The EU is the most successful political project ever

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

And yet the EU, unlike Russia, China and the USA, isn't constantly embroiled in foreign military adventures.

Tell that to the French and the Françafrique.

[Ihavewaffles]

Phewie! Thank god for the eu, it prevented the Finnish invasion of Portugal! So much suffering adverted by the competent people in Brussels who totally are worth every cent!

[Xarkan]

Phewie! Thank god for the eu, it prevented the Finnish invasion of Portugal! So much suffering adverted by the competent people in Brussels who totally are worth every cent!

You should fear them, i hear they all wield knives and Nokias, Nokias explode* on impact making them dangerous weapons (though less dangerous than canned Surströmning)

*fall appart may be more precise

[szechuan]

Then again, I will indulge them a bit - persecution tends to make people do stupid things.

So is being against Mixed Races because of Evil Extraterrestrials and also being Anti-Science etc...

The Falun Gong are like Scientologists.

[Kokolums]

For a long time, governments funded themselves via tariffs. Tariffs encourage politicians to blame other nations for their problems. Tariffs are a tax on imported goods. The global shift towards taxes (a tax on a government's own people) instead of tariffs helped to greatly reduce tensions between nations in Europe. Unfortunately, taxes encourage politicians to wage class warfare inside their own nation to raise money. This means we replace the threat of wars between nations with the threat of balkanization and civil war. We've seen some eastern european nations fall prey to this. The UK is threatening to break apart with Scotland possibly leaving if the UK does Brexit. There's regions of Spain wanting independence. The US is threatening to collapse and shatter into several states. Most of this seems peaceful...for now. But inevitably it will spark war.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Im fairly certain this topic is really just a bait thread to trigger Europeans that want the EU to do something different while taking a poop on the US, Russia, and China to create a big old us (with many sides) vs them (with many sides) while someone sits in the middle pulling at strings and laughing.

No thanks.

[Felya]

For a long time, governments funded themselves via tariffs. Tariffs encourage politicians to blame other nations for their problems. Tariffs are a tax on imported goods. The global shift towards taxes (a tax on a government's own people) instead of tariffs helped to greatly reduce tensions between nations in Europe. Unfortunately, taxes encourage politicians to wage class warfare inside their own nation to raise money. This means we replace the threat of wars between nations with the threat of balkanization and civil war. We've seen some eastern european nations fall prey to this. The UK is threatening to break apart with Scotland possibly leaving if the UK does Brexit. There's regions of Spain wanting independence. The US is threatening to collapse and shatter into several states. Most of this seems peaceful...for now. But inevitably it will spark war.

None of this is true...

US as necessities for trade deals grew:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me

The reason for necessity of trade details, due to China’s reform leading to modern success:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_economic_reform

USSR reform that was too late:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perestroika

In both instances, countries went away from isolationist policy blaming everything on the west, because they were failing. US government failed to react, while US corporations couldn’t react fast enough. Thus what happened to Detroit, which is why we had NAFTA and more trade deals to follow. It’s the evidence that was needed for EU to happen.

[Demolitia]

For a long time, governments funded themselves via tariffs. Tariffs encourage politicians to blame other nations for their problems. Tariffs are a tax on imported goods. The global shift towards taxes (a tax on a government's own people) instead of tariffs helped to greatly reduce tensions between nations in Europe. Unfortunately, taxes encourage politicians to wage class warfare inside their own nation to raise money. This means we replace the threat of wars between nations with the threat of balkanization and civil war. We've seen some eastern european nations fall prey to this. The UK is threatening to break apart with Scotland possibly leaving if the UK does Brexit. There's regions of Spain wanting independence. The US is threatening to collapse and shatter into several states. Most of this seems peaceful...for now. But inevitably it will spark war.

/takes tinfoil hat off
Are you ok?

[Felya]

/takes tinfoil hat off
Are you ok?

Civil wars were about taxes... didn’t you know? Bolsheviks were about taxed being too high and the French monarchy was hiding taxes in their throats.

[ati87]

Im fairly certain this topic is really just a bait thread to trigger Europeans that want the EU to do something different while taking a poop on the US, Russia, and China to create a big old us (with many sides) vs them (with many sides) while someone sits in the middle pulling at strings and laughing.

No thanks.

All of the anti EU shit you read comes mostly from Americans and Russian trolls.
When politico writes an article like this you can be sure that shit has become enough mainstream that the trolls at this point don't care.

Also the article kind of shows why this shit failed in France and my guess is why US trolls did manage to influence enough people from the UK.

For the most part, their efforts failed to get much traction among the French. Part of the reason was the language barrier, as posts were largely in English, said Tommaso Venturini, a researcher at French National Centre for Scientific Research’s Centre for Internet and Society.

When #MacronLeaks did start to trend in France, it was in large part because it was being used by people debunking claims made by far-right activists.

[Xarkan]

All of the anti EU shit you read comes mostly from Americans and Russian trolls.

Some of the earlier anti eu trash was from europe

There was for example a british reporter who spend his time in brussels cooking up lies about the EU.. Boris Johnson.

[ati87]

Some of the earlier (from an EU not EEC perspective) anti eu trash was from europe

There was for example a british reporter who spend his time in brussels cooking up lies about the EU.. Boris Johnson.

Yea, I heard about those articles which he so proudly talked about ''Britian standing alone'' kind of talk.

[Gaexion Ramza Beoulve]

In regard to the endless wars you can thank NATO and american muscle for protecting you against the Mongolians.

Regarding the matter of rebuilding your wartorn countries and QoL you can thank american money and the jews for benevolently investing in a continent intent on exterminating them.

By every metric you would measure european success there is a member state who is getting screwed, I guarantee it.

Now...that doesn't mean the EU isn't noble. That doesn't mean it shouldn't exist but all Europoors should be evaluating whether they are better off in or out of the union. To all Europeans I say this, be careful or you will end up

just like us.

[Shadowferal]

Acquaintance still laments over the amount of deutsche marks he still has.