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European Council of Foreign Relations openly talks about vassalisation of Europe by the US (ecfr.eu)

submitted 1 year ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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The report is absolutely scathing. Some choice quotes:

But when the next crisis came, both the US and the governments of Europe fell back on old models of alliance leadership. Europe, as EU high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell loudly lamented prior to Russia’s invasion, is not really at the table when it comes to dealing with the Russia-Ukraine crisis. It has instead embarked on a process of vassalisation.

But “alone” had a very specific meaning for Scholz. He was unwilling to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine unless the US also sent its own main battle tank, the M1 Abrams. It was not enough that other partners would send tanks or that the US might send other weapons. Like a scared child in a room full of strangers, Germany felt alone if Uncle Sam was not holding its hand.

Europeans’ lack of agency in the Russia-Ukraine crisis stems from this growing power imbalance in the Western alliance. Under the Biden administration, the US has become ever more willing to exercise this growing influence.

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago

Literally, every government is fundamentally authoritarian because it holds the monopoly on violence by virtue of controlling the police and military forces of the country. It's a nonsensical terms that illiterate people use because they think it sounds scary.

[-] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, that's political power, and they are voted into power and out again

Authoritarianism comes in three flavours:

bossism (autocratic party dictatorships); i.e. China

juntas (oligarchic military dictatorships); i.e. Sudan

and. strongman (autocratic military dictatorships) i.e. Russia

None of these examples use democracy...

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago

No, that’s political power, and they are voted into power and out again

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them. The power stays with the class that's actually in charge which is the capital owning class. And there are numerous studies showing this to be the case. Here's what one long term study of US politics has to say:

What do our findings say about democracy in America? They certainly constitute troubling news for advocates of “populistic” democracy, who want governments to respond primarily or exclusively to the policy preferences of their citizens. In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.

Meanwhile, the fact that you keep claiming that China is a dictatorship just further exposes your ignorance on the subject you're attempting to debate. This is wilful ignorance because you have been provided with numerous western sources demonstrating that this claim is false. Yet, you continue to repeat it.

And of course, the system that Russia resembles the most is the US. Don't take my word for it though, it's what your own state media says:

"American democracy is a sham, no matter how much it's pumped by the oligarchs who run the country (and who control the nation's "news" media)," he writes. "The US, in other words, is basically similar to Russia or most other dubious 'electoral' 'democratic' countries. We weren't formerly, but we clearly are now."

You are shamefully ignorant of the subject you're attempting to debate. Spend some time educating yourself instead of trolling here.