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Re:Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun by joe_mamba on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @03:03PM (#46966001)
> So far, the European citizens are very privacy senstive.

Only from corporations, but not from their own governments. A lot of Europeans put a lot of blind faith into their governments and the EU, and criticism of these institutions is usually met with accusations of being a bot, MAGA or russian troll.

>The European institutions are characterized by a huge devision of power.

Didn't really stop them passing whatever rules they wanted during Covid, did it? Sure is convenient that we keep having more and more crisis and boogiemen that governments can leverage to deflect accountability and bypass the wishes of the population, for our own good of course.

>There is no chance that European instutitions can impose their will against a considerable majority of people.

Famous last words. People always can be, and routinely are, manipulated to vote against their own best interests, even if everyone claims manipulation doesn't work on them. The propaganda industry is HUGE.

A individual person can be smart, but people together as a collective voting block, are stupid, and the elites treat us like cattle, as seen in the recent files.

Re:Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun by roenxi on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @04:32PM (#46967207)
> Sure is convenient that we keep having more and more crisis and boogiemen that governments can leverage...

The problem with this phrasing is it makes it sound hyperbolic, but it is important to remember the world is large and there are always, in a literal and normal sense, multiple major crises going on at any moment.

People who don't pay much attention to politics sometimes get confused about why crises elevated by the corporate media get ignored. A big answer is becuase they are elevated for political reasons, usually the crisis is fairly routine in absolute terms.

Re:Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun by joe_mamba on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @04:36PM (#46967249)
>there are always, in a literal and normal sense, multiple major crises going on at any moment

True, but my point I wanted to draw attention to, is HOW these crisis are handled now, not that there's many of them.

Every crisis now seems to be exclusively used as a vehicle to justify taking away just a little bit more of your freedom and anonymity, or implement more fiscal policies that will leave you footing the bill but just so happens it will be enriching the wealthy as a side effect.

Because such policies shoved out the door in times of crisis, don't pass through the lengthy public debates and scrutiny regular policies have to go through, so it's the perfect opportunity to sneak and fast-track some nefarious stuff in.

I'm not that old yet, but I don't feel like this backdoor was misused to this extent in the past, like pre-2008 I mean (except 9/11 of course). It definitely feels like politicians have gooten of taste and are abusing this exploit now more with every little opportunity.

Re:Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun by hilios on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @01:04AM (#46971443)
>Didn't really stop them passing whatever rules they wanted during Covid, did it?

>Or today with Russia and Ukraine situation. Sure is convenient that we keep having more and more crisis and boogiemen that governments can leverage to deflect accountability and bypass the wishes of the population, for our own good of course.

>Why do you think Germans supported to tie themselves to Russia's gas and destroy their nuclear power.

You see you might get called a bot, Russian troll, or MAGA a whole lot less, if you didn't pull out ALL the topics those groups are playing at once. There is plenty to criticize about the EU institutions, but man that is a very odd focus.

Re:Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun by joe_mamba on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @03:40AM (#46972433)
>but man that is a very odd focus.

Germany ties itself to Russian gas, and the people who point that out get called Russian trolls. Great argument bro.

Re:Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun by close04 on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @09:16AM (#46975200)
Two things can be true. While the user you're replying to has a weirdly focused agenda and insistence, some of the points raised are definitely valid.

I do not agree with the overall conclusion that "EU bad". But there are some pretty bad things going on, and the trend is definitely concerning. If you wait until you're on fire, you waited for too long.