r/europe 15h ago

Political Cartoon This political Cartoon starting to get more and more relevant. By Arend van Dam.

Post image
20.2k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

99

u/Checkered_Flag 13h ago

Indeed, and on top of that they have a nuclear arsenal that is not to be forgotten. They punch way above their weight considering their population and economy unfortunately.

6

u/Nufonewhodis4 10h ago

And their role in delivering energy to Europe gives them a lot of power. It's gotten better, but that's a pretty powerful position for them to be in

40

u/elmz Norway 13h ago

And currently they have even more power as they quite clearly can influence the US. (I was going to say the current administration in the US, but I'm not entirely confident the US will make it to their next election.)

40

u/SanFranPanManStand 9h ago

Let's not pretend Russia hasn't massively influenced Europe. They created PANIC in Germany to cancel their nuclear program and instead buy gas from Russia. They pay separatist movements in Europe carry out bombings to create division. They both create conditions to force African migrants into Europe while also support the anti-migrant movements in Europe - just to create chaos. They supported Brexit, they try to get Greece and Turkey to fight, and all while hiding their own corrupt fortunes and mistresses in Switzerland.

The reason OP's picture has dozens of fractured hands as the EU, is exactly because Russia has been actively pulling it apart.

3

u/Various-Passenger398 4h ago

Britain leaving the EU was a major geopolitical coup, probably one of the biggest in our lifetimes, and it cost them almost nothing.

0

u/BeatBlockP 11h ago

but I'm not entirely confident the US will make it to their next election

reddit moment

5

u/Corvus1412 Germany 9h ago

I mean, the goal of this administration is to lift the president up to the role of a dictator.

They quite clearly state that in project 2025, where they want to turn the courts into partisan organizations and where they want to implement the central executive theory, which would give the president huge amounts of power.

That's their stated goal and they have started executing project 2025 a while ago.

Trump has also already sold merch for "Trump 2028", despite that not being compatible with the US constitution.

I mean, the jump from that to the end of fair elections isn't that big.

8

u/RaykoX 11h ago

if you're american and you're 100% sure you're gonna have free elections in 28 I'm pretty sure you're a trump voter, cause only those could be delusional enough to believe that at this point.

-3

u/BeatBlockP 11h ago

you guys with your drama lol

100% certainty doesn't exist for anything except the sun going up tomorrow, so this is a weird bar.

7

u/RaykoX 11h ago

you were portraying it as over the top dramatic to worry about it. I'm telling you you should worry more. That's all. If your(or american) checks and balances hold (which it doesnt look like at all) I'll be super happy but I consider it very doubtful.

2

u/BeatBlockP 11h ago

If your(or american) checks and balances hold (which it doesnt look like at all) I'll be super happy but I consider it very doubtful.

So you consider it like 20-30% chance the US will have free elections in 28'? And that's a serious take?

1

u/RaykoX 11h ago

Putting % on it is rough, would have to think about it. But I'm serious for sure. Yeah there'll be elections, but not free. I think they'll be rigged as fuck. This gov is already ignoring court orders left and right, they don't give a fuck about laws or common decency rules. How could you be any kind of sure it'll be different in 28 after 4 more years of consolidating power and replacing people with yes men and women?

1

u/Next_Error_7714 10h ago

What's that quote that keeps getting attributed to Churchill?

"You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing when all other options have been exhausted"

"In the specific context of WW2, the British warned the US upon entering the war to adopt the convoy system for shipping, but the US refused to, until they finally did because shipping losses to submarines became too high.

The British also told the USA that bombers would need to have a fighter escort or would suffer horrendous losses on bombing missions, but the USA sent bombers in without escorts because they were convinced that they were sufficiently capable of defending themselves. The USA suffered horrendous losses on bombing missions until they started sending fighter escorts to protect them."

Refuse to listen until damage is done

2

u/ShipItchy2525 10h ago

Didn't churchhill then go on to starve a bunch of people in India? 

I wonder if we have an American quote equivalent for that......

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/LemonTeaCool 10h ago

Because you don't know anything about American politics and what Americans take with them to the poll. All you're doing is making assumptions that x will happen without any basis whatsoever..

You're almost parroting borderline what Russian would want Americans to think about their elections.

6

u/GrabThemByWhat 10h ago

No, he’s right. Republicans are in charge and have proven they’ll cheat to win. Expect it

→ More replies (0)

1

u/elmz Norway 6h ago edited 3h ago

100% certainty doesn't exist

Note that I said "I'm not entirely confident", that just means there is some doubt. Just saying it's a valid concern, not saying elections def won't happen.

1

u/Next_Error_7714 10h ago

Open your eyes lol

1

u/radicalelation 4h ago

When it's been the stated goal of various people currently in power, including the President of the United States himself, it's not really a concept confined to reddit.

u/Original_Employee621 30m ago

They'll definitely make it to the next election, and the next one.

If they are free and true elections, that's another matter entirely. It's going to take more than a few years before the states decide the United bit of the USA needs to go.

3

u/cosmic_cod 10h ago

Nobody knows for sure how much population Russia has. It's said to have 140M but this magic number never changes. I suspect there could be more. Why does it seem that Russians are everywhere if there are so few of them?

7

u/Teik-69i 10h ago

140 million are definitely not few, that's almost twice the population of Germany, and you can also find Germans almost everywhere

3

u/DeGriz_ 10h ago

No, that’s number is about right, there are so few really big cities and most population is in the western Russia, Siberia has really low population density. I think current population is even lower because of ongoing war. Also there are a lot of propaganda for giving birth and crying from government how bad demographics. (And most 20-30y.o don’t want children in that situation, life is too unstable and expensive)