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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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just a 1000 km away

This is a very... American diagnosis of the European psyche.

Europe is smaller, and more crowded than America. And psychologically, Europeans are used to implacable hatred of everyone in the next valley. So 1000km away to a European may as well be on the moon. It is as much "not worth worrying about" as 13000km is to an American. So as far as agenda-setting of national policies goes, Russia may as well be as distant and irrelevant to European countries as it is from the USA.

Estonia, maybe, has cause for concern. But the Western European nations who are gun-running to Kiev? They have zero legitimate interest in Ukraine, just like America.

You're explaining european psychology to a european... Aren't you american?

Why would we let russia expand its sphere militarily at our doorstep? Better to fight them in kiev than in warsaw, better in warsaw than in berlin. Imagine domino theory, except the dominoes are your friends and there's only 2 dominoes between you and the enemy.

If it's in Europe's self interest, then they should do the heavy lifting of money and materiel. US taxpayers will eventually grow weary of subsidizing the defense of people who get far more vacation time and unlimited free healthcare,and are awfully smug about it besides.

One day you’ll determine whether we’re vassals with no agency or hyper-agentic manipulators exploiting your selflessness. In the meantime, do what you gotta do, pal.