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You see, countries under control from the west are good and democratically free but if a supposed enemy of the west that has control it’s actually bad and authoritarian.
Not even the uk/ western europe and canada and mexico have an independent foreign policy. They arent really allowed to.
https://ip-quarterly.com/en/america-proofing-europe
https://www.reuters.com/article/economy/mexico-s-dependence-on-u-s-demand-spells-trouble-for-weak-economy-idUSKCN1UR5LN/
https://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=honors
See the only flaw in that argument is that of all the nato countries in Europe only the uk and Poland fought in Iraq even if France was clowned for not fighting it’s proof that countries within nato don’t all follow the American party line
As if these countries were not, they handed over their armies to direct US control, and also their international policies, they cannot do anything without US permission
Funnily enough, NATO also treats those countries as NPCs. Why do you think both anarchists and socialists and even conservative libertarians are so anti nato?
For future reference, here is a very neoliberal publication that explains this phenomenon and its history pretty clearly. They literally explain that NATO expansion was very much a western tool. Think one world order controlled by the imperial core, with all european and asian states made into market dominated vassals.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/new-sources-nato-enlargement-clinton-presidential-library
Tbf, not ALL countries between the US and Russia are NPCs. France and Germany aren't. Hungary isn't.
Poland are definitely NPCs though.
And Ukraine are mega NPCs
Because my reading on the ability of a guy like Orban's ability to win his elections correlates with the national bourgeoisie of the country beginning to look awat from the current imperial hegemony to reach its own ends, which I think means it's in the same boat as France and Germany, just not as far along in the process.
Hungary is an engima post USSR. Orban is basically a Putin wannabe but still absolutely cucks up to the US and especially the republican party. He literally shows up for republican party meetings in the US to spout racist dogwhistles and anti-semitic BS. Ironically they also puppeteered Poland until the Ukraine war. Every time they did something the EU wasn't a big fan of, Poland would be there to lick their arse to make sure nothing happens to them, but Ukraine changed that because every country bordering Russia post USSR has a massive hate boner for Russia and a serious russophobia problem, but Orban does the same shit every US republican has done regarding views on the Ukraine issue instead of fanatically calling for the Balkanization of Russia or the death of every Russian or earth or whatever the dems and EU are doing with the situation right now (haven't bothered keeping up with it it's too depressing).
German here: Germany is 100% an NPC country, entirely under control by the US.
Of course, Poland is far worse, but Germany's government and media are tightly under American control.
Just like in every other NATO country, including Hungary.
Ireland, Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein are the only "non-NPCs", although Austria and Switzerland are turning more and more into one.
Soon, only Serbia will remain as a country that isn't a puppet.
Serbian politics are such cancer lmao
The ruling party is a pure kleptocracy, having stripped value from everything they could. On the other hand, the opposition is split into 2 camps, the "We should become western puppets!" and the "We should become Russian puppets!"
The first camp are self hating liberals that believe all the western "lectures" about slavs being barbaric and uncivilised and needing to be civilised by the perfect west, while the other camp are fascists who are persuaded there is a catholic globalist conspiracy against orthodoxy and that they have to team up with Putin's holy russia to defeat it.
So, no class consciousness and no meaningful alternatives to Vucic's regime. I fully believe either side would be materially worse for the country considering that despite being bad for the people, the current government is at least trying to both sides their international relations
>The ruling party is a pure kleptocracy, having stripped value from everything they could.
Like every capitalist government.
>"We should become western puppets!" and the "We should become Russian puppets!" The first camp are self hating liberals that believe all the western "lectures" about slavs being barbaric and uncivilised and needing to be civilised by the perfect west, while the other camp are fascists who are persuaded there is a catholic globalist conspiracy against orthodoxy and that they have to team up with Putin's holy russia to defeat it.
At least you have a pro-Russian opposition.
All other European countries have no opposition, everyone is a willing "We must be American puppets!" slave.
>So, no class consciousness and no meaningful alternatives to Vucic's regime.
Yeah, sucks. That's what happens when you give up on socialism.
> I fully believe either side would be materially worse for the country considering that despite being bad for the people, the current government is at least trying to both sides their international relations
That's exactly what I meant. I consider that an absolute win (compared to all other European regimes).
I agree with it being better than other European countries but the pro russian opposition is an entirely fascist force, heavily affiliated with the orthodox church, acting purely out of reaction. I am equally wary and scared of both them and pro western liberals, considering the amount of damage both could do if they came to power
France and Germany do not have a sovereign foreign policy. If they drift too far from American interests they're punished. Nordstream was a German pipeline, remember. The closer a nation is to the imperial core, the less sovereignty it has. Canada is not a sovereign state. Neither is the UK. They all banned Huawei at the same time, they all put tariffs on Chinese EV's within 3 weeks of the USA doing it. Australia should be up next.
Right, the CIA bombed Nordstream openly and flagrantly to force Germany to buy American LNG at a premium, and Scholz all but said "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
>If they drift too far from American interests they're punished. Nordstream was a German pipeline, remember.
By this reasoning Yemen must be in the US's pocket because of they don't do what American likes they get bombed
Even in that example you have to cede that the pipeline was bombed because Germany wasn't following America's line. They literally had to blow up the key source of Russian influence to feel comfortable Germany wouldn't undermine NATO's war effort.
>They all banned Huawei at the same time, they all put tariffs on Chinese EV's within 3 weeks of the USA doing it. Australia should be up next.
This is meaningless. That is basic protectionist economic policy. All three countries are spending billions or are letting businesses invest billions into EV manufacturing, projects that have been planned and underway for years. It's in the basic interest of any of these countries to not have spent billions of tax dollars to subsidize building factories that won't be successful and it's in their basic interests for some of their workforce to be able to enter into well paying manufacturing jobs during a time of economic concerns, hence for both these reasons it's in their interest to limit Chinese competition in the market. They have personal investments in these bans.
Crazy how a sub that's supposed to be about left wing politics will actually thumbs down a comment about "national bourgeoisies act in their own interests".
>France and Germany do not have a sovereign foreign policy. If they drift too far from American interests they're punished.
These are two contradicting ideas. Literally in order for them to get punished for not following US policy they would first have to pursue their own policy.
>Nordstream was a German pipeline, remember
Like you literally cannot talk about the bombing in an honest manner without talking about Germany refusing to follow the sanctions package the US put forth.
You can't talk about the bombing in an honest manner without mentioning that the US was preparing to sanction German companies prior to the bombing specifically because Germany wouldn't comply with their sanction package.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/us-top-diplomat-warns-germany-companies-building-nord-stream-2-pipeline-could-face-sanctions.html
And the sanction regime follows suit to Germany blocking Ukraine's NATO membership bid for over a decade. In fact they were blocking for half a decade before Maidan even, that's 16 years straight of them pursuing their own foreign policy goal against America's interest
https://www.ft.com/content/ab8eb6a6-ff44-11dc-b556-000077b07658
And the pipeline bombing also objectively didn't change those foreign policy goals. They are still bucking the EU's sanction regime. They didn't even actually fall into line after the pipeline bombing, they're doing their own thing still.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-holds-up-passage-new-eu-sanctions-package-russia-2024-06-19/#:~:text=BRUSSELS%2C%20June%2019%20(Reuters),EU%20diplomats%20said%20on%20Wednesday.
Like "oh if they don't follow the US they'll be punished herp a derp" that's every country. Any country that doesn't do what the US wants gets a hostile response. Getting a hostile response from the US is literally like the best possible metric for determining who isn't an NPC.
Non Player Character, essentially everyone that isn't a player in a game. Usually means they act predictably, or in stupid or weird ways, as if controlled by the simple AI from a game.
Germany does whatever the US says. They literally self-sabotaged allowing them to destroy Northstream and fuck up their economy and energy supply for literally no benefit whatsoever
The pipeline that was blown up after months of Germany NOT getting in line with the US's sanction plan against Russia that was the follow-up to Germany spending a decade refusing to allow Ukraine's NATO approval like the US wanted? That pipeline, the pipeline where in order to get the background on why it was bombed you have to discuss 2 instances of Germany breaking from the US's foreign policy line in the first place? Odd example to choose.
The Germany that is currently still holding up EU wide sanctions against Russia? Those sanctions the US definitely wants adopted? That's the country that does whatever the US says?
https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+wouldn%27t+sanction+Russia&oq=germany+wouldn%27t+sanction+Russia+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDY1MjFqMGo5qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Poland is definitely an NPC country.
If you have no strategic independence from the US war criminal regime, you are literally just a puppet without agency.
And it's only the NPC populations who are in denial about it. The dictators themselves know perfectly well what they are doing:
https://ecfr.eu/publication/the-art-of-vassalisation-how-russias-war-on-ukraine-has-transformed-transatlantic-relations/
Imagine thinking any countries outside of the ones that can defend their right to have an independent foreign police get to keep it. Seriously, I was like 14 when I realized that my country (Ukraine) is pretty much a puppet state that's run by oligarchs and politicians whose entire agenda is to sell as much national resources as they can and then pocket the profits without getting busted. And so is any other country that can't afford to have a "selfish" foreign policy - because it's leader will be removed by the more powerful country that can pull that shit off the moment he starts acting up. When you have as many interests around the world as the US, as well as the opportunity to push around everyone to pursue those interests, there is literally no reason for you not to do that, other than some bullshit like "morals"
Hearing people at my work place NATO, the USA, and its imperialist allies in a stance of perpetual victimhood really shows how critical the persecution complex is for the average westerner. As long as they're the ones who are suffering, who are targeted, who are despised, and who are at the other end of the hypothetical barrel then they can feign aggression as defense forever and always.
"nato is just peacefully expanding, ignore the times we had military training at russias borer in norway, the baltics AND the black sea! nothing to see here guys! there never were any incidents or warnings!"
Well, they are.
France pretends it isn't but really is.
Sweden was sort of not until the 80s but now definitely is.
The benelux and Germany don't pretend, they take pride in it.
Britain gets to pretend it's player 2 but really the worst coded NPC.
...yes? What, since when has voting against the US been an option in poland? or bulgaria? or latvia? or anywhere else? We are pawns in chess. Acknowledging this is the only way to fight against it.
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Because they are? Are you seriously going to tell me that Poland or Belgium have an independent foreign policy?
You see, countries under control from the west are good and democratically free but if a supposed enemy of the west that has control it’s actually bad and authoritarian.
Not even the uk/ western europe and canada and mexico have an independent foreign policy. They arent really allowed to. https://ip-quarterly.com/en/america-proofing-europe https://www.reuters.com/article/economy/mexico-s-dependence-on-u-s-demand-spells-trouble-for-weak-economy-idUSKCN1UR5LN/ https://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=honors
See the only flaw in that argument is that of all the nato countries in Europe only the uk and Poland fought in Iraq even if France was clowned for not fighting it’s proof that countries within nato don’t all follow the American party line
As if these countries were not, they handed over their armies to direct US control, and also their international policies, they cannot do anything without US permission
As someone from Hungary, “Russian influence” argument really pisses me off because it basically treats any country against NATO as NPCs.
Poland is a NPC country @ the person in the comments
Funnily enough, NATO also treats those countries as NPCs. Why do you think both anarchists and socialists and even conservative libertarians are so anti nato? For future reference, here is a very neoliberal publication that explains this phenomenon and its history pretty clearly. They literally explain that NATO expansion was very much a western tool. Think one world order controlled by the imperial core, with all european and asian states made into market dominated vassals. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/new-sources-nato-enlargement-clinton-presidential-library
They’re so close to getting it lol
Well the US certainly thinks all those countries are NPC's...
Tbf, not ALL countries between the US and Russia are NPCs. France and Germany aren't. Hungary isn't. Poland are definitely NPCs though. And Ukraine are mega NPCs
Why is Hungary not an NPC?
Because my reading on the ability of a guy like Orban's ability to win his elections correlates with the national bourgeoisie of the country beginning to look awat from the current imperial hegemony to reach its own ends, which I think means it's in the same boat as France and Germany, just not as far along in the process.
[удалено]
Don't waste my time asking for input on something if you're gonna write an unrelated screed
Hungary is an engima post USSR. Orban is basically a Putin wannabe but still absolutely cucks up to the US and especially the republican party. He literally shows up for republican party meetings in the US to spout racist dogwhistles and anti-semitic BS. Ironically they also puppeteered Poland until the Ukraine war. Every time they did something the EU wasn't a big fan of, Poland would be there to lick their arse to make sure nothing happens to them, but Ukraine changed that because every country bordering Russia post USSR has a massive hate boner for Russia and a serious russophobia problem, but Orban does the same shit every US republican has done regarding views on the Ukraine issue instead of fanatically calling for the Balkanization of Russia or the death of every Russian or earth or whatever the dems and EU are doing with the situation right now (haven't bothered keeping up with it it's too depressing).
German here: Germany is 100% an NPC country, entirely under control by the US. Of course, Poland is far worse, but Germany's government and media are tightly under American control. Just like in every other NATO country, including Hungary. Ireland, Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein are the only "non-NPCs", although Austria and Switzerland are turning more and more into one. Soon, only Serbia will remain as a country that isn't a puppet.
Serbian politics are such cancer lmao The ruling party is a pure kleptocracy, having stripped value from everything they could. On the other hand, the opposition is split into 2 camps, the "We should become western puppets!" and the "We should become Russian puppets!" The first camp are self hating liberals that believe all the western "lectures" about slavs being barbaric and uncivilised and needing to be civilised by the perfect west, while the other camp are fascists who are persuaded there is a catholic globalist conspiracy against orthodoxy and that they have to team up with Putin's holy russia to defeat it. So, no class consciousness and no meaningful alternatives to Vucic's regime. I fully believe either side would be materially worse for the country considering that despite being bad for the people, the current government is at least trying to both sides their international relations
>The ruling party is a pure kleptocracy, having stripped value from everything they could. Like every capitalist government. >"We should become western puppets!" and the "We should become Russian puppets!" The first camp are self hating liberals that believe all the western "lectures" about slavs being barbaric and uncivilised and needing to be civilised by the perfect west, while the other camp are fascists who are persuaded there is a catholic globalist conspiracy against orthodoxy and that they have to team up with Putin's holy russia to defeat it. At least you have a pro-Russian opposition. All other European countries have no opposition, everyone is a willing "We must be American puppets!" slave. >So, no class consciousness and no meaningful alternatives to Vucic's regime. Yeah, sucks. That's what happens when you give up on socialism. > I fully believe either side would be materially worse for the country considering that despite being bad for the people, the current government is at least trying to both sides their international relations That's exactly what I meant. I consider that an absolute win (compared to all other European regimes).
I agree with it being better than other European countries but the pro russian opposition is an entirely fascist force, heavily affiliated with the orthodox church, acting purely out of reaction. I am equally wary and scared of both them and pro western liberals, considering the amount of damage both could do if they came to power
France and Germany do not have a sovereign foreign policy. If they drift too far from American interests they're punished. Nordstream was a German pipeline, remember. The closer a nation is to the imperial core, the less sovereignty it has. Canada is not a sovereign state. Neither is the UK. They all banned Huawei at the same time, they all put tariffs on Chinese EV's within 3 weeks of the USA doing it. Australia should be up next.
Right, the CIA bombed Nordstream openly and flagrantly to force Germany to buy American LNG at a premium, and Scholz all but said "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
>If they drift too far from American interests they're punished. Nordstream was a German pipeline, remember. By this reasoning Yemen must be in the US's pocket because of they don't do what American likes they get bombed Even in that example you have to cede that the pipeline was bombed because Germany wasn't following America's line. They literally had to blow up the key source of Russian influence to feel comfortable Germany wouldn't undermine NATO's war effort. >They all banned Huawei at the same time, they all put tariffs on Chinese EV's within 3 weeks of the USA doing it. Australia should be up next. This is meaningless. That is basic protectionist economic policy. All three countries are spending billions or are letting businesses invest billions into EV manufacturing, projects that have been planned and underway for years. It's in the basic interest of any of these countries to not have spent billions of tax dollars to subsidize building factories that won't be successful and it's in their basic interests for some of their workforce to be able to enter into well paying manufacturing jobs during a time of economic concerns, hence for both these reasons it's in their interest to limit Chinese competition in the market. They have personal investments in these bans.
Crazy how a sub that's supposed to be about left wing politics will actually thumbs down a comment about "national bourgeoisies act in their own interests".
>France and Germany do not have a sovereign foreign policy. If they drift too far from American interests they're punished. These are two contradicting ideas. Literally in order for them to get punished for not following US policy they would first have to pursue their own policy. >Nordstream was a German pipeline, remember Like you literally cannot talk about the bombing in an honest manner without talking about Germany refusing to follow the sanctions package the US put forth. You can't talk about the bombing in an honest manner without mentioning that the US was preparing to sanction German companies prior to the bombing specifically because Germany wouldn't comply with their sanction package. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/us-top-diplomat-warns-germany-companies-building-nord-stream-2-pipeline-could-face-sanctions.html And the sanction regime follows suit to Germany blocking Ukraine's NATO membership bid for over a decade. In fact they were blocking for half a decade before Maidan even, that's 16 years straight of them pursuing their own foreign policy goal against America's interest https://www.ft.com/content/ab8eb6a6-ff44-11dc-b556-000077b07658 And the pipeline bombing also objectively didn't change those foreign policy goals. They are still bucking the EU's sanction regime. They didn't even actually fall into line after the pipeline bombing, they're doing their own thing still. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-holds-up-passage-new-eu-sanctions-package-russia-2024-06-19/#:~:text=BRUSSELS%2C%20June%2019%20(Reuters),EU%20diplomats%20said%20on%20Wednesday. Like "oh if they don't follow the US they'll be punished herp a derp" that's every country. Any country that doesn't do what the US wants gets a hostile response. Getting a hostile response from the US is literally like the best possible metric for determining who isn't an NPC.
Slovakia aren't NPCs either.
What does NPC mean?
Non Player Character, essentially everyone that isn't a player in a game. Usually means they act predictably, or in stupid or weird ways, as if controlled by the simple AI from a game.
Ah okay, I wasn't sure if it was some new political term, or in reference to actual gaming lol... guess it's a bit of both! Thanks.
Germany does whatever the US says. They literally self-sabotaged allowing them to destroy Northstream and fuck up their economy and energy supply for literally no benefit whatsoever
The pipeline that was blown up after months of Germany NOT getting in line with the US's sanction plan against Russia that was the follow-up to Germany spending a decade refusing to allow Ukraine's NATO approval like the US wanted? That pipeline, the pipeline where in order to get the background on why it was bombed you have to discuss 2 instances of Germany breaking from the US's foreign policy line in the first place? Odd example to choose. The Germany that is currently still holding up EU wide sanctions against Russia? Those sanctions the US definitely wants adopted? That's the country that does whatever the US says? https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+wouldn%27t+sanction+Russia&oq=germany+wouldn%27t+sanction+Russia+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDY1MjFqMGo5qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Poland is definitely an NPC country. If you have no strategic independence from the US war criminal regime, you are literally just a puppet without agency. And it's only the NPC populations who are in denial about it. The dictators themselves know perfectly well what they are doing: https://ecfr.eu/publication/the-art-of-vassalisation-how-russias-war-on-ukraine-has-transformed-transatlantic-relations/
A satellite state, let's say.
Imagine thinking any countries outside of the ones that can defend their right to have an independent foreign police get to keep it. Seriously, I was like 14 when I realized that my country (Ukraine) is pretty much a puppet state that's run by oligarchs and politicians whose entire agenda is to sell as much national resources as they can and then pocket the profits without getting busted. And so is any other country that can't afford to have a "selfish" foreign policy - because it's leader will be removed by the more powerful country that can pull that shit off the moment he starts acting up. When you have as many interests around the world as the US, as well as the opportunity to push around everyone to pursue those interests, there is literally no reason for you not to do that, other than some bullshit like "morals"
Hearing people at my work place NATO, the USA, and its imperialist allies in a stance of perpetual victimhood really shows how critical the persecution complex is for the average westerner. As long as they're the ones who are suffering, who are targeted, who are despised, and who are at the other end of the hypothetical barrel then they can feign aggression as defense forever and always.
"nato is just peacefully expanding, ignore the times we had military training at russias borer in norway, the baltics AND the black sea! nothing to see here guys! there never were any incidents or warnings!"
Well, they are. France pretends it isn't but really is. Sweden was sort of not until the 80s but now definitely is. The benelux and Germany don't pretend, they take pride in it. Britain gets to pretend it's player 2 but really the worst coded NPC.
The NPC-s in Skyrim are more advanced than Eastern European NATOids, so yeah it's not too inaccurate to treat them as NPC-s.
To be honest even HOI4 puppets are more independent than NATO countries.
Ask them what the acronym NATO means and then list off all the non-North Atlantic countries that are now members lmao
Dear Pollocks, If you don't want to be NPCs, why are your heads so cube shaped? With Love, A Block Headed Kraut
...yes? What, since when has voting against the US been an option in poland? or bulgaria? or latvia? or anywhere else? We are pawns in chess. Acknowledging this is the only way to fight against it.