People who ask why politicians can't just "talk like a normal person the way Mamdani does" remind me of the guys who claim they "prefer women without makeup" based on Instagram photos of models wearing hundreds of dollars of natural-look makeup applied by a professional.
when you are a vulnerable people in a hostile world being able to speak in your own words that your enemy does not understand is a guarantor of sovereignty
These Catholic converts are more Protestant-coded than an apple and mars bar sandwich after an Orange march in mid July.
How often do we see Ru analysts or policy makers wondering what Ru did wrong to lose the West or its Eastern European neighbours? What it could've done differently to build trust and good will? Hard to think of any good, prominent examples, tbh, beyond Nemtsov.
Both, as long as you don't open the box
Francis had a soft spot for left-wing tyrants, even if he was far from falling into tankie idiocy.
Benedict and John Paul had major caveats with liberal democracy and a soft spot for right-wing authoritarians.
This is the first Pope who just flat-out 100% believes in free, open, democratic rule.
For once, Sofa King is right. There was foreign interference (by him) and he was really bad at it.
Look, you are allowed to be a Catholic and say the pope got something wrong. But if you make a public statement like "Looks like the pope forgot a little thing called 'Just War Tradition' that says sometimes God *loves* war," then you are plainly too stupid to be in charge of wars, or anything else.
if I was a gambling man I'd happily wager that Pope Leo XIV (Bishop of Rome, Pontifex Maximus, Vicar of Christ, Servant of the Servants of God, Patriarch of the West, Master of Divinity, Doctor of Canon Law) has substantially more theological training than JD Vance.
Lost in all the Hungary news is that Russia shipped stolen Ukrainian grain to Israel. Which is a piece of news that should not be lost.
It's not just that Orbán losing inspires hope in other competitive-autocratic countries ruled by right-wing nationalist authoritarians. It's that his loss materially changes things in those other countries, because he's been operating as a headquarters and funding source...
you gotta understand that russophobia is simply the most politically progressive ideology there is
The real danger is when you've had so much it stops burning...
Ruszkik haza. That is all xx 🇭🇺🇪🇺🇭🇺🇪🇺
When the blue and yellow flag flies over Aqyar again - and it will - i am going to become so insufferable.
Governing by force rather than persuasion is another thing in politics that just works like a drug. You get hooked and dont want to stop and contrive reasons why you can't
i didnt boot up europa universalis iv to see if the grand duchy of lithuania can murder the muscovite snake in its infancy, i booted it up to temporarily transport myself into a land of fantasy where the grand duchy of lithuania has murdered the muscovite snake in its infancy
The Ukrainian army has gotten very little positive coverage or acknowledgement for not doing war crimes on a constant basis even when they are waging a war for survival against an explicitly genocidal invasion.
This is honestly completely unprecedented in the history of modern warfare.
No like genuinely every single time I see people go "war is complicated!!! there will always be collateral damage!!!" I'm like dude I have seen /Eastern Europeans/ manage to not commit war crimes clearly it cant be that hard. And we are a rather volatile people
I’m sure they were aware this was happening but the reality is that they had no way to prevent it unless they could figure out a way to get thousands of bored men in the dead of winter give up every hope of getting laid
👇👇
More of those "If this had happened in Ukraine there would have been more outrage" articles, even though those exact things and worse happened in Ukraine, and there was not more outrage.
I don't think we are talking enough about the astounding historical twist that one of the most powerful institutions standing up to defend liberal democracy around the world today is the Papacy
My politics currently have two non-negotiable "litmus" tests:
1. Do they deny climate change?
2. Do they make excuses for Russia's invasion?
Anyone who fails either is dead to me.
A third is along these lines: Have they have clearly and knowingly lied about something to push an agenda?
If it's done by a recognised state, it's not officially terrorism. Coincidentally, this definition was developed by recognised states.
This is, by the by, my litmus test for if you actually oppose the Occupation. You can be a Zionist, a two-stater, a one-stater, I don't care, if you're willing to condition military aid you are at least interested in addressing the problem. If you're not, you clearly don't actually care that much.
The absolute worst human being from India couldn’t get me to defend Lord Clive because I actually dislike imperialism as opposed to being ambivalent to positive about it
So obsolete that we're not even saying *cheque. Because we barely remember cheques being a thing.
The thing about the leftists who are radicalized into antisemitism by their grief over Palestine is that they are so very very similar to people who are radicalized into Islamophobia by their grief over some other atrocity and they cannot see it.
I think the chiefest reason after just basic decency why Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is appalling and must be stopped at any cost is precisely because how can a people that longed for a lost homeland for 2000 years deny a home there to another?