1) I think for Ireland, China as global hegemon would (will?) be particularly terrible culturally since the sucking up that small countries do by necessity would in the case of China reinforce the preëxisting self-harm tendency of third-worldism.
2) While it’s not great for the European right obviously, and particularly bad for those parties that are determined to attach themselves to the US (FdI in Italy and AfD in Germany come to mind), I have to say I kinda like the Greenland thing: While I very much like Americans, I don’t much like the American empire and the brouhaha forces some emotional distance to it.
3) I also wish the Americans would have managed to coerce purchase. In this state of Europe it’s a strategic and economic liability, and the only thing to recommend holding on to it is pride (unless you count what other islands the US bought from Denmark are known for these days). Pride, however, is for the rich and strong and Europe, let alone Denmark, is currently neither. Getting the wounded self-respect from our incipient “century of humiliation” going as an impetus for change over such an inconsequential matter would have been nice, because the humiliation is coming either way.
You may well have already noticed, but Britain also lacks the free speech absolutism that is popular among some rightwing pundits. The laws on our books criminalising anti-social speech are not historical aberrations, and many people are quite happy with them, even if many of us think dawn raids over spicy tweets are a bit much.
I have! Speech restrictions seem pretty popular and normal almost everywhere, which is not to say I like them because I don’t, but you can’t change anything if you don’t begin by being honest with yourself about it
“This isn’t simply a comment of irritation about Americans misunderstanding Ireland” / “There is an incentive structure that allows people to… dominate the conversation by borrowing an American megaphone” - see Conor McGregor’s Presidential “campaign.”
Really well done, Conor. As an American, it gave me a lot to think about.
Became a paid subscriber today so I could post this comment.
Thanks so much
Long overdue! You’ve been pumping out great stuff for some time now.
1) I think for Ireland, China as global hegemon would (will?) be particularly terrible culturally since the sucking up that small countries do by necessity would in the case of China reinforce the preëxisting self-harm tendency of third-worldism.
2) While it’s not great for the European right obviously, and particularly bad for those parties that are determined to attach themselves to the US (FdI in Italy and AfD in Germany come to mind), I have to say I kinda like the Greenland thing: While I very much like Americans, I don’t much like the American empire and the brouhaha forces some emotional distance to it.
3) I also wish the Americans would have managed to coerce purchase. In this state of Europe it’s a strategic and economic liability, and the only thing to recommend holding on to it is pride (unless you count what other islands the US bought from Denmark are known for these days). Pride, however, is for the rich and strong and Europe, let alone Denmark, is currently neither. Getting the wounded self-respect from our incipient “century of humiliation” going as an impetus for change over such an inconsequential matter would have been nice, because the humiliation is coming either way.
You may well have already noticed, but Britain also lacks the free speech absolutism that is popular among some rightwing pundits. The laws on our books criminalising anti-social speech are not historical aberrations, and many people are quite happy with them, even if many of us think dawn raids over spicy tweets are a bit much.
I have! Speech restrictions seem pretty popular and normal almost everywhere, which is not to say I like them because I don’t, but you can’t change anything if you don’t begin by being honest with yourself about it
“This isn’t simply a comment of irritation about Americans misunderstanding Ireland” / “There is an incentive structure that allows people to… dominate the conversation by borrowing an American megaphone” - see Conor McGregor’s Presidential “campaign.”
Haha yeah the original draft mentioned McGregor but I talk about him too much in that context so I deleted