45 points ·
You could say smoking is one of the most human activities ever. Does nothing but actively harm and potentially kill everything around you. Just what we're the best at.
But seriously now. Can we speed up smoking bans? Like, everywhere?
u/Susurrus
Joined
Posts
- France to ban smoking outdoors in most places to protect children · 578 points · 140 comments
- Buy American? No Thanks, Europe Says, as Tariff Backlash Grows. · 542 points · 55 comments
- EU whacks Apple and Meta with $800 million in antitrust fines. Meta calls its penalty a ‘tariff’ · 351 points · 38 comments
- China is wooing Europe with technology, investments - and a smile. But anyone who looks behind China's rhetoric will recognize the conditions: no criticism, no questions, no objections. · 402 points · 108 comments
- China is wooing Europe with technology, investments - and a smile. But anyone who looks behind China's rhetoric will recognize the conditions: no criticism, no questions, no objections. · 402 points · 108 comments
Comments
7 points ·
No matter how much I despise the US, I don't think I'd ever pick Nintendo or Ubisoft over American game companies. Those two alone are doing wonders to destroy everything we used to love about video games.
38 points ·
This is neither new nor surprising. They casually break EU-US personal data transfer agreements like they're nothing. They know perfectly well they will be fined, but they profit infinitely more from breaking EU law than they have to pay up in fines. It's a simple business decision. The EU Comission is being very lenient here, like they've been for years.
4 points ·
The problem here is: the EU currently works quite well overall for its citizens, precisely because there isn't really one big player. It is considerably more difficult to commit crimes and atrocities on the scale of the US, Russia and China when you're small, weak, and all your close allies are watching you. I don't have any doubts that a united EU, a federation perhaps, like it was originally intended, would be the greatest power the world has ever seen. But it would come at a great cost to all of its citizens. In anywhere between 50-250 years it would most likely develop into an empire similar to the ones we have right now. Unless we could figure out some sort of new structure to combat these challenges, which in itself is a major undertaking.
1 points ·
So essentially the same thing as the US 50 years ago? And in some ways, kind of like Russia 200 years ago? Except it's progressively getting more civil.
Dealing with superpowers and empires is always unpleasant, and everyone would rather stay as far away from them as possible, but it's not always and option. Well, it seems we either continue the cycle, and swap US partnership for China partnership (then probably same thing again in a couple decades), or we break the cycle somehow.