News / Heavy fighting. Legia Warszawa brutally attacked in Croatia by pro-German fanatics saluted by local mob ! [49]


None of whom I might add had done any harm to him or Serbia. Ferdinand was completely sidelined from government since the Emperor disliked his well-known sympathies for the minorities in A/U.

Off-Topic / Freedom of Expression in the EU? [87]


And the church is really doing its' best for that to happen.... I used to defend the church as an institution, because of how much good they were doing, even though some of its' teachings were completely detached from reality (like banning contraceptions, which no one really follows).

But the recent revelations about the abuse scandal in Germany changed that. The more one finds out, the worse it looked. Like how they allowed confessed child rapists to work again as priests with children... how they ignored or even silecend warnings and destroyed evidence .... or how they have so far not even once excommunicated an offender, even though this is an explicit possibility. They will excommunicate you if you dispite the infallibility of the pope, but not if you rape repeatedly children.

If the article in question is an indication on how the discussion within the church goes, then I fear it is truly lost. Repeating the old hateful lies and linking pedophilia to homosexuality is just sickening. Someone should check if they still think that Jews murder christian babys and use their blood for rituals.

Off-Topic / Freedom of Expression in the EU? [87]


I feel like this is an excuse made up by those who want to their behaviour. If you really feel sexually deprived, there are other ways to live out your urges, especially in Germany where prostitution is legal (and if you worry about being recognized, just go to a different city). There is no reason why raping a child would be an "easier" solution.

Off-Topic / Freedom of Expression in the EU? [87]


No he is not. Pedophilia is a sexual preference that is often completely seperated from other preferences, hence you have men who are attracted to prebuscent girls but won't be able to get aroused by women.

There is no basis to condemn it whatsoever and it is sad that there are still people who seek them as targets for their own gratification. That this often comes from Christians is double sickening. We call out Islam for its hateful messages but apparantly Christianity is getting a pass there.


No doubt there are people within the church who are gay, but the fact that they are deemed as a problem instead of recognizing that they are as dwvoted to the church as just reveals how morally bankrupt the church has become. Perhaps the old farts have not realized how hypocritical it appears that a religion that says "Love thy neighbour" but discriminates against LBGT, but this is going to be even more of issue, particulary with young people who are more concerned over minorities. Give it 20 years and the same will be happening in Poland and other conservative countries. The church is in real danger of losing its' believers.

Off-Topic / Freedom of Expression in the EU? [87]


Nobody is talking about abolishing the Lords' prayer or the Holy Communion, but aspects that were mostly added much later. At no point does e.g. Jesus condemn homosexuals, in fact it is heavily implied by the wording in the original text that the servant/slave Jesus cured (But say the word, and my servant will be healed) is a lover of the person who begs for help. Those who condemn homosexuals usually point to parts of the Old Testament, which has a lot of things we choose to ignore (like demanding the death penalty on all sorts of crimes). Clinging to one part that goes against the key message of the faith (Love thy neighbour) and one the Church wants to be associated with above all others is just stupid, especially when it is in no way a core tennet of the faith or something Jesus himself dictated.


Predators will always seek out jobs/opportunities where they can pray on others, which is why you have those working as teachers, boyscout leaders, coaches and so on. I am not blaming the church that there are pedophiles in their ranks, nobody can look into peoples souls. What I am blaming the church for is how they sheltered them and gave them again and again opportunities to harm children. We are not talking about cases that were decades ago, some of the accused have been serving as priests in Germany well past 2012! By the way, pope Benedicts' reaction to those crimes have been appalling!


Maybe, but it has been continous progress in the last 76 years or so, at least when it comes to Europe. We abolished the death penaly, improved womens' rights and now those of other minorities follow suit. The Church was often advocating those changes, e.g. in their resistance against the death penalty past WWII. Sadly their record on LBGTQ will look very mixed at best, but maybe one should not abandon hope too early. The Church has been able to adress Criticism and change their ways in the past, e.g. as response to the Reformation, maybe it can do so again. However for that they should stop listening to people of the past like the man wrote the article.

Off-Topic / Freedom of Expression in the EU? [87]


Considering that two years ago he blamed the abuse on the bad influence of the Vatican Concil and the "decay of morals", I would argue that his answer was worse than "imperfect".


The church has changed quite drastically over the years. It once was a staunch defender of the death penalty, than its' opponent. They don't sell indulgences anymore and do not believe in limbo for unbaptized children. They used to defend quite a lot of awful stuff, and as pointed out, the theological argument behind its' homophobia is very circumstancial. The problem is that those up in the hierarchy grew up in a world which criminalized LBGT people, and were thus shaped by this bigotry. They are a relic of the past, and in this case, dragging the church down.


Honestly, I have more sympathy with the many gay Christians who do not wish to be condemned on flimsy theological reasoning then those bigoted scumbags who apply Jesus teaching very selectively at best, yet seem to make this a core tenet of their believes.


Well, that is what the bishop of Rome claims, but it is worth noting that those claims of supremacy were not taken seriously by the other bishops for centuries. The bishops of Alexandria, Constantinople and Antiocha were at some point considered the bishop of Rome's equal or even superior. It took a lot of clever politics by several popes (like pope Gregor) to establish this idea, because the theological argument behind the papal institution is a bit lacking (as someone said, just where does Jesus claim that the leader of his church has to be in Rome?).

Off-Topic / Freedom of Expression in the EU? [87]


The problem with understanding the Bible (same as reading the other old sources) is the world they lived in was so fundamentally different from others that even superficially similar concepts had different meanings. What he was most likely talking about was either the socially acceptable relationship between men among Romans - Paul was Roman after all - which included a powerful older man and a young man below his station - a relationship we would consider unhealthy as well, or it refered to selling sexual services at the temple, in any case it is completely unsuitable for modern relationships between consenting people.


And where does the Bible state that Bishop of Rome is gods' mouth piece? The Bible does not even state that Peter lived (and died) in Rome, there is in fact no evidence that he ever lived there. Even the famous part of Peter being the "rock" of the church could be interpreted in many different ways. The pope is so powerful because of centuries of politics and church traditions, not because it was said so in the Bible. And let us not get into the Church fathers and their many, many failings, especially Augustinus has a lot to answer for... .


When he was young, as pope he did a lot to water down a lot of its' achievements. Not to mention how he seems to have resented anything happening after 1960.

google.com/amp/s/nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna993416

Btw. I managed to get a summary of the article, and the reactions it. It seems to be even worse than expected. Not only is he painting all homosexuals as potential pedophile rapists, he also uses a language that you would expect in an article of Der Stürmer, not a theological magazine (e.g. calling homosexual "cancersous' who need to be ripped off).

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

Well, the chance for a green chancellor was there in May/June, but the thoroughly inexperienced (and some would say unqualified) Baerbock blew it. The Green party will almost inevitable be part of any coalition, but they are not going to get the chancellery.

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

As for men and impulsivness, there are plenty of studies out there about it.

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40473-015-0031-8

wgno.com/news/local/why-are-men-more-impulsive-tulane-brain-institute-study-hopes-to-answer-that-question/

And so on et cetera.


What I do and what men on average do has little in common. Men are statistically more likely to commit murder and rape, I have done neither, does that make the former statement invalid? I get it, we can add women to the many groups of people you despise and move on.


Well, the USA elected someone opposite with Trump and its' democracy was almost brought to its' knees as a result. Tree huggers might chain themselves on tracks, but they are not known to storm the parliament. I am far from a fan of the current Green party, but they had with Joschka Fischer one of Germany's best foreign ministers in their ranks, so who knows what they are capable in the future.

Off-Topic / Foreign news in Polish media [108]


But how long will this last? Both the SPD and Green party have pledged to ease restriction on asylum laws and both parties will likely end up in government. Their probable partner, the FDP, has no strong opinion on this, they however want to make it easier for qualified migrants to immigrate.

As for the AfDs' party program, it is honestly a joke. It completely leaves out complicated yet pressing issues like our pension system and is on other intentionally vague to not scare off somewhat moderatw victors. The AfD has nothing really to say except on refugees, and that point is simply no longer relevant to most voters.

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

Yawn, nobody cares Dirk.

Polonia / Possible Green Surge in Germany [118]

Yeah, I'd rather see the money invested in more useful infrastructure.

Off-Topic / Where are you from? [59]

Just a matter of time. Germans are mostly reasonable people, and once it sinks in that the fear of muslims is anything but reasonable, they will change their mind.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1158]

To quote Helmut Schmidt. "If you have visions, go see a doctor."

Life / Has feminism and lesbianism progressed in Poland? [645]

Something I find rather interesting is the portrayal of murders done by the husband/boyfriend against their wife/girlfriend. In Germany those were often euphemistically called "Beziehungsdrama" (relationship tragedy) but a few years ago the coverage of it started following an international trend and called it "femicide" instead. I was initial sceptical about this term, but after realizing how many women are murdered by their male partner, and that they were indeed ultimately killed because of their sex, it now seems appropiate.

Life / Has feminism and lesbianism progressed in Poland? [645]

It is rather interesting to note that when it comes to women in high government offices, conservative parties in Europe have a surprsingly good effort. The Tories made Thatcher the first prominent female politician to lead a country and later had with Theresa May their second female PM. Merkel became the first woman as chancellor of Germany, with her party colleague von der Leyen becoming the first woman in charge of the European Comission. PiS gave Poland its first female PM, although she was little more than a puppet.

Life / Has feminism and lesbianism progressed in Poland? [645]

Considering how many of her adversaries within her party she overcame, that seems safe to say. Merkel has been accused of many things, but never of being a puppet of her party.


Apologies, thanks for the correction.

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1158]


Indeed. Everybody knows that Brexit was and is a terrible idea, but humans sadly have the tendency to double down rather than rethink their convictions. Pretty much everything the Brexiteers promised to counter the warnings of the Remainers has turned out to be wrong. "Easiest trade deal in history" "No border in Irland" "No need for much paperwork for import/export into the EU" "A quick trade deal with the USA". Of course according to their logic, this is not the result of falsw promises, but others trying to sabotage Brexit....

News / Years of Poland in the EU - assessment of pros and cons [1158]

Yeah, aside from the self-inflicted immenent and long-term political and economical, the UK is doing "fine".


Poland is probably the country that benefits the most from the EU. Financially and economically it is a clear win without a downside, and in political terms the EU provides one last line of defence for Poland's democracy against the increasingly autorcratic PiS.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

It is worth noting that cases like this helped in Ireland tipping the scale towards legalizing abortions.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Savita_Halappanavar

It is easy to have a black-and-white view on such complex issues like abortion, but the reality is more complex and requires more flexibility in order to account for extreme cases. Otherwise you end up with women dying as we were still in the Middle Ages, or women (or even children) being forced to carry their rape baby to term.


It can be one in cases where it is necessary to save the mothers life, like cutting out a tumor, especially when the baby is dead or dying and threatens to kill the mother as well. It can also be part of the mental recovery of a raped woman.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Yeah, it is the woman who has to go through the agony of pregnancy and labour and who ends up with all the possible health risk. While I do support more rights for fathers (especially when divorced) in general, that is a call they have rightfully no say in. Woman can not prevent a man to e.g. get a vasectomy either.

News / Abortion still under control in Poland [2986]

Realistically speaking Pro choice advocates might be better off waiting a few more years, giving time the chance to reduce their opponents among the old people instead of losing a public vote on it prematurely and having to live with it for a generation or so.

News / What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus? [1777]

Yeah, because no refugees or migrants are making it from Greece to Germany....

News / What should Poland do with the problem of Belarus? [1777]


Well, so much for Europe's civilization. Those new citizen do what our supposedly civilized and christian governments should be doing.

News / Will America send troops to fight a Russian invasion of Baltics and/or Poland? [281]

To be honest, what I am really concerned about is not Putin, but about the actions of his successors. Because by now we know what Putin's deal is. He wants to stay in power, and because he is unable to adress Russia's serious domestic problems, he had to build up the West as an enemy. Crimea will now be used as his great success by his propaganda machine, it will always be brought up when Russians grow discontent with falling wages and pensions and rising food prices. Putin is in the end however pragmatic enough to only take calculated risks.

We do not know what type his successor will be. A successor who will not be able to benefit in the same way from previous foreign political "successes" and who will likely be forced to face some serious domestic turbulences when Russia's long-term problems really come to the fore front. Backed into a corner and no "easy" conquest available, who knows what he will do.

Not to mention how successive American governments will be more and more occuppied with containing China, which in return will make Eastern Europe more vulnerable.

News / Will America send troops to fight a Russian invasion of Baltics and/or Poland? [281]


I mean who is realistically going to invade them?


You are being dishonest here. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, successive governments have reduced the Bundeswehr in size, and in the 2000s there was a big consensus among the German public and government that Russia was no longer an enemy, and that we would need the army for peace keeping and nation building. That only changed in 2014, and even then Merkel and the CDU (and partly the FDP) were the only ones actually advocating for reaarmament. The SPD (with whom the CDU had to form a coalition) was especially bad in this regard. They made sure that any increase to the military budget should also be matched by an increase to the development fund budged (thus making large increases impossible), have long prevented the Bundeswehr from buying armed drones, and followed Mützenich's denuclearization agenda, which put NATOs nuclear deterrent in Germany at risk. There may be issues on which the new government might perform better than before, but Merkel's departure is bad news for the Bundeswehr and Germany's role in NATO. Obama knew that Merkel was one of the few German politicians who were not catering to the German pacifist mentality, which is why he appreciated her.

News / Will America send troops to fight a Russian invasion of Baltics and/or Poland? [281]

Just look who constitutes the SPD party in the Bundestag. 1/4 of them are from the JuSos who are very much pacifists and have in the past advocated for North Stream and against the 2% aim. The leader of the SPD in the Bundestag is Mützenich, whose policy goals I already stated. Honestly, the way the SPD prevented the Bundeswehr from buying drones really infuriated me... they were not following arguments, they just wanted to score cheap points with the pacifit voters. At least the Left party is consistent with their pacifist policies. You can not send soldiers to fight and not arm them properly!

And the Green party.... well, they might be for sanctions and all, but expecting them to agree to higher defence spendings is really a joke. We all know what they will want more money for, and it won't be for the army!


Merkel was the guarantee that this would not happen. With her gone, and with Covid having ravaged our budget, I am rather pessimistic for the future.

News / Will America send troops to fight a Russian invasion of Baltics and/or Poland? [281]


Germany does not offer free healthcare but universal one, which interestingly was invented by bonna fide reactionary Otto von Bismarck... higer education is also free except for a few federal states that demand a modest university fee.

Never mind how universal healthcare would most likely be cheaper long term for the USA than the current system. Currently the US spends twice as much per capita than Germany for an inferior service.

History / Royal Family still in Poland? [79]


Are you kidding? Millions of people migrated from Europe in the 18th and 19th century in order to luve in the USA, particulary from Ireland and after the failed 1848 revolution. Nowadays monarchies in Europe have been thoroughly defanged and are more or less theme-park versions of republics and thus no longer causing people to escape, but you can easily find examples of other monarchies in the world that produces refugees. Not to mention that there are also brutal dictatorships like North Korea and Syria that are all but monarchies in name which pass power along a dynasty.

News / New Nuclear Ambitions Of Belarus: cooperation with Poland in the energy deliveries to the EU countries [20]

Besides, he can hardly have good feelings for other Slavs when he is constantly dreaming of subjugating those who live in areas he views as Serbian, or glorifies those who butchered them e.g. in Srebenica. He calls upon Slavs the same way Hitler called upon Europeans in 1944... to aid in his mad agenda.