Europe Is Under Siege
noahpinion.blog> Europe is also going to have to change its political mindset. Lavish pensions and other elements of Europe’s social model are going to have to be temporarily curbed to help give Europe the fiscal space and physical resources to fight off its enemies. All nuclear plants need to be restarted, and Europe should build more nuclear, ignoring “green” parties and environmental activists who irrationally hate nuclear power. Europe needs to reform its land-use regulation to require greater construction of solar and wind power. And Europe is going to have to back off of its aggressive regulation of AI software, in order to produce cutting-edge autonomous weaponry.
Is there a Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) movement? This guy would make a great spokesperson for them.
"And Europe is going to have to back off of its aggressive regulation of AI software, in order to produce cutting-edge autonomous weaponry." Ever heard of Helsing https://helsing.ai/ or Quantum Systems https://quantum-systems.com/? Just two examples. There are more.
> Ever heard of Helsing
No. And that's part of the problem.
Why is that a problem? They're doing just fine without you having heard of them.The ones who need to know seem to know. Just adding www.euclid.ai and www.dunia.ai as two more examples apparently not affected by "aggressive EU ai regulation".
And clearly the author hasn't read the AI act, where there are explicit carve-outs for security and defence applications (as there are in basically every EU law).
Europe can't moralise itself into security and prosperity.
The European 'peace dividend' that was invested into social safety nets is backed by American might. That might is going away, so Europe will need to fund it's own defence. That means a cut to social services.
Neither can they afford to turn their noses up at nuclear energy, or AI enabled weapons. The future is coming and it has high energy demands and drone swarms.
> The European 'peace dividend' that was invested into social safety nets is backed by American might
Do you have any evidence for where the peace dividend went? Like, if you look at entitlements over the past 30 or so years, you can see that they've gotten worse in a bunch of European countries (UK, Germany probably not France).
It looks a lot more like the peace dividend went into caring for old people, as it will in basically all Western countries over the next while. Not sure there's a better solution, apart from letting old people die.
> Europe is also going to have to change its political mindset. Lavish pensions and other elements of Europe’s social model are going to have to be temporarily curbed to help give Europe the fiscal space and physical resources to fight off its enemies.
Never going to happen. Nobody has balls to oppose pensioners, because they are a massive voting block and effectively deciding elections. Europe is not a country for young people.
And the US is for young people? Europe is for citizens, the US is an exploitation engine for consumers.
https://www.ted.com/talks/scott_galloway_how_the_us_is_destr...
(Doesn’t touch on unaffordable housing prices, social security benefits being cut 20% in a decade when the “trust fund” is exhausted, lack of opportunity and living wages, etc in the US)
This guy is so overrated. His essays read like those of a well read stoner doing free association.
“Abandoned by America”? Every European I know walks around with a diatribe about the US wound up in their heads. Give them a little push on the topic and they’ll talk for hours.
I was also baffled how the author completely fails to realize, that the US didn't just abandon Europe, but is actively exploiting and working on undermining it.
Noah is living in USA, so maybe he thinks that Europe has some great love for USA.
Europe does have a great love for the US!
We love all things American.
Sure, we don't agree or understand the crazy things you do. But neither does the other half of Americans ;)
Many European countries joined various more less foolish American wars the past two decades.
Yes, many Europeans love to point out what's wrong with America. Because we think you could do so much better.
But most of us, speak the language, many fluently, and watch more American TV than native. And watching entertainment from other European countries is the exception, one we rarely make.
I follow politics in my country, and the US, I barely know how French or German governments work.
I am extremely conflicted about how to respond to the current US administration. I would like us to fight back, but I can't help but hope we outlive the current administration and things can go back to normal.
If we are to talk back, I'm tempted to suggest drop conventional forces and just go for nukes. If we have nukes, the US can't refuse to help us if attacked :D
Also the US umbrella is gone, and I wouldn't trust any other umbrella -- not even a European one.
> Americans no longer feel threatened by Russia.
Until Russia threatens Americans with nuclear weapons, which the russian government does basically every week.
> All nuclear plants need to be restarted
And where do they get their uranium from? From Russia? That doesn’t make sense.
The article is a strange mix of reasonable goals for Europe and completely wrong statements.
> If they then defeat Poland, they will enslave the Poles and send them to fight against the next European target, and so on.
I think the author completely don't know history of Poland and haven't even spoken to any Poles.
I like to challenge myself to TL;DR these things:
* The Deluge: 17th century double invasion of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Sweden + Russia.
* America has lost faith in Europe. Cold war is over, administration doesn't value European trade.
* American right is racist and no longer cares about democracy.
* Russia plans to invade Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Moldova. Alleges that China is helping.
* Europe is facing another "deluge" because it's under attack on two fronts.
* Solutions: reindustrialize, remilitarize, cut pensions, befriend India.
Did I miss anything?
I’m sorry but Europe is its own menace. Maybe stop blaming others or relying on others and act like an adult.
You speak from a position of authority, of course. Not sure who in your view Europe is blaming. I guess, all was well as long as Europe bought US fighter jets. Now that they "grow up" and realize they may be better off with European ones ( Gripen) plus keeping a lid on US social media companies - that doesn't go done all too well. Besides, German company Rheinmetall is biggest supplier of ammunition to Ukraine. https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/media/stories/2023/rheinmetal.... So much so that Moscow attempted to assassinate its CEO.https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-tried-assassinat... Pretty adult all that, no?