Die meisten Diktaturen heutzutage haben "Wahlen" nur sind die hald eine ziemliche Clownshow. Um den Schein zu wahren und die Regierung zu legitimieren behalten die Nüsse ihren Namen also.

E

D

in German they say "Für ein strahlendes Lächeln" (for a radiant/beaming smile)

Workers, hearken, they are going to war

And they yell: "For nation and race!"

This war is the rulers of the world's

Against the working classes!‎

Hanns Eisler in "Der Heimliche Aufmarsch"

(works for both sides ngl)

The irony is that production was only stopped after Hiroshima and Nagasaki as nobody wanted to buy radioactive toothpaste any more. So the US which developed nukes against the Germans actually saved the Germans from radioactive poisoning by dropping said nukes on Japan.

One could say it left a bitter taste in some German's mouths. ^(I couldn't resist)

At least you don't have to worry about caries anymore 💀

Oh oh, I've got one too. It's not containing Asbestos but Thorium (or Radium respectively) tho.

"Doramad radioactive toothpaste"

"Creates natural freshness in the mouth!"

"Special biological healing effects by radium rays. A thousand times medically prescribed and recommended."

"What does Doramad do? Through its radioactivity, it increases the defenses of teeth and gums. The cells are charged with a new vigorous life energy, which inhibits bacteria in their destructive ability. Hence the exquisite prevention and healing effect on gum diseases. Polishes enamel to the softest shiny white. Prevents tartar approach. Good foam, new taste, pleasant, mild and refreshing. Use extensively."

Quick disclaimer: The last two quotes can be found on Wikipedia but they are not backed up with sources.

It's just a pity that renfe's new high speed trains built by Talgo seem to be a shaky and noisy experience as highlighted here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dhEopBWNbTc

A huge W for public transport. I assume the PRC already owning the land is significantly decreasing bureaucratic cost / time, allowing for such fast advances.

In sharp contrast the US (and some European countries) keep running after tech bro "innovations" like the hyperloop rather than sticking to actually working systems. Most of them will never see a real purpose because they were never realisable in the first place or will be slimmed down to a point where conventional public transport would have been the better option. And tbh, most of them are really just bait to keep those countries in a state of "looking for alternatives" whilst their current infrastructure is rotting away. And with especially the US being a nation centered around individual transport the vision for public transport is imo clearly lacking.

Europe in general isn't hit by that as much, seeing the benefits of current public transport solutions (at least nowadays... the 90' and 00' were different thanks to neoliberalism and making short term profits instead of doing long term investments), but it is hindered by the clusterfuck of nations / different railway standards. The EU is trying to manage some of it (with ETCS / ERTMS) as well as the new coupling standard (DAC) and track gauges slowly but steadily going towards 1435mm but there are still a lot of things to do such as a transition towards a standard current or even more important: unified train registration (atm a train/carriage needs to be registered for each country separately which leads to unnecessary train switches at border crossings). For example Italy requires carriages to have a fire extinguishing system whilst some other EU countries don't or some mountainous countries require specific braking tests. Having unified safety standards would make things a lot easier.

But at the upside at least some European railway companies do have a vision. For example, the ÖBB (Austrian federal railways) plans to have high speed rail connecting the main cities as well as European alpine corridors like the Brenner, Koralm and Semmering, regional trains for distances covering abt 200km and are reachable in abt 2 to 3 hours and (sub-) urban rail for metropolitan areas. In bigger cities, they want to provide bike sharing at the stations whilst they want to make car sharing available in rural areas to help cover the last few kilometres through the mountains/woods/fields, where busses only go on a daily basis if you are lucky and the bus driver doesn't skip your stop and take a shortcut because they believe nobody will be waiting there anyways and they might reach said vision in the next upcoming years and likely less than a decade.

So TL;DR the PRC is profiting off of their property law, their ability to centralize standards and them going the (at the moment) optimum way instead of hoping for innovation from tech bros with fancy power point presentations and zero knowledge of physics, Europe is doing alright but is a bit of a decentralised mess and the US is getting a bit distracted by "innovations" and their mantra of individual transport.

(My experience in the area mainly comes from working at a state-owned railway company and being interested in the matter in general. If there is anything to add or if I have gotten something wrong, feel free to comment.) ^-^

Russia is still going strong 2 years into the war

You mean the special military operation that was intended to last 3 days to a week at one point?

Imagine you are on a demo and see the Russian Tsardom, Russian Federation and USSR flag flown right next to each other.

That 🦅 moment when you are competing with Malta and Israel on the "democracy index" (Malta 28th, US 29th, Israel 30th) and they call you a "flawed democracy"

Some fun facts:

• On the points "functioning of government" and "political culture" the US is competing with Hungary

• The US has a worse score in "electoral process and pluralism" than for example Poland, Malaysia, Panama and Brazil

• Besides Hungary, Eritrea and Uganda have a better score in "political culture" than the US

But ngl, people who think that the US is a perfect example of a democracy probably also think that the US is a keeper of peace for striking civilian targets in Iraq.

As an AI language model, I fully agree with your last point.

Same energy

My main reasons for why Austria has gone down this route are that:

1. Austrians are generally very chill apart from Vienna. They have that "Is ma wuaschd!" (I don't care!) mentality and are lazier than most to stand up against injustice.

2. Some right wing Austrians have mastered the ability to mask their political views. They would say something mainstream when publicly being asked about their political views but nothing straight up outrageous as they want to keep a positive image in the mainstream. They don't want to let everyone know their views but rot the apple from the core. You only get to know their true colors at the bar table (after some drinks even) or behind closed doors. I had personal experiences where folks was acting nice towards foreigners / LGBTQ+ but as soon as they left they'd go on a rant or make fun of them. And you just awkwardly look around and search for people who are doing the same and depending on how many other folks you see you'd interfere or find an excuse to leave early, mumble "oaschlecha" (assholes) and never come back (unless you really have to).

3. Austria wasn't punished or humiliated nearly as hard in WW2 as Germany. They forged the victim myth in which Austria was the first victim of Hitler's and the Reich's ambitions. They brushed off the fact that the Wehrmacht was met with cheers from the locals as them not wanting to look suspicious and being deported. And since Austria came away with it and didn't lose anything except them having to be neutral by law (an agreement made with the Allies and the USSR so Austria won't be split up like Germany and Korea) they never really had to tackle the Nazi issue in their population. Over time this developed into a very Anti-German sentiment up to the point where Austrians consider themselves to be better than Germans because "Hitler became the 'Führer' in Germany whilst he didn't even become an art student in Austria. He would have never made it here." I remember an interview with a Kickl supporter in which she was asked the question wether she thinks that Kickl or the FPÖ were Nazis and she replied that she doesn't know what makes you a Nazi since "it was never taught to us" (of course kind of a stupid excuse for being illiterate in history).

4. Similarly to the AfD, the FPÖ has seen that social media is a great propaganda tool. They were arguably the first to use Instagram and YouTube ads and now pump out TikTok propaganda. This propaganda is being consumed by people with no/low critical thinking skills and they then consider themselves politically informed. Even worse the constant emotionalization makes them think (rationally) even less. This is why the FPÖ has slogans like "Your heart says yes" because they don't want their voters to think with their brain, they just want an emotionalized, radicalized mass that is not questioning what the FPÖ is doing. And they are helped by the tabloids which sadly make the vast majority of Austria's consumed press. They can be found everywhere since they are "free" and the masses take them and when they are finished they just leave them and so they spread literally everywhere. Now those big tabloids are usually owned by some rich dude or a consortium of rich dudes who think that neoliberalism or even anarcho-capitalism is the way to go (for them). So they are happy to influence their editors to write on topics that suit the AfD's, FPÖ's and even ÖVP's views and in return those parties make economic politics for the upper class. This isn't really considered corruption since in many cases money doesn't flow but it is more like a symbiosis.

M

Tbh they did lose after the whole H.C. Strache scandals got leaked by the German press and German comedian Jan Böhmermann made fun of it on television. Most of those scandals were back in 2019 when H.C. was head of party and vice chancellor and Kickl was the minister of inner affairs. Shortly after the Austrian government collapsed and the FPÖ went into opposition. And now, 5 years later it won with Kickl as head of party.

But yeah, this would be more fitting to some African or South American country than a Central European one. :')

Except if you're a donator to the FPÖ of course xD

How tf did I get that one wrong. Must have been me writing Kurz one time to much and getting a stroke :')

Thanks for reading my stuff so carefully :3