Europe: *does a couple centuries of colonialism and imperialism driven by hard right-wing nationailsm*
Europe: Boy oh boy, I sure love this hard right-wing nationalism thing. Oh no, an assassination in Austria-Hungary? Better fight a global war over the power of our glorious nation states!
World War I: *kills 18 million people and wounds 23 million*
Europe: whew, that was bad. Lots of our people died. A whole generation was lost. Maybe there is something bad about this hard right-wing nationalism thing.
Me: Yeah, you might wanna give it up and actually listen to your great tradition of anarchism and socialism?
Europe: what? Oh no we will just do our thing but we really learned our lesson here. Promise.
Europe: Oh no there is a huge global depression and Europe is humiliated. Better turn to our old friend – HARD RIGHT-WING NATIONALISM!!!
Me: oh no
World War II: *kills 80 million people, 3% of the global world population*
Europe: okay that was really really bad. Really bad. You know what? You are right. We really ought to stop this thing. But let’s not go all the way with socialism or anarchism, even though we have some of the strongest thinkers in those liberatory traditions. Instead, let’s just pass some really nice social democratic reforms. Some real nice, soft, social democracy. That will help us. A nice, soft, turn to the left.
Me: okay but make sure that you give enough of a shit to make sure that your nice welfare state doesn’t erode or anything
Europe: oh no we will be good, we learned our lesson
Europe: man I really wish rich people could be richer. Time to erode that welfare state. Social democracy is for losers. Time for a little right-wing neoliberalism baby.
Me: no no no your promised.
Europe: I promise a lot of things. Besides, what is the worst that could happen? People will make more money? Lol as if that is bad.
Me: oh boy
Europe: oh no there is a great recession and global warming and austerity, and thanks to our centuries of colonialism, now we have refugees knocking at our door. And since we eroded the welfare state, our people are suffering and we dont have the systems in place to help the refugees or our own people.
Me: I told you to watch your shit and you didnt listen. Now just be reasonable about this and maybe we can get out of this. You still have a great tradition of anarchists and socialists. There is a way out of this.
Europe: I’m really scared. I think it’s time we bring back our old friend. Our old buddy is getting a little dusty.
Me: oh no
Europe: oh yes. It’s time for a little more HARD RIGHT-WING NATIONALISM!!!!!
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