NATO isnāt just facing a funding problem ā itās facing an identity crisis that runs much deeper, and almost no one is talking about it.
The real threat isnāt military spending. Itās cultural and psychological.
For eighty years, Europeans didnāt simply accept American protection. They constructed an entire self-image around the belief that they had somehow transcended the need for it ā that they had become more advanced, more refined, more evolved than the very power keeping them safe.
That self-image has now become the single greatest barrier to the survival of the West. And the brutal irony? The Americans helped create it.
After World War II, Europe lay in ruins ā not just its factories and roads, but its spirit, its institutions, its sense of itself. The Marshall Plan rebuilt the physical economy. But something else happened during the Cold War.
The Americans turned Western Europe into a living advertisement for the good life. American money, diplomats, artists, and intellectuals poured in. They rebuilt universities, funded orchestras, restored museums, and cultivated an intellectual and artistic scene that felt like the pinnacle of human achievement. It wasnāt charity for charityās sake. It was strategic: they wanted the people on the other side of the Iron Curtain to look across and see a version of Europe that made their own existence feel unbearable.
They were deliberately manufacturing envy. And it worked. The Wall fell.
What no one planned for was the hangover.
When a society enjoys the highest levels of comfort, culture, and leisure on someone elseās dime for long enough, it stops remembering it was a gift. It starts believing it earned it all on its own.
Meanwhile, the country footing the bill ā the one still busy forging semiconductors, drilling shale, building aircraft carriers, and powering the global economy ā starts to look crude by comparison. An American in a baseball cap, eating a burger, driving a pickup, building strip malls instead of cathedrals. To a culture steeped in aesthetics but stripped of strategic realism, that American looks primitive.
And once you decide another civilization is beneath you, you stop listening to it entirely.
Americans talk about the necessity of hard power? Primitive.āØEnergy independence as the foundation of prosperity? Unsophisticated.āØEntrepreneurs in garages changing the world? Tacky.āØGlobal finance keeping the system alive? Vulgar.
Europe, meanwhile, has no serious military, no energy independence, no dominant tech sector, and no real capacity in AI or advanced manufacturing. What it does have is a refined cultural identity ā the very one the Americans subsidized for decades while they put their own cultural development on the back burner.
For a long time they tolerated the eye-rolling because the deal worked. They protected the sea lanes, funded the museums, and let the quiet contempt slide.
Then the contempt stopped being quiet. It spilled into European media, parliaments, and global speeches: Americans are dumb. Americans are violent. Americans are the real danger to democracy.
The Americans could have done what empires have always done ā stripped the best artists, thinkers, and treasures and brought them home. They could have made New York the new Louvre and California the new Venice. History is full of conquerors who did exactly that.
Instead they chose to underwrite Europeās renaissance and guard its borders. All they asked was the right to visit.
Today Europeans lack the military to defend themselves, the technology to compete, and the energy to keep the lights on without pleading with authoritarians. Yet they still cling to an 80-year superiority complex that was built, bankrolled, and protected by American power ā all while convincing themselves that cultural refinement equals actual civilization.
It doesnāt. Real civilization is the ability to sustain and defend itself. By that standard, Europe isnāt a rising cultural beacon. Itās a subsidized lifestyle brand with excellent wine.
This isnāt an insult. Itās just reality.
Europe can choose to build a real navy and a real defense capability, or it can keep lecturing the people who made its comfortable illusion possible. But the sneering has to stop.
Americaās ācrudeā priorities, its āunsophisticatedā focus on hard power and industry, its āuglyā practical infrastructure ā those werenāt failures of taste. They were the deliberate trade-off the Americans made so Europe could afford to have better taste.
Iām against government imposed restrictions. Whatever sites they include doesnāt change that for me.
If your child has an Apple device, you could essentially make that phone/tablet useless with the amount of control youāre given as a parent. Every app and every website they visit has to be approved by the parent.
@grok@AnothrWTFmoment@Bratt_world@AnothrWTFmoment so you see here that in a country Canada will use as an example of how to do it. They havenāt put restrictions on the most dangerous ones which are Discord and Roblox.
Thatās terrible and hereās my anecdotal evidence to why actually being a parent is important.
This last Saturday at my kids soccer game. A few kids were walking together back to their cars when one of the kids (child A) asked another kids (child B) mom if child B could get Discord. The mom said āidk what that is but if itās something online, he probably canāt get itā. Child A āwhy not? Itās so we can play a game together.ā Mom āyou have his messenger kids, you can message him on thereā. Child A āaww itās not the same. *whispers* man your mom is super strictā
Child Aās parents never come to practices or games. He always carpools for games and they just drop him off at practice. When I asked him why he was on discord because thatās an adult website, he said āitās for chatting but you can do it on the side of a game and you can erase messagesā
So I totally understand and agree that minors shouldnāt be on social media. For myself and my family, we never turn to the govt to resolve any of our problems or how we parent our kids.
Here come the mouth breathing retards begging for government control. Incapable of parenting their own children. The pathetic Canadian claps like the idiot seal he is ushering in more government control over their lives. Never surprised to watch the same people who elected Trudeau and Carney accept this shit sandwich willfully down their throat.
Iām back.
The team at X was incredible at helping me regain access to my account. The hackers were promptly dealt with. Gratitude for that to all.
The bad news is that yes, it appears to have been a legitimate hack. The hack occurred after I was reported for posts made referencing June 4th - Tiananmen Square Massacre day. The symbolism isnāt lost on me.
The good news is I see our backup system worked, and most of you burned our chats.
I have asked many of you who are acting as informants to keep your identities hidden for safety - even from me - and this is exactly why. Iām going to ask everyone to refrain from messaging me privately please while I secure those networks.
Thank you all for your support, and your patience while I address this breach. Iām so sorry. Iām devastated over this attack, and it needs to be taken very seriously. It will take time to assess.
And then hopefully, we can get back to work here.
Andy
@socks20638@andruyeung Westcoast is getting plundered for access to cold plunges. $30-$50 a session. Best you can find is like a 10 pack for $500
https://t.co/qORtfmWvZZ
Indiaās fertility rate has fallen below replacement for the first time in the countryās history, declining from a TFR of 2.3 to 1.9 in just a decade.
Delhiās fertility rate now sits at 1.2, lower than Finlandās.
Follow: @AFpost
@TismTimeGG@CTVVancouver Itās okay to just say you donāt understand Bitcoin. Thereās a reason governments are scared of it. They want people bought into their bullshit fiat currency.
Do you understand how money works?
If you print money, it causes inflation.
If you spend more than you bring in, itās called debt.
Social services are not a positive investment.
Itās okay if you donāt understand money and the economy. Thereās YouTube videos you could watch to help you out.
Have a great day