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  • "On quitte le grand air qu’on respire dans le vaste champ de l’humanité pour s’enfermer dans des conventicules de compatriotes. Rien de plus mauvais pour l’esprit; rien de plus fâcheux pour la civilisation."
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    Hendryk
    "N’abandonnons pas ce principe fondamental, que l’homme est un être raisonnable et moral, avant d’être parqué dans telle ou telle langue, avant d’être un membre de telle ou telle race, un adhérent de telle ou telle culture. Avant la culture française, la culture allemande, la culture italienne, il y a la culture humaine." (Renan)
    Might Brexit have been the UK's Boxer Rebellion? An inchoate rejection of all things foreign, fueled by a deep sense of crisis, powered by magical thinking, and egged on by the most reactionary elements of the ruling class in order to redirect popular anger away from them. And which eventually crashed head on against the brick wall of reality.
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    Hendryk
    Though in the UK's case, the aging female monarch had the good sense not to involve herself in the whole mess.
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    Ricardolindo
    I would not compare a political process to a violent revolt.
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    Hendryk
    A violent revolt is also a political process, just one that takes place outside of institutional channels. And we saw with the brutal murder of Jo Cox how far Brexiters were willing to go.
    Me again. Can you recommend me a good book about Josephine Baker? What she did for La Resistance was great. This came unexpected (for Marcel Marceau too) - they aren't as famous for it as they deserve, compared to people like e.g. Sartre and his partner who became antifascist icons.
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    Max Sinister
    But then, in Germany we have another problem. Can you imagine that the Spiegel magazine mentioned Oskar Schindler just three times in several decades until a certain Steven Spielberg made his movie? Any 4th-rate provincial politician gets more mention...
    I don't know whether you ever recommended "La Presidente", but recently I read the German translation. Sure, I don't know many French politicians besides the big names, but at least have heard of Raspail and Hellbaker, as I insist calling him. Yeah, not a fan.

    How did you like it? How realistic do you think it is?
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    Max Sinister
    About Jour J I know from the other place, but AFAIK there's no German translation.

    Didn't know there was more than one volume of "La Presidente" - doesn't it end with her saying "I don't know"?
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    Hendryk
    Yes, that's the first one. Two more were published later and show how the Le Pen presidency unfolds in the following years, but I haven't read them.
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    Max Sinister
    Ah yes. In Germany, we haven't heard of them, and (Judging from reading French WP, so sorry, spoilers.)
    since Frauke Petry decided to leave the AfD on the very day they were elected to the Bundestag
    , it's become AltHist, as things look. Better in a certain way. Still wouldn't mind reading them in German or English, my French is somewhat improve-worthy.
    "It cannot be denied that Fascism and similar movements aiming at the establishment of dictatorships are full of the best intentions and that their intervention has, for the moment, saved European civilization. The merit that Fascism has thereby won for itself will live on eternally in history." (Ludwig von Mises, 1927)
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    Ricardolindo
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    Hendryk
    The context does not make it any better. Mises's broader point is that capitalism needed fascism at that point in time to defend itself against both communism and socialism. Of course, he admits, it was a stopgap solution, but no less indispensable for that.

    When push came to shove, the great priest of free-market fundamentalism was fine with throwing democracy out the window in order to protect capitalism.
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    Max Sinister
    Maybe he should've read a certain book that was sold very often in Germany at that time, although people'd claim later they hadn't read it.
    As a former Erasmus student in Britain, my thoughts on the UK leaving the programme are rather on the uncivil side.
    Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. (Francis M. Wilhoit)
    One day somebody will explain to me why it is that, at a time when science has never been wiser, or the truth more stark, or human knowledge more available, populists and liars are in such pressing demand. (John Le Carré)
    Back home with yet another surgical scar. Strangely, I couldn't access the forum with the hospital wi-fi. Seems like some of the content raises red flags with certain overzealous filters.
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    Mumby
    bit weird when hospital wi-fi seems more zealous than, errr, the people's republic of china
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    Hendryk
    I'd sure like to know which words or statements were considered off-limits by the filter algorithms. Especially as I was able to open the other place's homepage without any trouble (not to mention access my Sufficient Velocity and Fantasque Time Line accounts).
    "Civility has been about making sure that the hierarchy of the status quo at the moment - which means racial inequality, gender inequality, class inequality - stays permanent." (Prof. Lynn Itagaki)
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