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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   17638 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025

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Another case of culture war cancellation dropped, this time somewhat more important than the usual cases.

The case of Nicolas Guillou, French judge at the ICC, cancelled by Marco Rubio personally.

If your French is not sufficient, here is Xitter summary.

Guillou's daily existence has been transformed into a Kafkaesque nightmare. He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction.

He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands.

That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are:

  • punishing a European citizen
  • for doing his job in Europe
  • applying laws Europe officially supports
  • at an institution based in Europe
  • that Europe helped create and fund

Can it happen to you?

Not in this way, not even the most IRL important mottizen is worthy of Marco's personal attention.

If it happens, it will happen because AI analyzed your online activity and decided it crossed a threshold of dangerous nihilist extremism (and you could do about it just as much as Nicolas Guillou, this means nothing at all.)

applying laws Europe officially supports

It doesn't matter whether Europe supports him. He issued an arrest warrent for the prime minister of a state which is not a party to the Rome Statute. He is acting ultra vires to overthrow the government of a US ally. If Europe supported Osama Bin Laden, and The Netherlands let him set-up a compound in The Hague, the US would still send in Seal Team Six.

To your other point, United States financial regulations are amongst the most powerful tools on the planet. Underestimate them at your peril.

He issued an arrest warrent for the prime minister of a state which is not a party to the Rome Statute. He is acting ultra vires to overthrow the government of a US ally.

Agreed. It's not like he was just sitting in the Netherlands, minding his own business. He is trying to reach out across international borders and kidnap and imprison a head of state. So he's not really in a position to complain that someone reached out across international borders and sanctioned him.

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