Those rancid fucking ghouls want to kill Chinese online shopping platforms like AliExpress by introducing a 3€ fee per item starting from July next year. Member nations may also impose their own additional fees on top of that. Apparently, the Dutch get to pay an additional 2€ per package while Romanians pay 5€.
This isn't too bad if you buy more expensive individual items. For example, paying 3€ on top of 25€ would suck but it's still less expensive than trying to get the same thing from the EU. However, if you had a 15€ package consisting of 8 smaller items, you'd have to pay an eye-watering 24€ in fees.
It absolutely infuriates me how fucking smug EU politicians and bureaucrats sound while they boast about this new scheme, like cops who had just done major drug bust or foiled some terror plot. The media also talks about people who shop on AE and Temu like they're fucking crackheads or drunk drivers or something while also admitting that the "worst offenders" are pensioners and single parents, aka the poor. Fuck those people amirite
Most of the stuff I get from AliExpress is lower-priced items so this EU protection racket is gonna suck. EU and corporate mouthpieces like to go on about how cheap Chinese goods are bad for the environment but most of the shit I get is replacement parts and accessories for things I already own that I could not get locally at all, or only at some ludicrous markup. I saw some electronics repairman say that they buy individual components directly from China because otherwise you would have to buy many of them in industrial quantities
Edit: Just look at this fucking shit, dude. My latest purchase contained a couple of Micro USB to USB-C adapters because I have a bunch of older devices and I figured it would be easier to have a couple of adapters instead of finding new Micro USB cables. The adapters cost less than 2€. Look at these prices at local retailers:
See that 2.90€ listing? Yeah, that one has a 6€ shipping fee and I'm pretty sure they're just a middle man for Alibaba products anyway 
Also, as a sidenote, I was commiserating about this and other shit with some real life acquaintances, and we were all in agreement until I brought up how our shitty fucking government is going to gut the welfare state to buy military jets and other weapons from the Yanks, at which point the mood changed completely. "We've got no choice but to defend ourselves from Russia" 
All their anger at the government, the EU and the US completely evaporated in an instant. These people are lefties
This entire stupid continent is 99% Nato-brained and there's like 10 communists. I guess this is better than the time I was accused of being a tankie Russian stooge for disagreeing with the take that Putin's ultimate goal is to conquer Europe for lebensraum for the Russians and he's gonna do it any day now
Everyone's collective NATO/Russia/Ukraine psychosis has been actively harming my own mental state for years now. It's so fucking all-encompassing it makes you feel completely hopeless
I do see the occasional poster for anti-imperialist communist protests so there are at least a few people who aren't fully in the tank for WWIII but they're such a fucking minority it's not even funny
As a USian I feel the same way. We aren't frothing at the mouth the same way Europeans are, but the Russophobia is so hardwired it makes you think there was a successful MKULTRA project in the papers the CIA burned.
Witnessing the Ukraine war and Palestinian genocide with the constant backdrop of climate collapse is a doom pill I am still trying to digest
There was, it's called 60+ uninterrupted years of anti-soviet/anti-russian propaganda that touched every facet of people's lives. Entire generations raised from birth to believe the evil ruskies were chomping at the bit to destroy your freedom and way of life. Anyone in America (don't forget the rest of the West) born after WW2 grew up submerged in a swamp of russophobia
Yup, Bernays' public relations.
Bear in mind that a lot of people have seen those who speak against status-quo get punished. You won't see a lot of honest opinions until it's over.
yes many factors at play
It feels too much calling these few people a minority, it's like what, 10 people?
At least there's Hexbear