MAGA’s mission to meddle in European politics should terrify Starmer, Macron and Merz. Will any of them fight back?

Donald Trump has launched a crusade to convert European politics to his cause, mobilizing the full force of American diplomacy to promote “patriotic” parties, stamp on migration, destroy “censorship” and save “civilization” from decay.

The question is whether Europe’s embattled centrists have the power, or the will, to stop him. In its newly released National Security Strategy document, the White House set out for the first time in a comprehensive form its approach to the geopolitical challenges facing the U.S. and the world.

While bringing peace to Ukraine gets a mention, when it comes to Europe, America’s official stance is now that its security depends on shifting the continent’s politics decisively to the right.

  • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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    1 day ago

    If you hate Musk…stop using fucking twitter. Nothing grinds my gears more than all these leftists who are still fully addicted.

    • 3abas@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Every time I said this, I get downvoted.

      People on here get really weird about and start downvoting and insulting people who call it X, because they refuse to accept the stupid new name… What are you clinging on to? Twitter is DEAD.

      Yes, the new name, X is stupid. It’s now the Nazi platform X, accept that and stop using the Nazi platform. Your line in the sand is way further back than it should be, you can’t keep using the platform and insist you’re giving the finger to Elon by calling it Twitter.

      Stop using Twitter, accept that Twitter is dead. Stop using the Nazi platform.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        Twitter was always terrible and I’ve never had an account to quit, so the whole “Twitter is dead, call it X to respect the dead” argument doesn’t work for me. I will how ever continue to deadname twitter so long as Musk continues to deadname his daughter.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        I’ve gotten pushback from places I really wouldn’t have imagined for saying that we all need to kill our social media, starting with Twitter.

        I do not care if you keep a facebook account open just to talk to your dear aunt Ethel over the holidays but PLEASE, Lemmy lefties… speaking directly at you right now.

        DO NOT KEEP USING TWITTER.

        When you use twitter you generate views for other things, those views translate into monetary rewards for people in other countries who have been paid to destabilize your country. You are not saving anyone, you’re not helping anyone. It’s a half-dead platform that empowers some of the worst people in the world.

        “But people use it in other countries to organize resistance and several other excuses that make me sound addicted!”

        I do not care. They have other means. You’re not a revolutionary. Just put it away and spend that scrolling time walking and meeting people and reading about local progressive candidates in your area you can back and support and actually make a fucking difference instead of trying to get your twitter arguments clipped and shared on reddit.

    • cv_octavio@piefed.ca
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      1 day ago

      Especially when “just not using it” requires no effort and is literally one if the healthiest things you could do for yourself. Hard to sympathize with anyone grousing so hard while still mainlining the thing they’re grousing about.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yea I have no clue why people still use the damn platform. Especially those who hate musk and what bullshit that comes from his mouth…like gtfo the platform, all you’re doing is keeping his revenue going.

      • ripcord@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Because they fucking suck.

        It just floors me the kind of excuses they come up with.

        Same with leftists still buying Tesla. Which is still a fucking lot.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          Honestly I figured his shit would tank, most of the magats are on trumps platform now, and we know magats weren’t buying tesla cars…so who’s buying and using his shit…the same people who hate him. Like wtf, they literally have the power to remove a ton of his wealth, but nope.

    • SailorFuzz@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Do I get bonus cred for having never used it? I don’t use X, or Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, whateverthefuck.

      I have a Lemmy and Youtube… and before you get all “why not peertube???” because peertube sucks. Sorry, someone has to say it, it’s not there yet, content is subpar.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      “Why is the world this way?” says the blue checkmark Tweeter clutching their phone.

      Though to be fair, many are more disingenuous cash farming influencers.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Or better yet, if you’re a government: stop using it yourself and destroy it for being unlawful.

      • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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        1 day ago

        I wish we could say that - but those terminally online leftist “influencers” like Kyle Kukinski are completely addicted to it.

        • athatet@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          Then he isn’t really a leftist. He is a grifter who uses left wing talking points.

          • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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            1 day ago

            I wouldn’t say he’s a grifter…he’s definitely got leftist credentials…but he’s also terminally online and really cares about “clout”.

            I’m sure he would argue that he’s fighting fire with fire…and I agree with that to an extent: we need somebody operating in those spaces to provide an alternative. But he’s not just reposting content there…he’s genuinely addicted. If he were to be making a coherent argument to remain on Twitter…every single post he makes should include a tagline to a competing platform where you can read his entire post until he’s banned.

            If you claim to be a journalist you don’t actually need to be on Twitter…you can just use an aggregator.

    • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The thing is, quitting X is something people can actually do. The core tenet of leftism is to viciously attack any actual leftward action in favour of endless wanking about a glorious revolution that will make everything better for ever and ever. Anything that could produce actual results in the here and now and which doesn’t involve a bloody civil war followed by mass executions must be wholeheartedly opposed.

      • MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world
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        1 day ago

        …and it’s so easy.

        There nothing more irritating than listen to Krystal Ball complain about how Elon ruined groups chats, or whatever she’s addicted to on Twitter…then immediately afterwards platform a leading leftist activist who also uses it.

      • Eldritch@piefed.world
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        1 day ago

        To an extent. In a know your enemies sense it’s useful. In a useful communication sense it’s becoming more and more ineffective. There’s software that will post to both twitter and mastodon. If your audience is on twitter but you make no effort to change that. Then you support it to your own determent. Part of it is a publicity thing.

        More need to be like hey, if you follow me but want less fascism popping up in your feed. You can now follow on mastodon etc. If enough people did that, we’d see some changes. Probably banning mention of mastodon on twitter. But still better than passive inertia.

        Edit And hello again.

    • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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      1 day ago

      I love how when I point out it’s owned by a nazi, people rush in to defend their use of twitter and most usually it’s some form of “it’s the best for what it is/it has a huge user base” and me responding with a picture of musk doing the ol’ Hitler Salute saying “okay but you’re supporting this guy, and if you sit at a table with 10 nazis…” usually results in being blocked, people simply ignoring me, or saying something dismissive.

      • MBech@feddit.dk
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        1 day ago

        Most people don’t want to actually change anything. They want everyone else to change things, and keep living their happy little lives.

    • brachiosaurus@mander.xyz
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      23 hours ago

      The same way elon musk didn’t become the richest man in the world by working hard, twitter didn’t magically become the platform used by every politician in the world. One of the reason peoples still use twitter is because the representatives of their country use (and are told to use) it.

    • ferrule@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      just think if the EU banned twitter, facebook, instagram, and the rest. the world might instantly get a little smarter.

      • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 day ago

        Banning USian social media services doesn’t stop people from wanting sites like these, nor does it protect you or your community from the impacts that these services have on the rest of the world that will unfortunately affect you.

        Like why exactly do people even want to be a part of these panopticons when the negative consequences are so severe? Because I think that people mostly do understand that they are sacrificing their privacy and autonomy to these platforms, but how can we get people to understand the seriousness of these sacrifices?

        Not a defense of USian social media websites BTW. I think we should burn these sites to the fucking ground. But while they’re active, I don’t see how banning your community from interacting with and monitoring them is a good idea.

        • ferrule@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          i agree the need will be there but banning the ones that exist by coming up with good laws is the point.

          force them to verify all political claims. All ads need to have very apparent sources of funding. don’t let legal entities funnel money to pay for anything. not difficult.

        • wewbull@feddit.uk
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          1 day ago

          So the US just released a foreign policy document that says that the emergence of nationalist parties across Europe is cause for hope and to be supported in order to help Europe realign with the US.

          That’s a plan for undermining the governments of the EU and instigating regime change. US social media is their tool of choice. It needs to be shut down. Yes, people might clamour for an alternative, but they can have them. They just need to not be controlled by the US oligarchy.

          Edit: literally the next article in my feed

        • HaiZhung@feddit.org
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          1 day ago

          Yeah but it’s not like it’s physically impossible to build an alternative. If the one monopolizing the network effect is gone, alternatives will pop up ~immediately.

          Look at china or Russia (ironically), who blocked google. They have a real alternative by now (baidu, yandex).

          We could do the same thing easily in the EU.

      • Nico198X@europe.pub
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        1 day ago

        totally agree. no one is owed to operate here and spread malicious propaganda and ignorance to the masses.

        • ferrule@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          you ban them by making good laws that make why they are shit illegal. it’s really not that hard. force them to have validation of political claims. if they don’t then shut them down. not difficult.

          • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Then it’s not a ban, it’s a law. Which they’ll likely follow so that they have at least some level of business

        • ahornsirup@feddit.org
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          1 day ago

          Replaced by European knock-offs that are subject to European law. That’d be a big step forward if you ask me.

  • MoreZombies@quokk.au
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    1 day ago

    Elon Musk should threaten to sue Elon Musk for hurting Elon Musk’s ad revenue, right?

  • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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    20 hours ago

    Great, so now any ad from the EC we know is either a scam or propaganda.

    Makes it quite obvious.

  • Beryl@jlai.lu
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    1 day ago

    Seems Musk is trying to challenge Trump for that pettiest man alive title.

    I hope this serves as the final push to have all official EU accounts move to, say Mastodon. Every institution still using this fascist hellhole of a social network helps legitimizing it. It’s high time they find another outlet, ideally a FOSS and decentralized one.

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Because a lot more people are still using Twitter than have started using mastodon

      • Foni@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        If all European politicians moved to mastodon, they would drag a bunch of journalists and media behind them. On Twitter, only four insignificant influencers and far-right spammers would remain; all serious debate would shift immediately.

        • Phineaz@feddit.org
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          1 day ago

          And one party might remain on twitter and have a tremendous advantage in reach over all others.

          • Foni@lemmy.zip
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            22 hours ago

            That kind of irrational fear of being left out is what keeps Musk as one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.

            • Phineaz@feddit.org
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              21 hours ago

              I assure you, this is not an irrational fear. A year or so ago, the only German political party with a major presence on tik tok was the afd, a far-right to extremist party.

              They still dominate an enormous share of political discourse on this platform. Arguably thanks to help from the platforms creator, but also because they were uncontested. The platform most teenagers use.