After a week of mass protests, Ireland was brought to a standstill. Farmers, truckers and hauliers blockaded motorways, ports and the country’s only oil refinery, leaving a third of petrol stations dry. The immediate trigger was a sharp spike in global fuel prices caused by the US-Israel military operations against Iran and the resulting disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. But the deeper grievances were plain. Protesters demanded not only a fuel-price cap but the suspension of planned carbon-tax increases — policies that had already turned energy into a luxury for many households.
Underlying the anger, as commentators at MCC Brussels and elsewhere noted, was the cumulative burden of aggressive green decarbonisation combined with rapid mass immigration, both of which have imposed unbearable costs on working people while delivering no tangible benefits. The Government’s eventual response — €505 million in tax cuts and a delay of the carbon-tax hike — was an admission that elite climate and migration policies had finally produced a social explosion on the streets. Yet, like their counterparts in the EU and UK, the Irish Government has for long depended on elite-managed integration deliberately insulated from democratic politics and genuine popular support.
The European Union and the UK increasingly resemble the late Soviet Union in both institutional architecture and ideological rigidity. An unelected central bureaucracy sets the policy agenda while national parliaments and the European Parliament provide little more than democratic theatre. The Commission’s 32,000 civil servants, enjoying legal immunities and generous privileges, function as a modern nomenklatura insulated from accountability. As Finn Andreen documented in his February 2026 analysis for the Mises Institute, Brussels operates through a form of “democratic centralism”, steadily transferring sovereignty from member states upward during successive crises — globalisation, Covid, Ukraine, migration.
A parallel observation appears in Russian academic commentary describing the EU as a geopolitical entity based on ideology rather than organic national interests. The result is a state that fails at classical liberal functions — maintenance of infrastructure, law and order, price stability, national defence and facilitation of voluntary exchange — while excelling at narrative management and the suppression of dissent. This is not rhetorical exaggeration. It is the observable outcome of centralised planning dressed in progressive clothing.
Where the USSR promised the New Soviet Man dedicated to collective welfare, today’s EU model demands adherence to DEI, ESG, critical race theory, ‘environmental justice’ and an ever-expanding hierarchy of victimhood. The machinery of government is geared not towards delivering measurable results in living standards or security, but towards containing the discontent of populations subjected to policies imposed by metropolitan elites with luxury beliefs and groupthink. In a furious diatribe aired last week, a caller to the UK’s Talk TV named “Georgina” accused Sir Keir Starmer of “erasing national identity in favour of a globalist agenda”. To many of the listeners, her pointed criticisms of the UK Prime Minister hold equally for the likes of European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and for the leaders of the Irish coalition Government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Institutional echoes of the Soviet past
The structural parallels are precise. In the USSR the handpicked Politburo and Central Committee made real decisions; the Supreme Soviet rubber-stamped them. In the EU the unelected Commission dictates trade, energy, industrial and environmental policy while member states retain only the illusion of sovereignty. Even post-Brexit Britain exhibits the same symptoms. Labour’s 2024 victory, secured with 33.7% of the popular vote (and just 20% of the electorate), reflected not widespread enthusiasm but revulsion at 14 years of Conservative convergence toward the same cosmopolitan progressive consensus. The state’s performance on core functions continues to deteriorate.
Classical liberals from Adam Smith onward listed the legitimate tasks of government as ensuring external defence, security of property rights, enforcement of contracts, provision of public goods such as roads and bridges, maintenance of law and order and stable currency. Across Western Europe these basics are neglected while resources flow into narrative enforcement and regulatory overreach.
Britain offers a striking illustration of wage compression that exceeds even Soviet-era levels. The minimum wage now stands at approximately 66% of average earnings — higher than the Soviet peak of roughly 60%. After taxes, benefits and public services, the net income ratio between a £100,000 earner (top 5%) and a full-time minimum-wage worker shrinks to roughly 3:1. During the Soviet period the equivalent ratio never fell below 5:1 and usually hovered between 3.2 and 4.4. This is not egalitarian success; it is the stagnation produced by high marginal taxes, benefits traps and regulatory barriers to mobility.
Ideological reincarnation: from red to rainbow
The ideology has changed colour but not character. Soviet communism enforced conformity through class struggle; today’s progressive creed enforces it through identity, equity and climate eschatology. Opposition parties branded ‘far-Right’ — Germany’s AfD, France’s National Rally, Britain’s Restore Britain — face relentless media hostility, bureaucratic harassment and judicial activism.
In the UK, two-tier policing has become routine: online comments about mass immigration often draw swifter official attention than shoplifting, grooming gangs or Islamist radicalisation in local mosques. In a now-viral interview clip, Konstantin Kisin, the Russian-born co-host of the Triggernometry podcast, asked his host a question that still resonates: “In Russia last year, 400 people were arrested for things they said on social media. How many do you think were arrested in Britain?” The answer — 3,300 — drew gasps. Years later, the gap has only widened. In 2023 alone, UK police recorded 12,183 arrests for “offensive” online communications. A country that once lectured the world on liberty now polices speech with an enthusiasm that would have impressed the old Soviet censors.
In the EU, dissenters risk extra-judicial financial sanctions without charges in a court of law. Jacques Baud, a former Swiss colonel and intelligence analyst specialising in military and terrorism issues, had his EU assets frozen in December 2025 for expressing strategic analyses critical of Western policy on Ukraine; a humanitarian exemption was granted only after public outcry.
The groupthink is particularly evident in the rabid anti-Russia posture that now forms a core element of Western European and NATO self-identity, with the significant exception of President Trump’s America. Russia is cast as an inherently revisionist power poised to march on Paris and Berlin, rendering any form of negotiation ethically impermissible for moralising European diplomats. While China is identified as a longer-term systemic rival, the immediate obsession remains the imperative to balkanise Russia into smaller statelets — a theme repeatedly emphasised by senior EU figures such as Kaja Kallas.
Such incessant warmongering has fused seamlessly with the broader progressive ideology. Christian virtues — family, nation, traditional morality — are routinely dismissed as misogynistic or ethno-nationalist. The EU’s long campaign against Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, which has resisted open-border mandates and the LGBTQ agenda in schools, is emblematic. After Brussels’s initial jubilation at Prime Minister Orbán’s recent loss in the elections, a more sober realisation set in among EU bureaucrats when the winning candidate Péter Magyar (Tisza party) said clearly just a few days after when he said that “Hungary will not accept any [immigration] pact. In fact, I’m going to reinforce the border fence even more.”
Globalist governance that overrides national borders, demeans the West’s Judeo-Christian legacy, demonises fossil fuels and elevates renewables as moral imperatives has become the new orthodoxy. Europe’s ruling elites embody a style of governance that conflates emotional signalling with competent statecraft.
The security state and the suppression of dissent
Enforcement requires institutional muscle. Nato member states labour under secret ‘obligations’ or resilience objectives that can override domestic policy choices. A Dutch health minister publicly cited these commitments as the reason certain measures on pandemic preparedness could not be pursued. Strategic communication initiatives in the European Parliament are directed not by the communications directorate but by the security commissioner — evidence that defence and intelligence bureaucracies now sit upstream of politics. Migration, energy policy, public health and attitudes towards Russia are all primarily framed as security threats. Dissent is recast as cognitive warfare; access to alternative media becomes prima facie evidence of foreign influence. The West that once imported Soviet newspapers without fear now treats Russian outlets as vectors of mind control and bans RT, for example.
Energy rationing: the green path to Soviet-style decline
While the political elites in the EU, Canada and Australia decry the Hormuz closure as the cause of the energy crisis, this is merely the spark. The fuel for the conflagration in the West (with the significant exception of President Trump’s USA) has been piling up for at least the past two decades if not longer.
Net Zero targets, grounded in IPCC climate models ‘tuned’ to fit predetermined outcomes, function as a de facto rationing mechanism. Households and industry are nudged toward reduced consumption through taxes, mandates and price signals. The 2022 sanctions on Russia produced textbook boomerang effects: the EU and UK, having deliberately curtailed North Sea output, fracking, coal generation and nuclear capacity, found themselves price-takers in global LNG markets while the United States exported record volumes. Domestic energy abundance was sacrificed on the altar of emission ledgers; the result has been higher prices, industrial offshoring and geopolitical irrelevance.
A UK economist recently stated the quiet part aloud: high energy prices are “good for the climate” because they reduce demand. Citing research that a 10% rise in UK petrol prices can cut consumption by up to 5%, the analysis effectively endorses rationing by price as a tool of environmental policy. Energy bills already incorporate 40-50% taxes but cutting them to alleviate the burden on households and businesses is dismissed as unviable.
Belated admissions that premature nuclear closures were a “strategic mistake” by both the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ursula von der Leyen have not produced any energy policy U-turn. The green religion, with the Commission as its priesthood, remains dominant. The economic verdict is unambiguous. From the fourth quarter of 2019 to the same period in 2025, US GDP rose 14.6% while Germany’s increased by only 0.5% — the weakest performance in the G7. UK GDP over the same period grew 5.3%; the Eurozone region managed 6.7%. IMF and OECD forecasts for 2026 project US growth near 2% while the EU and UK languish below 1.5% and 1% respectively.
Europe has rendered itself a supplicant in global energy markets, dependent on suppliers it once sought to moralise into submission. Russia, for its part, has adapted. Sanctions hardened rather than broke its economy; domestic pride has replaced earlier infatuation with Western models. After the closure of tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions on Russian oil exports have been stood down and oil prices are high – both redounding to the benefit of Russia’s economy.
Russians now generally view prolonged separation from a declining West as prudent insulation. Putin’s Russia remains fundamentally a status quo power — concerned with protecting ethnic Russians in the near abroad after the repeated failures of the Minsk process and Nato’s eastward expansion — but Europe’s ideological crusade has burned bridges for a generation.
Western Europe’s ancien régime will not endure very much longer. Populist-conservative parties have been gaining ground across the continent over the past several years precisely because the lived reality of the majority contradicts elite doctrine. Yet until voters enforce a return to economic literacy, rational energy policy and national sovereignty, Western Europe and Britain will continue its Soviet-style trajectory: central planning without the gulag, energy rationing without bread queues and narrative control without necessitating ‘nine grams of lead in the back of the head’ in the cellars of Stalin’s Lubyanka.
This article was first published in the Daily Sceptic https://dailysceptic.org/2026/04/21/the-uk-and-eu-increasingly-resemble-the-soviet-union-with-their-rigid-ideology-and-sham-democracy/
Dr Tilak K. Doshi is the Daily Sceptic‘s Energy Editor. He is an economist, a member of the CO2 Coalition and a former contributor (cancelled) to Forbes. Follow him on Substack and X.
If you relied on the MSM for your ‘news’ you would have never seen this coming. Everyone else did.
Idiots stuck in left wing echo chambers have no idea what’s going on in the real world. They are so lost in the weeds that easily verifiable facts are beyond their ability to even conceive. My efforts to educate the hopelessly deluded has convinced me they have learning disabilities. I’m seen as an enemy for posting empirical facts and using common sense.
A very informative article.
This part is hard to argue with –
Doshi’s GPiR** is a Term-of-the-Art, a mere euphemism for the coming disaster, the painful ‘consequences’ in his ‘tale of hubris, miscalculation…’*
Why?
Because ‘nature abhors a vacuum’, i.e. the countries of the UK-EU are way too valuable — and not just as a nature-park / ‘living museum’ — for others to leave it in peace to enjoy its benign ‘irrelevance’.**
A failure internally to reform & rebuild ensures that — whether it’s the Caliphate or the Eastern-Orthodox or the New-Zionist Imperium (‘North America’) — the UK-EU will be overthrown.
Hence the recent panic over the CDN (maritime) – Greenland – Arctic control; it goes beyond missile-defence to a channel for the ‘liberation’ of those UK-EU-controlled countries.
Reminder: the NSS-’25 document (of December ’25) declares the ‘unstable [European] governments’ as a National Security Threat (to the USA). What further warning does one need to hear?
Q.E.D.
**”What’s wrong with geopolitical irrelevance? We’re done with geopolitics & all that!”
**From September of ’25:
Russia faked economic data to appear more resilient to its war and sanctions, intel report says
Why do you think their White House puppet drove up oil prices while loosening sanctions?
Ah, sane-washing another putin puppet. I can see where you are coming from.
It really is amazing the nonsense you are eager to believe.
Do you have any evidence that Trump is Putin’s puppet? I know that’s what you have been told to believe, but do you have any actual, real world evidence.
For example, Russia benefited greatly when Biden tried to shut down US oil production and the production surge under Trump 1 and 2, have hurt them. That’s hardly something a “puppet” would do.
Oil production reached record highs under Biden.
Even if he’s not a Russian puppet, (wannabe) agent Krasnov is acting in their best interest regarding Nato, Ukraine and the treatment of americas allies.
Oil production reached record highs under Biden.
Are you sure? I thought under Biden the US was proceeding, via the Endangerment Finding and the Inflation Reduction Act, to transition away from oil and gas, that is reduce their production and use, and thus save the planet and reduce energy costs.
Now you tell me that the only effect that had was to increase US oil production!
So why, if Biden increased production by the rather counter-intuitive method of seeking to disincentivize it, should we condemn Trump for going about it in a more straightforward way, incentivizing it?
The goal is evidently the same, its only the means that are different? Can that really be true?
It reached a peak in August 2024 and higher later. In August 2024 Trump was President. But please don’t tell myUsernameReloaded. We don’t want to spoil his fun now do we.
Trump did not re-take office until January 2025.
My understanding was that the Biden administration shut down oil production on Federal lands wherever they could. In response, oil companies increased production in the remaining leases, in part to build up cash reserves in case the anti-oil policies continued.
Yes, as usual, and similar to what occurred during the Obama administration, oil production was high IN SPITE OF the Dimbulbautocrats, not BECAUSE OF them.
Yes, the oil companies drilled more under Biden because Biden’s policies were driving the cost of oil higher, so the oil companies were making more money. Why wouldn’t they drill more?
The price of gasoline at the time was one dollar per gallon MORE than it is today.
Funny, there was no daily handwringing over the price of gasoline and affordability from the Leftwing Media while Biden was president. They barely even mentioned it. Now, they mention it every day as a means to undermine Trump. They didn’t want to undermine Biden. They are all propagandists/liars.
Crushing Iran isn’t in Russia’s interest. Europe will survive any Russian ambition all by itself with far more people and a far greater economy (even if it worships green energy)- so for America to back away from Europe isn’t really doing much for Russia.
Europe and whose army?
Russia has been revealed as a paper tiger by its pathetic “special operation” in its own backyard in Ukraine.
Anyone who believes that army is going to steamroll across Europe is deluded.
The Russian Army isn’t doing much steamrolling in Ukraine.
They are fighting to a standstill and losing 10,000 to 15,000 Russian troops killed Every Month. It has become an insane bloodbath for Russian troops.
Putin is causing a lot of Russian families to hate him every month.
Who is feeding you these lies as Russia is advancing every week and their economy which has been good is growing due to the spike in oil prices and taking up some of the slack for oil shipping.
Don’t you people look at the maps anymore?
All the news I see shows Ukrainians blowing up Russian armor and chasing Russians troops across the landscape with their drones.
Why don’t you post a link that shows the Russians are winning and then we’ll know where you get your information from.
Do you deny that Russia is losing 10,000 to 15,000 troops per month in Eukraine?
LOL, once again many people overlook the part where about 30 NATO nations are supporting Ukraine with $$$, military hardware and ordinance and satellite data.
Yet despite all this and the Drone warfare, Russia is still advancing nearing Sumy and Kharkov.
Is there moral equivalence? Does Ukraine kill civilians by choice? Russian attacks have been to people and places which have no military or defence significance.
They are the moral equivalent of the IRGC under the last ayatollah.
How many times have the Russians been to or in Kharkov?
Europe is currently weak- but so isn’t Russia with well over 1 million casualties and it’s economy is on the ropes. And let’s not forget that Europe has a long history of warfare. Once Uncle Sam isn’t there to protect them, they will surely prepare for anything Russia might try. Russia will take many years to recover enough to try any more such “special military operations”.
I think the point is NEITHER ‘Europe’ nor Russia has an army. The big fear is 40 year-old pre-electronic warheads.
I would have disagreed 10 years ago, but based on Ukraine you appear to be correct.
“On 10 November 2021, the United States reported an unusual movement of Russian troops near Ukraine’s borders.” It’s 2026 and the fight continues.
But is the US actually backing away from Europe? I don’t see any plans for troop redeployment. Nor does it look like Trump is aiming to get out of NATO despite the rhetoric. The US has basically trained Europe to do its bidding. But because of Trump’ actions visavis Iran and the whole Greenland saga europeans are starting to wake up to this. They want the US to remain in Europe and the NATO structure to fight the russians. The UK is the biggest russophoob. All the current leaders have to disappear first. They have tied themselves to the sinking ukrainian ship. The green transition is another load that makes water. They have no army, no weapons and soon no industry..
That Ukrainian ship is now one of the strongest militarizes in Europe. The fact that it can hold off a NEARBY supposed superpower for 4 years proves it.
I would agree.
Russia is having to import troops from North Korea and other places.
That would not be necessary if Russia were winning this war. Importing foreign troops is what losers do.
That’s what the Mad Mullahs are doing: Importing foreign militias into Iran to shoot down Iranian protestors. Again, what losers do.
I don’t think Trump will try to pull out of NATO.
First off, all the gain was on private lands, which Biden had no authority to shut down.
Second, the gains on public lands were from leases let during the previous Trump term, which once again, Biden had no authority to stop, even though he tried.
Third, it would take a complete idiot (which does apply to you) to pretend that Biden didn’t do everything in his power, as well as attempting to do things not in his power, to shut down oil and gas production.
So what you are saying is Biden supported net-zero but really sucked in achieving it or perhaps the dementia had kicked in and he forgot what he was doing.
Trump has a powerful ego. He’s nobody’s puppet.
LOL Both points are quite correct.
Less a puppet than any president in my 76 years. The rest were professional politicians who are easily manipulated and controlled. Mostly slick characters. Unlike most people I know here in Wokeachusetts, I Iike Trump’s bluntness when he wants to be blunt. But they really think he’s like that all day every day and that’s not true.
Well, from Australia, my impression was that Ronald Regan played one of his best roles and his imaginary Star Wars was brilliant.
His Star Wars scared the hell out of the Soviets.
“Do you have any evidence that Trump is Putin’s puppet? I know that’s what you have been told to believe, but do you have any actual, real world evidence.”
He’ll have it as soon Schiff opens his underwear drawer.
That’s where he’s been hiding all the “evidence” he claimed he had of “Russian Collusion” all these years.
(I guess even he didn’t want to open that drawer!)
Would you want to paw through Schiff’s underwear drawer? LOL
I’ve heard this in a few places now… what is the story/reasoning that has the political leader of the worlds 1st largest economy owned by the political leader of the worlds 9th largest economy?
(1st versus 9th understates the size disparity. the ratio is about 50x)
As Benny Hill in his very un-PC impression of a visiting Chinese would put it
“What a road o’ lap.”
There’s a really good reason they enacted the gun laws years ago and most Europeans are concerned / afraid of guns. Old Thomas Jefferson maybe knew what he was talking about when he mentioned the Tree of Liberty.
The argument that US gun ownership is a safeguard against government tyranny is not supported by their actual use. They are actually used either to kill animals or those of one’s fellow Americans one has taken a dislike to, including one’s schoolmates or teachers. Or to kill oneself or a family member by accident or suicide. Or in pursuit of criminal purposes such as drug dealing.
Switzerland shows how to do gun ownership as one element in a well regulated militia, and its not what the NRA has in mind or agitates for.
Auto insurance does not pay for car repairs until you get in a car crash.
Small arms are used to capture larger arms, and up the food chain.
The idea that just because the military has the bigger guns, they can’t be beaten is disproven by history.
Jog off euroweenie. Firearms are used EVERY DAY by good guys stopping bad guys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States
Resisting tyranny. Good guys stopping bad guys. Or something.
The point is, say what you like, the facts do not bear you out. They are not actually being used to resist tyranny, and they are not simply being used by good guys to stop bad guys. When all else fails, look at the facts, and then start thinking.
You want to see gun ownership in every adult male household, in the service of a well regulated militia? Look at Switzerland. Done right, and light years away from the NRA.
Military service once a year for every man under 50, or was a few years back. But of course you would not want that, because that’s under the control of the state whose tyranny you supposedly want the weapons to resist.
Most of the deaths by firearms are committed with illegal, unregistered weapons by Blacks, who are responsible for 51% of the murders in the US despite only constituting 13% of the population.
Not sure what your argument is.
My argument is that the high homicide rate in the US is not due to the availability of firearms, but rather to the profound sociocultural problems in Black America.
I think American gun ownership deters foreign actors from contemplating invading the U.S. with an armed force.
Tens of millions of Americans would be heading to the frontlines with their firearms, in such a case. And don’t doubt it, either. Even an old, retired fellow like me would be joining up. I can still aim a rifle and pull the trigger and I wouldn’t take kindly to being invaded.
*Those who can move without ability scooters
*Fights may only take place where oversized SUVs can be driven to without scratching the paint
*After White house is burned down a second time, cries for the French to help out again may occur
*Call of duty kiddies in shambles after finding out what real war against an equal opponent on homesoil looks like
*Shocked americans may find out it was actually two massive oceans and friendly neighbours that prevented invations (and nukes)
Hollywood has really done a number to americans
😛
I’m going out on a limb and guess that the above post actually made sense while it was still in your head.
I don’t see how.
mUR has never seen how Americans fight on a battle field.
They will kick your ass if you make the mistake of getting in front of them. Count on it.
See: Tet Offensive, 1968.
the Vietcong despised the slack US troops, they respected and feared the ANZACs – I was there.
The Viet Cong also got their asses wiped out during the Tet Offensive of 1968. They were no longer an effective fighting force after that.
Apparently, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam got fooled by American Leftwing Media liars claiming the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were kicking American ass in South Vietnam and American troops were hanging on by a fingernail.
They decided to launch a nation-wide attack on South Vietnam attacking over 100 cities simultaneously.
They miscalculated. The American troops gave the North Vietnamese the biggest defeat in the war, and completely obliterated the Viet Cong, who were so sure they were going to win this battle, that they came out of hiding, and showed themselves in public and were promptly wiped out.
This loss almost broke the back of the North Vietnamese army. They never were able to mount such an attack against American troops again.
Right after the Tet Offensive, was the time the United States should have invaded North Vietnam and ended this war once and for all.
But stupid self-serving politicians could not pull the trigger and make a decision that big, so they kicked the can down the road, which is why the war lasted five more years (for Americans, seven more years for South Vietnam).
It is a similar situation to today and our war with Iran. Former President kept kicking the hard decisions down the road to the point that the Mad Mullahs were on the verge of of obtaining nuclear weapons. The difference between Iran and South Vietnam is we finally have a president who will pull the trigger.
I wish Trump had been president in 1968. He would have pulled the trigger on North Vietnam, and the world would look a lot different today. A thriving, free South Vietnam, the equivalent of South Korea today.
Unfortunately for South Vietnam, Democrats were in charge of their fate, and the Democrats threw South Vietnam to the communist wolves without a second thought.
Democrats are incapable of defending the United States and its allies. Look at how the Democrats try to undermine everything to do with the Iran war. They did the same with the war in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. They screw up everything they touch.
Forever wars should properly be called Democrat wars because Democrats are the cause of constant delays. Democrats just cannot deal with murderous dictators. They prefer to run and hide, and throw allies to the wolves, rather than stand and fight. Every time.
Media of strife downtown in US is always screaming and crying and running away and cringing – lily-livered cowardice.
In Australia, men run towards the strife, to help. Look what happened in Bondi Beach – terrorist beware for your life down-under.
Owning a gun has benefits besides firing bullets.
Some years ago I had a person break into my house one night about 2am. I was living alone at the time.
He walked down my hallway shining his flashlight and walked right up to my bedroom doorway, which was open, and he stopped right before entering and about that time I cocked the hammer back on my .357 magnum, and the intruder recognized the sound and realized the implications and he turned around and ran as fast as he could back out the door he broke into.
I didn’t have to fire a shot, and the gun did just what I wanted it to do: Deter aggressors.
And just think what might have happened to me had I not had that gun.
So, owning a gun is not all about killing.
Had a similar experience, in Chicago, early one Sunday morning. Guy climbed up the rear fire escape. It wasn’t a gun in my case, but it also caused him to run as fast as he could. There are circumstances in societies in which the prudent person will decide that the risks of weapon ownership are lower than the risks of not. Basically you then end up with a society in which all or most people are armed and ready all the time.
But what is the cost in those kinds of societies, and do we really want to live in them? Its one thing to say, I am here right now and the only way to be safe is to own a magnum, have it to hand, and be prepared to use it. Quite another to say that I am going to choose to stay here and live like that.
The link I gave to Wikipedia does not affect the calculus for an individual in one of these places. But it is a partial indicator of the costs a society which chooses to live like that is accepting. And for what, exactly? Not asking on behalf of the individual, but what is it profiting the society? Does it make it a nicer place to live?
What is the cost that you believe we are paying by allowing individuals to own guns.
Remember, banning guns only takes them out of the hands of the law abiding.
Another good point.
The criminals will always have guns. They can print them out on a computer nowadays.
The gun is not the problem.
The mental condition of people and the people who agitate the weak-minded into committing violence is the problem.
We have the Democrat Party constantly vilifying Republicans every time they open their mouths, and demonizing the President of the United States, and they end up agitating the psychos in our society to act out violently. My opinion is the Democrats are intending to provoke psychos to commit violence. They have to know what the effects of their hateful language will have.
According to one FBI study, a gun is used by a private citizen to prevent a crime about 8000 times per day in the US. 90%+ of the time, no shots are fired. One story I heard from an acquaintance – filling up at the gas station, he observed a pair of creepy types moving his way with a bad look in their eyes. He reached back to scratch his back, lifting his jacket and revealing the gun in its holster. He watched the two abruptly turn around and go far, far away.
I taught my daughter, even before she was 21, to be prepared to put her hand into her purse and hold it there for things like walking to her car from a shop at night, if anyone suspicious turns up. In areas where concealed carry is legal, the threat is often enough to deter criminals.
Good advice to your daughter! 🙂
Personally, I hate guns. Don’t have one- don’t want one. Not impressed when somebody starts telling me about their guns. Yet, I’m all for the right to own guns- because having been under the jackboot of the state of Wokeachusetts my entire 50 year career in forestry (as a consultant)- and considering that they tried to destroy me twice for daring to challenge their ignorant forestry policies, I can appreciate that the only way to ensure a government doesn’t go totalitarian is for people to own a gun or have a right to own a gun. I have no fear of crime against me and the idea of hunting turns me off- but if the government did go totally nuts- I’d like to think I could own a gun. If most men in Iran had guns- their revolution would have succeeded.
JZ passes fact check again:
“Gun ownership in Iran is heavily restricted, with no constitutional right to bear arms. Civilian possession requires strict licensing from the government, involving police permits, background checks, psychological exams, and safety training. While legal ownership is rare, estimated to be only 3% to 7% of applicants, a covert online black market for weapons exists.”
Not that I trust my own Google results anymore, but it makes me wonder, why do I imagine people dressed in stereotypical arabic outfits shooting guns in the air at dessert celebrations? In the world of AI generated truth, I need to summon the ghost of Francis Bacon.
(Edit: On reread for typos the quote strikes me as very American – ie the assumption that a government would have a constitution, and that the constitution would have a bill of rights, and that one of those rights might involve gun ownership.)
((Meaning: AI, like internet, cell phones, business computers, automation, moon landings… is another example of America wins))
One more note – anyone who has NOT read Bacon’s famous essay on truth really ought to. It can be found in 100s of places online.
Bacon is probably a step too far for most people on this site. Or anything too deep historical or philosophical for that matter.
I am usually ready to par w a quote from Carlyle, Fico, Evola, Mises, Schmitt and other prophets of Doom.
I recommend every person here to pick up Neema Parvini’s book:’ the populist delusion’.
Or go to Youtube and watch AA ( academic agent).
My biggest recommendation is the ‘ the biggest lore’ section on AA in which his friends and him dissect the documentary series by Adam Curtis that was shown on the BBC quite some time ago when it was still possible to do these kinds of things.
Ah yes, the standard those who disagree with me are too stupid to understand me line.
Or anyone who disagrees with a Democrat / Democrat-Socialist / Progressive is a fascist.
I bet every Arab man owns a gun. They love guns. And they’ve always been unmanageable by whatever empire tried to control them. And before guns they all had swords and daggers.
X
“most men in Iran had guns- their revolution would have succeeded.”
That’s correct.
Trump should be arming the Iranian people. Then they can go find the Bad Iranians and deal with them appropriately. We can’t count on doing a good deal with the religious fanatics currently in charge.
Trump should also be encouraging generals in the regular Iranian Army to stage a coup.
The regular Iranian Army is not made up of religious fanatics. That’s why the Ayatollah created the Revolutionary Guards, his personal army, because he could not trust the regular Iranian Army.
Trump should tell the Iranian Army that if they stage a coup, the U.S. will back them up with airpower. American airpower would destroy any Revolutionary Guards troops that stuck their heads up. so, in effect, if the Iranian Army staged a coup with American airpower, they would wipe out any military force that came against them.
The blockade of Iranian ports may have a profound effect on regime change. The Iranian leadership is in turmoil, and it will only get worse as the blockade continues and maybe it will creat enough turmoil that the Mad Mullahs finally lose control.
Leaving religious fanatics in charge in Iran is a very bad idea.
We need a profound regime change.
You need one in the US, but you will never get one. The people in charge will make sure of that. It doesnt matter who will be president. You need both a minimal AND a maximal level of intelligence. It’s a narrow band…and Trump fits right in albeit being on the lower tier..
Who are the people in charge?
Got any names?
Unknown persons influencing world events is what makes up a conspiracy theory.
You misunderstand the genesis and development of revolutions. They start, as a precondition, when the state establishment loses faith. They then have their first critical test when the state forces refuse to fire on the crowds. Not because the crowds are armed and defeating them, but because the state has lost control of them. The final phase is when the regime, seeing itself cracking, relaxes its grip and tries to compromise. That is the marker of the end.
Shortly followed by purges within the revolution, the emergence of a dictatorship, and a reconstituted army which will obey the orders of the new regime and shoot and imprison resisters.
If there is a strong geographical base, as in the US South, or the Russian White areas, you may get a civil war in the final stage. But that is fairly rare.
In Russia, revolution was “in the air” for generations for many reasons. Most people were serfs while it was ended in the rest of Europe- a prime reason. WWI drove Russia into total destitution. There were many variations of socialist political parties all that time arguing about how to have a revolution.
It is ironically the threat of revolution that resulted in multiple reforms in Europe. A case in point: my country, the Netherlands. A new constitution ( Thorbecke) brought in quite quickly by the king, one that still stands today. Most social democracies were solidified throughout the 20th century, especially after the destruction in ww2, with the help of the US which were based on Roosevelt’s ideas. It helped, through the Marshall plan to built the structural, intertwined societies.
That structure however is ending..
The Iranian Regime is now importing Shia militias from Iraq and elsewhere to come in and shoot down any street protestors.
Another sign of weakness and ruthlessness on the part of the Iranian Regime.
My sister must be European. She is so afraid of guns she goes into shock if she even hears the word “guns” mentioned (she also voted “YES” on Tuesday).
Lefties live in a very scary world.
Agreed. Unfortunately when in power they extend that very scary world to everyone else.
Yes, they do!
If we don’t like the drama, we should not vote for Democrats. That’s the solution.
I don’t like the drama and I don’t vote for Democrats. Yet they still managed to unconstitutionally redistrict Virginia (fortunately, put on hold by a sane judge).
“In Russia last year, 400 people were arrested for things they said on social media. How many do you think were arrested in Britain?” The answer — 3,300 — drew gasps. Years later, the gap has only widened. In 2023 alone, UK police recorded 12,183 arrests for “offensive” online communications. A country that once lectured the world on liberty now polices speech with an enthusiasm that would have impressed the old Soviet censors.”
****************************
When I read things like the excerpt above, I almost get to the point where I no longer question or criticize President Trump when he suggests that the U.S. quit NATO. If the U.S. Congress tried to curb social media speech by making offensive remarks illegal, I seriously doubt that it would pass constitutional muster. Police would have many of Trump’s detractors arrested if such legislation succeeded.
Fifty years ago, who would have thought that the UK and the EU in the 21st century would actually start to resemble Oceania from Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four?
Biden tried to create a Ministry of Truth who’s job was to patrol the wilds of the internet and locate any posts that went against the current government position, and then pressure the owner of the site to take down the offending post.
With a couple more liberal justices, there’s no guarantee that the Supreme Court would protect free speech.
The left has always favored “hate speech” exceptions to the doctrine of free speech. Of course “hate speech” has always been defined as any speech a liberal disagrees with.
Going all the way back to Reagan and the 80’s, the left has always had a policy of preventing any speaker they disagree with from speaking.
Be it interrupting speeches, to getting editors fired for failing to follow the party line.
Recently, they have been including vandalism and personal violence to their repertoire in order to ensure that no speech they disagree with is permitted.
The Australian lefty policies especially the greens are trying for the same thing they tabled Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024. Fortunately the didn’t have the numbers in the senate to be able to get the bill thru and it was withdrawn but you can see how close we are to Orwell’s world where the government decides what is truth and facts.
Orwell did. He saw it coming. He wrote “1984” as a warning. The Progressives use it as an instruction manual.
That may be true but then look at Palentir. An uber panopticon which is worse..It can be used by those in Power, whomever that may be.
The Left does not have the sole right to use it. I think Trump is quite keen. Look at his admin, starting w Vance.
Don’t know where you are from, but first remove the beam from your own eye before you point out the speck in someone else’s. If you are European, you are becoming a third-world, Muslim authoritarian surveillance state. I’d be more concerned with cleaning up your own house first.
Criticism of the EU in moving too far towards the Soviet model is valid.
Going soft on Russian aggression and imperialism is not.
bingo!
An interesting article. I have always thought that there is a great similarity between the ‘Brussels Politburo’ and the old Soviet Politburo in the way it controls EU member states.
The EU was created for the very purpose to be turned into a Soviet tool – the EUSSR.
Same with the UNO and WHO – but we can only see that when they reached a certain level of power to perform necessity.Until then they play the buttkissing game of humanism,brotherhood,philanthropy.
“… narrative control without necessitating ‘nine grams of lead in the back of the head’ …”
Give them time.
A better comparison is with China. The globalists like the CCP’s model of authoritarian control of information and markets. They overplayed their hand during COVID which exposed the subjugation they were after.
Spineless EU sheep love their chains and like most leftists are incapable of understanding empirical reality. Examining how cause and effect works in the real world is not in their tool kit. Blind obedience is as deep as they get.
Yes, U.S. Democrats love the Chinese model.
The Democrats want a one-party government, with the Democrats in charge.
And the Democrats will stoop to any means to accomplish their mission, legal or illegal.
Republicans need to wake up.
“And the Democrats will stoop to any means to accomplish their mission, legal or illegal.”
The SPLC indictments a prime example of this! They were funding the “hate groups” they were using to fund raise.
Typical for slimy, lying Democrats.
The concept of wage compression and further analysis is interesting.
I was aware of it but had not seen a rational analysis of the situation.
This situation reduces the incentive to improve skills and productivity in much of the work force.
If wage compression made a nation stronger and more prosperous- then that would be evidence is a good thing- but I see no such evidence in the UK.
Inspires the thought: If street sweeper and corporate exec pay the same, why go to business school? Yet sweeping streets seems boring and opens a pit of existential philosophy – why do anything – and triggers Eclesiastes quotes.
There _must_ be old Chicago school econometric analyses of wage compression vs innovation or vs class mobility. Probably they can not be mentioned in a contemporary liberal arts classroom.
Wage compression equals a good Gini coefficient. For what that’s worth.
Thanks. I Googled a list of Gini by nation. I like the countries in the middle section better. Both high and low are stinkers (unless you’re from there, in which case that one is the exception – fabulous)
“The groupthink is particularly evident in the rabid anti-Russia posture that now forms a core element of Western European and NATO self-identity, with the significant exception of President Trump’s America. Russia is cast as an inherently revisionist power poised to march on Paris and Berlin…”
One wonders at the group’s thinking (or is it actually Mr. Doshi’s) when observing that Russia was not even able to successfully march on Kiev which lies 236 miles from the Russian border, not even in 4+ years and not even with the help of their own brands of Hessians in recent years! Russia lies less than 3 miles from the US but they have not marched on the US because they dare not. Nor have they marched on Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia which share borders with Russia because they are all NATO members. Russia is not quite a paper tiger, but their tiger lacks most of its sharp claws.
Yes. Russia peaked almost 50 years ago. It would be time to pick a new chief bad guy – but all those f— nukes! I have little confidence that missiles could reach USA, then I wonder whether Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ exists in covert secrecy, then ultimately I’m not smug enough to bet on failed Russian engineering to save my life. The Russians I’ve met have tended toward smart.
Yes, but the smart Russians that you met probably weren’t in Russia anymore.
Ukraine is teaching Putin some lessons.
Russian troops advance a mile over here, and lose a mile over there. Repeated on a daily basis. It’s World War I. A stalemate. All Putin can manage is a stalemate, while losing huge numbers of troops every month.
Many of us take notice of what Putin has actually said.
To pacify and unite his constituency, traumatised by the collapse of the USSR, he is presenting a vision of rebuilding, make Russia great again, by advocating and acting on the existence of the Kievan Rus empire – old glory days.
Not a conspiracy theory, present in a number of his recorded and broadcast speeches. So, as Kiev was the capital of the lost empire, he must capture Kiev to rebuild it.
This is public knowledge. Why disbelieve a Russian leader having ambitions like a Napoleon or a Hitler or an Alexander?
‘without the gulag’?
“A parallel observation appears in Russian academic commentary describing the EU as a geopolitical entity based on ideology rather than organic national interests.”
Organic national interests? Sure, like rebuilding the Soviet Union- but it won’t be called that as there are no more commies (or few) in Russia. It will all just be called The Greater Russian Federation.
“Where the USSR promised the New Soviet Man dedicated to collective welfare, today’s EU model demands adherence to DEI, ESG, critical race theory, ‘environmental justice’ and an ever-expanding hierarchy of victimhood.”
It had better back off or it’s going to lose more members. Those ideas may be commonly held but not universally. I bet CA and MA and a few other blue states are more fanatic on these ideas than the EU.
That’s a question someone should ask Lois Perry or such like on a Heartland podcast guest appearance. Is critical race theory mostly an American thing, owing to our historical errors, or is it global? Or how would CRT sound to a student in Taiwanese secondary school?
Well, for one thing the Chinese are actually uber racists(ask them about black people. Sorry coloured). Not a thing you hear about anywhere.
All in all the asian countries do not like the influx of foreigners at all, unless they bring money.
The -ism seems to be everywhere, is a similar-to-USA-2015ish theory about it taught in universities everywhere?
Colored? Wow, I guess the Netherlands is really outdated.
1950’s!
Good reason for Trump and many Americans to think it’s time to get out of NATO. We no longer have much in common with European “partners”. Let them wallow in wokeness and green energy while America thrives.
I think Trump is going to punish the western NATO members who refused to help prevent religious fanatics in Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons by moving U.S. military assets out of uncooperative NATO nations and into cooperative NATO nations.
What is the point of having American military bases in Spain, for example, when we are not allowed to use them when we need them?
I don’t think Trump is going to try to pull out of NATO.
Right- he won’t pull out of NATO- for one thing he can’t without Congress agreeing. But, he’s going to “jerk their chain” for the rest of his administration- having already pushed them into expanding their military budgets. Gotta get the children in line. 🙂
Yes, I think he will do a little chain-jerking.
Wanna bet that Trump will never get out of NATO?
He can’t without Congress saying so. But he can minimize our contribution- even if Congress doesn’t agree, just by holding up contributions and removing some troops- or moving them to relatively friendly countries. Greece was helpful with the current “event” so he likes them. He likes Poland which almost begs for American troops- sufficient that one their leaders said they’ll name a base after Trump. Of course that’s the kind of thing he loves. But seriously, Europe doesn’t need America for defense especially with Ukraine as an ally. America needs to deal with the rest of the world that Europe shrunk away from. You know, the burden of hegemony. 🙂
Yes, someone has to be the adult.
“Putin’s Russia remains fundamentally a status quo power…”
Nonsense. Russia wants its full empire back. All this talk about protecting Russian speakers in Ukraine is a thin excuse for invading and destroying the Donbas and thousands of people, including Russian speakers.
I think Putin and his generals probably saw the move into Donbas as as being analogous to the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland – a foot in the door that would lead to a quick roll-up of the rest of Ukraine.
Then there’s reality.
Ok, are you ready for truth?
After the western push and the Maidan overthrow in 2014 Putin went into Crimea to secure their access to the black sea.
The west continued putting money into the uber nationalists ( a familiar story), old style nazi bandarites who caused tens of thousands of russian speaking people in the Donbas.
Putin’s invasion w limited troops was aiming for a compromise w Kiev/Ukraine after his succesful endeavours in Georgia. All the signs were positive, including statements from Zelensky.
Then the UK and the US put Boris Johnson up to tell Zelensky to continue the fight against Russia and that they would back him up (and in all likelyhood that he would be gone of not). This is actually confirmed by various sources and includes the Istanbul talks ( Merkel et al).
It was this that prompted Putin to change course. Meanwhile, all the western talk was about a quick russian defeat and a counterattack. It was true that the russians retreated, after all they were never meant to be there long.
But the counterattack failed and the russians moved steadily foreward in attrition style.
So now It might be a temporary stalemate but the russians have succesfully fought the west and stopped Ukraine being a threat. It got most of its objectives.
That’s a win..NOT a defeat.
I’m going to agree with you on this and suggest that you should add the Maidan massacre as part of the coup and overthrow of the government at that time. I think Victoria Nuland (among others) played an important role in that.
Well, according to Putin’s right-hand man, the invasion of Ukraine was based solely on Putin’s greed.
Recall that Putin murdered his right-hand man right after he made these claims.
“Sanctions hardened rather than broke its economy; domestic pride has replaced earlier infatuation with Western models.”
More nonsense. It’s economy is rapidly failing. How can anyone claim what their domestic pride is given that they have no democracy and now they’re internet is turned off? Young Russians are part of the international culture. Just like Ukrainians, they prefer to become more westernized, in the positive sense of course, not the current woke mania.
…whereas Trump’s America looks increasingly like Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.
Big changes are coming worldwide…
Not worth the powder.
example?
https://medium.com/@John.rees/do-trump-and-maga-echo-1930s-germany-a-cautious-but-urgent-comparison-78c1447cc7d5
I followed the link to
“PAGE NOT FOUND
404
Out of nothing, something”
What _should_ I have seen?
You need to copy and paste the text, the @John. breaks this sites link recognization.
Got it. Article starts out with a thesis then degenerates into hating DJT. If you come at it from neutral, it reads more like a “Trump is bad’ piece than a ‘Trump is like 1930s Germany’ piece.
I was looking for ‘How does Trump’s America look increasingly like Nazi Germany in the late 1930s” and I just got more negative opinion about Trump’s America in 2025.
I’m surprised you even wasted the wear-and-tear on your fingers to type a response to such an idiotic comment(er).
To a socialist, anyone who disagrees with them is a Nazi.
Which is a very good sign that it is them that are the Nazis.
Only if the Democrats get their way. Trump is holding back the fascist hordes of the far-left.
New York has all but fallen under Madmani.. and California is well on its way.
The collapse of California has been predicted for quite some time. Will we have economical, grid-scale, fusion power sooner?
As of today two Republicans have the lead in the California governors race.
When California votes on this group of people, the two with the most votes will stand for election of governor. That could end up being two Republicans!
I personally, like Steve Hilton. I think he would make a great governor.
Maybe California voters are finally sick and tired of the radical Democrat insanity.
But the Governor is only one office in the State, and he’ll have the Lt Governor and, probably, a vast majority of the Legislature against him. And then there are the State Courts.
True, but Hilton is pretty good at making sense, and if he is elected maybe he can talk a little sense to California voters.
Anything would be better than another Democrat governor.
Socialists have always been good at seeing whatever the party tells them to see.
Oh for Chrissakes , do you really believe that crap? Get a grip, or maybe new meds
With the determined objections to voter ID laws here in the US, we may already have a form of “sham democracy”.
One US citizen gets one vote is how it should be. Why the objections to ensuring that is what happens on election day?
Pretty much every country with free elections, has some form of voter ID.
For some reason, this is the only issue where the left isn’t demanding the US go by the world standards.
Democrats want to be able to cheat at election time.
We go further in Australia.
All citizens have the right to vote, and the obligation to vote.
You must enrol with your residential address which is recorded against your name.
You must identify yourself when you ask for a ballot paper in any and every election, you can then do what you like with the ballot – vote, throw it away, or write abuse or complaint and have it counted as informal, not a vote for anyone.
If able, you must personally attend at any voting site, if you are not in your area, they are forwarded on to your local site. Absentee and postal voting can be arranged.
For maximum convenience, the vote is held on a weekend, Saturday so that workers are not deprived of the right to vote by being detained at work.
Failure to vote is punished by a fine.
Our elections are decided by a large percentage of the population actually voting, there can be no tiny majority of a minority, and no electoral college nonsense as in the US, the States of the Federation are separately represented and have an assembly of their own, the Upper House of the Federal Parliament which is the equivalent of the House of Lords in the UK.
Someone should nail 95 theses to the doors of Westminster disputing the power and efficacy of Carbon Indulgences, the ability of man made CO2 to cause harm to the climate, and the foolishness of fighting “climate change” by destroying our economies, lowering living standards, and destroying freedoms.
yes, AGW is a faith; a secular religion with tenets which must be believed even if they seem incredible.
Instead of comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNyFPdlRww8
Hope you enjoy it.
Communism is asshole.
I’m not so sure about “without the gulag,” they’re turning their entire countries into “gulags” via unfettered immigration from parts of the world that are culturally incompatible with theirs.
Streets you can’t walk on without the potential of being randomly stabbed or gang raped might as well be a prison.
Apartments in London are openly advertising Muslim only.
You need to fight for your homeland against domestic elitists as much as foreign tyrants.
“… against all enemies, foreign and domestic …”
Hence the need for domestic gunpowder…
Don’t we also import that from the PRC?
LordGod, I most sincerely hope not…seriously I think not tho I wouldn’t be surprised if that munitions factory blow up a few months ago didn’t have some…um..non local help.
The fastest growing political party in the UK, at the moment, is the Green Party where the party leader Zack Polinski states he can enlarge women’s breast by looking at them! He also wants to legalise all drugs; get rid of the armed forces and give all illegal immigrants a free house and benefits (plus many other (wonderful) ideas!!).
The strange thing is (!!??) his support is growing rapidly!
That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
The fastest growing political party in the UK, at the moment, is the Green Party where the party leader Zack Polinski states he can enlarge women’s breast by looking at them! He also wants to legalise all drugs; get rid of the armed forces and give all illegal immigrants a free house and benefits (plus many other (wonderful) ideas!!).
The strange thing is (!!??) his support is growing rapidly!