Hyperreality

They’re better because they’re shorter, you daft cunt

Not just because they're shorter.

The production schedule on scripted US shows is often absolutely insane. Ridiculously long hours, multiple episodes per week, sometimes even writing the scripts and plot as the show airs on network television, which is why you'll have breaks or bottle episodes, to allow the writers to catch up.

From what I understand, a lot of the good UK tv shows, they have far more time to make it. Not the lower tier stuff (soaps, etc.) obviously, but that stuff doesn't really get much of an audience outside of the UK.

Some French people have come terms with their past. Some haven't.

I'll give you an example:

On 9 April, Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s Front National, denied on TV that France or the French state were responsible for the infamous Vel d’Hiv round-up of Jews in Paris on 16-17 July 1942. Corralled by French police into the eponymous cycling stadium, most of these 13,000 Jews ended up in Nazi death camps. But for Le Pen, widely expected to top the first round of the presidential elections on 23 April, “if there are people responsible, it’s those who were in power at the time. It’s not France.” ... In a follow-up statement, she invoked the authority of former presidents de Gaulle and Mitterrand to insist that France and the Republic were in London during the German occupation, and that the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime “was not France”. Drawing on their respective inferences that Vichy was merely an aberration of the French Republic and imposter as representative of France, she holds that while individuals shared responsibility for the atrocities of the period on a personal basis; none could be imputed to France as such.

This is just one example, obviously. I didn't need to go back to Jean-Marie. 40% at the last election, wouldn't be surprised if she becomes the next French president.

Not singling out France. Not trying to dilute Austria's responsibility, given I was the one who brought it up in this thread. Just saying that much of Europe had a collaboration problem and that a lot of Europe is still in denial about their role in the war.

Similar thing for the US too. German-American Bund, Father McCoughlin, Charles Lindbergh, "America First Committe", etc. Once again with a perhaps predictable impact on the current political situation in their country.

Vienna's a lovely city, a lot of Austrians are great people, yadayada.

I get the impression that, unlike Germany, it's a country that hasn't fully come to terms with its Nazi past. A lot of Austrians seem to be in denial about the Anschluss or how popular it was. Many will even argue that Austrians were victims, while ignoring that there was overwhelming popular support for the Anschluss at the time.

Here's a relevant article:

Otto von Habsburg ... told a meeting of the ruling conservative People's Party: "No state in Europe has a greater right than Austria to call itself a victim." He went on to dismiss an Allied wartime declaration that Austria shared responsibility for the Nazis as "hypocrisy and lies". ... followed publication of an opinion poll on Tuesday which showed that almost two thirds of Austrians wanted an end to what was described as the "endless discussion" about the country's role during the Second World War. ... new evidence and a growing mass of research about Austria's role during the Third Reich suggests that the argument that the vast majority of its citizens were willing accomplices to Nazi rule has become incontrovertible. ... The poll conducted on 10 April 1938 showed that 99.75 per cent of Austrians were in favour of the annexation. ... the results were doctored by the Nazis ... But recent research suggests that the actual number in favour of Nazi rule was still about two thirds of the electorate. ... a historian at Vienna University who has researched the period closely, said yesterday: "Hitler was welcomed into the country as a successful Austrian who was returning home from abroad and suddenly letting his own people take part in his successes. He was a sort of ersatz monarch."

This isn't just Austria, obviously.

For example, my grandfather would often sarcastically remark that the Dutch resistance gained most of its members after 1944. To quote Adolf Eichmann on Dutch collaboration: "The transports run so smoothly that it is a pleasure to see."

In Belgium, you have a similar issue where some Flemish nationalists (sometimes disingeniously) minimize the extent of their relatives collaboration during the war, as it's politically incovenient and embarassing. Same thing in France with Vichy. Same thing in much of Europe, tbh.

Not officially.

Yeah, but they have a war cabinet, and have suspended all non-war or emergency legislation. So as far as I can tell he's a lame duck or in some kind of limbo.

AFAIK they have a war cabinet, and this minister's far-right party ('Jewish Power') isn't part of it.

Apparently this story is from november last year, a month after the attacks, and he claimed it was hyperbole after most people in Israel derided him as a lunatic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amihai_Eliyahu#2023_nuclear_weapons_comments_controversy

Obviously, fascists like to say outrageous stuff to disconcert people, but who knows with these lunatics.

On the bright side, the day after the election, Biden will still be in the White House and Trump won't.

That will make a Trump coup much harder IF he loses the election.

Don't get your hopes up. The world isn't a meritocracy. Cunts are still running the world.

Unless you're pro-Putin, this is yet another ill informed take. You'll notice that the person you're replying to has a blue and white flag avatar.

That's almost certainly the white-blue-white flag. Wikipedia:

The white-blue-white flag (Russian: бело-сине-белый флаг, romanized: belo-sine-belyj flag) is a symbol of opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has been used by Russian anti-war protesters. It has also been used as a symbol of opposition to the current government of Vladimir Putin by several personal Internet accounts, and the Freedom of Russia Legion.

Ie. you're telling someone who opposes Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, to suck it.

Ill informed take.

Russian mothers and related groups have historically protested previous Soviet and Russian wars, and are a genuine worry for Putin. It's a relatively(!!!) safe way to protest in an authoritarian state and very macho culture, because they can play the motherhood card.

Relevant article:

Of all the ways that citizens interface with their state, there is no relationship so fraught as war service, particularly when the troops have been conscripted. Most observers say Russia’s record in past wars of treating conscripts humanely and keeping families informed, especially of the worst news, has been abysmal. The impenetrable military bureaucracy and official indifference during the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan prompted the rise of the Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers, which organized women like Ms. Chistyakova into a social force that the Kremlin couldn’t ignore. ... After their establishment during the war in Afghanistan, Russia’s various Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers became some of the most powerful civil society organizations Russia has ever seen. Their anti-war stance, and the strong political influence they generated, arguably played a big role in ending both that war and the first Chechnya conflict on terms unfavorable to Moscow.

Ie. you're making fun of Russian women and allied groups who are protesting the war and the regime in the only way they realistically can.

I honestly wonder if my data wouldn't be safer on some sites, if I skipped two-factor authentication and a recovery email, and simply used my date of birth as a password. At least then, they'd wouldn't be able to leak the phone number or email adress, because I was never forced to give it to them.

It's even more annoying, because you can't easily avoid many of these companies. Eg. for jobs it's really hard to get around using linkedin. I mean, I refuse out of principe and have for years, so my data's a decade out of data, but it's obviously cost me opportunities.

There are almost certainly pictures of me floating around social media, taken without my permission, but tagged by facebook or google just in case I had any fucking privacy. And now thanks to some phones. they also have our finger prints and retinal scans, which will inevitably get leaked sooner rather than later. I pity the poor chumps whose DNA was leaked, that's even worse. Most of that will probably be leaked sooner or later, if it hasn't already, because it turns out a subcontractor used the youtube comment section to communicate between departments.

If I had the technical ability, I would design a two-factor authentication system based on rectal scans.

"Here at OmniCorp we believe all our customers our unique, that's why we believe in securing your data by linking your DNA, phonenumber, social security number, retinal scan and finger print, with a picture of your anus. Bend Over. The Future's Now."

The cybertruck isn't going to sell in significant volumes. As far as I can tell, it's a halo car and an exercise in marketing.

I'd feel sorry for people who bought it, if I didn't know how much they'd paid for one.