Libb

Thx, once again.

To be clear, I was half trolling (half only) with my rhetorical question but reading your comment I would not be surprised to realize we agree on a lot of things.

What truly worries me is the speed and the extend at which so many anti-eu parties have become politically meaningful.

I mean, I don’t care at all if they’re being funded by a foreign country but I do care to realize our own population is now that gullible and clueless as to believe their shit. I mean, do people have never read a history book?
I also don’t mind those parties existing, people are more than welcome to have their own ideas and to try to convince others to support them, even when I consider those ideas not the best ever. But them becoming a legit political force means they’re convincing enough of us to support their ideas, which should be the real issue. Imagine a flat-earther becoming to new head of a major science department: their silly ideas is not the issue, it’s how they managed to get to that post that should worry all of us.

Meanwhile, we have so few legit political leaders standing for the EU that are able to convince anyone. That’s not good.

Exactly like I worry to see illiteracy and hostility towards culture in general become the new normal among younger generations in the EU, too. Nothing good can come out of that trend, only more hate and more violence. Here again, it could help if people would read a history book, once in a while… but for that younger people should be taught how to properly read and then how to use what’s written in a book.

As for the EU membership, I’m one to think there should be a tiered EU memberships. Doing so, we would be able to welcome more new members quicker and then we could give time to all parties to get to know one another better and get used to living together and, well, get enough time to make sure we can all agree on some fundamental values and principles… like that should be the case in any lasting union (says I, after almost 30 years and counting with my spouse). The sad thing is that this tiered thing exists already but, unsurprisingly, only for the monetary aspect of the Union. It’s so… easy to hate on the EU sometimes, no wonder many won’t refrain of doing so.

Since brexit leaving the EU hasn’t looked like a very attractive option but still there is a lot of discussion on whether the EU should be smaller (e.g. having borders controlled by each individual member-state) or bigger (e.g. having a single combined army).

Brexit… The morning I heard the news, it was so… I was… I just could not believe that thing really happened and that any politicians could be that incompetent and dishonest and willing to screw their own people so badly. To me, that Brexit campaign was but a scam devised so they would be allowed to redistribute power between the various groups but it never meant to end as an actual exit out of the EU. Obviously, I was wrong.

Whether we like or not, whether we think there is a reason to worry or not, the huge political shifts we’ve recently been witnessing coupled with the constant and ever growing hysteria in the media and with the fast growing illiteracy in the population, all things we now seem to consider the new normal, those should decide a lot of that for ourselves.

There are people happy about what it is becoming*

Thx for helping me improve my lacking English. Much appreciated (I mean, really ;)

The EU is not a finished project :)

Are you sure about that?

I mean, looking at who people are actually voting for (here again, an existential grammar doubt if you don’t mind me asking: should I instead say ‘who they voted for’ or ‘who they vote for’ as it’s an ongoing and repetitive action but also an already finished task since, obviously, we can count their votes?) Back to what I was saying: people are voting not for the EU and have been voting not for the EU more and more openly. And to me votes is the only data worth considering when discussing politics, not what people may say out loud. Their vote is them being honest with themselves, not trying to look good.

Like with our dear US-friends swearing they hate on Trump and on his politics but still have elected the dude twice.

Should we think Trump is really just that, a sad accident that happened twice (almost) in a row in the history of the USA, or wouldn’t it be safer to consider the possibility that, maybe, a majority of the US population is indeed supporting what they voted for twice and that they want their country to become exactly what it is becoming? And they want their leaders to treat the rest of the world like they’re doing?

As a fervent EU proponent myself, I wish to see some meaningful election giving me hope we still have some common future as a Union, and not just because we share some common borders.

I suppose you’re asking if I’m French? Yes. And, yes, it’s a French operator (Bouygues Mobile)

The European Union could help safeguard those borders.

Since we/The EU will be soon buying even more US weapons, I seriously doubt that.

What was once a region of the world populated with so many smart and bright people has now become the proud land of the dumb. The EU is like a headless chicken running around. And it seems rather happy about what it has become, I’m afraid to say so.

That would be the first step in claiming back what once was ours ;)

As a EU/French I vehemently oppose that idea unless we get to see the Canadian mounted police to parade here on the Champs Elysée, this next 14th July :p

Anyone have any advice?

• Ask them for their number, and see how it goes? Worst case, they will say ‘no’, end of the story. Maybe the will ask why you don’t have IG and that will be the start of an interesting conversation.
• Try to meet different kind of people? I mean it seriously. I know a lot of people around me who have IG/Facebook/X and so on but at the same time none of them make it a requirement to use it.
• Use a second phone/number for that crap content only? I barely use my ‘real’ phone (I have nothing installed on it beside what I’m required to use) still I do own a second phone just so I can easily share a number with all the services and various craps that ask for one. It’s a phone I never answer to, despite it being constantly harassed by callers. And that peace of mind (my real number is almost spam free) only costs me the 2€/month (plus the phone, I purchased used). You should be able to do something similar for social networks: have a second phone without anything personal on it, just with IG.
• Accept that you’re doomed to use IG because it’s with those ‘IG people’ and no others you want to spend your time with? I like to spend time with people reading books, it’s kinda expected we indeed read books. Would I not like to read, I would not spend as much time with them.

Are we supposed to shed a tear? The only thing I’m looking for is some alternative to my iPhone, even very basic and very feature-limited, preferably made in the EU, that would let me ditch that last piece of Apple tech I own… while still being able to easily access the banking and security apps I do need.

I too am quite surprised so few people seem to have been reading that book. I’m not even American but I’ve read it.

So much of what has been happening recently is explained in it.

Neither Tuta or Proton will neatly integrate with Apple Mail if you want to send/receive encrypted messages. At least the last I checked it required for Proton a separate client that was not bug free (can’t remember for tuta).

If you don’t care about encryption, you may want to consider the Swiss Infomaniak.

They have a cloud offer which includes cloud storage (1to base), calendar and email, plus the online version of MSOffice, all being hosted on their Swiss servers.