Gosplan14_the_Third [none/use name]

Oh hey, my family did this back in early 2010s Italy. The local gold and silver dealership proudly displayed a copy of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics near the counter, that was fun.

A country like Argentina, beyond its meat industry, isn’t really a country with a significant impact on the environment - but this will hurt the local population.

By design even, considering what the aim of the current government is.

Venezuela’s economic crisis really began after oil prices fell drastically in 2014 and the west used Chavez’s death/Maduro’s election to increase pressure on the country via sanctions which for example made buying parts to maintain oil refineries difficult. Before that, it was doing about as well, or better (of course, failing to become independent from oil exports) compared to the other countries in Latin America.

Argentina was already in a crisis for the last …20 years-ish, but this acceleration of the crisis happened in a week even as Milei backpedaled on some potentially damaging promises like cutting trade with China.

It’s less wacky politicians (though there undoubtedly are some that actually believe that) and more nationalist propaganda - showing Poland as an island of righteousness against the removed west or something. It’s an attempt by the far-right Law and Justice Party to gain support via culture war and shocking people into disgust and hoping they back you based on that. Even at the cost of pretty blatant lies.

It works on my family, at least in part. 😕

0 chance. The SPD agrees, the CDU agrees, most of the AfD except the very nazi ones agree, the FDP and the Greens agree enthusiastically and likely even the Left Party is likely to have a sizeable amount of people voting for. Probably only the BSW (the left wing conservative splitter party of Sahra Wagenknecht) will vote against.

But yeah.

Additional Context: The state government of Bavaria (and several others around that same period, with similar ideas) passed a controversial reform of police laws in 2017-2018 (It was polemically called “The strictest police law since 1945”).

It included changes such as:

• increased allowance of use of personal data by the police forces.

• allowing the police to openly film and photograph people participating in public gatherings.

• allowing the police to infringe on postal secrecy and to confiscate mail without a person’s knowledge. (if given permission by the courts)

• allowing the use of police spies. Including even entering people’s homes if given permission.

As well as making previous restrictions such as on “probable danger” way more lax.