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[oikophobia]

#41

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by HVC - December 12, 2025, 01:59:55 PM

European leaders are weak willed, like most of their populations. Combined with an atmosphere of oikophobia and subsequent lack of belief in the superiority of our cultures and societies...
Why would they bother defending? They've been beaten already.

Is that what is causing the housing crisis?  People are scared of houses?

Afraid/ashamed of the self, the indigenous, the own culture and civilisational achievements.
which you very well know.

I have never seen that term before today.  I just knew the Greek root Oikos, house.

It's also a Brand of subpar yogurt. So my first thought was fear of yogurt

#42

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Jacob - December 12, 2025, 01:59:41 PM

In conclusion part 2: I don't think we'll find out how China would deal with such losses, because China won't fight in a way where such losses will be incurred. They're not going to meat-wave Taiwan if they attack.

If they're defending the mainland, they might resort to meat-waves. But if there's fighting in the territory of a nuclear armed super power... yeah I dunno...

#43

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Admiral Yi - December 12, 2025, 01:58:58 PM

I think this is an example, which I've mentioned to Raz before, of a lot of "identity politics" not being driven by the left but by the centre left.

Please elaborate.

#44

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by crazy canuck - December 12, 2025, 01:56:58 PM

I think Europeans are pretty confident in their cultures and who they are.

Yeah, when I read Ivan's post I thought back to a wonderful afternoon I spent in a village in Sardinia listening to a fellow explain how much better life is there. A fond memory

#45

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Jacob - December 12, 2025, 01:52:05 PM

My feelings on China's endurance in a conflict are:

• It's totally unproven in recent history. Chinese society has changed a bunch since it was last in a fight, so trying to predict how China will react is fraught guesswork at best.
• Chinese people get pretty feisty when they're worked up. So if the Chinese population feels threatened (i.e. if the mainland gets hit), then I think they won't have a shortage of manpower willing to fight. Obviously any conflict will lean into that narrative, but when/ how will it wear thin?
• On the flipside, if the Chinese people feel the fighting is adventurism they may be unhappy to sacrifice their one child (one grandchild to four grandparents) and let their dissatisfaction be known.
• Will Chinese measures of social control be enough to contain unrest from people who don't want to fight or don't want their grandkids to die? Perhaps, though it'll also increase the risk of internal CCP challenges.
• Getting involved in a real war - especially if it is close to home - could also very well alter the balance of power between the military and the civilian government in a way the CCP would not like.
• Would a fight over Taiwan be seen as critical self-defense or adventurism? I think that could go either way, depending on how the war develops.
• With all that - I don't think China wants to or expects fighting using Russian meat-wave tactics. They're probably more likely to want to fight a technological and manufacturing war, and they're pretty well positioned for that, I think.
• ...it might even be a good way (economically) to put all that excess capacity to use. Maybe that's the way out of the middle income trap? Get involved in a big war to replace an insufficiently developed domestic consumer market?

In conclusion: I think how China does will depend significantly on why and how it enters the war. I expect a hypothetical conflict will be determined by a technological / manufacturing competition and we haven't had a peer or near-peer war for quite a while.

That said, I also thought Russia invading Ukraine was obviously foolish and a great risk to Putin's hold on power. I still think so, but obviously Putin thought differently.

#46

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - December 12, 2025, 01:46:50 PM

In fairness I wouldn't describe her as centre-right, she's solidly soft left and as I say in other ways quite an interesting MP. It's partly why I'm disappointed. But also just such a pathetic argument.

Few things that caught my eye recently.

I saw that the old Talking Politics team got together to talk British and European politics again so obviously I listened (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-uk-became-ungovernable/id1802535276?i=1000740284861). It's worth a listen - I like David Runciman and Helen Thompson a lot. But I was taken aback at just how coruscating they are of Starmer and Reeves - it makes me feel like my view has perhaps been too generous to them. Particularly struck that in my query of whether Starmer is very naive or just a very cynical liar, they clearly think the latter - also the description Runciman has of Starmer personally (presumably from senior people) is brutal.

Also saw some stuff on Reform - someone leaked their training for candidates in London for the council elections. What was really striking was that an awful lot of it would basically be not a million miles from the Lib Dem strategy for local elections. It's another sign of them professionalising/actually trying to build a party. Although interesting story that their canvassing etc strategy is quite different/distinctive. Also leaking today is Labour's membership numbers which is done to beloe 250,000 - that makes Reform the biggest party in the country on over 260,000 (Greens on about 180,000, Tories on about 125,000 and Lib Dems on 85,000).

Separately from Ben Ansell who's a political scientist at Oxford a really fascinating (if difficult to read) chart:


Broadly it is breaking down each party's vote (with party colours) by education - this is then mapped onto cultural and economic questions like the classic political quadrant thing.

So what's interesting is that the educational divide on Britain's left is "vertical". It's cultural. Lower education groups are more socially conservative than their fellow voters with higher education. That's true for Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters - interestingly it's also true for the "don't knows".

By contrast the educational divide on the right is economic. There is some verticality/a slight slope. But the bigger divide is that lower education voters are more left-wing, while higher education voters are more right-wing.

I'm not fully sure what this means or might mean - but it's really interesting. The obvious thing is that it probably helps explain "how painful is it to talk about this issue". The right are happier talking about culture war stuff because they broadly agree on it; Labour's happy place is talking about the NHS and tax/spend because they broadly agree on it.

I also think it sort of goes to one of the reasons I think Badenoch is actually doing okay - and is a vastly better option for the Tories than Jenrick. Because there's not much variation with Reform voters (or Tory voters) on "cultural" issues - but there is on economics. It probably also makes sense for Labour to heighten Reform's economic tensions (although this would require Labour to work out what it's own message is... )

#47

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Duque de Bragança - December 12, 2025, 01:38:18 PM

Today I learned- an acre is around 1/2 a football pitch.
Now I can actually visualise acres.

That's cool. I have always pictured it as about 5 times the size of a suburban lot in the US. Half of a football...er...pitch is a little easier.

Do Brits still use acres? I figured you had moved to square meters...er...metres by this point.

Perhaps Josq uses the UEFA recommendations-complyhing football pitch .ie 68 x 105 m.  Free-kick distance line at 9.15 m and so on. 

#48

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Valmy - December 12, 2025, 01:17:31 PM

I think this is an example, which I've mentioned to Raz before, of a lot of "identity politics" not being driven by the left but by the centre left.

Yeah. This is an easy way to appear progressive even if you actually have center-right politics in other respects. And better it rarely requires you to actually pass any laws.

#49

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Grey Fox - December 12, 2025, 01:15:18 PM

Today I learned- an acre is around 1/2 a football pitch.
Now I can actually visualise acres.

That's cool. I have always pictured it as about 5 times the size of a suburban lot in the US. Half of a football...er...pitch is a little easier.

Do Brits still use acres? I figured you had moved to square meters...er...metres by this point.

That's 150 washing machines.

#50

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Crazy_Ivan80 - December 12, 2025, 01:11:44 PM

I'm curious though how modern China would deal with such losses.

might not register, it's not even a 1000th of their population

A strategy game view. If its your son you absolutely will notice it.
And China in some ways seems a better place and some ways a worse place for that kind of outrage than Russia.
Though I suppose they will probably follow the same pattern of killing off minorities rather than people from the major cities.

on an individual level it'll be noticed. But it's the CCP that's leading: they don't have many qualms about putting that amount of people into camps. Their de facto track record regarding human life isn't the best.