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Jul 14, 2022Liked by epimetheus

I haven't been aware of you writing about this even last autumn... at that time I didn't pay much attention to substack. Excellent!

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Thank you kindly, cm27874!

These are from my earliest postings, and while I'm glad you found them click-worthy (interesting), I'm equally pleased, albeit quite horrified, too, that the scenarios I pondered are actually coming true.

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Just how gullible and naive can most people be?

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I suppose as much as there are stars in the sky? Or sand in a desert?

Yesterday, I briefly spoke with my mother about this issue: she's as apolitical and naive as they come, so, when I say, 'even' her understanding of these issues is much, much greater than that on display in the pieces I write, it's telling you something.

Her main points incl. where's the electricity coming from, if we're not supposed to heat with gas? Most people will just use electrical heaters, therefore: ain't work. Still, instead of announcing to protest (which I encourage her to do at every turn), she simply shrugged it off: they live in a pre-WW1 building with solid brick walls (hence, quite o.k. insulation), and she stated she's quite o.k. with wearing more clothes.

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Jul 14, 2022Liked by epimetheus

At least, Austria and Germany can blame Russia for their consequences of their own mistakes.

We shuttered our nuclear plants due to internal party power politicking. We are pouring tens of billions of euros into the Black Hole of southern european corruption via the EU-fee. We are pouring even more money in the nonsense of building higher-than-the-Eiffel tower wind plants in Skagerrack.

I could go on until the cows come home.

But the piece de la resistance must be the Greens lobbying via EU for Sweden to outright outlaw firewood, burning thereof, and private ownership of wood burning stoves.

Either that or the swedish Green's efforts to, again via EU - lawfare as it's called - demolish any and all dams to return the waterways to their natural flows. Which would mean a return of many swamplands hosting the local variants of malaria (made extinct here in the 1920s), annual floodings and so on.

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Oh, my, what do you want me to say?

Some two years here in Norway taught me that the 'northern' (I think, due to the accident of my birth, I do qualify to be included in this category) arrogance about 'southerns' is quite misplaced: I have encountered so many knowledgeable people here in Norway who claim that, e.g., 'contracts are one thing, reality quite another' while musing, at times in the same context, about those 'pesky southerns' who 'can't get things right'.

I agree with you on the EU transfers to worse places, no questions asked, and the wind turbine park in question is a very good illustration of this 'do-goodin' virtue-signalling', but I've been on the record (as one of the very few in academia, that is) to decry the insanities of esp. the Greens, the Red/Greens (watermelons), and Green-Liberals (yes, there's such a faction in Switzerland: it's an unholy combo of pro-environmental and pro-business people). It's not (been) easy, for most academics, esp. among my fellow humanities and social sciences colleagues, are, in fact, (very far) left-of-centre.

While there political disposition is one thing (have fun with it, eh?) I don't give a flying f*** about, the worst aspect is that I kinda 'win' every debate on issues, such as energy (the ignorance is stunning), climate change ('but, hey, I bought a Tesla'), economics (most people hate to think about numbers, you know), or the shitshow in Ukraine ('Putin bad'); after a few moments, most colleagues actually agree with most of my points, which typically 110% contradicts their previously-voiced 'convictions'--and then they go on to vote for the above-listed parties anyway.

Best example is my wonderful next-door colleague (who works on gender issues in the Middle East), a staunch advocate of equal rights, pro-choice (with one exception, care to guess?), etc. whose typical 'defence' consists of 'yes, the national party is a nightmare, but on the local level, where I'm a member, it's different', which is the intellectual equivalent of a declaration of personal (intellectual) bankruptcy, if you'd ask me.

You see, there's not much anyone can do in this day and age, hence 'gloating' about these follies is very well gonna come back to hurt you, due to division of labour, interdependence, etc. But you, my friend, know that, which makes this comment an exercise in 'preaching to the choir'.

If you're in doubt, I won't stop pointing out these things.

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Jul 15, 2022Liked by epimetheus

Well, I didn't find much to either oppose or that I felt I could contribute to in any significant manner, so I opted for some kind of roundabout attempt at caustic humour.

I've had that kind of colleagues too, no surpirse there for either of us in any direction I guess, and have had the exact same reactions: when talking causally, it's all about agreeing and creating the pack-mentality "Us". When talking in private with me digging out facts (such as Frontex data on the percentage of migrants claiming asylum who actually are refugees - 4% last time I checked years ago) the tune changes to either "But why don't 'they' say anything about it?" or "Yes but despite the facts we must show that we believe in...".

Infuriating and inviting exactly the wrong kind of arrogance against one's fellow man; it's not difficult for me to understand the blinkered arrogance of dictators and leaders both past and present.

A condescending tone to southerners (which means greeks, italians, albanians, jugoslavians and spaniards, at least here) is in my experience half prejuice, half empirical. Take a road construction in Mora, where I have a cousin. The original crew was spanish, since a spanish company won the bidding. After six months, middle of summer, they pack up their gear and stop working demanding to re-negotiate. Ie. they are using congestion etc a a hostage to squeeze more out of the deal than agreed to. That's huge no-no. The reaction from people there, according from my cousin, was "Yep, that's what you get hiring those: lazy, unreliable and cheats". After three months of deadlock, the contract was instead annulled and local swedish contractors brought in.

Which did the remaining work in less than half the time the spanish firm had projected. As I said, half is prejudice, but the other half is empirical. If the council had negotiated with the spanish company the way one does it down there, the problem wouldn't have happened: respect for different cultures means acknowledging both the good and the bad, yes?

Gender issues in the Middle East? What the why dhnbfjbsdv v? In my experience with people from there, they don't have gender issues. Men are men and women women, and they both have clear cut well-known social niches to fill, both being self-regulating, internally balanced and also mututally defining and referencing? I can't even imagine an arab man saying "Birthing person" or "Men can get pregnant".

But hopefully your colleague works with stufff like qual before the law, voting, careers and so on - there, they have issues if we use western norms (i.e. if we're being culturally colonialist/imperialist). I find comparing the World Value Survey with the Arab Youth Survey very educational, as the first is a foreign comparative/relative perspective, and the other is a domestic intenally self-referencing perspective.

In as much as Sweden still has old social taboos, breaking a deal is in the top three. That means breaking it both in spirit, spoken word and written down - all are seen as "Damnatio in Perpetuum et Memoria" or whatever it is in real latin. To be known as untrustworthy is among the worse stigmas possible: it's virtually just a step or to below child molester.

As norwegians are slightly more flexible in this (or realistic, reality does trump contracts after all) and from a northern horizon southerners are yet more flexible (or rather: have a different tradition of contracts and agreements) it is no wonder it rubs you the wrong way as there must seem to be a very stark discrepancy between how people speak about themselves, and how they act. I can relate, due to having lived in Malmö, wher only 30% of the population are actual swedes meaning that the various arabs set the tone of what is normal: they speak high and mighty about sharia and Quoran and so on, and then go out and get drunk, gamlbe, do drugs and buy prostitutes. Pointing out that discrepancy to them always brought about either anger, guilt and admittance, or dismissive rationalisation.

Different, yet very similar too, yes?

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Amen, my friend.

I almost fell off my chair when I read this paragraph:

'Gender issues in the Middle East? What the why dhnbfjbsdv v? In my experience with people from there, they don't have gender issues. Men are men and women women, and they both have clear cut well-known social niches to fill, both being self-regulating, internally balanced and also mututally defining and referencing? I can't even imagine an arab man saying "Birthing person" or "Men can get pregnant".'

It's funny, I think, because every word is true.

As to my Norweigan experiences, I usually tell my local colleagues that, since I consider myself 'temperamentally Eastern European', I can understand the issues you raise in your last paragraph, and I think I'm quite well-equipped to deal with them--but pointing out the obvious similarities as to how Norwegians perceive of themselves, well, I always get really funny faces and reactions to me saying so. Which is why I shall continue to do so.

Muahahahahaha.

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