Your need to monetize speaks volumes about your true motives. There are many Substacks that are totally free because their authors are totally dedicated to their cause and thus wish to reach the maximum audience possible. Apparently that can't be said about you.
Substack is my primary source of income. Upon monetising it, I realised that I no longer needed to keep my research position and so I resigned. I now produce more free content than I ever did when everything was free. It was just hard to justify putting in the many hours necessary to produce a regular stream of high-effort posts and in the process neglecting my other responsibilities. Had I adhered to your principles and never monetised because I had a day job, I'd write one or two posts a month; this would remain a hobby. That may be fine with you, perhaps you don't like my work very much, but there are many authors here and on other platforms whose I content I enjoy and willingly pay for, and I'd very much regret a moral regime that made their writing less frequent or even impossible.
There is this idea that activism is insincere if money is changing hands, but a) I have never claimed to be an activist, I am only a writer; and b) a world that operated according to your principles would have far less writing and also far less activism. It's great that some people write for free, but in general it's just objectively true that (the possibility of) monetisation increases the total amount of content on a platform, including free content. All these financial transactions are totally voluntary for all involved, and it is very hard to understand your objections to them.
Finally, I think these attitudes also arise because the idea of paying for blog posts is somewhat novel. Political activists have been writing and selling books for generations, and I think most people would find the suggestion that this practice "speaks volumes" about their "true motives" pretty bizarre.
I've spent some time to compose a full answer, because I am from time to time confronted with these complaints and I find them very misguided.
Thanks for answering my question. Yes, I am very cynical about the monetization of the internet and I will remain so. I do enjoy your content so I will consider subscribing.
The internet is just another medium, alongside radio, television, and print. Because internet websites, radio/TV stations and newspapers all cost money to operate, all these media have to be monetised in some way. Apparently 'free' content is generally supported by advertising, otherwise there are various subscription models.
Of the two possibilities, subscriptions are in my view much more straightforward and honest, and far less susceptible to corruption. Much of the censorship we see on the internet is driven by advertisers, who also exercise a subtle but pervasive influence over the kind of ostensibly 'free' content you see on websites like youtube. The right-of-centre internet is very into gold investments and nutritional supplements, for example, in part because they're chasing advertising dollars, and this often has an effect on the kind of political commentary they offer. Not in all cases! But, there is a lot of opportunity for non-transparent relationships and disingenuousness.
This doesn't mean that the subscription model is without problems, of course. It can be an incentive to produce a high volume of low-quality clickbait pieces, it can be inimical to long-form writing and investigative journalism, etc. Perhaps some of these kinks can be worked out as the model develops.
There's an actual police investigation of an inflatable snowman decoration anyone can buy online to see if it's offering a "Nazi salute" and your response is to blame eugyppius for telling people about it?
"Maybe you need to figure out how to deal with racism in the US before you comment on how other countries, especially Germany, deals with - isms."
And maybe you should understand that racism politics in the US right now is being pushed to the extreme by those that push DEI, Critical Race Theory and other Marxist ideals.
Most Americans are NOT racist, as you seemingly suggest. As a matter of fact, America is probably one of the least racists countries in the world. In what country can people from all over the world; Mexicans, blacks, SE Asians, Chinese, etc., come to America and make a life for themselves? And if America is such a racist country, why on Earth are we being inundated with literally millions of migrants currently?
I recommend you review the racist policies of these large industrialized countries, such as Germany, before you submit America is a “racist” country. Quite frankly, I am sick and tired of that clap trap.
You know, the topic I know most about (and that's still not a lot lol) is American poetry, and in my day we did close readings, in which one scoured every syllable and sound and beat, so that's my habit of mind. I read a post on another substack this morning that seemed to hit on similar key words, and that resonated exactly like this post. Here's The Gentleman's Guide to Forum Disruption
Thank you for demonstrating that a german will defend to the death any lunacy and idiocy, as long as it is the german state that's providing it.
What would it matter if Eugyppius had been american?
Arresting an inflatable snowman for doing the "How tall was Eva Braun?"-salute cannot be understood for what it is by foreginers, is what you're saying, you know.
And claiming a foreigner cannot understand domestic issues is called what nowadays, hm?
You are not talking responsibility for it. It's called masochism and virtue signalling. And don't make me laugh with using the word 'considerate'. You and your ilk have no problem destroying a person's life because they have opinions different to yours.
Do I have this correct? You state no one should judge things from afar that they aren’t a part of, claim you are a German and then shit on Americans for not being responsible (for what exactly?), and then claim the author, a German, is writing from an American perspective? What the actual fuck are you trying to prove?
A tabloid newspaper would have the good sense to report that the snowman is not wearing any pants. Therefore, eugyppius's article falls short of tabloid status.
If you’re German remember a wise person once said “one should never judge things from a far and they aren't a part of”. Thank you for your keen insight into racism is the USA.
Perhaps that original quote was in a certain restricted context. But overall, I've rarely read a more vacuous assertion. Many phenomena can only be observed at a distance. Shall we toss out all astronomy merely because even the nearest subject of interest is 250,000 miles away and most are unimaginably more distant? But let's focus more on human events. Shall we ignore any analysis of politics, of current events, simply because to physically visit or otherwise immerse ourselves in distant places might be inconvenient? Or how about history? We have no option but to observe the past from a great distance, in time and often space as well.
Yes, Jesus is quoted as saying “Judge not and you will not be judged.” On the other hand, Ayn Rand offered, “Judge, and prepare to be judged.”
Hang on. I do like to make my way over to Paul Offit's Substack and do precisely that which you caution against above. https://substack.com/@pauloffit
Let's not deprive ourselves of small sources of enjoyment. Certainly, one must be prepared for a negative reaction if one chooses to insult the chieftain in his home.
Yet, I encourage others to do the same. Take a look at this headline: "Do Infants and Young Children Need a COVID Vaccine?" Care to guess at what his answer is?
Standing ovation for this person, please. Dang. A fact. The Nobel Peace Prize winner (awarded after he'd been president for about 37 mintues) did more for inflaming racial tensions in the United States than any Imperial Wizard or Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Satire? Der Author ist deutsch und was er schreibt hat sich so zugetragen. Du glaubst bestimmt auch an die Correctivlüge. Unfassbar wie gehirngewaschen man sein muss um die Realität zu leugnen.
You are right. Germany has only brought problems to Europe, two world wars, holocaust and a fundamental authoritarian mindset. Germany should be dissolved.
Yes, you are absolutely right, that only Germany has been guilty of mass killings in its history. Apparently the slaughter which happened in Spain, China or the early Soviet Union are pure historical fictions.
I feel I have to, as a matter of national. . . pride, let's call it that for form's sake . . . defend Sweden. We are much better at pants-on-head retarded lunacy than our southern cousins:
"In 2005, the Swedish company was criticized by the Centre against Racism and Related Intolerance after launching an advertising campaign introducing their new line of ice cream bars, the Nogger Black, which is an addition to their existing "Nogger" ice cream product. The Nogger had been marketed since 1979, its name derived from the nougat filling. The criticism was mainly aimed at an advert where the slogan "Nogger + liquorice = ♥" was written in white chalk on asphalt. Stig Wallin, chairman of the center, misread the slogan as "Nigger + liquorice" and said: "It's impossible not to see this as an allusion to racism". The center urged for a boycott of the company if they did not withdraw the campaign." (From Wikipedia's article on GB Glace)
The Nogger Black was delicious, by the way. Vanilla ice cream with a salmiakk liquorice cover.
When I was reviewing ice cream in the '80s, licorice ice cream was a "white whale." I believe only two creameries in the USA (both were mom-and-pop outlets) offered it. I did manage to sample the New Hampshire store's product. Yum.
There used to be a brand of soft liquorice, the pieces vaguely resembling mini-flying carpets, and the logo was a sterotypical "Arabian nights"-looking boy. Deemed racist and changed.
Used to be a kind chocolate-dipped puffed rice called "Kinapuffar" (Chinapuffs) with an image of an archetypical strawhat-wearing chinese, smiling a happy smile. Racist. Removed.
Chocolate balls (cocoa, butter, oat flakes, cold coffee mashed together and rolled into balls that were rolled in confetioner's sugar, the corase kind) were called "Negroballs", because "negro" originated from the spanish for "black" - it had nothing to do with africans. Banned. Criminalised, more or less.
Meanwhile, the alcoholic drink "Gammeldansk" is a-okay. No problem calling a drink "Old Dane" apparently. Same with the snack called "Finska pinnar" - Finnish sticks. No problem there. Fransyska (lit. french woman), the part behind the roastbeef on a cow? No problem. Spanish pepper? Same, no problem. Spanish fly? See last point.
And so on: if it has to do with orientals or africans, it's a no-no. If it has to do with europeans, it's a-okay.
Maybe it's me, but that's a tad hypocritical of the PC-thugs, no?
Is "gammel" related to the English word "gammer?" [I love these Germanic language family comparisons...]
We had a brand of rice called "Uncle Ben's" with the logo of a kindly distinguished-looking elderly black man, and "Aunt Jemima's" pancake syrup with the logo of a cheerful dignified black lady, both gone. I don't think anyone of my generation thought these people looked in any way servile. They looked trustworthy. That's why they were on the labels/boxes. They made you feel confident in the product.
Which psychological marketing these morons utterly have failed to understand.
Looked up "gammal" in an etymological dictionary: the root is "gam" or "gamm", proto- or urgermanic meaning "winter", so "gammel" or "gammal" would mean "one who has lived many winters". In pre-christian days, Midsommar was when the old year died and the new year started, so it makes sense you'd measure age referring to winters (it lives on in poetic form).
"Gamm-" would relate to age. "Gammal" means old. "Gammel" is old-fashioned spelling in danish (any dane reading please correct as needed).
In my native dialect, you'd refer to middleaged unwed men living with their mothers as "Gammgossar"; "gosse" meaning boy, more specifically pre-pubertal boy. So, "gammgosse" would mean a boy who never grew to manhood - though not with the meaning "mama's boy" has in english.
We still have Uncle Ben's Rice here with the nice old man logo, by the way. Stangely, no-one objects to that one.
Don't forget Cream Of Wheat. As a child in the 60s we traveled cross country several times on trains, and I remember describing the invariably-friendly male dining car waiters as "Cream of Wheat" guys.
You lucky kid! I love trains. (Not subways, mind you. Long-distance trains.)
I watch quite a lot of old movies and it's pretty much 50/50 the ethnicity of one's household staff between white servants and black ones. For anyone of our generation, a black face as part of a product logo does not, I think, signal to our brains something along the lines of "slave" but much more an assurance of a wholesome product made with skill and care.
Of course that feeling may not survive if we are confronted with new and unfamiliar faces now.
Here in the US we do not escape this lunacy. Until at least the 1970s there was a popular restaurant chain, Sambo's. The sign showed a smiling brown skinned boy. Few people knew that the allusion was to a Kipling character, a ["dot"] Indian, not an Afro-American.
No doubt the "Little Black Sambo" story popular in my childhood has been globally excised. I was always charmed that a circle of tigers could run fast enough to turn themselves into butter.
OMG for two reasons. The spurious allusion to racism is one. The licorice flavor is the second—I can't stand licorice. Disclaimer: I acknowledge this prejudice is purely personal.
I get DW's daily email newsletter which has been full of reports of these 'anti-right' protests. And I have been bemused by the way the the reports never seem to pick up on the fact that what they are protesting against is not some band of 'fascists' but MILLIONS of their fellow Germans!
I don't think they can. I suspect they must believe the millions you refer to are under the spell of superfascists. If not they'd have to confront the possibility perfectly reasonable people have quite different views than them.
We witnessed a similar confusion with Brexit. They convinced themselves leavers were backward racist types, a minority. After the vote they couldn't process what they were seeing.
Just like Trump winning in 2016. I remember being in shock for days.
Never occurred to me to wonder how all the predictions could have been so wrong. Trump = Evil sufficed as an explanation. It's like looking back on a period of insanity in one's life.
It is a good experience to go through. Think how many are still trapped there. I would argue it is almost a cliched definition of the chattering classes now. The simplicity and naivety of the positions they are now taking and the increasing difficulty they must have squaring reality with what they believe. Pro-immigration, pro-climate change policies and the nonstop white guilt thing all have real world consequences that will harm them.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but the impression I've gotten over time and in part thru reading many of our author's previous posts, is that this is what the AfD is all about. I also have come to realize this: if the German corporate media and mainstream politicians are anything like their American cousins, they're lying.
Tardigrade ,in my opinion ,the snowman could be a chines spy balloon ,all security agencies must investigate .Biden may give the order to shoot it ,like the pipe lines .
The FBI was asked to fly in an investigative team, but they reported they were too busy investigating a garage door opener's rope in a garage somewhere.
This will simply accelerate Public Anger & make Violent Revolution more inevitable.
Nobody buys into these 'moral arguments' anymore. The people of Germany have seen what their 'moral' leaders do overseas. So they have wised up to what is really going on over here:
Scapegoat Populists so that when the Economic Implosion occurs, the 'Elite' have an 'Out.'
I just read that the Berlin Film Festival is in hysterics of rage because representatives from AfD received invitations and now all [insert terrified groups here] will be in danger
I'm looking forward to your reporting on the apocalypse which has now been triggered because Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin and the EU is currently marshalling all its strength to fight back.
While I certainly hope you needn't depend entirely on the blog for every single bit of filthy lucre that comes to you, I feel sure you're not going to run out of topics for the rest of my lifetime at least.
Police have a meltdown over a giant snowman, on questioning him they got an icy response as he asked if the police weren't getting a little flakey. To which a police officer frostily replied no we want to know if you're fascist.
The snowman who was an inflatable so knew he couldn't melt, slowly got out his dictionary and eventually said " definitely not, the word doesn't exist in my 1935 dictionary ".
"Globalist Coup To Thwart Democracy Underway In Romania
Over 10,000 Romanians took to the streets on Wednesday evening to protest the decision of the Globalist PSD-PNL coalition to combine the European parliamentary elections with the local elections. The move is in direct violation of the country’s constitution and is unprecedented with less than six months before June 9 parliamentary elections.
According to a press release by the country’s leading opposition party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, “The final destination of the protests was the PSD headquarters in the cities of the county seat. In an extremely difficult moment for democracy in Romania, in which the PSD together with the PNL collaborated to launch an aggressive offensive against the fundamental principles of the rule of law and democracy, the AUR does not sit passively: it is the only political formation that really defends democracy in our country."
Cancelling "Democracy" in order to "save it" seems to be the central theme of 2024 so far....
As funny as videos along these lines would be, they would very likely see the maker up on various charges of obstructing the public duties of a very important politician, and incitement to far right something or other.
Incidentally, the imposition of German Lese-Majeste laws and "anti fascist symbolism" laws is no longer restricted to Germans. You now need to be as careful about what you say publicly about Germany as you do about Hong Kong (China will make your life difficult if you do anything that looks like promoting independence, even from overseas).
Interesting to read the comments in the YT video of Peter Fischer - the overwhelming number of commentators point out the blindingly obvious contraction between RTL's request for 'democratic' debate and the content of the video they have put on YT, calling for violence against a third of the electorate.
Are you sure you aren't actually one of those spoof sites like babylon bee or the onion because everything you wrote appears far too dumb to be actually true. I particularly like the nazi snowman who looks far too jolly to be a fascist/nazi/rightwing nutjob/whatever.
Beethoven, Bismarck, Goethe, Gutenberg, JS Bach (to name but a few) must be absolutely spinning in their graves.
AfD members must remember to keep their arms clamped to their sides at all times. There is now no angle of the arm that cannot be interpreted as a Hitler salute.
I suggest they take lessons in Irish traditional dancing.
Just when I thought my estimation of the German police could not sink any lower after they were filmed during the Black Death 2.0 body slamming docile German senior citizens to the pavement and striking them in the skull with their clubs. It’s been reported, though, that in immigrant neighborhoods the German cops are famous for retreating without a whimper when surrounded by crowds of 15-year olds, after being spit on and called “sons of whores”. But now … that they did not draw their pistols and empty their ammunition magazines into that f****ing Nazi snowman … I ask you: Who remains then to protect us in times like these?
Had to "unlike" this. Sensed something was wrong the instant I clicked on the heart icon. Remembered something. Had I left the comment as “liked”, I would have dishonored the memory of my grandfather and grandmother, my father and uncles, and numerous family friends, all who were New York City police officers during a period stretching from the 1930s through the 1970s. One uncle was murdered in the line of duty, aged 30 something, leaving behind a wife and daughter who somehow never recovered from their loss. While I have no doubt that what you claim might be accurate from a broader theoretical/historical perspective, e.g. can we think of the guardians of the corrupt tyrants of old as the direct predecessors of todays law enforcement organizations everywhere in the world. I have never systematically researched the topic. I cannot and will not presume to say if your claim is valid or not, and lack the requisite knowledge for that. Some might say, well that's funny, Prodigal, because you just mocked the German police in a previous comment. I did, and the German police deserve to be mocked, at least for the behavior they have displayed in recent years, behavior that seems to only get worse. Each of the NYPD officers in our family displayed at times the highest bravery in the line of duty, even my grandmother :), and were formally commended for putting their lives at risk. They were most definitely not first and foremost concerned with ensuring the safety of the wealthy and powerful, who in any case all have private bodyguard teams. They were husbands and fathers doing a thankless job to provide for their families — and to protect the public. At all hours of the day and night they stopped and arrested rapists in parks and alleys in darkness, disarmed and subdued violent psychotics, were shot at by armed criminals, my father delivered the infant of a pregnant woman in the middle of an icy cold night in a terrible ghetto, in the back seat of his patrol car because time ran out to reach the hospital. Soon after arriving in Germany, I began to almost pity the German police. You might say, they are almost not even real police officers. As a native New Yorker, I could never really consider them as such. Seeing a police officer assigned to stand at a bike path and stop bicyclists whose bikes have no lights. This is not work worthy of any law enforcement officer. It is demeaning. This is something for parking meter attendants or the like. But all German police officers who patrol the streets — in the country’s worst neighborhoods late at night — will, however rarely, respond to situations that can endanger their lives. And having grown up in the City of New York, I can tell you they deserve our respect for that. You see, they are prevented from being real cops, their hands are tied by the same simpleton politicians and virtue-signaling liberals we have discussed in this Eugyppius piece. So maybe no wonder that they might vent their frustration on law-abiding Germans who are NOT protected like the country’s growing numbers of very dangerous criminals. Police officers are among the most despised groups in western societies. There are MANY bad cops, and seemingly more than ever before, as in all professions, sadly. But I can assure you, should you ever be so unfortunate to be attacked by a psychopath with a knife or machete, or dragged into the bushes at night by a gang of rapists … in that moment, you will never have loved anyone more than a police officer who succeeds in stopping the crime in progress.
We are very much of the same mind on the issue, really, but to clarify my statement (not that I think you need me to, far from it, but why waste the opportunity to spend words?)
Individual police may believe and act contrary to my statement, but the point and purpose of a police force has always been to protect the rulers and owners of the state from challengers and domestice threats.
That's not me being edgy or cynical, that is the actual origin and purpose of all police forces everwhere, anywhen.
Same as the purpose of a military is defending the rulers' territory against foreign rulers, and to attack foreign territories to plunder and/or conquer, by killing the inhabitants of that region.
We can dress it all up in various terms, but cut to the bone and that's what it is and always was and always must be.
How to ensure it is more for the good of the people as a whole, and without it being used to terrorise, dominate and oppress is the riddle.
As I said, I have not studied the history of the topic. You clearly have, though. I would be grateful if you would suggest some reading that sheds light on the history of organized law enforcement. But I mean police work specifically, unless you have traced the historical background stretching from modern day policing back to whatever its origins were in the distant past. To my mind, though, "always was" and even the audacious "always must be" ... well, like the old saying goes "never say never". Finally, I generally take prophecies ("always must be") with a grain of salt.
The history of law enforcement is a thorny topic, but from memory I'd say that most historians would start with Rome during Octavian's reign, where a special legion was set up for the explicit purpose to keep the peace in the city. I'm summarising as all-get out here, by the way.
Can't point at any specific book, I'm afraid - I've studied the history of ideas and the ideas of history, so my statement is based on any book touching upon how policing was done in a specific time/place. I'll sum up and use (abuse?) how it went here - and note I'm summing up 500 years of development and change so it's the proverbial molehill from a mountain.
Easiest example for me is Sweden, obviously. Before the 17th century, there was virtually no difference between soldiery and police. Again, summarising as heck. It was simply a standing force of armed men employed by the crown, tasked with keeping order in accordance with the crown's laws. It was much the same all over the world, but the names and laws varied with culture.
You see where I got the idea of my initial statement from.
During the late 17th and very much so during the 18th, police work as we would recognise it was made separate from soldier's work, mainly due to urbanisation and the development of a burgher-class as the influential group, both economics- and ideas-wise, while old nobility and farmers started to lose power and influence, a process which affected the laws of the land:
Burghers, same as in Britain and later USA-to-be, were very much concerned with property rights, and from there the schools of thought about rights the way we talk about them developed - and if you have rights above the ruler's will, the law and its enforcers must be beyond the direct command of the ruler.
So police and courts started to become more and more independent, compared to earlier. In Sweden, this process of law enforcement being more and more independent of politics (excepting enforcing the laws made in a legal manner by parliament of course) started to reverse in the 1950s when the police was made into a unified national police force with a top-down hierarchy where the chief was appointed by the governement, instead of being promoted from within the senior ranks.
Today, the police is again fully politicised - their special operations command re: organised crime was recently reprimanded by their oversight-committee, consisting of retired party-politicians, for using the word "zigenare" (gypsy) in a report on crime against the elderly (where gypsy clans commit more than 5/6 of such crimes, despite them being fewer than 0.1% of the population). But it was one of the sources that had used the word when reporting - not the actual police. They only repeated what the source had stated.
But since the word "zigenare" is banned by political decree, the police must now change what the source said so that the statement fits political dogma as dictated by the regime.
I'm sure you see why I stand by my initial statement regarding what the cut-to-the-function of police actually is (but not what it should be!). And in Sweden, the motto of the police force is "Att upprätthålla lag och ordning": "To maintain law and order". Nothing about serving the public trust, maintaining peace, or protecting the innocent. Just maintaining the status quo.
Edit: I won't be displeased if it turns out I'm wrong in the long run, and we get police that actually acts the way they should - in fact, when it comes to most of my statements about politics, I'm mostly pleased if it turns out I'm wrong. Call it "the cynical pessimist's optimism" if you will.
Would you like to live someplace where law and order is not maintained? No experienced police officer in his right mind -- who has faced the worst kind of crime every day, year in and year out, in places where there is horrible crime in abundance -- is going to trust the public. If he or she did, they would be unfit for duty. I was shocked a couple of years ago when I started reading about Swedish police stations being attacked with hand grenades! Say what? Sweden? So if the police are interested only in maintaining the status quo ... maybe they better invest in more body armor ... or ... I don't know ... helicopter gunships. But I am glad we had this exchange, because I really think it points to how our perceptions can be so varied, I mean everyone, not just you and I ... and people can forget how different cultures can really be under the surface. I'm no world traveler, by any means ... so maybe I underestimate (still after 20 plus years abroad !!) how cultures that seem similar on the surface can really be PROFOUNDLY different.
Fun facts: The last time I checked, the Police Department of the City of New York was a force of more than 30,000 police officers. I doubt that anyone who has lived all their lives in western Europe could begin to fathom the heroism NYPD officers have routinely displayed down through the years. A very large number of them have lost their lives in the line of duty. New York is not Amsterdam or Barcelona or Copenhagen ... but all of those cities are on their way to becoming the mean streets of New York if they do not WAKE UP.
What do all those Swedish cops do? Are the moose that out of control?
Sweden: 450,295 square kilometers / population 10.5 million / low population density of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometer / 87% of Swedes residing in urban areas, which cover 1.5% of the entire land area
New York City: 778 square kilometers / population 8,335,897 / 11,313 inhabitants per square kilometer / the most densely populated major city in the United States
The usual stuff, here in the countryside. 90% of the force is stationed in or around the major cities though, fighting a losing rear-guard battle against migrant crime-clans and trying to do so while performing their duties in a politically correct manner.
You know the assault made by migrants against two NYPD officers recently, where the culprits were released without bail or anything?
That's about the state of things here, except for real swedes. If a white man steps out of line, the gloves come off. Swedish police are becoming despised, even hated, by more and more swedes for their kowtowing to morally bankrupt woke female politicians, politruks, and courts.
I was born in and lived in NYC most of my life and there was never a time we didn't have major police corruption scandals. There was never a time in my adult life I didn't know how regularly the police perjure themselves even in traffic court.
Of course individual police officers have often been heroes. But the police union has ensured that it's almost impossible to weed out the bad so the good are not tarred by them.
Name any kind of government organization or public authority, particularly in the City of New York, that has never had major scandals? Or are those scandals of less importance because not involving police officers? Corrupt judges and lawmakers do infinitely greater damage to society than any police department could. Police officers perjure themselves more than people from other professions? Name a labor union that does not do what it can to ensure its members are not judged by standards higher than that of the public at large?
In the UK we have DEFRA, officially the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. However, it's reckoned that DEFRA actually stands for the Department for the Elimination of Farming and Rural Activities.
If the party that tends to telegraph its intents has a near-perfect track record of such actions being what might be termed a frontal assault against Intractable Reality, then perhaps the default reaction of the comparatively sane would be to simply ignore them, and perhaps try to stay out of their way?
Sy in swedish is sew. Syn is sight/vision. Od is one of the (many) names of Oden, the king of gods. Nod is node.
(Dramatic music intensifies)
As a riddle, "synod" in greek could be recombobulated into "Oden's got his eye on you, and the Norns might be getting ready to cut your thread from the weave".
Synchronicity!
(I need to get out in the fresh air and Sun, it's been -20 to -30 here for the last few days, until today.)
this post was supposed to be free but I clicked the wrong thing. it should be open to everyone now.
Many Thanks Good Sir!
All your posts should be free unless this is your sole means of supporting yourself.
why?
Your need to monetize speaks volumes about your true motives. There are many Substacks that are totally free because their authors are totally dedicated to their cause and thus wish to reach the maximum audience possible. Apparently that can't be said about you.
Substack is my primary source of income. Upon monetising it, I realised that I no longer needed to keep my research position and so I resigned. I now produce more free content than I ever did when everything was free. It was just hard to justify putting in the many hours necessary to produce a regular stream of high-effort posts and in the process neglecting my other responsibilities. Had I adhered to your principles and never monetised because I had a day job, I'd write one or two posts a month; this would remain a hobby. That may be fine with you, perhaps you don't like my work very much, but there are many authors here and on other platforms whose I content I enjoy and willingly pay for, and I'd very much regret a moral regime that made their writing less frequent or even impossible.
There is this idea that activism is insincere if money is changing hands, but a) I have never claimed to be an activist, I am only a writer; and b) a world that operated according to your principles would have far less writing and also far less activism. It's great that some people write for free, but in general it's just objectively true that (the possibility of) monetisation increases the total amount of content on a platform, including free content. All these financial transactions are totally voluntary for all involved, and it is very hard to understand your objections to them.
Finally, I think these attitudes also arise because the idea of paying for blog posts is somewhat novel. Political activists have been writing and selling books for generations, and I think most people would find the suggestion that this practice "speaks volumes" about their "true motives" pretty bizarre.
I've spent some time to compose a full answer, because I am from time to time confronted with these complaints and I find them very misguided.
Thanks for answering my question. Yes, I am very cynical about the monetization of the internet and I will remain so. I do enjoy your content so I will consider subscribing.
Thanks for considering :)
The internet is just another medium, alongside radio, television, and print. Because internet websites, radio/TV stations and newspapers all cost money to operate, all these media have to be monetised in some way. Apparently 'free' content is generally supported by advertising, otherwise there are various subscription models.
Of the two possibilities, subscriptions are in my view much more straightforward and honest, and far less susceptible to corruption. Much of the censorship we see on the internet is driven by advertisers, who also exercise a subtle but pervasive influence over the kind of ostensibly 'free' content you see on websites like youtube. The right-of-centre internet is very into gold investments and nutritional supplements, for example, in part because they're chasing advertising dollars, and this often has an effect on the kind of political commentary they offer. Not in all cases! But, there is a lot of opportunity for non-transparent relationships and disingenuousness.
This doesn't mean that the subscription model is without problems, of course. It can be an incentive to produce a high volume of low-quality clickbait pieces, it can be inimical to long-form writing and investigative journalism, etc. Perhaps some of these kinks can be worked out as the model develops.
lol
There's an actual police investigation of an inflatable snowman decoration anyone can buy online to see if it's offering a "Nazi salute" and your response is to blame eugyppius for telling people about it?
"Maybe you need to figure out how to deal with racism in the US before you comment on how other countries, especially Germany, deals with - isms."
And maybe you should understand that racism politics in the US right now is being pushed to the extreme by those that push DEI, Critical Race Theory and other Marxist ideals.
Most Americans are NOT racist, as you seemingly suggest. As a matter of fact, America is probably one of the least racists countries in the world. In what country can people from all over the world; Mexicans, blacks, SE Asians, Chinese, etc., come to America and make a life for themselves? And if America is such a racist country, why on Earth are we being inundated with literally millions of migrants currently?
I recommend you review the racist policies of these large industrialized countries, such as Germany, before you submit America is a “racist” country. Quite frankly, I am sick and tired of that clap trap.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/non-discrimination/news/anti-black-racism-is-rising-in-eu-countries-led-by-germany-study-finds/
it is almost like our nurse ussi is … jUdgInG ThiNgS fRoM AfAr.
as a German, perhaps the good nurse would like to read up on the Lichtmesz-Sommerfeld Gesetz.
Thank you. I was going to say all that, but you said it first and better than I would have.
You know, the topic I know most about (and that's still not a lot lol) is American poetry, and in my day we did close readings, in which one scoured every syllable and sound and beat, so that's my habit of mind. I read a post on another substack this morning that seemed to hit on similar key words, and that resonated exactly like this post. Here's The Gentleman's Guide to Forum Disruption
https://ritholtz.com/2012/11/the-gentlemans-guide-to-forum-disruption/
Thank you for demonstrating that a german will defend to the death any lunacy and idiocy, as long as it is the german state that's providing it.
What would it matter if Eugyppius had been american?
Arresting an inflatable snowman for doing the "How tall was Eva Braun?"-salute cannot be understood for what it is by foreginers, is what you're saying, you know.
And claiming a foreigner cannot understand domestic issues is called what nowadays, hm?
Is Ussi German for Karen?
Oh shit, I just ruptured something…
My endorphins! They are surging now so powerfully!
Germany is and has been prosecuting author/playwright C.J. Hopkins for over a year for a similar "crime" as the snowman.
He is German, you ignoramus. It must be embarrassing for you to have Germany and the behaviour of German NPCs exposed like this.
You are not talking responsibility for it. It's called masochism and virtue signalling. And don't make me laugh with using the word 'considerate'. You and your ilk have no problem destroying a person's life because they have opinions different to yours.
Do I have this correct? You state no one should judge things from afar that they aren’t a part of, claim you are a German and then shit on Americans for not being responsible (for what exactly?), and then claim the author, a German, is writing from an American perspective? What the actual fuck are you trying to prove?
Perhaps if you read with comprehension you'd have figured out that our author is--wait for it--a German. A real live German. Living in Germany.
A tabloid newspaper would have the good sense to report that the snowman is not wearing any pants. Therefore, eugyppius's article falls short of tabloid status.
If you’re German remember a wise person once said “one should never judge things from a far and they aren't a part of”. Thank you for your keen insight into racism is the USA.
Perhaps that original quote was in a certain restricted context. But overall, I've rarely read a more vacuous assertion. Many phenomena can only be observed at a distance. Shall we toss out all astronomy merely because even the nearest subject of interest is 250,000 miles away and most are unimaginably more distant? But let's focus more on human events. Shall we ignore any analysis of politics, of current events, simply because to physically visit or otherwise immerse ourselves in distant places might be inconvenient? Or how about history? We have no option but to observe the past from a great distance, in time and often space as well.
Yes, Jesus is quoted as saying “Judge not and you will not be judged.” On the other hand, Ayn Rand offered, “Judge, and prepare to be judged.”
Wow. The first substack comment ratio I've seen. And it's a doozy.
It is of course a profoundly unwise thing to openly insult a chieftain when a guest in his home and in front of his assembled tribe.
A tribe made up of many nations no less.
Hang on. I do like to make my way over to Paul Offit's Substack and do precisely that which you caution against above. https://substack.com/@pauloffit
Let's not deprive ourselves of small sources of enjoyment. Certainly, one must be prepared for a negative reaction if one chooses to insult the chieftain in his home.
Yet, I encourage others to do the same. Take a look at this headline: "Do Infants and Young Children Need a COVID Vaccine?" Care to guess at what his answer is?
https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/do-infants-and-young-children-need?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
I'm afraid to look, Jim :):)
I think I'll pay a visit to Mr. Offal from time to time :) Thanks for the recommendation, Jim!
FYI race relations in the USA were in a decent space until Obama took office. A half black man calling all the Caucasians who cast for him racist.
Standing ovation for this person, please. Dang. A fact. The Nobel Peace Prize winner (awarded after he'd been president for about 37 mintues) did more for inflaming racial tensions in the United States than any Imperial Wizard or Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Satire? Der Author ist deutsch und was er schreibt hat sich so zugetragen. Du glaubst bestimmt auch an die Correctivlüge. Unfassbar wie gehirngewaschen man sein muss um die Realität zu leugnen.
You are right. Germany has only brought problems to Europe, two world wars, holocaust and a fundamental authoritarian mindset. Germany should be dissolved.
Captain Morgan ,if you where a snow man ,we could dIssolve YOU
I am a Chinese made inflatable and provocative snow man, and I don’t do irony.
Yes, you are absolutely right, that only Germany has been guilty of mass killings in its history. Apparently the slaughter which happened in Spain, China or the early Soviet Union are pure historical fictions.
agreed, and you forgot the Pol Pot myth.
I thought things were bad here in the US, but I am in awe at the German level of lunacy.
I feel I have to, as a matter of national. . . pride, let's call it that for form's sake . . . defend Sweden. We are much better at pants-on-head retarded lunacy than our southern cousins:
"In 2005, the Swedish company was criticized by the Centre against Racism and Related Intolerance after launching an advertising campaign introducing their new line of ice cream bars, the Nogger Black, which is an addition to their existing "Nogger" ice cream product. The Nogger had been marketed since 1979, its name derived from the nougat filling. The criticism was mainly aimed at an advert where the slogan "Nogger + liquorice = ♥" was written in white chalk on asphalt. Stig Wallin, chairman of the center, misread the slogan as "Nigger + liquorice" and said: "It's impossible not to see this as an allusion to racism". The center urged for a boycott of the company if they did not withdraw the campaign." (From Wikipedia's article on GB Glace)
The Nogger Black was delicious, by the way. Vanilla ice cream with a salmiakk liquorice cover.
i concede this is a full level of retardation above what germany has so far achieved. maybe we catch up though.
I found it hilarious living in Germany and coming across Nigger Kisses.
I doubt they call them that now.
No , they were Neger Kisses, Neger being the German word for a black person for centuries.
And you're right. They have different names now.
Obviously, the name was part of the clever globalist plot to indoctrinate Caucasians into the belief that inter-racial relationships were acceptable.
When I was reviewing ice cream in the '80s, licorice ice cream was a "white whale." I believe only two creameries in the USA (both were mom-and-pop outlets) offered it. I did manage to sample the New Hampshire store's product. Yum.
There's a very naughty part of me very sad that the Chocolate Babies candies I ate as a kid had already been thereby renamed from the original.
There used to be a brand of soft liquorice, the pieces vaguely resembling mini-flying carpets, and the logo was a sterotypical "Arabian nights"-looking boy. Deemed racist and changed.
Used to be a kind chocolate-dipped puffed rice called "Kinapuffar" (Chinapuffs) with an image of an archetypical strawhat-wearing chinese, smiling a happy smile. Racist. Removed.
Chocolate balls (cocoa, butter, oat flakes, cold coffee mashed together and rolled into balls that were rolled in confetioner's sugar, the corase kind) were called "Negroballs", because "negro" originated from the spanish for "black" - it had nothing to do with africans. Banned. Criminalised, more or less.
Meanwhile, the alcoholic drink "Gammeldansk" is a-okay. No problem calling a drink "Old Dane" apparently. Same with the snack called "Finska pinnar" - Finnish sticks. No problem there. Fransyska (lit. french woman), the part behind the roastbeef on a cow? No problem. Spanish pepper? Same, no problem. Spanish fly? See last point.
And so on: if it has to do with orientals or africans, it's a no-no. If it has to do with europeans, it's a-okay.
Maybe it's me, but that's a tad hypocritical of the PC-thugs, no?
Is "gammel" related to the English word "gammer?" [I love these Germanic language family comparisons...]
We had a brand of rice called "Uncle Ben's" with the logo of a kindly distinguished-looking elderly black man, and "Aunt Jemima's" pancake syrup with the logo of a cheerful dignified black lady, both gone. I don't think anyone of my generation thought these people looked in any way servile. They looked trustworthy. That's why they were on the labels/boxes. They made you feel confident in the product.
Which psychological marketing these morons utterly have failed to understand.
Looked up "gammal" in an etymological dictionary: the root is "gam" or "gamm", proto- or urgermanic meaning "winter", so "gammel" or "gammal" would mean "one who has lived many winters". In pre-christian days, Midsommar was when the old year died and the new year started, so it makes sense you'd measure age referring to winters (it lives on in poetic form).
Thank you for this.
"Gamm-" would relate to age. "Gammal" means old. "Gammel" is old-fashioned spelling in danish (any dane reading please correct as needed).
In my native dialect, you'd refer to middleaged unwed men living with their mothers as "Gammgossar"; "gosse" meaning boy, more specifically pre-pubertal boy. So, "gammgosse" would mean a boy who never grew to manhood - though not with the meaning "mama's boy" has in english.
We still have Uncle Ben's Rice here with the nice old man logo, by the way. Stangely, no-one objects to that one.
Don't forget Cream Of Wheat. As a child in the 60s we traveled cross country several times on trains, and I remember describing the invariably-friendly male dining car waiters as "Cream of Wheat" guys.
You lucky kid! I love trains. (Not subways, mind you. Long-distance trains.)
I watch quite a lot of old movies and it's pretty much 50/50 the ethnicity of one's household staff between white servants and black ones. For anyone of our generation, a black face as part of a product logo does not, I think, signal to our brains something along the lines of "slave" but much more an assurance of a wholesome product made with skill and care.
Of course that feeling may not survive if we are confronted with new and unfamiliar faces now.
Uncle Ben's, Aunt Jemima's... this meme derides the "unintended consequences" in which our left's cancellation fever ultimately resulted.
https://imgb.ifunny.co/images/fae287344c544d5cc6a11fe71cec6807bd052b0a6a2bac5b370a8706131f1878_1.jpg
I was thinking something along these lines when I left my comment. Great minds etc. etc. Looking forward to Mrs. Butterworth at Drag Queen Story Hour.
'And so on: if it has to do with orientals or africans, it's a no-no. If it has to do with europeans, it's a-okay.'
Only until European groups become professional victims. It's inevitable, since that is currently the only path to societal and political power 😬
Here in the US we do not escape this lunacy. Until at least the 1970s there was a popular restaurant chain, Sambo's. The sign showed a smiling brown skinned boy. Few people knew that the allusion was to a Kipling character, a ["dot"] Indian, not an Afro-American.
No doubt the "Little Black Sambo" story popular in my childhood has been globally excised. I was always charmed that a circle of tigers could run fast enough to turn themselves into butter.
Not Kipling. Helen Bannerman.
I'm in the US too.
Very well! Next thing I know, you will be claiming that Winnie the Pooh wasn't a Kipling character either.
Ha!
They are my favourite. Their Aussie name escapes me.
OMG for two reasons. The spurious allusion to racism is one. The licorice flavor is the second—I can't stand licorice. Disclaimer: I acknowledge this prejudice is purely personal.
Such problems will recede into history, Rikard, when the population of Sweden is 19 percent white people. And peace and harmony will reign!
I get DW's daily email newsletter which has been full of reports of these 'anti-right' protests. And I have been bemused by the way the the reports never seem to pick up on the fact that what they are protesting against is not some band of 'fascists' but MILLIONS of their fellow Germans!
I don't think they can. I suspect they must believe the millions you refer to are under the spell of superfascists. If not they'd have to confront the possibility perfectly reasonable people have quite different views than them.
We witnessed a similar confusion with Brexit. They convinced themselves leavers were backward racist types, a minority. After the vote they couldn't process what they were seeing.
Just like Trump winning in 2016. I remember being in shock for days.
Never occurred to me to wonder how all the predictions could have been so wrong. Trump = Evil sufficed as an explanation. It's like looking back on a period of insanity in one's life.
It is a good experience to go through. Think how many are still trapped there. I would argue it is almost a cliched definition of the chattering classes now. The simplicity and naivety of the positions they are now taking and the increasing difficulty they must have squaring reality with what they believe. Pro-immigration, pro-climate change policies and the nonstop white guilt thing all have real world consequences that will harm them.
Thankfully, it seems ordinary Germans are beginning to recognize what they're facing, and pushing back.
Perhaps I'm wrong, but the impression I've gotten over time and in part thru reading many of our author's previous posts, is that this is what the AfD is all about. I also have come to realize this: if the German corporate media and mainstream politicians are anything like their American cousins, they're lying.
Some Germans will vote AfD simply because it's forbidden.
Yes and I might just be one of those Germans.
The snowman was nothing. Better get the authorities on this: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/33184
dont worry America is saying hold my beer
I live on the other side of the planet, and even I can tell that's not a Nazi salute.
But you aren't an expert!
I beg your pardon. I have six decades of movie-watching, and saw Hogan's Heroes on TV regularly.
First-run episodes, or just MeTV syndication episodes?
I'm old enough to have watched the original broadcast.
I know NOTHING, Colonel Hogan!
But obviously, you saw nussink! Nussink!
Tardigrade ,in my opinion ,the snowman could be a chines spy balloon ,all security agencies must investigate .Biden may give the order to shoot it ,like the pipe lines .
The FBI was asked to fly in an investigative team, but they reported they were too busy investigating a garage door opener's rope in a garage somewhere.
Winner!
I wonder if it's syndicated in Germany and elsewhere. With swastika and other "triggering" imagery edited out, I would suppose.
Yes but perception is all! If someone is offended and believes it is a Nazi salute, then it is! Like racism!
You're right, of course. These days perception trumps reality.
Didn't a famous German* say "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"?
*Correction: no, he was Austrian and Jewish too.
Tardigrade ,look again it seems the snowman has a mustache under the nose .
As opposed to wear, the elbow? 😜
This will simply accelerate Public Anger & make Violent Revolution more inevitable.
Nobody buys into these 'moral arguments' anymore. The people of Germany have seen what their 'moral' leaders do overseas. So they have wised up to what is really going on over here:
Scapegoat Populists so that when the Economic Implosion occurs, the 'Elite' have an 'Out.'
(For those interested)
If you wish to read (& listen!) to more of My commentary, here is my Main Stack:
https://thefallofthewest.substack.com
Thank You Kindly to everyone!
I just read that the Berlin Film Festival is in hysterics of rage because representatives from AfD received invitations and now all [insert terrified groups here] will be in danger
I believe the AfD members have now been disinvited. I should've included this story in the round-up too, but there is just so much.
I'm looking forward to your reporting on the apocalypse which has now been triggered because Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin and the EU is currently marshalling all its strength to fight back.
what a shitstorm that is going to be. and to think I was worried that post-Covid there would be nothing to write about.
While I certainly hope you needn't depend entirely on the blog for every single bit of filthy lucre that comes to you, I feel sure you're not going to run out of topics for the rest of my lifetime at least.
Ha!
eugyppius if you run out of ideas ,writing about the covid ,come to Canada ,you will still find plenty to write about ,the covid whyrusses .
Our neocons journalists on Sky, Bolt and Sharri in Australia were going off about that last night. I turned them off and watched ‘Poirot’ instead.
I don't know what I'm doing, but my incompetence has never stopped my enthusiasm.
(Woody Allen)
Police have a meltdown over a giant snowman, on questioning him they got an icy response as he asked if the police weren't getting a little flakey. To which a police officer frostily replied no we want to know if you're fascist.
The snowman who was an inflatable so knew he couldn't melt, slowly got out his dictionary and eventually said " definitely not, the word doesn't exist in my 1935 dictionary ".
And it's getting spicy in Romania too:
"Globalist Coup To Thwart Democracy Underway In Romania
Over 10,000 Romanians took to the streets on Wednesday evening to protest the decision of the Globalist PSD-PNL coalition to combine the European parliamentary elections with the local elections. The move is in direct violation of the country’s constitution and is unprecedented with less than six months before June 9 parliamentary elections.
According to a press release by the country’s leading opposition party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, “The final destination of the protests was the PSD headquarters in the cities of the county seat. In an extremely difficult moment for democracy in Romania, in which the PSD together with the PNL collaborated to launch an aggressive offensive against the fundamental principles of the rule of law and democracy, the AUR does not sit passively: it is the only political formation that really defends democracy in our country."
Cancelling "Democracy" in order to "save it" seems to be the central theme of 2024 so far....
I'm American. Is Romania that country next to Brazil?
Fuhrer Fischer loves his snow. Someone needs to make Downfall video memes about the German green energy disaster and collapse of the EU Fourth Reich.
A Downfall video on Tucker Putin interview please! 😂
Or inflatable snowmen.
I wish we had inflatable politicians ,than we could let the hot air out of them .
As funny as videos along these lines would be, they would very likely see the maker up on various charges of obstructing the public duties of a very important politician, and incitement to far right something or other.
Incidentally, the imposition of German Lese-Majeste laws and "anti fascist symbolism" laws is no longer restricted to Germans. You now need to be as careful about what you say publicly about Germany as you do about Hong Kong (China will make your life difficult if you do anything that looks like promoting independence, even from overseas).
Interesting to read the comments in the YT video of Peter Fischer - the overwhelming number of commentators point out the blindingly obvious contraction between RTL's request for 'democratic' debate and the content of the video they have put on YT, calling for violence against a third of the electorate.
it’s amazing to me they published the interview at all.
Are you sure you aren't actually one of those spoof sites like babylon bee or the onion because everything you wrote appears far too dumb to be actually true. I particularly like the nazi snowman who looks far too jolly to be a fascist/nazi/rightwing nutjob/whatever.
Beethoven, Bismarck, Goethe, Gutenberg, JS Bach (to name but a few) must be absolutely spinning in their graves.
It’s all so absurd that it feels like satire. But sadly is the reality.
“Amazingly, it turns out that the snowman is neither a National Socialist nor right-wing extremist; he is merely waving”
---------------------
"… not waving but drowning." [Stevie Smith]
All rationality goes down, down down.
AfD members must remember to keep their arms clamped to their sides at all times. There is now no angle of the arm that cannot be interpreted as a Hitler salute.
I suggest they take lessons in Irish traditional dancing.
Just when I thought my estimation of the German police could not sink any lower after they were filmed during the Black Death 2.0 body slamming docile German senior citizens to the pavement and striking them in the skull with their clubs. It’s been reported, though, that in immigrant neighborhoods the German cops are famous for retreating without a whimper when surrounded by crowds of 15-year olds, after being spit on and called “sons of whores”. But now … that they did not draw their pistols and empty their ammunition magazines into that f****ing Nazi snowman … I ask you: Who remains then to protect us in times like these?
The task of the police is not to protect you from criminals, but to protect the ruling class from you.
Always was, too.
Had to "unlike" this. Sensed something was wrong the instant I clicked on the heart icon. Remembered something. Had I left the comment as “liked”, I would have dishonored the memory of my grandfather and grandmother, my father and uncles, and numerous family friends, all who were New York City police officers during a period stretching from the 1930s through the 1970s. One uncle was murdered in the line of duty, aged 30 something, leaving behind a wife and daughter who somehow never recovered from their loss. While I have no doubt that what you claim might be accurate from a broader theoretical/historical perspective, e.g. can we think of the guardians of the corrupt tyrants of old as the direct predecessors of todays law enforcement organizations everywhere in the world. I have never systematically researched the topic. I cannot and will not presume to say if your claim is valid or not, and lack the requisite knowledge for that. Some might say, well that's funny, Prodigal, because you just mocked the German police in a previous comment. I did, and the German police deserve to be mocked, at least for the behavior they have displayed in recent years, behavior that seems to only get worse. Each of the NYPD officers in our family displayed at times the highest bravery in the line of duty, even my grandmother :), and were formally commended for putting their lives at risk. They were most definitely not first and foremost concerned with ensuring the safety of the wealthy and powerful, who in any case all have private bodyguard teams. They were husbands and fathers doing a thankless job to provide for their families — and to protect the public. At all hours of the day and night they stopped and arrested rapists in parks and alleys in darkness, disarmed and subdued violent psychotics, were shot at by armed criminals, my father delivered the infant of a pregnant woman in the middle of an icy cold night in a terrible ghetto, in the back seat of his patrol car because time ran out to reach the hospital. Soon after arriving in Germany, I began to almost pity the German police. You might say, they are almost not even real police officers. As a native New Yorker, I could never really consider them as such. Seeing a police officer assigned to stand at a bike path and stop bicyclists whose bikes have no lights. This is not work worthy of any law enforcement officer. It is demeaning. This is something for parking meter attendants or the like. But all German police officers who patrol the streets — in the country’s worst neighborhoods late at night — will, however rarely, respond to situations that can endanger their lives. And having grown up in the City of New York, I can tell you they deserve our respect for that. You see, they are prevented from being real cops, their hands are tied by the same simpleton politicians and virtue-signaling liberals we have discussed in this Eugyppius piece. So maybe no wonder that they might vent their frustration on law-abiding Germans who are NOT protected like the country’s growing numbers of very dangerous criminals. Police officers are among the most despised groups in western societies. There are MANY bad cops, and seemingly more than ever before, as in all professions, sadly. But I can assure you, should you ever be so unfortunate to be attacked by a psychopath with a knife or machete, or dragged into the bushes at night by a gang of rapists … in that moment, you will never have loved anyone more than a police officer who succeeds in stopping the crime in progress.
We are very much of the same mind on the issue, really, but to clarify my statement (not that I think you need me to, far from it, but why waste the opportunity to spend words?)
Individual police may believe and act contrary to my statement, but the point and purpose of a police force has always been to protect the rulers and owners of the state from challengers and domestice threats.
That's not me being edgy or cynical, that is the actual origin and purpose of all police forces everwhere, anywhen.
Same as the purpose of a military is defending the rulers' territory against foreign rulers, and to attack foreign territories to plunder and/or conquer, by killing the inhabitants of that region.
We can dress it all up in various terms, but cut to the bone and that's what it is and always was and always must be.
How to ensure it is more for the good of the people as a whole, and without it being used to terrorise, dominate and oppress is the riddle.
As I said, I have not studied the history of the topic. You clearly have, though. I would be grateful if you would suggest some reading that sheds light on the history of organized law enforcement. But I mean police work specifically, unless you have traced the historical background stretching from modern day policing back to whatever its origins were in the distant past. To my mind, though, "always was" and even the audacious "always must be" ... well, like the old saying goes "never say never". Finally, I generally take prophecies ("always must be") with a grain of salt.
The history of law enforcement is a thorny topic, but from memory I'd say that most historians would start with Rome during Octavian's reign, where a special legion was set up for the explicit purpose to keep the peace in the city. I'm summarising as all-get out here, by the way.
Can't point at any specific book, I'm afraid - I've studied the history of ideas and the ideas of history, so my statement is based on any book touching upon how policing was done in a specific time/place. I'll sum up and use (abuse?) how it went here - and note I'm summing up 500 years of development and change so it's the proverbial molehill from a mountain.
Easiest example for me is Sweden, obviously. Before the 17th century, there was virtually no difference between soldiery and police. Again, summarising as heck. It was simply a standing force of armed men employed by the crown, tasked with keeping order in accordance with the crown's laws. It was much the same all over the world, but the names and laws varied with culture.
You see where I got the idea of my initial statement from.
During the late 17th and very much so during the 18th, police work as we would recognise it was made separate from soldier's work, mainly due to urbanisation and the development of a burgher-class as the influential group, both economics- and ideas-wise, while old nobility and farmers started to lose power and influence, a process which affected the laws of the land:
Burghers, same as in Britain and later USA-to-be, were very much concerned with property rights, and from there the schools of thought about rights the way we talk about them developed - and if you have rights above the ruler's will, the law and its enforcers must be beyond the direct command of the ruler.
So police and courts started to become more and more independent, compared to earlier. In Sweden, this process of law enforcement being more and more independent of politics (excepting enforcing the laws made in a legal manner by parliament of course) started to reverse in the 1950s when the police was made into a unified national police force with a top-down hierarchy where the chief was appointed by the governement, instead of being promoted from within the senior ranks.
Today, the police is again fully politicised - their special operations command re: organised crime was recently reprimanded by their oversight-committee, consisting of retired party-politicians, for using the word "zigenare" (gypsy) in a report on crime against the elderly (where gypsy clans commit more than 5/6 of such crimes, despite them being fewer than 0.1% of the population). But it was one of the sources that had used the word when reporting - not the actual police. They only repeated what the source had stated.
But since the word "zigenare" is banned by political decree, the police must now change what the source said so that the statement fits political dogma as dictated by the regime.
I'm sure you see why I stand by my initial statement regarding what the cut-to-the-function of police actually is (but not what it should be!). And in Sweden, the motto of the police force is "Att upprätthålla lag och ordning": "To maintain law and order". Nothing about serving the public trust, maintaining peace, or protecting the innocent. Just maintaining the status quo.
Edit: I won't be displeased if it turns out I'm wrong in the long run, and we get police that actually acts the way they should - in fact, when it comes to most of my statements about politics, I'm mostly pleased if it turns out I'm wrong. Call it "the cynical pessimist's optimism" if you will.
Would you like to live someplace where law and order is not maintained? No experienced police officer in his right mind -- who has faced the worst kind of crime every day, year in and year out, in places where there is horrible crime in abundance -- is going to trust the public. If he or she did, they would be unfit for duty. I was shocked a couple of years ago when I started reading about Swedish police stations being attacked with hand grenades! Say what? Sweden? So if the police are interested only in maintaining the status quo ... maybe they better invest in more body armor ... or ... I don't know ... helicopter gunships. But I am glad we had this exchange, because I really think it points to how our perceptions can be so varied, I mean everyone, not just you and I ... and people can forget how different cultures can really be under the surface. I'm no world traveler, by any means ... so maybe I underestimate (still after 20 plus years abroad !!) how cultures that seem similar on the surface can really be PROFOUNDLY different.
Fun facts: The last time I checked, the Police Department of the City of New York was a force of more than 30,000 police officers. I doubt that anyone who has lived all their lives in western Europe could begin to fathom the heroism NYPD officers have routinely displayed down through the years. A very large number of them have lost their lives in the line of duty. New York is not Amsterdam or Barcelona or Copenhagen ... but all of those cities are on their way to becoming the mean streets of New York if they do not WAKE UP.
Total number of employees in the swedish police force: 34 000, of which 21 000 are actual police officers.
The "checking bicycles" is a thing all over EUrope: it's done to be able to show the political commissars and politruks good metrics, nothing more.
What do all those Swedish cops do? Are the moose that out of control?
Sweden: 450,295 square kilometers / population 10.5 million / low population density of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometer / 87% of Swedes residing in urban areas, which cover 1.5% of the entire land area
New York City: 778 square kilometers / population 8,335,897 / 11,313 inhabitants per square kilometer / the most densely populated major city in the United States
The usual stuff, here in the countryside. 90% of the force is stationed in or around the major cities though, fighting a losing rear-guard battle against migrant crime-clans and trying to do so while performing their duties in a politically correct manner.
You know the assault made by migrants against two NYPD officers recently, where the culprits were released without bail or anything?
That's about the state of things here, except for real swedes. If a white man steps out of line, the gloves come off. Swedish police are becoming despised, even hated, by more and more swedes for their kowtowing to morally bankrupt woke female politicians, politruks, and courts.
Bedtime for me now, signing off.
I was born in and lived in NYC most of my life and there was never a time we didn't have major police corruption scandals. There was never a time in my adult life I didn't know how regularly the police perjure themselves even in traffic court.
Of course individual police officers have often been heroes. But the police union has ensured that it's almost impossible to weed out the bad so the good are not tarred by them.
Name any kind of government organization or public authority, particularly in the City of New York, that has never had major scandals? Or are those scandals of less importance because not involving police officers? Corrupt judges and lawmakers do infinitely greater damage to society than any police department could. Police officers perjure themselves more than people from other professions? Name a labor union that does not do what it can to ensure its members are not judged by standards higher than that of the public at large?
To channel Forrest Gump:
Police are like a box of mushrooms.
Once you've been made to eat them, it doesn't matter how many in the box WEREN'T poisonous.
Precisely this. And people just don't pay attention.
Please, tell ma that Ministry of Deindustrialisation is not its real name.
it is really the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. so, almost the same thing.
In the UK we have DEFRA, officially the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. However, it's reckoned that DEFRA actually stands for the Department for the Elimination of Farming and Rural Activities.
lol
Exactly like the N.I.C.E. (National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments, from "That Hideous Strength")!!! Fiction becomes reality...
I see your N.I.C.E. and raise:
"The Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection" is their english name.
Their real name, in swedish, shortens to SIN.
Now, "SIN" in swedish doesn't mean what it does in english (that would be "synd"), instead it means when a cow runs dry.
So, lots of moo and no milk, metaphorically speaking.
Wow. When they tell everyone what they're doing, and no one listens...
If the party that tends to telegraph its intents has a near-perfect track record of such actions being what might be termed a frontal assault against Intractable Reality, then perhaps the default reaction of the comparatively sane would be to simply ignore them, and perhaps try to stay out of their way?
A further pun (English but word from Greek meaning "meeting together") is "synod". Ironically, the word seems to be used exclusively for churches.
Get your tinfoil out for this:
Sy in swedish is sew. Syn is sight/vision. Od is one of the (many) names of Oden, the king of gods. Nod is node.
(Dramatic music intensifies)
As a riddle, "synod" in greek could be recombobulated into "Oden's got his eye on you, and the Norns might be getting ready to cut your thread from the weave".
Synchronicity!
(I need to get out in the fresh air and Sun, it's been -20 to -30 here for the last few days, until today.)
Oh my god. It is the same thing!
The dawn of the Habeckian school of economics
In the spring they should put up a few inflatable frogs outside the offices.
It's going to be a bad year for leftists.
At 6pm EST the ground will shake as leftists heads explode. The survivors will be gone on the 2nd shockwave on Nov2