France is the only redeemable part of the west at this point. Depending on how you define west. Ireland is better than most if nothing else simply due to their sympathy for colonized peoples.
it's only because France doesn't want to be stuck on the sinking ship of Anglo-Atlantic hegemony and they are big enough to exercise their own sovereignty without the USA strangling them. They're hedging their bets by signing on to China's belt and road and not going totally nuts over Ukraine. Clever perhaps, but france still got hella imperialism problems before I can say they are redeemable, the french left wing does seem to be looking better these days though, could be some based shit happening there in the next few years.
Also I don't think I would even consider Ireland part of the "West", in my opinion you needed to have colonies to be part of the west while Ireland got colonized. That's where the sympathy comes from, they've been there on the front lines of colonialism and imperialism.
I guess what I meant was: France is both proud and contrarian enough to potentially reject western hegemony out of sheer oppositional disorder. The fact that French identity was built upon the destruction of linguistic minorities long before having colonies is damning, but realistically France won’t split up to the point that the non-dead linguistic cultures can revive and be free (minor compared to Algeria, but possibly the original sin if nothing else).
And yeah, I begged the Ireland question because despite lacking any influence possibly the only consistently defendable part of the anglosphere (again, tragic case of linguistic genocide or whatever the word is for forcing a culture to abandon language…fucked either way don’t take that to be dismissive. Just don’t know the word).
I'm wondering about the character of Scotland. They also were colonized and had their language destroyed, and their culture pushed under English culture, but their nobility collaborated in this so it maintained some of its original traits. If they manage to separate from England, I think they would ultimately side with American hegemony, but I have to hope they would side with the colonized as Ireland has.
This goes back to the end of World War 2, when France was treated as a victorious ally and Germany and Italy were occupied as enemy powers (which is what they deserved).
West Germany was formed out of the occupation to be a American puppet state, which in turn annexed East Germany only about 30 years ago. So the unified German state is relatively young, yet it does have the population and resources to potentially act independently, and we were seeing some moves towards that last decade: the US hated Nord Stream 2 and Germany was taking on a more assertive role in Europe through the EU. However, ultimately Germany is still geopolitically reliant on the West/NATO, Germany has no nukes, few allies/friends outside NATO, and strongly economically linked through decades of Cold War policy and EU reforms.
They still need all these things to stay, so Germany has to tread a line between protecting their own interests and keeping America happy. The war in Ukraine is going to test that relationship, it's one thing to sell weapons to who America tells you to, it's another to lose your entire industrial sector to energy shortages. That new German military build up may not just be for scaring the Russians, Germany likely believes they need more influence in NATO if another remilitarization of Europe is coming.
Italy was integrated into the capitalist west in a similar way to West Germany, except Italy is poorer, less populous, and has more political chaos. They have even less options for independent foreign policy than the Germans. See Italy just letting NATO destroy Libya with no protest, a country that until then Italy had fairly robust post-colonial ties with (especially for oil imports, which Italy has basically zero of domestically, they are feeling the hurt now lol)
France meanwhile got to keep their colonies after WW2, was allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and has a national tradition of distancing themselves from NATO (Charles de Gaulle). They still are pretty economically integrated, which is why you won't see France do anything too crazy to disrupt the Anglos, but their government self-consciously acts to keep France independent.
They also still mint the Franc. It is used only in Africa, where it nets France a tidy profit. African countries give France their money and France generously loans it back to them.
Ireland is arguably still a colonized country with the north being owned by :england-cool: and the still paying rent to foreign landlords in large parts of the country.
It's still a colonized country until the Irish Reunification of 2024
I mean there are very redeemable parts of Europe, like Scotland, Wales, Catalonia, Navarra and so on
Doesn’t Catalonia just want to be a banking tax haven and stop sending taxes to the poor parts of the country? Seemed reactionary in motive if not justification last I heard. Again, Anglo brain. I could be incredibly wrong.
The Catalonian independence movement is a really broad coalition. You have all kinds of right wingers and left wingers who want to be out from under Spain. The resulting nation would certainly be more left wing than Spain.
Doesn't that basically mean that, as soon as Catalonia achieved independence, there would immediately be a civil war between the different camps?
No, I think it would just be normal, non-civil war political competition. I suppose a civil war isn't completely impossible, but it seems very unlikely.
Maybe if they achieved independence via Spanish Civil War II, but that's not what anybody's going for.
I read somewhere that Putin appreciates Macron among the current crop of western world leaders, because he's got a bit more political savvy than the rest.
Looking at the current state of western politics, I'm being to see why he thinks that.
The PoB (People of Baguette) are doing a cool thing, inside their own country. Very nice very cool.
So about that Africa.
Les grenouilles sont-elles tout d'un coup ... basées ???
Death to America
the French have always been cooler than Anglos
:france-cool: because of French imperialism and fascism, but I feel like a lot of the unique hate it gets comes out of cope and projection from Brits and Americans
France rightfully deserves to be shit on, but it does deserve some credit. Where else in the West can someone like Melenchon be a real contender for the presidency? It’s one of the few where labor politics has any kind of formidable presence.
Gonna have to drop some of the francophobic humor it looks like. Fortunately, I can double or even triple down on anglophobic humor!!!
Socialism and communism are failed experiments that deserve to be relegated to the annals of history; instead we should aim to <squints eyes> champion economic and energy sovereignty! In fact, we should champion medical sovereignty too and show those communists and socialists that capitalism is the better system! In true capitalist fashion, champion pharmaceutical sovereignty!
nationalize
:top-use-words:
champion economic and energy soveignty
:bottom-speak:
Meanwhile Africa mines 80% of the uranium that keeps French nuclear plants in operation
As the African states industrialize, I have to wonder how much of that they're going to want to turn towards domestic needs.
