I love your stack - you give me a perspective from a different region of the world. Yet, these tyrants are the same. In Australia we had an election a few years ago and PM who eventually won got in front of the people and berated them for voting for minor parties, claiming that we were "destroying democracy" (etc.). Of course, 'democracy' is just another word for 'power' with these corrupt lunatics. Imagine winning an election, then getting up and saying "you didn't vote for me hard enough."
Since I can respond in a likewise fashion about your Substack, I suppose the next step would be to do a podcast entitled 'The Antipodes' or the like and chat about 'Europe' and (vs.) Oz…
I only ever did the very basic stats coure at uni, but even then they made a point about the difference between asking things to get an anwer, and actually finding something out.
Take that silly "optimism/pessimism"-question. Total rubbish unless all the nationalities use the same baseline for the terms. The same well-defined, quantified et cetera baseline at that. Allow me to question the idea that swedes and greeks use the same reference-frame re: EU-issues.
"Democracy means you vote and then the Socialist party forms the governement" as we say here.
I don't think you'd need any statistics to understand that the interested party (the EU) will not tell you, me, or anyone the 'truth' about this.
The optimism/pessimism question is rubbish, of course, but the more important thing is what isn't shown in these overviews (and which media of both legacy and alt garden varieties also misrepresents) is…
* 32% of Austrians consider things moving in the right direction at the EU level, as opposed by 51% who disagree; these numbers are virtually identical (33% pro vs. 52% con) EU-wide
* Trust in EU institutions is 'markedly down since summer 2022': 39% trust the EU Parliament (-9% since summer 2022); 40% trust the EU Commission (-6%); 42% trust the ECB (-2%); 36% trust the EU Council (-8%, which is telling as power rests with the Council)
* some 52% (-5%) favour continued EU membership, as opposed to 38% (+3%) who'd rather leave.
Mind you, these are numbers from last year; should the current polling data indicate a 56% majority in favour of leave, it would signify an +8% shift towards anti-EU sentiment in Austria.
(Data from their dedicated country profiles, all available via the above-linked website).
As to the uselessness of asking identical questions to different peoples: well, you get the answers you'd like, I suppose.
You can of course ask identical questions, but unless the groups have the same definitions of terms/concepts used, the answers will be fuzzy.
[Respekt] is the perfect example. In germanic/nordic cultures it means a) something earned, b) a sense of the respected party being worthy of it, and c) a form of appreciation.
In no sense does it mean obsequiousness, fear, forced obedience or some such. It cannot be demanded (unless you want to look the conceited fool), forced or coerced into being.
In arabic/semitic cultures, respect means that the weaker give way and show deferrence to the stronger, that formal hierarchy is adhered to and that this is shown in public and that people shall know their place or suffer for it.
So when a western politician or other do gooder tells (f.e.) palestinian migrants "you must respect our culture" and then don't show any force or willingness to fight, the palestinians interpret that as weakness and deceit, and unworthy of respect and will instead force their ways onto the othe party, and force it to respect them.
Therefore, asking in a survey things like "Is it important to respect other cultures?" is highly misleading unless concrete follow-up questions using hard and real examples are also included. If I don't misremember, The Arab Youth Survey uses such questions in a multi-national and multi-generational interview model (as an example of such surveys done right, i.e. to actually try and find something out).
I love your stack - you give me a perspective from a different region of the world. Yet, these tyrants are the same. In Australia we had an election a few years ago and PM who eventually won got in front of the people and berated them for voting for minor parties, claiming that we were "destroying democracy" (etc.). Of course, 'democracy' is just another word for 'power' with these corrupt lunatics. Imagine winning an election, then getting up and saying "you didn't vote for me hard enough."
You are very kind, thanks a lot for reading.
Since I can respond in a likewise fashion about your Substack, I suppose the next step would be to do a podcast entitled 'The Antipodes' or the like and chat about 'Europe' and (vs.) Oz…
Gosh. Where would we even begin? I suppose the influence and conquer of China, which in Australia is total.
I only ever did the very basic stats coure at uni, but even then they made a point about the difference between asking things to get an anwer, and actually finding something out.
Take that silly "optimism/pessimism"-question. Total rubbish unless all the nationalities use the same baseline for the terms. The same well-defined, quantified et cetera baseline at that. Allow me to question the idea that swedes and greeks use the same reference-frame re: EU-issues.
"Democracy means you vote and then the Socialist party forms the governement" as we say here.
I don't think you'd need any statistics to understand that the interested party (the EU) will not tell you, me, or anyone the 'truth' about this.
The optimism/pessimism question is rubbish, of course, but the more important thing is what isn't shown in these overviews (and which media of both legacy and alt garden varieties also misrepresents) is…
* 32% of Austrians consider things moving in the right direction at the EU level, as opposed by 51% who disagree; these numbers are virtually identical (33% pro vs. 52% con) EU-wide
* Trust in EU institutions is 'markedly down since summer 2022': 39% trust the EU Parliament (-9% since summer 2022); 40% trust the EU Commission (-6%); 42% trust the ECB (-2%); 36% trust the EU Council (-8%, which is telling as power rests with the Council)
* some 52% (-5%) favour continued EU membership, as opposed to 38% (+3%) who'd rather leave.
Mind you, these are numbers from last year; should the current polling data indicate a 56% majority in favour of leave, it would signify an +8% shift towards anti-EU sentiment in Austria.
(Data from their dedicated country profiles, all available via the above-linked website).
As to the uselessness of asking identical questions to different peoples: well, you get the answers you'd like, I suppose.
You can of course ask identical questions, but unless the groups have the same definitions of terms/concepts used, the answers will be fuzzy.
[Respekt] is the perfect example. In germanic/nordic cultures it means a) something earned, b) a sense of the respected party being worthy of it, and c) a form of appreciation.
In no sense does it mean obsequiousness, fear, forced obedience or some such. It cannot be demanded (unless you want to look the conceited fool), forced or coerced into being.
In arabic/semitic cultures, respect means that the weaker give way and show deferrence to the stronger, that formal hierarchy is adhered to and that this is shown in public and that people shall know their place or suffer for it.
So when a western politician or other do gooder tells (f.e.) palestinian migrants "you must respect our culture" and then don't show any force or willingness to fight, the palestinians interpret that as weakness and deceit, and unworthy of respect and will instead force their ways onto the othe party, and force it to respect them.
Therefore, asking in a survey things like "Is it important to respect other cultures?" is highly misleading unless concrete follow-up questions using hard and real examples are also included. If I don't misremember, The Arab Youth Survey uses such questions in a multi-national and multi-generational interview model (as an example of such surveys done right, i.e. to actually try and find something out).
Has UK really left EU?
Fair point.
I suppose that, in theory, there's no difference between theory and reality.
In actual reality, however, there typically is.