Ethan Fletcher

Over analysing, realist, atheist, socially liberal centrist. Shocked at the absurd level of hypocrisy shown by so many on both the left and the right.

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@Sandy0xford @terjehelland It's good that he's out there on the pitch getting a game rather than sat on the England bench waiting for Harry Kane to get injured!

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

The Curious American Habit of Invading Every Conversation With World War II

It is one of life’s great mysteries.

Mention football. Mention beer. Mention bicycles. Mention the correct way to cook chips.

Sooner or later an American will appear, clear his throat, and announce:

“Belgium wouldn’t exist without the United States.”

Imagine that level of confidence.

It’s like turning up to Wimbledon and claiming you deserve the trophy because your grandfather once helped rebuild Centre Court.

The historical irony, of course, is delicious.

The United States exists because Europeans crossed an ocean, founded colonies, financed revolutions and, in the case of France, emptied vast amounts of treasure into helping the Americans defeat Britain.

Without Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands, there is no United States.

Without Europe, America is still a very interesting collection of forests.

As for Belgium specifically, the story is even less convenient. Large parts of Belgium were liberated by British, Canadian and Polish forces. American troops fought bravely as well, particularly during the Battle of the Bulge, but the idea that Belgium owes its entire existence to Washington belongs somewhere between Hollywood and fan fiction.

The more interesting question is this:

Why does every discussion with certain Americans eventually become a military history lecture?

A refereeing decision in football somehow ends with aircraft carriers.

A debate about healthcare becomes aircraft carriers.

Public transport? Aircraft carriers.

Cheese? Believe it or not, aircraft carriers.

It’s as if the national emergency exit for losing an argument is simply shouting “World War II” until everyone goes home.

Which is rather odd.

Because genuinely confident countries don’t constantly remind strangers how powerful they are.

They simply get on with life.

Perhaps that’s why Europeans can argue passionately about football for hours without feeling the need to deploy the 82nd Airborne.

Although, judging by recent online debates, some Americans appear convinced they should.

[Toni Mikkola 🏴‍☠️ @virtaava]

A country that beheads enemy soldiers has no place in the Olympics.

A country that rapes and tortures civilians and POWs has no place in the Olympics.

A country that bombs children’s hospitals, then strikes again when medics arrive, has no place in the Olympics.

A country that uses chemical weapons and banned munitions has no place in the Olympics.

A country whose troops drag POWs to death and shoot surrendering soldiers on camera has no place in the Olympics.

A country that is led by an individual wanted for child abductions and war crimes has no place in the Olympics.

A country that employs the Wagner Group, and is responsible for every massacre they commit, has no place in the Olympics.

Russia has no place in the Olympics.
Not under a flag. Not under “neutrality.” Not as individuals.

In 2022, 88% of Russia’s Olympic medals were won by soldiers. That’s not sport. That’s military propaganda.

If you see this, RT and like. Let the International Olympic Committee @iocmedia hear us.
Let the world hear us.
Let justice be louder than silence. #RussiaIsATerroristState

[Megatron @Megatron_ron]

JUST IN: 🇩🇰🇺🇸 Danish reporter slammed NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte live on camera:

"You sit next to Donald Trump at moments when he talks about conquering Greenland, talks about lashing out at allies like Spain.

Does this have any affect on your self-respect when you sit there and say nothing?"

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@Kevin_Kinkead Youre just talking absolute shite. Honestly what the fuck is happening in the USA currently...did they lace your food with some sort of drug or something...an absolute devil as president and then shit like this...you're all mad deluded morons all of a sudden.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

My July 5th Diatribe after Returning from Europe again:

The weirdest thing about leaving America is realizing how much of America is just a sales pitch.

You spend your whole life hearing “greatest country on Earth,” then you go overseas and see clean trains, safer streets, affordable medicine, cities where people can walk without playing Frogger with an SUV, and workers who take vacations without acting like they committed treason.

And then you come home.

You come home to potholes, medical debt, school shooting drills, $17 airport sandwiches, people living in tents under highways, politicians wearing flag pins (or worse, gun pins) while doing absolutely nothing for the people standing in food bank lines, and billionaires being treated like they’re the fragile ones.

And somehow we’re all supposed to stand there, hand over heart, and pretend this is normal.

I don’t hate America. I hate what America has been taught to tolerate.

I hate that we call basic things “radical.” Healthcare? Radical. Paid leave? Radical. Clean air? Radical. Kids not getting shot in math class? Somehow political.

Meanwhile, the loudest “patriots” are usually the same people telling struggling Americans to shut up, stop complaining, and be grateful.

Grateful for what? A flag doesn’t pay rent. A bald eagle doesn’t cover insulin. Fireworks don’t fix bridges. And chanting “USA” doesn’t make a broken system less broken.

America has incredible people. That’s the tragedy. The people are better than the system they’ve been forced to defend.

So no, I’m not going to call America the greatest country on Earth just because it has the best marketing department.

Real patriotism isn’t pretending the country is perfect.

Real patriotism is being angry that it isn’t, and blaming minorities and immigrants for your own piece of shit life that you created.

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@JGreenbergSez God you guys really are fucking morons

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@TVietor08 Injustice? You're blind presumably?

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@JoeyMannarino Don't have a single drop of free speech? Try this....you're a lumbering moronic imbecile.

[Boris Johnson @BorisJohnson]

So Putin responds to Ukraine’s successful attacks on Russian oil depots - by targeting innocent civilians in Kyiv and murdering women and children. The Russian President is going to lose his revolting war, which he never should have started. But the truth is that Western governments are doing nothing like enough to bring him to the negotiating table. Why won’t we systematically take out the shadow fleet? Why won’t we give the Ukrainians the hundreds of billions of frozen assets? And why the hell is the UK - of all countries - now buying Russian aviation fuel, even if it has been refined in third countries, under a loophole recently opened by Keir Starmer? This means British cash is helping to fund Putin’s war machine. It’s a total disgrace and if Starmer wants a legacy he should end the practice now.

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@NeathJack1 Why will it improve? This is just dense.

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@rationalhumanis Your people elected Trump. You produce sports entertainment for Americans. Some might suggest that the population you're aiming for in the US isnt representative of multiple other places in the world, given your people's preferences more generally.

[Tom Garratt @Tgarratt10]

In my lifetime:
2006 - Terrible performance and lost on pens in QF with a ‘golden generation’
2008 - didn’t even qualify
2010 - limped thru groups then hammered by Germans in RO16
2014 - Managed a 0-0 draw against Costa Rica and that was it. Seriously.
2016 - Knocked out by ICELAND.

Now winning the group unbeaten gets a negative reaction? Crazy.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Edward Norton: “Trump is worse than Nixon and McNamara by far, Trump and Hegseth. We’re in a level of incompetency and grift and corruption that is unprecedented in the history of this country”

[Rachel Maclean @redditchrache]

Yup. They have all forgotten the relentless, extremely personal attacks they launched at us while in opposition.
Nobody - not the Speaker, or the media stuck up for us then or complained about the language of the left. They thought it was OK because directed at Conservatives.

[Steve Loftus @LoftusSteve]

Not charging VAT on something that has never been charged VAT and that the vast majority of countries don't charge VAT on is not a "tax break".

Nobody says single Mums get a "tax break" on kids cloths, or builders get a "tax break" on supplies.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Just before PMQs, at the despatch box, she called one of my MPs a racist. She’s just said it again on Radio 4.

The hordes of Labour MPs rushing to twitter to whine about me calling her “spiteful” are just exposing their own hypocrisy.

They love to dish it but they can’t take it.

[Giles Dilnot @reporterboy]

@RachelGilmourLD Well you’ve not been there long. You should have seen the Opposition 2019-2024. Branded an entire party scum. One of them called for a Tory to be lynched. But sure calling an incompetent minister and spiteful class warrior a spiteful class warrior and incompetent is proper bad 🙄

[Ethan Fletcher @museslegend]

@RachelGilmourLD You seem to have forgotten that Rayner called every Tory Scum....

[Ike Ijeh @ikeijeh]

The party that called Tories "scum", leavers "Nazis", moderate Muslims "Uncle Toms", Kwasi Kwarteng "not really black", Liz Truss "a lettuce", Covid "The Johnson Variant" & Kemi Badenoch "blackface for white supremacy" is hurt because Badenoch called Phillipson "spiteful". Bless.