim lesson for Ukraine, Europe, Taiwan and pretty much any country with any border tensions, or anything another aspiring imperialist might find desireable: Get nukes, own them yourselfes, or risk being thrown aside or being steamrolled. Trump undoing decades of existential anti-proliferation work in mere days.

Finally Ukraine is getting the help they need!

This might actually be the silver lining of it all.

There has been an uncomfortable disparity between words of support and actual support. I heard many times that the ultimate goal the Pentagon wants to achieve is Russia not losing the war. Out of (comprehensible) fear a falling dictator might throw a last Tantrum235. Germany has also been firmly sitting on the brakes from the start. Remember 5000 helmets? And the (for some Ukrainians literally) gut-tearing discussions at each and every step, wether this is Putins red line, or that is Putins red line, wether this or that might escalate the war, all while Putin escalates the war.

Now that the DSA have kissed themselves goodbye, Europe seems to finally realize what’s at stake and oops they can do something about it. So there is hope Germany might get it’s fat ass off the track. There is even talk about Germany taking a leadership role, though given the context, this must be dark humour. Gotta love that.

Fingers crossed Europe unites in action and Ukraine is getting the help they need! Doing otherwise would send a strong signal to the new Imperialists in east and west that you can pick and chew at our borders, be it the Baltics or Greenland.

Why would anybody expect a genocidal empire to stop another genocidal empire? They’re the same thing.

Nations don’t cooperate/conflict over how many similarities they have (although that makes things easier), but over how much their interests are aligned. It is well possible for two genocidal empires to oppose as adversaries, e.g. Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, the latter being proud of stopping the former.

Another example, colonizing empires fighting over their colonies. Neither did so to free the colony of the oppressor, but to become/remain that oppressor. You can imagine these empires as much the same as you like, they can still have conflicting interests (as in who rules the colony, not wether anyone should) resulting in fights up to World Wars.

Ukraine should have allied with palestinians, the global south, and other people resisting invasion and colonization by empire(s).

How would that have helped them, apart from moral feelings? How many tanks, artillery systems, intel or even humanitarian aid would that have provided? Aren’t the proposed countries more receivers of such things than donors?

It’s bitter, but let’s make lemonade. Embrace it as the fuel to drive whatever actions seem necessary and possible to you.

Take care of that light which lets you see how hate is no good, although, maybe you can yield it as a shield to brace the storm head on.

We could get philosophical about who that ‘you’ or ‘your soul’ is, which feels like being destroyed, and wether it really is. On one hand, this entity will still remain. Though not unchanged. But isn’t that a good thing? I prefer being capable of feeling pain, as it sometimes just plainly is a totally appropriate reaction or sensation. I know that feeling of breaking, but on the other hand, if I could not feel that anymore, I surely was already broken. Dull and unmoved. So in a paradoxical sense, it is an affirmation that you are fine, a fine person.

The Iraq embargo, for instance, gave rise to Al Qaeda and the eventual destruction of the World Trade Towers.

This is a racist narrative that relies on the assumption that Arabs have no control over themselves and “they’re all the same”.

Nah. Even if we assume (which we do) that Arabs, like any other group of people, aren’t all the same, and that they do have (partial) control over themselves, like anyone else … the decisions and fates of a sufficiently large number of them can still be influenced by a sufficiently large external influence, such as revoked access to international trade. Sometimes in chaotic ways. Heck, if billboard ads work in influencing people, it seems difficult to believe more intrusive changes to people’s lifes would have no effect.

Since the article already mentions it, for example Germany between the WWs. The height of reparations was helpful for nationalistic and ultimately again militaristic groups in Germany to gain power. Not as an automatism, not as a justification, simply recognizing a statistical causality. Peace isn’t equal peace. What’s a foul peace worth? We need conditions which support a stable and peaceful coexistence, not plant the seeds for the next war.

Did you leave it intentionally vague wether you were talking about P or T? I kind of find it nice how it fits both, how similar they are.

And I might consider visiting that state! It seems so nice, but being part of that country …

How in the world did the biggest governments in the entire world and legal systems just get cucked to the point where a literal hate platform ran by a Nazi sympathizer throwing sig heils all over the place is even allowed in Europe?

Can’t help but chuckle in despair at that sentence. Well put.

… if the foreign companies want to keep selling to the U.S. market, yeah. Sure, they can choose not to, but that way the company loses global market share and customers. I think it hurts both U.S. consumers and foreign companies who’d like to make a profit in exports.

Just works from Germany. Greetings! The following is the body of the article copy-pasted:

February 7, 2025 6:08 pm CET By Chris Lunday and Eliza Gkritsi

BERLIN — A German court handed Elon Musk’s X a legal defeat, ruling that the platform must immediately provide researchers with access to data on politically related content ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 election.

The court decision, seen by POLITICO, was issued Thursday and marks one of the first major judicial tests of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), raising fresh questions about X’s compliance with European regulations ahead of Germany’s federal election.

The lawsuit, brought earlier this week by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Society for Civil Rights (GFF), accused X of blocking efforts to track potential election interference by not granting them access to key engagement data — including likes, shares and visibility metrics — that other platforms made available to researchers.

Social media platforms, including X, are already getting European Commission scrutiny over alleged failures to mitigate risks around election interference. Russia was accused of interfering in Romania’s annulled presidential election late last year, via a TikTok campaign that boosted a pro-Kremlin candidate.

The case adds to mounting tensions between European regulators and Musk’s social media platform over its rolling back of content moderation and refusal to accede to data access demands.

The DSA, which came into force in 2022, requires large platforms to grant researchers access to data to study systemic risks. The Commission already accused X in July last year of breaching the DSA for not meeting requirements around researcher data access. It also quizzed Meta last year over its decision to shut down research tool CrowdTangle.

The Berlin Regional Court sided with the plaintiffs, issuing an urgent injunction that forces X to provide real-time access to the requested data via its online interface until Feb. 25. The ruling also orders X to pay legal costs and imposes a €6,000 procedural fine, setting a precedent for how European courts may enforce transparency obligations under the DSA.

X did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

The digital space is not a lawless zone, and I trust that X will now quickly comply,” said Michael Meyer-Resende, executive director of DRI, adding that the platform’s refusal to cooperate had “forced” legal action.

The Berlin ruling is one of the first major tests of the DSA’s research access provision (Article 40), which was designed to enable research on social media and support the regulation’s implementation.

TikTok and Meta provided DRI with access to data based on a very similar application, the nonprofit told POLITICO earlier this week.

“The decision is a huge success for research freedom and democracy,” said Simone Ruf, deputy director of GFF’s Center for User Rights. “We have fought for access to vital research data and are now blocking attempts to manipulate elections.”

With just over two weeks to go before election day, the question now is whether X will comply with the ruling or attempt to delay through legal appeals.

Elon’s response to the world saying they saw a Nazi salute at the presidential inauguration. Not quite an “oops, I didn’t mean it that way”

Oh, WOW! Glad I asked. Will happily add this to a conversation with a ‘skeptical’ friend.

Honestly, I found some genuinely funny and actually laughed. But I would never share stuff like that in public, if at all, certainly not in a position like Musk, especially not after that salute. Guess he’s testing the waters or normalizing.

Anyways, thanks a lot for the info with screenshot! Once more, reality trumps satire. When asking the question, I thought it might be about some hints here and there requiring interpretation. I did not expect something so blatant.

What are the Holocaust Jokes referenced in the title? Didn’t find an explanation in the article.

For context, I’m a German missing out on many news and stories, for sanity reasons. But I’d like to know more about this.

Sometimes deals can be arranged with countries of origin (or nearby), even if it takes time and diplomatic effort (and probably some compensation to the receiver).

If that fails, and anyways until that succeeds (if ever), you still have to treat these people as humans with dignity and rights.

If they are criminals, they serve their time like anyone else.

But first and foremost, if only for pragmatic reasons, society should look for ways to integrate these individuals in a way which benefits everyone; as a productive member. Most people don’t strive to live in misery, and they probably came to your country in hopes of a better future. Help them build that, and everybody might win.

The alternative is to become a monster yourself and still have no answers.

Surround yourself with Yes-men, piss off your allies, cuddle with dictators. Great strategy.

Maybe MAGA actually stands for Make America Gone Again. Is that acceptable English? Not a native speaker.