faetal on 11/4/2022 at 19:07
Quote Posted by rachel
PPS Also it's a hot take with a lot of fresh frustration, and there are still two weeks left to see where the wind is blowing. If it really is close, I guess I'll just have to do it and help macron's ass, again. We'll see.
If it helps tip the scales at all, just remember that in recent memory, there have been 2 right-wing nationalist votes (Brexit, Trump) which resulted in a sizeable uptick in hate crimes.
We've already been a target due to my wife's Lebanese heritage (swastika and the word "bitch" carved into our mail box, wife spat at or mocked when speaking Arabic in public, among other incidents) and I am genuinely concerned what it would look like if these fuckers are handed a win.
Pyrian on 11/4/2022 at 21:38
Leftists don't like Biden much more than they liked Hillary, but the actuality of the Trump presidency was enough to convince a lot of people that maybe the lesser evil wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Cipheron on 12/4/2022 at 09:49
Russia is starting to push the "New Chronology", which is basically a fictional world history in which Russia was always the hero and/or victim. It's actually more extreme than typical alt-history military-trash novels.
(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_chronology_(Fomenko))
The theory is basically that the entirety of ancient history up to 1500 didn't exist, and in fact Russia created everything, made everything and discovered everything. Then later, other jealous countries concocted what we call "history" to spite the Russians.
Did ya know: The Americas were discovered and settled by Russians, and all the cities built people by who were there already (Mayans, Aztecs, Incas etc) were actually the Russian cities, which the late-comers then pretended were native settlements.
Did ya know: there were no such things as the Romans, Persians, Mongols, Ottomans, Han Dynasty etc. It was all in fact one giant Russian Empire. Ghengis Khan was actually a Russian named Georgy Danilovich. The Egyptian Pyramids: actually built by Russian. etc etc.
There are a series of photos here of a "New Chronology" museum in Russia, it needs to be seen to be believed:
(
https://www.reddit.com/r/Qult_Headquarters/comments/u1p773/no_joke_russia_is_starting_to_rewrite_world/)
demagogue on 12/4/2022 at 11:27
I remember some doc from the 1990s where Garry Kasparov was touting the 'history didn't exist before 1500' line, and saying things about ancient Greek ruins being recently created, etc. I figured the education system of a country has to be pretty borked if a legend like him is still susceptible to believing something so crazy, and I figured it can only go down from there.
That said, throw a rock in the US and it's bound to hit someone that sincerely believes the entire earth isn't more than 5000 years old, even with a pretty great public education system. (They took the same classes I took; so it's not coming from any general failure of the schools in my experience.) But it's coming from something in the culture. So I'm not going to claim any kind of cultural superiority over it.
Starker on 12/4/2022 at 16:14
This is what you get when you dump all of your points in intelligence and neglect wisdom entirely.
Nicker on 12/4/2022 at 18:21
The problem is fundamentalist christianity being given too much deference. Wasn't that long ago that a professed atheist was not allowed to hold elected office when the opposite ought to be the case. IMHO...
rachel on 17/4/2022 at 12:54
Quote Posted by rachel
If it really is close, I guess I'll just have to do it and help macron's ass, again. We'll see.
One week later and dammit, looks like I'll have to go.
Cipheron on 18/4/2022 at 09:45
Quote Posted by rachel
One week later and dammit, looks like I'll have to go.
Reading up about it, my knowledge of French politics is non-existent, the whole thing does look pretty unstable.
So France had a fairly stable two-party system for many decades, until in 2017 the presidential run-off was for the first time between two third-party candidates, Macron and Le Pen, and neither of the major parties got into the final vote. Then Macron's party thrashed both the existing parties in the National Assembly elections.
Le Pen's National Rally party has won 25% of French seats in the European Parliament but only 1% of National Assembly seats. Let me guess: the National Assembly seats are single member, while the European Parliament seats are proportionally allocated? That's the only way those numbers makes sense.
Things definitely seem crowded on the right of French politics, so something has gotta give there, while it looks like the left is a bit of a vacuum now.
rachel on 18/4/2022 at 12:40
The left are scrambling like headless chickens, it's a mess.
Past the initial anger, I'm actually seriously scared right now. I see anti-Macron rage simmering all over and the worst part is, I totally understand where it comes from and I feel the same. But that means now that it's very possible that MLP ends up at the Élysée next Sunday, as if choosing fascism ever fixed anything. The country is very much not doing well.
