this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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That is what I wonder. Don't know about you guys, but I feel like a European patriot, even though this maybe does not make sense to some.

Being a true European patriot means to me: caring about all of the freedoms we have, our social democracies, is to value the open pluralist societies we developed since WW2, wanting to protect what the reactionaries want to take away from us, stop those who want to lock us all up, back in the small closed-minded nation-states we all come from, which will ultimately lick the boots of either US or China/Russia.

They are well organized, but what is the organization, the movement that fights against this ongoing attack on our shared values and mode of existence?

The post-WW2 Europe is an oasis of bliss in a world which is on fire, and we are all under attack. How can we fight against this destruction from the inside as well as from the outside ?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Push for more european countries to pass proportional representation to strengthen their state stability and democracy.

The countries that have some form of pr are coloured:

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 month ago (16 children)

Fix wealth inequality. Rich people accumulate so much money that there's hardly any left for average people. Rich people hoard assets like houses and increase their prices and the cost of living. As long as we don't fix this, things will get worse. As long as politicians don't fix this other parties will get more popular no matter what they offer.

Migrants are just scapegoats. They have no lobby, they are easy to blame. They are one piece in a bigger equation. They are used as a ruse to distract from bigger problems. If the housing market was functional it could handle the influx of Ukranian refugees and the way smaller number of refugees from countries like Afghanistan or regions like Africa.

If countries had funds from wealth and inheritance taxes they could fund a working administration, faster justice systems, working infrastructure and so on. It would be absolutely beautiful and I cannot say why there isn't a bigger movement for that solution.

It's not about taxing 100.000€ in stock, or you inheriting your mum's cottage, but about taxing people who have been living off intergenerational wealth for decades without ever working at all.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But we could also try fascism again. Maybe it works this time.

/s

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (12 children)

Communication is key, we can take lessons from USA. Their left wing tries to dehumanise their right wing. This backfired tremendously.

So, what we should do would be simply communicate with eachother.

The part that differentiate social democracy from Marxist Leninists is that we do not try to silence people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I agree, especially in the sense that the other is also part of our society. I think it also helps to remind people in the end we are all sharing the political system that is our democracy.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (7 children)

100% unconditional intolerance for fascists. You can’t give them a millimeter or they’ll take the entire country.

I suggest watching Thought Slime’s recent video if you wish to know how to effectively counteract fascists.

The gist is that you shouldn’t try to argue with them, they don’t care about reality. Don’t let them look reasonable by arguing as if they were, insist on pointing out they’re being assholes (which they are) and that anything they suggest is so obviously wrong it doesn’t even need to be explained why it’s wrong (which is true).

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's important to recognize an individual can not move a mountain, so it's important not to get discouraged because you do not see tangible progress nationally. All politics is a grinding trench fight to wait for an opportunity to enact laws.

With that said, the very minimum thing any citizen should do is vote. Vote in local election, vote in federal election, vote in EU election.

Next is attend your local party meeting of your preference. Just showing up and listening shows that there is interest to the politicians. You have opportunity to meet like minded people which is important for networking.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well, I think the first step is to talk about lobbyism, and who owns the media. Maybe even try to talk about how to see the world in decades not years. 🤔 but it's hard...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

That's such a middling long game, though... My personal fear is that any potential long game just gives them the space to solidify their grip on the population, I think everyone needs to do/see something pretty much soon-ish to make them want to believe in the rational alternative.

We're entering tumultuous times in terms of emotional load, everyone is nearing desperation at an alarming rate. That's a dangerous playground to reach.

Edit: not that I have the faintest about what could be done, I've been wracking my brain with this question for a while.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The far right have been long-gaming the entire time. That is why they were able to act strategically and shift the discourse and ideas towards them step by step.

So yes we need to do something now, but it needs to break out of the short term thinking of "just this election", which also makes many supposedly progressive parties move hard to the right, idiotically believing they would win by copying the far-rights positions. Instead what we see is a further rise of it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Exactly, we need to act with the future in mind, we gotta reinforce the barricades, as it were. At the very least, and at most for the time being. And we really gotta agree upon a system. Like, any humane and empathy-driven system, it doesn't all have to be perfect in the first try. It has to be at least functional enough to buy ourselves more time for the detailing.

And we'll also have to keep in mind to pull double-duty on handling the almost literal dumpster fire heading our way, although a saner climate may be aligned with a generally sane direction from the start.

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