Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/07/universally-loathed.html
…
3 Likes
1 Like
Italy’s not too far from leaving anyway, and it might not take too much crap like this for the French to leave, since they’re pretty riled up about plutocrats right now anyway, so that 500,000,000 people figure might just fix itself if they pass this.
1 Like
Well, I suppose if you are concerned by the rise of people and parties whose euroscepticism is heavily based on the most atavistic of reactionary sentiment and xenophobia, a grand gesture in the direction of giving them a principled reason to hate and distrust you is a sort of response.
Not a good sort, mind, but a sort.
3 Likes
Yeah, because another European war would be a good thing, right?
Agitating for the collapse of the European Union is fine in principle, but without a coherent idea of what would follow (as Brexit has shown), the only realistic way is down. I’m not wholly convinced that either Italy or France are close to leaving - even the UK which was ever the most Eurosceptic member could only manage a coin-flip result…
(No, I don’t think the EU is perfect. None of our ‘western democracies’ are remotely close to being perfect right now; that’s one of the reasons why everything is on a knife-edge. Personally, I reckon it’s going to be a close run thing between our institutions collapsing through loss of public trust and global climate change as to which of them finishes us off first - or, rather, which of them will trigger the wars. Then again, I’m probably naturally a pessimist.)
7 Likes
Make you a deal: you politicians code the filters. Then the rest of us will vote.
1 Like
That’s arguably the other half of what makes these episodes of high-handed and inflammatory arrogance so disturbing.
There’s the obvious downside, the “turning Europe’s internet into surveillance cable TV over IP in the attempt to line the pockets of a few incumbent rightsholders is a terrible plan” bit; but there’s also the “you would dare bleed legitimacy and support from one of the institutions heavily involved in Western Europe’s longest vacation from grim internecine slaughter in practically forever(it might not actually be an exaggeration to propose a part of the Pax Romana where fighting was largely confined to the east as the last time things were quiet-ish for so long… Any good contenders I’m not thinking of?) to appease your corporate sponsors? Do you just assume that changes will be ever in your favor or do you not care to a monstrous degree?” issue.
Aside from the direct risk of terrible policy having terrible outcomes it’s the importance of the EU that makes some people’s willingness to risk it so casually(or blinkered assumption that, of course, institutions will remain neatly under the control of their brand of technocrat regardless of whether or not their performance is terrible) so troubling.
3 Likes
I think Brexit’s chaos put the kibosh on any ideas of leaving in a huff, or using the threat of leaving as a cudgel. No one in Italy or France really wants to leave the EU or the euro currency. Sure, the ultranationalists will make noises about it, but that’s because they don’t expect to succeed.
No, most of the talk about the Copyright Directive is how it will spur further democratisation efforts, since it’s the European Parliament that keeps shooting these Commission ideas down. And the other thing is we need to stop treating the Commission and the Parliament as a dumping ground for washed-up politicians. Oh, and introduce the 5% minimum to trim out some of the crazier fringe parties.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
