Luis M. Rocha @lmrocha@social.cleverlibre.org

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/05/house-democrats-moderate-republicans-unite-speaker?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

@tiago too many items to respond to. I will just say that economically the Democratic party in the US is less tied to the neoliberal orthodoxy that rules the EU, including by social- democrat and socialist-in-name parties. You just have to compare Obama's response to the financial crisis, to what was seen in Europe, especially against Greece, Portugal and the so-called PIGS---if that acronym alone does not speak volumes about the tone of European "centrist" politics.

All socialist and social-democrat parties in power in the eurozone abide by deficit and spending rules that effectively enforce neoliberal orthodoxy, no matter who is elected and where they profess to be on the left-right axis.

Even with the pandemic, Biden was more aggressive in spending (including on social programs) than Europe was. So, yes, economically the democrats have been able to enforce a more leftist agenda than European center-left governments, including the portuguese that until recently had a coalition with communists.

I did not claim that parties that do not support liberal democracies don't exist in Europe or south America. I just mentioned the communists in Portugal. I just meant that by definition they do not fit the American Democratic party wide coalition---liberal democracy is its core.

At least in Europe those parties have less influence in government than the Bernie coalition in the US. Even in France the last presidential election was between a fascist and a center-right candidate (definitely more Hilary than Bernie).

@tiago I disagree. In Portugal, the party that follows the same politics as Bernie Sanders has exactly one representative in parliament. In other words, the makeup of the democratic party umbrella in most European countries is quite similar. Most social-democrat or socialist parties in Europe have very similar positions, aligning themselves with very small parties to the left and right to result in similar coalitions. It is true that in other countries you still have communist or similar parties, which are not represented in the Democratic party in the US (or Labour in the UK for that matter), but those do not believe in liberal democracy. There are such parties in the US (and UK), but the electoral system rarely allows them to enter national parliamentary structures---even though they appear in local politics.

Regarding left-right dynamics in US vs. EU, in my experience, hearing what is said in public and seeing election results, I find that the political discourse in Europe has moved much more to the right than in the US in the last 10 years, from Hungary and Poland to Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, France, UK, etc. In several European (and also Latin American) countries working-class voters from the left have moved to nationalist populists, and centrist parties espouse a well-known financial neo-liberal orthodoxy that is much more challenged in the US, including by presidents like Biden and Obama (Paul Krugman discussing the "frugal" European countries comes to mind).

P.S. Bernie Sanders and the like have been in the US political system for a long time, not a new development.

@tiago I do see where you are coming from. I think where we disagree (by degree more than qualitatively) is on 1) European power and 2) the state of the US left. Europe, especially its megacorps and elites, have a lot of power in the World, including on US politics. I believe that challenging them at home will have greater impact on US politics than people in europe think. The narrative that Europe is a vassal state to the US helps them very much by making the european citizenry feel powerless. Regarding 2) I disagree that Democrats wholesale became pro-war neo-McCarthysts. That is what Greenwald also wants to push and I disagree. The democratic party contains a very wide spectrum of political positions. It has always been that way. Currently, it goes from pro-war neo-McCarthysts to democratic socialism , and includes other orthogonal dimensions including identity politics, environmentalism, etc. In other words, it includes the entire current German government coalition and more. Attempts, like Greenwald's, to paint the party as a monolith of "liberalism" more than false are ineffectual, or worse, simply destructive trolling. It is failing to understand how large coalitions work. I would indeed prefer that it were a formal coalition like in Germany, but the US election system does not allow such multi-party systems, except indirectly in the coalitions that get formed in the local primary politics of each party.

"Isto, porque a tipologia das provas é pouco utilizada como método de avaliação/selecção no sistema educativo e no mercado de trabalho [português], onde o conhecimento teórico/técnico tende a ser mais valorizado".
A escolinha portuguesa, incluindo universidade, seleciona as pessoas que aguentam estar sentadinhas à secretária horas a fio a levar com fardos de teoria na cabeça. É uma escola muito hierárquica, sem interesse pelas--aliás menosprezando-- competências criativas, práticas e de inteligência social. Estas competências desejadas noutros lugares, obtêm-se construindo (não "recebendo") conhecimento de forma material, com o corpo, na prática, em contexto social onde criatividade não é rejeitada. No meu caso---com carreira feita fora de Portugal---só desenvolvi essas competências fora da escolinha. Por isso sempre me oponho em Portugal a enfiaram as criancinhas tempo de mais na escola.
["https://www.publico.pt/2032755"]

@tiago my point is that by focusing your ire on the perceived opinions of Americans, you are perhaps contributing to obfuscating the horrible things that get done closer to home where (using Greenwald's argument) you have more power to change things. Anti-Americanism (strangely coupled with importing American cultural norms) has a long history in Europe (and elsewhere) and it has functioned as a mechanism that only benefits its elites who are left unchecked. Personally, I have made it a point to write opinions in Portuguese newspapers because I think I can perhaps inform and influence better here.

Regarding perceived American opinion, people typically get it wrong. For instance, all my leftist friends in Europe thought that the war in Iraq was something that had wide support in the US because that is what they saw in main media (including the NY times). But the biggest reason Obama won (first over Hillary then McCain) was his initial opposition to that war. The US is a very diverse country with a wide range of opinions. Trying to generalize its views hardly ever works.

Finally, I want to be clear that I always enjoy reading your thoughts on everything you post. If I reply and disagree on occasion is because I respect what you say :)

A praia de #Carcavelos está cheia de manchas de óleo além da espuma que a assola há vários dias. Não sei se a origem é a lavagem ilegal de depósitos de barcos na barra, ou o rio que ainda desagua na praia a céu aberto quando chove?

@tiago I see your point. But to be clear I am not telling anybody to not criticize the USA. I am saying two things: 1) Avoid misrepresenting or exaggerating American views, especially from what one gathers from media and social media; 2) Avoid overinflating American issues when there is so much at home to worry about too. Regarding point 2) Europe is very hegemonic as well, especially Germany. Things like Dieselgate have had enormous impact on a global scale---so do European megacorps like Siemens, BP, Shell, LVMH, Philips, etc. A corollary of 2) that I am trying to express is that the focus on American issues has served to deflect a lot of harm European companies and governments do. Finally, who am I to tell you what to say? Everybody is entitled to comment, of course :) But American citizens (like everybody else) are also entitled to criticize the criticisms they receive, including by pointing to blind spots at their critics' homes.

@tiago I have no idea why you brought up the Holocaust since we were talking about modern day hypocrisy. I'm glad you clarified what you meant by "everybody." You and I don't actually know how people feel about FBI and Twitter in the USA. Most people are not on Twitter, and given how they vote, I disagree with your assessment of what most people think stateside. My larger point is that perhaps people should be focusing more on their local politics---thus my bringing up Dieselgate which directly affects the health and lifespan of people in European cities----than what Musk, Kanye, Hillary or anyone else in the USA thinks or does.

#BestOf2022 #music that made my radar. Top 40 Albums, Top 100 Tracks, Top 20 Remixes/Edits (from E-Trash's #DJ sets): https://bit.ly/CityZen22. The top tracks and remixes are assembled in a Spotify List as well: https://spoti.fi/3PSimS6.

2022 was a hardworking year, though full of fun travel and reconnection with friends and family---thank you vaccines! I was particularly delighted to get back to DJing to full clubs again. Every year is a great year for music, with such amazing tracks, even if perhaps fewer great albums. I am sure I missed really excellent stuff.

@tiago You are bringing a lot of side points. You said "Everyone in the US goes bananas for..." I was responding to that. Scholars, journalists, are part of everybody too. Moreover, I also disagree with your characterization of "everybody" in the US beyond those groups. I bring up Europe because I know it very well (I am dual citizen)---also very familiar with southern Africa as I was born and raised Angolan (I let that citizenship expire due to disagreement with such a corrupt, non-democratic government). After living (and attending university) in three European countries, I don't find the US population far more ignorant than the European population at all---as should also be clear by similar proportions of people on both sides voting for authoritarian parties, among many other similar choices.

I also disagree with you about Germany and other European countries when it comes to hypocrisy and corruption---though hypocrisy was the original focus. When European journalists and scholars uncover as much of their own demonstrable corruption as American journalists and scholars do about the US, then we can perhaps compare better. Otherwise it is just the usual game of using US self-scrutiny/reflection against it, without doing the housework first.

Re: Germany. Dieselgate, for one, has been an absolute disaster for the environment and population health. The amount of diesel in the air of European cities is a disgrace. I bet you most Germans and Europeans are not aware of the lying and corruption behind this scandal and still believe their car's "green-eco-diesel" engine logos. And this is just one example of the type of corporate/government complex that rules Germany and Europe in general. But Europeans (and everyone else for that matter) know a lot more---and talk a lot more---about Kanye West and Trump than about Martin Winterkorn or Schroeder :)

@tiago people have all sorts of reasons to be dismissive of the Twitter files, including knowing full well that the FBI does that and much worse. As for the self-reflection point, I disagree with you. No other country produces the amount of investigative journalism, scholarship, documentaries, movies, tv that are so self-critical. I wonder what proportion of Germans really grasp the amount of corruption their government engages in, from Gazprom to dieselgate to Uighur slave products? Or how much swedes know that Olof Palme used his disarmament meetings with Gandhi to press India to purchase arms? The Spanish and British monarchy sells favors to gulf nepocracies, etc, etc. Most european journalists and commentators just copy the news from the US, rarely investigating their own scandals---dieselgate and FIFAgate were uncovered stateside, for instance. Why is this? Because they are lazy or their governments don't let them?

@tiago the main media actors are not "everyone." You may want to calibrate what you mean by the latter. Most people in America very well know that the US government is actively involved in changing opinion abroad and internally. You just need to watch Hollywood to know about this---e.g. countless movies, shows and journalism pieces about FBI and CIA influence internally and externally. Also, these actions are not unique to the US among democracies. But I am convinced that the American democracy is more self-reflective about this than other democracies. I can tell you that Portugal very rarely debates how our government manipulates public opinion. I can think of many situations in countries like Sweden, Germany, France, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands that go much more unchecked than the debates, journalism, and art you see in the US. Finally, knowing this does not mean people should just accept to be manipulated by foreign powers, especially those who squash internal criticism much more.

Quem a festa do avante não convida são as @pussyrrriot. Aliás, seria excelente algum outro festival @NOS_Alive, @sbsr @Primavera_Sound ou outros convidassem. #PunkRock #protestsong
https://youtu.be/W4IsdnlbOr8

@melaniemitchell looking forward to the new chapters :)