MAGA’s mission to meddle in European politics should terrify Starmer, Macron and Merz. Will any of them fight back?

Donald Trump has launched a crusade to convert European politics to his cause, mobilizing the full force of American diplomacy to promote “patriotic” parties, stamp on migration, destroy “censorship” and save “civilization” from decay.

The question is whether Europe’s embattled centrists have the power, or the will, to stop him. In its newly released National Security Strategy document, the White House set out for the first time in a comprehensive form its approach to the geopolitical challenges facing the U.S. and the world.

While bringing peace to Ukraine gets a mention, when it comes to Europe, America’s official stance is now that its security depends on shifting the continent’s politics decisively to the right.

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[–] 106 points 11 months ago (13 children)

please just ban this shit already. please. i'm so tired.

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  • [–] 57 points 11 months ago (12 children)

    just think if the EU banned twitter, facebook, instagram, and the rest. the world might instantly get a little smarter.

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Banning USian social media services doesn't stop people from wanting sites like these, nor does it protect you or your community from the impacts that these services have on the rest of the world that will unfortunately affect you.

    Like why exactly do people even want to be a part of these panopticons when the negative consequences are so severe? Because I think that people mostly do understand that they are sacrificing their privacy and autonomy to these platforms, but how can we get people to understand the seriousness of these sacrifices?

    Not a defense of USian social media websites BTW. I think we should burn these sites to the fucking ground. But while they're active, I don't see how banning your community from interacting with and monitoring them is a good idea.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

    i agree the need will be there but banning the ones that exist by coming up with good laws is the point.

    force them to verify all political claims. All ads need to have very apparent sources of funding. don't let legal entities funnel money to pay for anything. not difficult.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago*

    So the US just released a foreign policy document that says that the emergence of nationalist parties across Europe is cause for hope and to be supported in order to help Europe realign with the US.

    That's a plan for undermining the governments of the EU and instigating regime change. US social media is their tool of choice. It needs to be shut down. Yes, people might clamour for an alternative, but they can have them. They just need to not be controlled by the US oligarchy.

    Edit: literally the next article in my feed

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    Replaced by knock off versions and nothing is solved.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    you ban them by making good laws that make why they are shit illegal. it's really not that hard. force them to have validation of political claims. if they don't then shut them down. not difficult.

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago* (5 children)

    Then it's not a ban, it's a law. Which they'll likely follow so that they have at least some level of business

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    if the law makes their business not viable it's a ban. and if all they can do is show ads and not allow people to post BS then they will go away.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (3 children)

    A law is a law, a ban is a ban. JFC.

    And no they won't go away if all they can do is post ads JFC.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    How the fuck do you think a ban happens?

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    JFC I have to be more specific? A law that defines allowable products is a law. A ban is a ban. If you want to ban a COMPANY that's a ban on the COMPANY. not a LAW that defines allowable products.

    Do you seriously think a company that has to adjust something just throws their arms up and says "Oh I guess we're banned"? When the EU required USB-C ports did Apple just say "fuck I guess we're banned, we'll withdraw from the EU and lose all that revenue" or did they just put in a USB-C port. JFC. That law did not ban Apple the COMPANY.

    JFC I'm leaving this conversation.

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  • [–] 202 points 11 months ago (14 children)

    Why do people still use Twitter?

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  • [–] 53 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    It drives me insane. Most of the top so called leftists are fully addicted to it and treat it like it’s an essential medium.

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago*

    To an extent. In a know your enemies sense it's useful. In a useful communication sense it's becoming more and more ineffective. There's software that will post to both twitter and mastodon. If your audience is on twitter but you make no effort to change that. Then you support it to your own determent. Part of it is a publicity thing.

    More need to be like hey, if you follow me but want less fascism popping up in your feed. You can now follow on mastodon etc. If enough people did that, we'd see some changes. Probably banning mention of mastodon on twitter. But still better than passive inertia.

    Edit And hello again.

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  • [+] 27 points 11 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Because people still use twitter, and other people go to where people are.

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  • [–] -2 points 11 months ago

    The same way elon musk didn't become the richest man in the world by working hard, twitter didn't magically become the platform used by every politician in the world. One of the reason peoples still use twitter is because the representatives of their country use (and are told to use) it.

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  • [–] 191 points 11 months ago (30 children)

    If you hate Musk…stop using fucking twitter. Nothing grinds my gears more than all these leftists who are still fully addicted.

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  • [–] 40 points 11 months ago (9 children)

    Every time I said this, I get downvoted.

    People on here get really weird about and start downvoting and insulting people who call it X, because they refuse to accept the stupid new name... What are you clinging on to? Twitter is DEAD.

    Yes, the new name, X is stupid. It's now the Nazi platform X, accept that and stop using the Nazi platform. Your line in the sand is way further back than it should be, you can't keep using the platform and insist you're giving the finger to Elon by calling it Twitter.

    Stop using Twitter, accept that Twitter is dead. Stop using the Nazi platform.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago

    Twitter was always terrible and I've never had an account to quit, so the whole "Twitter is dead, call it X to respect the dead" argument doesn't work for me. I will how ever continue to deadname twitter so long as Musk continues to deadname his daughter.

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  • [+] 6 points 11 months ago* (3 children)
  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago* (3 children)

    To be fair…the site link is literally still Twitter.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    No it's not... They kept the domain because it costs $8/year and it would be incredibly stupid to let it go, even for Elon.

    But it forwards to x.com

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Yea I have no clue why people still use the damn platform. Especially those who hate musk and what bullshit that comes from his mouth...like gtfo the platform, all you're doing is keeping his revenue going.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Because they fucking suck.

    It just floors me the kind of excuses they come up with.

    Same with leftists still buying Tesla. Which is still a fucking lot.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Honestly I figured his shit would tank, most of the magats are on trumps platform now, and we know magats weren't buying tesla cars...so who's buying and using his shit...the same people who hate him. Like wtf, they literally have the power to remove a ton of his wealth, but nope.

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago

    Do I get bonus cred for having never used it? I don't use X, or Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, whateverthefuck.

    I have a Lemmy and Youtube... and before you get all "why not peertube???" because peertube sucks. Sorry, someone has to say it, it's not there yet, content is subpar.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    if any leftists is in the nazi platform, they aren't leftists.

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    I wish we could say that - but those terminally online leftist “influencers” like Kyle Kukinski are completely addicted to it.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Then he isn’t really a leftist. He is a grifter who uses left wing talking points.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (3 children)

    I wouldn’t say he’s a grifter…he’s definitely got leftist credentials…but he’s also terminally online and really cares about “clout”.

    I’m sure he would argue that he’s fighting fire with fire…and I agree with that to an extent: we need somebody operating in those spaces to provide an alternative. But he’s not just reposting content there…he’s genuinely addicted. If he were to be making a coherent argument to remain on Twitter…every single post he makes should include a tagline to a competing platform where you can read his entire post until he’s banned.

    If you claim to be a journalist you don’t actually need to be on Twitter…you can just use an aggregator.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The thing is, quitting X is something people can actually do. The core tenet of leftism is to viciously attack any actual leftward action in favour of endless wanking about a glorious revolution that will make everything better for ever and ever. Anything that could produce actual results in the here and now and which doesn't involve a bloody civil war followed by mass executions must be wholeheartedly opposed.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    …and it’s so easy. 

    There nothing more irritating than listen to Krystal Ball complain about how Elon ruined groups chats, or whatever she’s addicted to on Twitter…then immediately afterwards platform a leading leftist activist who also uses it.

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  • [–] 52 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    More governments and corporations need to stop using this piece of shit platform.

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  • [+] 44 points 11 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 32 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Everything is better with less Musk

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  • [–] 28 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    And nothing of value was lost. Who wants to advertise to thousands of Nazi bots?

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (3 children)

    Elon Musk is hardly Russian, the US is capable enough of creating its own supervillains

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    I think they meant that the Nazi bots were Russian - Xitter turned user location on and loads of ostensibly American MAGA accounts turned out to be based in Russia!

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Some of them turned out to be in Russia. Some turned out to be in Pakistan. Some in Israel (including the Homeland Security official account). And many in the US itself.

    What percentage by engagement was in Russia and what percentage in the US?

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago*

    I didn't memorise the numbers, lol! I just remember there being a surprisingly large number of MAGAs claiming to be American who were outside the US and specifically a lot in Russia.

    Xitter turned off the feature pretty quickly, but also a lot of those specific accounts that got outed as non-Americans disappeared thereafter. I suspect they came back with new usernames!

    I found the whole thing amusing because I always thought it was pretty braindead to think you were "making America great again" by voting for Trump, who anyone could spot a long time ago was going to be very damaging for the USA, and Xitter accidentally outing MAGAts as foreign actors was a fun example of rightwingers being to stupid to implement their biases without shooting themselves in the foot.

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  • [–] 27 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    European comission has their own mastodon server at ec.social-network.europa.eu. Why in the fuck they're still advertising/doing anything on twitter?

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  • [–] 26 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Because a lot more people are still using Twitter than have started using mastodon

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago

    If all European politicians moved to mastodon, they would drag a bunch of journalists and media behind them. On Twitter, only four insignificant influencers and far-right spammers would remain; all serious debate would shift immediately.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    The EC absolutely has the marketing budget to change that though.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    European comission has their own mastodon server at ec.social-network.europa.eu. Why in the fuck they’re still advertising/doing anything on twitter?

    Because they can control the narrative much better on X

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  • [–] 27 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    He is hurting them by taking their revenue away from his company. Ouch! It hurt itself in its confusion.

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  • [–] 27 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    Who tf still fucking uses Twitter?

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  • [–] 26 points 11 months ago*

    Seems Musk is trying to challenge Trump for that pettiest man alive title.

    I hope this serves as the final push to have all official EU accounts move to, say Mastodon. Every institution still using this fascist hellhole of a social network helps legitimizing it. It's high time they find another outlet, ideally a FOSS and decentralized one.

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago

    The world is being run by children.

    Fucking insane.

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  • [–] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Cool, then fuckjng get some balls and block Twitter altogether.

    See how quickly they rolled over when Brazil blocked them and they realized everyone was moving to Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon, giving lots of other people the same idea.

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  • [–] 17 points 11 months ago

    This by itself should be enough to have Twitter banned, at least temporarily.

    You don't just get to retaliate for getting fined for breaking the law. That's how you upgrade a fine to a prison sentence if you're a regular person.

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  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago

    Elon Musk should threaten to sue Elon Musk for hurting Elon Musk's ad revenue, right?

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  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago

    I thought at one time he was trying to sue people who wouldn't advertise on his platform.

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  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago

    Double win then.

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago

    Aw, did poor little insecure muffin get his butt hurt?

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Why would the EU place ads for fascists anyway?

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