Thomas van Linge on X - "To say Viktor Orban was a democrat after all because he admitted defeat is quite a stretch considering he manipulated the entire electoral system to his hand and in the end fell victim to the monster of his own creation. Tisza only got 53% of the popular vote."
Ralph Schoellhammer on X - "The Labour Party of Keir Starmer only got 33% of the popular vote in 2025, yet he became PM with a majority of MPs. In 2024, the National Rally (RN) won the largest share of the popular vote in France but finished third in parliamentary seats. Are France and the UK autocracies?"
Climate Warrior🐬 #ClimateJustice🇵🇸🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 on X - "I lived in Hungary for several years under the Orbán dictatorship. The funny thing was, people could and did say whatever came into their heads, protests were held in front of the parliament, there was a gay cruise bar down the road and Orbán held elections. And yet, the country was a dictatorship. Whereas in the UK, people tend to be distinctly guarded and if they do say the wrong thing very publicly, they get locked up. And yet, it's a free country. Once you understand that words can mean whatever we want them to mean, it begins to make sense."
Philippe Lemoine on X - ""Emmanuel Macron armours France against an Orban-style takeover" If Orban packs Hungary's highest courts with ideologically and politically reliable judges, that's "democratic backsliding", but if Macron appoints a notoriously corrupt and incompetent loyalist to head France's constitutional court, where he will be able to systematically undermine the policies of Macron's successor for ideological reasons (even if he campaigned on them, they are overwhelmingly supported by public opinion and there is no serious legal argument for their unconstitutionality), that's a heroic act to protect democracy 😪"
Melissa Chen on X - "On the Hungarian elections: Hungary under Fidesz was a de facto one-party-dominant state in much the same way Singapore has been under the PAP for over 60 years. They are both electoral democracies and not the cartoon “autocracies” that the Western globalist elites describe. Both Fidesz and the PAP are parties that win elections repeatedly, often with supermajorities, because they actually govern for their citizens rather than chasing every globalist fad. One could argue that they've consolidated power through constitutional changes and media influence; voters, however, keep re-electing them because they deliver results and the alternatives look worse (until now). Lee Kuan Yew’s PAP model - strict laws, media self-censorship, meritocracy over Western-style “rights,” emphasis on order and national identity - is the exact template critics say Orbán copied. Yet Singapore gets polite editorials calling it “efficient or enlightened authoritarianism.” Meanwhile, Hungary gets called an autocracy and a threat to Europe. The usual suspects are screaming about "autocracy" because Orbán went against the grain on the European open border consensus - they built a border fence in 2015, slashed migration, boosted family subsidies, and told Brussels to go screw itself on gender ideology and refugee quotas (and paid a steep financial penalty for it). The domestic results are clear - lower illegal migration than peer countries, low crime, a cohesive society, and attempts at demographic recovery. So basically, none of them are really cheering for "democracy." They’re just cheering their team winning. How can they call it an autocracy when there have been fair elections, high turnout, and Orbán conceding when he lost? Now that the opposition won in a landslide with record turnout, it’s suddenly “the people have taken back their country!” It appears that democracy is whatever defeats anti-immigration, nationalist conservatives in Europe. I mean just look at the hypocrisy on display here:
> Hillary Clinton, who once called half of America “deplorables” and cheered color-revolution-style operations abroad, suddenly loves “democracy” (also russigate, anyone?)
> Gavin Newsom runs California like a one-party fiefdom with sky-high homelessness, crime, and out-migration, yet lectures Hungarians about “free press and human rights" lol
> Alex Soros whose family foundation has funded opposition groups across Eastern Europe for years, celebrates “rejection of foreign interference” with an EU flag emoji (hahahah)
> Tim Walz calls it “a big win for freedom.” The same guy who oversaw government overreach in his state during covid and who believes in policing misinformation and hate speech
I personally disagree vehemently with Orban's foreign policy positions but to keep calling Hungary an autocracy is exactly what the woke did with the word racist. They've diluted it to the point of futility. It means nothing anymore. Small countries like Hungary and Singapore prove you don’t need perfect Western liberal checkboxes to succeed. You need competent governance, cultural cohesion, and the willingness to make unpopular decisions and stick to them. Voters in both places have repeatedly validated that approach. They are not "autocracies." If you keep using that word it will come to mean nothing. The Western commentariat only freaks out when the “wrong” party does it - and only when it’s a European country that refuses to dissolve its borders and heritage on command."
Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 on X - "Lots of weird takes on the Hungarian election result from both left and right here. Peter Magyar is a socially conservative immigration restrictionist who wants to cut taxes and double the defence budget. He criticized Orban for admitting too many guest workers, and wants to increase Hungary's already generous pro-natal incentives. On virtually every issue, his platform is well to the right of centre, by European standards. His foreign policy is to end Orban's alliance with Putin, remove the Hungarian veto on EU loans to Ukraine, normalize relations with the European Union while opposing more Euro integration, and strengthen relations with Eastern Europe's anti-Russian governments, e.g. Poland. His election was not a sudden shift to the left, but a rejection of Orban's corruption, the failure of his interventionist / statist economic policies, and the humiliation of his relationship with Putin."
Mario Zelaya on X - "LOL! 😂 Carney, Macron, Starmer, Obama & Tusk, ALL CONGRATULATED Magyar for defeating Orban. Carney called it a “victory for democracy”. Magyar’s first moves as PM-elect?
✅ Border is not strong enough
✅ 90% of EU demands rejected
✅ Ethnic Hungarian rights prioritized
✅ Told the state funded media, ON AIR, TO THEIR FACE, that their being defunded & called it propaganda
He used to work for Orban until 2024. Then left, became the “opposition” AND WON. He played 4D chess & Liberals took the bait. The EU celebrated thinking they finally got Hungary. They got Hungary alright. Just not the Hungary they wanted. 🤣 How can you not love this guy?"
Joey Mannarino on X - "Viktor Orban didn’t cancel any elections and never arrested people for social media posts. He also stepped down after his election loss and is partaking in a peaceful transfer of power. But, don’t forget, he was a dictator. Keir Starmer attempted to cancel about 1,000 local council elections next month and arrests about 12,000 people a year for social media posts. He also refused to let a rival run for a seat in a by-election because he was worried it would be a threat to his leadership. But, don’t forget, he’s a democratic leader."
Benny Johnson on X - "Muslim banner was draped over a 9/11 memorial in California advertising the Islamic section of the Memory Gardens Cemetery in Concord. Following huge outcry by the public, the insulting banner was recently removed. That it was ever placed there is outrageous."
Islamophobia!
Why the number of Islamic schools in Canada is soaring - "His office bears symbols of a dual identity: boxing gloves emblazoned with the Palestinian flag hang opposite a cabinet of ice-hockey memorabilia. That balance is tricky. “Assimilation,” he says, can be “dangerous if done blindly…you’re going to lose your own personal identity, your own connection with your ancestry.” Many Muslim parents across Canada share his anxiety. They worry that the country’s state-school system—which mostly separates religion from education, allowing religious schools to operate privately—may distance their children from Islamic values or expose them to Islamophobia. Most Muslim pupils attend the state system, but data from the Islamic Schools Association of Canada show rising enrolment for private Islamic schools. There are long waiting-lists for existing schools and new ones are opening fast... State-school systems are responding to the critique. School boards in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia have adopted anti-Islamophobia policies. Some go further. The Waterloo Region District School Board in Ontario reportedly has promoted an “Islamic Apparel Store”, selling merchandise emblazoned with slogans such as “One Ummah, One Love” (Ummah means “nation” or “community” in Arabic). Canada’s private schools must follow the curriculum set by their province. This is meant to uphold standards in maths, science and social studies. Mr Abougouche says Islamic schools have to get “a little creative” in order to integrate Islamic lessons. At Tarbiyah Elementary School near Toronto study of the water cycle in science lessons is interspersed with discussion about water being a blessing from Allah. Maths lessons at most Islamic schools will highlight the influence of Muslim mathematicians. At Albushra School in Ottawa social-studies classes promise to “highlight the rich tapestry of Islamic civilisation” through “literature, poetry and storytelling”. Mr Abougouche says social-studies classes seek to compare the plight of indigenous Canadians with the experience of modern-day Muslims. Many Islamic schools extend the school day so pupils can learn to recite the Koran. Often, such sessions are not optional. At Ecole Ibn Batouta, also in Ottawa, students must aim to memorise at least one chapter of the Koran per year, and are encouraged to learn more. Ahmed (not his real name), a 17-year-old Ghanaian attending ICE Islamia School in Toronto, proudly sports a white kufi and a flowing Moroccan thobe. “I like to be seen as a Muslim,” he says. Going to Islamia lets him keep a closed circle of friends; he has found that non-Muslim teens are often taken aback by his faith and make him feel left out. His school friends challenge each other to read the whole Koran over Ramadan. Public educators and sociologists worry that accommodation of this preference for Muslim-only friendship groups may harm social cohesion. Not all pupils are like Ahmed, notes Ali Khan, his principal. He deals with kids who are “forced to be” at the school by their parents. “We try to make the best of it,” he says. Some he persuades of the benefits of Islamic education; others drift back to the state system. Parents don’t get everything they want. In Edmonton Mr Abougouche notes that he resisted demand for classes segregated by sex. Some schools allow parents to decide whether their daughters wear hijabs. Others have policies requiring them. One school in Winnipeg demands girls wear hijabs after they turn ten. Education about sex and gender is another point of friction. Some state curriculums now require schools to teach pupils about gay, lesbian and transgender people. Many Muslim schools ignore the directive. Segregation is not absolute. Mr Abougouche says links with non-Muslim schools ensure that pupils mix with children who are different from them. “We create a bubble that is there to protect them,” he says. “But we also recognise if you don’t allow them to step out of that bubble, it’s equally as dangerous.” Lunch is poutine, a classic Canadian dish. Pupils file into the mosque to pray, boys separate from girls."
Clearly, this proves that Muslims are moderate, well-integrated and secular
Ban on child marriage is deemed 'un-Islamic' by Pakistan's religious leaders - "Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology - a prominent body that advises the government of the Muslim majority nation 'whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam' - has opposed the bill. The council said in a statement published Tuesday: 'Declaring marriage below the age of eighteen as child abuse and prescribing punishments for it, and other controversial provisions, are not in line with Islamic injunctions... The bill was passed after several female politicians who were married off as minors shared their personal support. Pakistan ranks among the top 10 countries with the highest absolute number of women who were married before the age of 18 - more than 20 million. Data compiled by activist group Girls Not Brides and Pakistan's National Institute of Population Studies suggest nearly 1 in 5 women in Pakistan (18%) are married before the age of 18, and 4% before the age of 15."
Time to go on about US states that allow minors to get married, since per capita is only important when it makes white people look bad (not to mention we need to pretend that there are equal amounts of coercion in both places)
So the only way to fly from Canada to Cuba is through Miami now? : r/TravelCuba - "I need to go get some paperwork in Havana to process my daughter's application for canadian citizenship. She is a toddler and while I love Cuban people, that country has no future and children shouldn't be raised in such a precarious economy if they have the opportunity to grow and thrive elsewhere. Her mom thinks the same. The only flights to Havana I'm seeing departing from Montreal have a stopover in Miami (American Airlines). I rather not go through the US, for obvious reasons. There are flights from Montreal with a stopover in Panama (Copa Airlines), but those stopovers are 10-15 hour long which is not practical. Only decent options are with a dominican airline (roundrip from Canada to DR, then within that roundrip I'd book ANOTHER roundrip between DR to Cuba with Air Century). Can anyone think of other flight options? Thanks"
When you hate the US / have bought into the hysteria so much, you go to great lengths to inconvenience yourself
Pediatrician who traded sex for prescriptions blames Holocaust; judge rejects excuse - "For years, pediatrician Craig Spiegel worked out of a medical building near DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton, where patients reported the doctor offered prescriptions for sex or sexual pictures... Spiegel apologized in court but partly blamed his behavior on losing family in the Holocaust. The judge said that was an offensive excuse and sentenced Spiegel to 20 years in prison."
French election: Far right takes 55 new municipalities as left bickers - "Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella and their allies took control of 310 cities across the country. The Socialist Party, meanwhile, finds itself at a crossroads after many of its ad-hoc alliances with the hard-left France Unbowed fell flat."
Time to condemn the whole country as Far Right, and to stage a coup to Save Democracy
Threads - "ACAB includes snitches that call the cops when someone gets shot when they try to steal or destroy someone else's property"
Threads - "ACAB includes anyone who sides with the oppressive systems over people."
Commies' list of people to execute after the Revolution steadily gets longer
TIL a Harvard study found that hiring one highly productive ‘toxic worker’ does more damage to a company’s bottom line than employing several less productive, but more cooperative, workers. : r/todayilearned
Toxic Workers Are More Productive, But the Price Is High
This has interesting implications for people who keep complaining about their "idiot" colleagues
It's often claimed that masturbation saps the body of testosterone, but in a study of young well-trained male athletes, masturbation prior to a strength test was associated with higher testosterone levels compared to abstinence. : r/psychologyofsex - "Also, when exercising post-masturbation, the athletes had better cycling endurance and showed a small increase in grip strength when compared with abstinence. Researchers attributed the improved performance to the athletes' higher sympathetic nervous system activity – due to their more aroused state – which offered small, short-lived increases."
Fake violinist high tech winners. : r/richmondhill - "The violin plays itself when he bent to pickup someones money."
"we need to collectively stop giving money to people in york region to people at plazas, grocery stores, the plaza exits or those people who beg while waiting at left turns. its an organized ring"
"But then how am I supposed to delude myself into thinking I'm not just a vapid, empty, morally-bankrupt cockroach if I don't virtue signal, engage in performative empathy and spend the rest of the afternoon patting myself on the back repeating the mantra, "you're a good person. You did a good thing. You deserve a klondike bar"?"
Meme - "why do you care so much about this man, it's irrelevant, it's not real, it doesn't affect anything at all. you're so weird for getting worked up about this thing lol that's only for you though. I still really really really really really really really want to get my way with this thing no matter what"
e.g. left wingers claiming other people shouldn't care about trans issues
Meme - "DONUT OR CERVIX"
What Makes Europe Better than America? - "The U.S. and Europe really do have two different understandings of what it means to be human, and this manifests in our rules, regulations, and social preferences. While both the U.S. and Europe share a commitment to classical liberalism and democracy, we have very different definitions of the public good, and therefore very different views of what we want from life. In broad terms, the U.S. emphasizes material wealth, opportunity, and indivifdual liberty, while Europe places more value on community health, shared resources, and a sense of place. From the European perspective, the U.S. is built on the cult of the individual, which is why it has too many guns, obscenely large cars, inadequate public transportation systems, and dysfunctional public spaces. From the U.S perspective, Europeans are held back by a vision of the common good that means stealing from the successful to prop up the losers, which is why they are unmotivated, unproductive slackers who would rather sip coffee all day than work. This difference isn’t just about policy on taxes, healthcare, or labor rights—it’s about how we understand the “good life” and how our physical environments reflect that. If individual liberty is the priority, as it is in the U.S., then the public sphere can largely be ignored. It is a place you have to pass through on your way from your workplace to your home, which is big enough to serve as a social space. The result is public spaces in the U.S. are given short shrift, with little appreciation for their aesthetics. Thus today, despite our immense natural and material beauty, large parts of the U.S. are ugly, soulless, and dehumanizing—a landscape of bland housing developments, strip malls, and franchise stores that look as though they were dropped from the sky into bulldozed land, with no regard for the surrounding environment. This isn’t to say Europe doesn’t also have its own suburban sprawl or dehumanizing architecture. It does—especially in the Netherlands—but even in these places, there’s a lingering respect for beauty and the need to publicly socialize. If the state doesn’t provide social spaces, family-run businesses do, because the citizens demand it. Nor is it to say all of America is ugly. There are pockets of beauty—neighborhoods, cafés, and restaurants with a European level of aesthetic appreciation—but these are exceptions, often built for wealthy and educated elites. By contrast, if you find yourself stuck—as I have been—in a random town in France, Germany, Italy, or the Netherlands, you will almost always find a café, restaurant, or park that offers something uplifting. You can sit, have a decent meal, and relax without being immersed in banality. That simply isn’t the case in the U.S. Beyond being depressing, this homogeneity means much of America feels indistinguishable from place to place. When I was in that hotel in Atlanta, I could have been in any city in the country. In Europe, however, there’s still a genius loci—a spirit of place—that persists, even in areas not known for their historical significance. You don’t need to be in a famous part of Paris or a picturesque Lombardy village to detect an area’s unique identity—though that certainly helps. Belonging depends on being part of something larger than yourself, and in Europe, this is tied to a cultural heritage that stretches back millennia. The U.S, with its relative youth and diversity, lacks this connection—and instead, its obsession with wealth has made us a nation of fragmented communities.
SightBringer on X - "⚡️Europe is going to stop being a serious civilization within this generation and almost nobody is willing to say it in those terms. Europe is actually ending as the thing it has been for the last five hundred years. The continent that produced the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, global empire, liberal democracy, and most of the intellectual and cultural inheritance the modern world runs on is genuinely going away. What replaces it will share some of the same geography and some of the same languages but it will not be the same civilization. The six weeks of jet fuel is not the story. The story is that this is the visible consequence of a civilization that has lost the will to sustain itself. Europe stopped having children. Europe stopped producing its own energy. Europe stopped defending itself militarily. Europe stopped building industrial capacity. Europe stopped growing its economies in real terms. Europe stopped believing in its own cultural inheritance enough to transmit it to the next generation. Each of those is individually a crisis. Together they are civilizational suicide in slow motion. The demographic collapse is the terminal condition. 1.3 to 1.5 fertility for a generation means the native population will halve within two generations. Replacement migration from culturally distinct populations is not continuity of the civilization. It’s substitution. The continent will still exist. The population will be different. The culture will be different. The political systems built around the old population will be under stress they weren’t designed to handle. This is happening now and it’s not reversible because the children who would have been the Europeans of 2060 simply were not born. The energy crisis is the near term manifestation of a deeper rot. Europe built its prosperity on cheap Russian gas and cheap Middle Eastern oil while taking moral stances against both. It shut down its own nuclear capacity. It limited domestic extraction. It bet that the transition to renewables would happen faster than the old supply chains would fail. It lost that bet. Now it’s rationing energy in its wealthiest cities and telling citizens to stay home in pajamas to save fuel. A continent that was producing most of the world’s advanced manufacturing in 1990 is now debating whether to run the air conditioning. That’s not a crisis. That’s a collapse. The military situation is the silent emergency that will determine everything else. Europe has functionally disarmed over the last thirty years. NATO defense spending is a fiction in most European countries. Ammunition stockpiles are months, not years. Industrial capacity to produce military equipment at scale doesn’t exist. The continent cannot defend itself from Russia without American support and American support is not reliable. If the US decides Europe’s security is Europe’s problem, which Trump has been explicit about, Europe has no independent capability to protect itself. A continent that can’t defend itself is not a civilization. It’s a protectorate."
Fossils in Greece Suggest Human Ancestors Evolved in Europe, Not Africa - "A recent analysis of fossils recovered in the 1990s in the village of Nikiti in northern Greece supports the controversial theory that apes, the ancestors of humans, evolved in Southeastern Europe instead of Africa. The 8 or 9-million-year-old fossils had first been linked to the extinct ape called Ouranopithecus."
Wrath Of Gnon on X - "Sustainable forestry: lumber without cutting down trees. Daisugi is a Japanese forestry technique where specially planted cedar trees are pruned heavily (think of it as giant bonsai) to produce "shoots" that become perfectly uniform, straight and completely knot free lumber."
