US needs to take lessons from Europe regarding drastically lowering homicide rate

[Vanderdonck]

Half of Europe was ruled by the Soviets for 50 years after ww2. Interventionism is a failed ideology. Expansion of war just leads to more death and destruction. See both world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, the cold war. Goes against the founding principles of the US but that ship has sailed. Free and open trade are the best ways toward peace, not more warfare.

 

[AmsterdamAssassin]

The allied powers required Germany pay reparations for WWI, which is the reason Germany was so deep in debt. Germany responded to that with hyperinflation to pay its debts, which was well before the U.S. stock market crash. I thought history places the blame on reparations, more than on any one of the allies (one of which was the U.S.).

Oh, I'm not blaming the US, but the interbellum years leading up to Hitler's rise to power were influenced by many international events. Among those events was the Crash which send shockwaves through economies worldwide and Germany was already on the brink of a bankrupt economy, so the shockwave hit hard in their fragile economy.

I'm not saying it was a crucial event like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip that kickstarted The Great War (WW1), because Hitler's rise to power was well on its way, but it played the Nazis right in the cards to accelerate the growing resentment against the German government.

In Europe, far right populists are attracting more voters, with immigration a top concern. From what I can tell, too few are learning the local language, which dramatically lowers their job prospects. In France, 10% of immigrants are unemployed compared to 4% in the U.S. While Le Pen was rejected by voters in France, Italy went with a far-right prime minister. I don't see the problem as unique to the U.S.

And in the Netherlands, Wilders, leader of the populist PVV party, won the election but nobody wanted him to be prime minister, so he had to agree to appoint Schoof to the post of prime minister.

 

[BaronOfHair]

And in the Netherlands, Wilders, leader of the populist PVV party, won the election but nobody wanted him to be prime minister, so he had to agree to appoint Schoof to the post of prime minister.

That is a tragedy. Wilders missed his chance to save Holland from Islamization, at the menacing hands of that 6% of The Dutch population who identify as Muslim

This is more nightmarish than learning that The Feminists stopped The Men's Rights Movement dead in it's tracks, by breaking into the homes of every card-carrying MRA on Earth, then wiring each entrance and exit of said homes with claymore mines. Otherwise the born malcontents who make up AVFM, and the failed artists over at HBR wouldn't have been forced to confine themselves to sh-tposting on social media then confusing that for activism

Rather than getting out from behind their keyboards, knocking on doors out in reality, and serving as effective salesmen for policy changes like ending The Drug War and increasing access to vocational training

 

[Bible_Belt]

America World Police looks a lot like someone who messes up someone else's kitchen to make their meal and then expects the kitchen owner to thank them for helping them clean up the mess afterward.

If you like buying cheap crap from China, then someone has to police the seas so it can get to you. The only country who can do that is the US. Global trade only exists because of the US Navy. Modern products like iPhones contain components and raw materials from something like 40-50 different countries. We're all hooked on consumerism. That's what the world police are really protecting.

 

[zekko]

However, Switzerland has among the highest gun ownership rates per capita n the world and they have none of the issues that the US has with killings and fun violence. Why? Because it's a source of national pride for them and children and raised very early on to respect them and are trained on the proper use of guns.

Unfortunately, the US has too much of toxic divide politically to get them to agree on a source of national pride and how to view guns.`
I'm also afraid that the culture is too splintered to hold such a unified view.

 

[BaronOfHair]

Unfortunately, the US has too much of toxic divide politically to get them to agree on a source of national pride and how to view guns

Yeah, those of us who maintain that school shootings are overall a net benefit for society (The planet is being cleansed of both future Gender Studies grads AND True Believers in Red Pill Theolgy)are rarely given any airtime, when the subject of gun control is broached

 

[zekko]

Yeah, those of us who maintain that school shootings are overall a net benefit for society (The planet is being cleansed of both future Gender Studies grads AND True Believers in Red Pill Theolgy)are rarely given any airtime, when the subject of gun control is broached

You're ignoring the point of the OP.

 

[BaronOfHair]

You're ignoring the point of the OP.

"Think of the children who'll be pulverized into chitterlings, unless we get assault rifles out of civilian hands!!!" is the go-to argument of every Daily Show watching gun control nut in America

Such an argument rests upon the uninterrogated assumption that every child's life is worth preserving, even when they're exhibiting more red flags than an Alonzo J White convention https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_flag_(American_slavery)

 

[BackInTheGame78]

"Think of the children who'll be pulverized into chitterlings, unless we get assault rifles out of civilian hands!!!" is the go-to argument of every Daily Show watching gun control nut in America

Such an argument rests upon the uninterrogated assumption that every child's life is worth preserving, even when they're exhibiting more red flags than an Alonzo J White convention https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_flag_(American_slavery)

So the option is to let kids get killed?

WTF kind of idiotic idea is this? You are a special kind of Piece of Sh!t.

 

[Scaramouche]

Hi Baron of hair,
" You are a special kind of Piece of Sh!t."...And here's me thinking charm died with Charles Boyer LOL.

 

[FlirtLife]

Oh, I'm not blaming the US, but the interbellum years leading up to Hitler's rise to power were influenced by many international events. Among those events was the Crash which send shockwaves through economies worldwide and Germany was already on the brink of a bankrupt economy, so the shockwave hit hard in their fragile economy.

I'm not saying it was a crucial event like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip that kickstarted The Great War (WW1), because Hitler's rise to power was well on its way, but it played the Nazis right in the cards to accelerate the growing resentment against the German government.

And in the Netherlands, Wilders, leader of the populist PVV party, won the election but nobody wanted him to be prime minister, so he had to agree to appoint Schoof to the post of prime minister.

If we're drawing parallels to the present, is worth mentioning 20% tariffs created by the Smoot-Harley act. I guess war-torn countries had cheap labor, which hurt U.S. industries. To protect jobs, Congress charged 20% more on imported goods - and then other countries imposed their own tariffs in turn. Those tariffs (which slowed growth) were a factor in the stock market crash.

One candidate has proposed 10% tariffs across the board... half the tariffs that crashed the U.S. stock market a hundred years ago. And in the world's largest trade relationship, U.S. and China, those tariffs would be 60-100%. Seems close to what caused a crash before.

I believe Wilders has also visited Sweden, trying to stir up Muslim anger by burning a Koran there. In Sweden, opposing parties will form temporary coalitions to pass a budget, in order to avoid far-right parties being part of government.

 

[FlirtLife]

That is a tragedy. Wilders missed his chance to save Holland from Islamization, at the menacing hands of that 6% of The Dutch population who identify as Muslim

This is more nightmarish than learning that The Feminists stopped The Men's Rights Movement dead in it's tracks, by breaking into the homes of every card-carrying MRA on Earth, then wiring each entrance and exit of said homes with claymore mines. Otherwise the born malcontents who make up AVFM, and the failed artists over at HBR wouldn't have been forced to confine themselves to sh-tposting on social media then confusing that for activism

Rather than getting out from behind their keyboards, knocking on doors out in reality, and serving as effective salesmen for policy changes like ending The Drug War and increasing access to vocational training

Yeah, those of us who maintain that school shootings are overall a net benefit for society (The planet is being cleansed of both future Gender Studies grads AND True Believers in Red Pill Theolgy)are rarely given any airtime, when the subject of gun control is broached

Your anti-trolling medication ran out.

 

[FlirtLife]

Half of Europe was ruled by the Soviets for 50 years after ww2. Interventionism is a failed ideology. Expansion of war just leads to more death and destruction. See both world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, the cold war. Goes against the founding principles of the US but that ship has sailed. Free and open trade are the best ways toward peace, not more warfare.

Are you claiming without U.S. intervention, WWI and WWII would have far less death and destruction? Remind me again how the U.S. started WWII, caused the holocaust, and caused the slaughter of civilians by the Japanese army?

Trade neither stopped WWI, nor stopped Russia from invading Ukraine. In contrast, interventionism is at the heart of NATO, where attacking one member become a war with all members. If you think trade worked and NATO didn't, why did Russia invade Ukraine instead of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania?

 

[BaronOfHair]

So the option is to let kids get killed?

We've been indulging in Polarized Thinking https://acognitiveconnection.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-polarized-thinking/#:~:text=What is Polarized Thinking?,nuances of situations or issues on this subject, ever since Columbine.... Rarely, if ever, does anyone discuss the blessings such mishaps bestow upon our society

Unpleasant as the aftermath of your typical shooting may be to look at, let's not ignore that we've also likely been relieved of future teen moms, dope fiends, and successors to Lindy West and Carl Benjamin alike


"You are a special kind of Piece of Sh!t"

One stuffed with plenty of corn and peanuts alike, to be sure

 

[BaronOfHair]

And here's me thinking charm died with Charles Boyer LOL.

That died when Mike C. Boyer won his game of Russian Roulette https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Boyer

 

[BaronOfHair]

Your anti-trolling medication ran out.

The absurdity of certain things (Such as persisting in this fruitless crusade to restrict gun ownership even further)can only be illuminated via comedy and satire

 

[AmsterdamAssassin]

If you like buying cheap crap from China, then someone has to police the seas so it can get to you. The only country who can do that is the US. Global trade only exists because of the US Navy. Modern products like iPhones contain components and raw materials from something like 40-50 different countries. We're all hooked on consumerism. That's what the world police are really protecting.

That's the thing. America World Police is not interested in keeping world peace, but in protecting greedy capitalists. Nobody wanted to buy cheap Chinese crap. The biggest purveyor of cheap Chinese crap is the US, where the 'open market' was thoroughly exploited by Japanese and Chinese producers of crap. Who used unfair advantages and longterm goals flooding the US market with their inferior but cheaper products to destroy American companies.
This happened to a lesser degree in Europe, where the market wasn't as wide open and countries protected their producers by not allowing the Japanese and Chinese flooding their market with inferior crap made in sweatshops by cheap labour.
If you look at the American economy of the late fifties / early sixties, you can see how China and Japan flooding the American market with underprices televisions forced American companies like Zenith to fold their television business under the thoroughly unfair competition while similar Dutch companies like Philips didn't go bankrupt.
And, of course, the greedy American producers moved their factories abroad and had their products made in the same cheap labour sweatshops China used, so the sole selling point (American quality) was lost.

The way we all got 'hooked on consumer products' can also be put at the feet of the greedy American producers of consumer goods. Compare for instance the build quality of consumer electronics in the 1950s with the current crap that falls apart after a few years. Everything has a built-in expiration date that gets shorter and shorter and the mountain of discarded crappy consumer goods gets higher and higher until we choke on our own garbage.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

That's the thing. America World Police is not interested in keeping world peace, but in protecting greedy capitalists. Nobody wanted to buy cheap Chinese crap. The biggest purveyor of cheap Chinese crap is the US, where the 'open market' was thoroughly exploited by Japanese and Chinese producers of crap. Who used unfair advantages and longterm goals flooding the US market with their inferior but cheaper products to destroy American companies.
This happened to a lesser degree in Europe, where the market wasn't as wide open and countries protected their producers by not allowing the Japanese and Chinese flooding their market with inferior crap made in sweatshops by cheap labour.
If you look at the American economy of the late fifties / early sixties, you can see how China and Japan flooding the American market with underprices televisions forced American companies like Zenith to fold their television business under the thoroughly unfair competition while similar Dutch companies like Philips didn't go bankrupt.
And, of course, the greedy American producers moved their factories abroad and had their products made in the same cheap labour sweatshops China used, so the sole selling point (American quality) was lost.

The way we all got 'hooked on consumer products' can also be put at the feet of the greedy American producers of consumer goods. Compare for instance the build quality of consumer electronics in the 1950s with the current crap that falls apart after a few years. Everything has a built-in expiration date that gets shorter and shorter and the mountain of discarded crappy consumer goods gets higher and higher until we choke on our own garbage.

And the reason you also aren't still operating concentration camps at Westerbrok, Vught and Amersfoort with the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" slogans atop them and under the Third Reich is also because of the US.

So while you are trashing us, at least do so with a modicum of respect.

You can hate us all you want, but the reason you can even say that today is because of us.

 

[AmsterdamAssassin]

And the reason you also aren't still operating concentration camps at Westerbrok, Vught and Amersfoort with the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" slogans atop them and under the Third Reich is also because of the US.

Apart from quoting my post about POST WW2 AMERICA, with your 'history buff' knowledge, you still fail to see the real reason why America got involved in WW2, and it had NOTHING to do 'saving Europe'. If America had had ANY interest in saving Europe, they would've gotten involved in 1940 at the latest. No, they saw countries being oppressed and millions of people being slaughtered from their comfy chairs. By the time they got involved, the German war machine was pretty much destroyed by the Allied forces and the USSR. Then the Japanese were stupid enough to attack Pearl Harbour and now America got involved. Not to save Europe, but they could see how the Allied forces and the Russians were about to win and they would divide Europe. America then joined the Allied war efforts to make sure they would have their seat in Jakarta to divide the European Pie.

So while you are trashing us, at least do so with a modicum of respect.
You can hate us all you want, but the reason you can even say that today is because of us.

Post-WW2 'team America world police' is not only unable to actually police the world, they are only protecting American interests and resources (like oil) under the pretence that the whole world profits from their 'sacrifices'. Should I respect your ill informed opinion and soften the blow? Yes, you read a lot of books, but you fail to interpret what you're reading. And you keep harping back to the first and only time that America won a war. Which was already mostly over when they came involved.

Your rhetoric "without the US Europe would still be under the yoke of the Nazis' is extremely ignorant, but contagious to American minds because it would be hard to swallow that America twiddled its thumbs for four years and allows four million people to die before they came in like vultures to not miss their chance at the carcass of a war-torn Europe.

Back to your regular programming.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Apart from quoting my post about POST WW2 AMERICA, with your 'history buff' knowledge, you still fail to see the real reason why America got involved in WW2, and it had NOTHING to do 'saving Europe'. If America had had ANY interest in saving Europe, they would've gotten involved in 1940 at the latest. No, they saw countries being oppressed and millions of people being slaughtered from their comfy chairs. By the time they got involved, the German war machine was pretty much destroyed by the Allied forces and the USSR. Then the Japanese were stupid enough to attack Pearl Harbour and now America got involved. Not to save Europe, but they could see how the Allied forces and the Russians were about to win and they would divide Europe. America then joined the Allied war efforts to make sure they would have their seat in Jakarta to divide the European Pie.



Post-WW2 'team America world police' is not only unable to actually police the world, they are only protecting American interests and resources (like oil) under the pretence that the whole world profits from their 'sacrifices'. Should I respect your ill informed opinion and soften the blow? Yes, you read a lot of books, but you fail to interpret what you're reading. And you keep harping back to the first and only time that America won a war. Which was already mostly over when they came involved.

Your rhetoric "without the US Europe would still be under the yoke of the Nazis' is extremely ignorant, but contagious to American minds because it would be hard to swallow that America twiddled its thumbs for four years and allows four million people to die before they came in like vultures to not miss their chance at the carcass of a war-torn Europe.

Back to your regular programming.

Or perhaps the US thought you could handle it yourselves. I mean you demilitarized them, took key territories crucial for iron and coal production that lessened their capabilities by almost half, forced them to pay outrageous reparations sending them into economic ruin, then did nothing when you saw them building up their armies for years and years and then acted surprised when they attacked again. Did you really think they were doing it for show?


You caused it on your own by the harshness with which you treated them after the first WW, making the population hell bent on revenge, then your continued turning of the blind eye as they violated the terms of the treaty for at least half a decade. In some ways, you got what you asked for.

Big mistake as it turned out.

Stop blaming the US for problems you created, violations you ignored and own your failures over many years leading up to that point, which at ANY point you could have stepped in and held them to the terms of the treaty, which would have demilitarized them again and prevented what happened.

Essentially you are no different than the women who play the victim instead of taking responsibility and owning their own sh!t that caused many of the issues.

You expect the US to spoon-feed you everything while you sit around crying like a newborn baby asking for a bottle and only crapping your diapers as repayment then expecting us to wipe your ass.