Belgian Politics & Elections: Federal, regional & EP elections on June 9, 2024

[Zinneke]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

[Leading Political Consultant Ma Anand Sheela]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

[Zinneke]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

[PSOL]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is. At least swallow and vote for PVDA as a party that would not have led to this disastrous Covid response.

[Zinneke]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is. At least swallow and vote for PVDA as a party that would not have led to this disastrous Covid response.

Litterally the only thing stopping me from voting PVDA-PTB is their stance on so called Communist dictatorships like China where they deny a litteral ethnonationalist genocide is happening.

[PSOL]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is. At least swallow and vote for PVDA as a party that would not have led to this disastrous Covid response.

Litterally the only thing stopping me from voting PVDA-PTB is their stance on so called Communist dictatorships like China where they deny a litteral ethnonationalist genocide is happening.

There is no genocide in Xinjiang, nor is there a roundup campaign jailing regular people by even the thousands aside from separatists. It’s unfortunate that PTB-PVDA believes so strongly in the modern Chinese government, but given that the latest scheme of lying involves accepting information from Pan-Islamists and white nationalists such as Adrian Zenz as fact.

[Estrella]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is. At least swallow and vote for PVDA as a party that would not have led to this disastrous Covid response.

Litterally the only thing stopping me from voting PVDA-PTB is their stance on so called Communist dictatorships like China where they deny a litteral ethnonationalist genocide is happening.

There is no genocide in Xinjiang, nor is there a roundup campaign jailing regular people by even the thousands aside from separatists.

1920s: "there is no famine in the Soviet Union, only kulaks have no food"
1930s: "there is no antisemitic violence in Germany, only speculators had their shops attacked"
1950s: "there are no political prisoners in Eastern Europe, only bourgeoisie that worked with the West is in jail"
1970s: "there is no torture and mass murder in South America, and if there were, they were all communists anyway"
1980s: "there is no massacre of leftists and minorities in Iran, it's just Shah's puppets"
2020s:

[Conservatopia]

What's taking place in China technically isn't a "genocide" per se but the difference is academic so calling it a genocide is certainly justified.

Perhaps "People's Dispatch" and "Daily Worker" aren't the best sources of information out there...

[PSOL]

So this is all feelz > Reelz, JFC

[urutzizu]

I mean if the position of the Belgian government parties, is that yes, they are commiting genocide, but we are not going to call it that, nor will we condemn it in any meaningful way aside from signing on to vague UN statements, nor will it have any consequences for our economic relationship and we are going to go ahead with ratifying an extradition treaty with them anyway, and we will let them build a massive logistics hub and their technology into our critical security infrastructure,

then the PVDA-PTB who actually do genuinely believe, for naivety or whatever reason, that there is no genocide so closer ties with China is fine; I am not sure if the former is actually the more defensible position.

(Although granted, I don't know much about how China policy is in PVDA or in Belgian politics generally, so do feel free to correct me.)

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is. At least swallow and vote for PVDA as a party that would not have led to this disastrous Covid response.

Litterally the only thing stopping me from voting PVDA-PTB is their stance on so called Communist dictatorships like China where they deny a litteral ethnonationalist genocide is happening.

That's the opinion of some of them, i acknowledge that a genocide is going on. The only thing that bothers me is how much we highlight this genocide and ignore all others (like the genocide of Palestinians).

That being said, what matters is internal politics, not foreign politics. With time PVDA will develop beter foreign policy views, but what matters now is internal politics.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

The irony is that you criticize the traditional parties for some reasons, and than indicate you will vote for N-VA which arguably do the things you criticize the traditional parties for, even more. That being said, they have better energy policies, even if it they only defend them to make sure Belgium doesn't work anymore. The Greens are horrendous on energy policies. They would build gas reactors that emit carbon dioxide in order to stop nuclear energy which doesn't emit carbon dioxide. LOGIC??? And we would be more dependant on gas from the east like from Russia, and we already have shortages.

The Greens are dangerous. And so are social democrats and christian democrats when it comes to covid policies. Everytime your hear our federal minister of health, he will say: "tighter", "tighter", "tighter".

Even VB has shown once again they're full of frauds, they're pussies when it comes to criticizing our government on covid. They're pussy's, only thing they try to do is balance on anti-vaxx and pro-vaxx, and criticing covid safe pass. it's the only ****ing thing they do.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

I mean if the position of the Belgian government parties, is that yes, they are commiting genocide, but we are not going to call it that, nor will we condemn it in any meaningful way aside from signing on to vague UN statements, nor will it have any consequences for our economic relationship and we are going to go ahead with ratifying an extradition treaty with them anyway, and we will let them build a massive logistics hub and their technology into our critical security infrastructure,

then the PVDA-PTB who actually do genuinely believe, for naivety or whatever reason, that there is no genocide so closer ties with China is fine; I am not sure if the former is actually the more defensible position.

(Although granted, I don't know much about how China policy is in PVDA or in Belgian politics generally, so do feel free to correct me.)

Do you really want a war with China - even if economic or whatever - for something we cannot change.

And are we going to start calling out all nations that do genocides but the west don't do anything about, because it doesn't fit ideologically to start a war / confrontation.

Most western nations support plenty of genocides, and stick their nose into a bag of salt, pretending it's not to be there, just to follow or get along with their allies.

Uyghur is exact the same thing as Palestinians. The perpetrator calls them terrorists or muslim terrorists and the enemy of the perpetrator calls the practices a genocide.

And obviously PVDA is likely the least American-aligned political party of Belgium. If you know the history of the nation, especially with regards to Grenada, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Chile, you would stop wondering why that is. And there's little to learn from America as from all western nations, their welfare system is the most sh**t, and since America only works for who is off well.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

(Although granted, I don't know much about how China policy is in PVDA or in Belgian politics generally, so do feel free to correct me.)

PVDA is likely the most China-aligned out of the major parties and i don't know the reason for that entirely. Not that they are bought by China or whatever, but it feels like they criticize them from all major parties the least, and have used them as a good example of how to deal with covid, which i have strongly criticized on a zoom conversation (as well as other regional members here) a year ago. I think they deviated from that now given there is more criticizing of the covid policies right now.

I would say PVDA is even more allied with China than with Russia, because i never hear them say anything about contemporary Russia.

Over only 12 years ago it's definitely an improvement because they used to still invite north korean diplomats & envoys here and host international communist gatherings, part of that is the legacy of Ludo Martens and it's maoist past (which explains perhaps why it has that China thing). Mertens pushed the party into a reformist and acceptable direction occupying the left-wing populist lane which didn't had a representative, while before they were seen as a bunch of extremists or people no-one took serious. And now they're one of the best polling left-wing populist parties in Europe, but one that does state openly to be still marxist leading to this article in the economist

https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/11/18/last-of-the-commies

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is. At least swallow and vote for PVDA as a party that would not have led to this disastrous Covid response.

Litterally the only thing stopping me from voting PVDA-PTB is their stance on so called Communist dictatorships like China where they deny a litteral ethnonationalist genocide is happening.

Just read about this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965%E2%80%9366

WHY DO I NEVER HEAR ABOUT SUCH GENOCIDES?

Despite a consensus at the highest levels of the U.S. and British governments that it would be necessary "to liquidate Sukarno", as related in a CIA memorandum from 1962,[25] and the existence of extensive contacts between anti-communist army officers and the U.S. military establishment – training of over 1,200 officers, "including senior military figures", and providing weapons and economic assistance[26][27] – the CIA denied active involvement in the killings. Declassified U.S. documents in 2017 revealed that the U.S. government had detailed knowledge of the mass killings from the beginning and was supportive of the actions of the Indonesian Army.[8][28][29] U.S. complicity in the killings, which included providing extensive lists of PKI officials to Indonesian death squads,[35] has previously been established by historians and journalists.[28][23] A top-secret CIA report from 1968 stated that the massacres "rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders during the Second World War, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s."

IM DONE WITH IT. DONE. DONE. DONE.

I always get criticized to fail to condemn genocides or antisemitism, but why are all "the morally good people" so SELECTIVE with their genocides they mention. [and i've nothing against jews, my biggest idol is a jew, i have something against the palestinian genocide]

So stop the notion that America were always the good guys. It's not like that, and if you truly believed that, you're swayed by tons and tons and tons of mass western propaganda, and if i were them, i would start praying for my soul if i were truly religious after all.

It's just

everyone here pretends to care about genocides and than put their head into a bag of salt if a genocide they are the perpretators of (or the ideology they support is responsible or closely aligned with them) is responsible. People are also selective when they start using the term "genocide", it's anti-terrorism" if it's the enemy, it's "a genocide" if it's our side.

And at the end people only condemn genocides if they dislike the regime responsible for it.

Our nation probably cares more about the Armenian genocide than the one Leopold II did himself. The only thing in defence of Belgium is that this is the legacy of our monarchy, and one crime Leopold II (and his alleis) commited, and like with every genocide not everyone in that country is responsible for even at the time, but it should properly looked into

and our entire monarchy needs to be cancelled for this, especially Leopold II who should be removed from all historical references and purged from the fact that he once existed. Silenced to death, as the person whose name we never mention: the voldemort of belgium.

[PSOL]

Worker’s Party fights to reduce unfair taxes

The Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA) has intensified its campaign to reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) on energy in the county to 6%. The current rate of  21% on electricity and gas is one of the highest in Europe. As of December 25, Saturday, the petition demanding a reduction in the VAT that was launched by the PTB has been endorsed by over 290,000 people. Last week, PTB cadre organized street campaigns across the country demanding the same.

On December 22, while addressing the Chamber of Representatives of the Belgian Federal Parliament, Workers’ Party president Raoul Hedebouw accused the Socialist Party (PS) doublespeak, as the same PS which had sought a reduction of the VAT on the lines of the PTB’s proposal a year ago now opposes it being brought to 6%. Raoul Hedebouw also criticized the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo who tried to defend the arguments in support of a higher VAT on energy.

[warandwar]

The absurd decision of the politicians to shut down cultural activities, despite even the public health officials saying those sectors weren't the principal problem, has landed the Vivaldi into hot water. All 3 Walloon parties inside it now have parliamentarians criticising their own government. The feckless leadership of these 3 parties havr decided to blame it on the Flemish parties, only to reject any attempts by Defi and cdH to bring the debate to the respective parliaments in charge of culture.

We could see a collapse of the federal and Walloon governments by the time the holiday period is over.

The Francophone minister of culture is also now basically saying she's not going to do anything about places that decide to stay open anyway. Shambles.

She is just following a trend : police basically said they wouldn't intervene in such cases, then mayors, now high level ministers. We are also the hardest hit with the gas crisis because despite 20 years préparation we still didn't deal with energy policy and nuclear phaseout. Civil disobedience is now pretty much widespread and I won't be surprised if we see even the most feckless, benign people such as the Belgians will be on the street by mid January (finally renewing with reputation Caesar once gave us). We saw the Dutch riot for the first time in years.I refuse to vote for anything near a traditional party in my lifetime, Greens included. I may even vote N-VA just to try and block the Brussels Regional Government from forming a coalition.

Anyway Merry Christmas!

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is. At least swallow and vote for PVDA as a party that would not have led to this disastrous Covid response.

Litterally the only thing stopping me from voting PVDA-PTB is their stance on so called Communist dictatorships like China where they deny a litteral ethnonationalist genocide is happening.

Just read about this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965%E2%80%9366

WHY DO I NEVER HEAR ABOUT SUCH GENOCIDES?

Despite a consensus at the highest levels of the U.S. and British governments that it would be necessary "to liquidate Sukarno", as related in a CIA memorandum from 1962,[25] and the existence of extensive contacts between anti-communist army officers and the U.S. military establishment – training of over 1,200 officers, "including senior military figures", and providing weapons and economic assistance[26][27] – the CIA denied active involvement in the killings. Declassified U.S. documents in 2017 revealed that the U.S. government had detailed knowledge of the mass killings from the beginning and was supportive of the actions of the Indonesian Army.[8][28][29] U.S. complicity in the killings, which included providing extensive lists of PKI officials to Indonesian death squads,[35] has previously been established by historians and journalists.[28][23] A top-secret CIA report from 1968 stated that the massacres "rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders during the Second World War, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s."

IM DONE WITH IT. DONE. DONE. DONE.

I always get criticized to fail to condemn genocides or antisemitism, but why are all "the morally good people" so SELECTIVE with their genocides they mention. [and i've nothing against jews, my biggest idol is a jew, i have something against the palestinian genocide]

So stop the notion that America were always the good guys. It's not like that, and if you truly believed that, you're swayed by tons and tons and tons of mass western propaganda, and if i were them, i would start praying for my soul if i were truly religious after all.

It's just

everyone here pretends to care about genocides and than put their head into a bag of salt if a genocide they are the perpretators of (or the ideology they support is responsible or closely aligned with them) is responsible. People are also selective when they start using the term "genocide", it's anti-terrorism" if it's the enemy, it's "a genocide" if it's our side.

And at the end people only condemn genocides if they dislike the regime responsible for it.

Our nation probably cares more about the Armenian genocide than the one Leopold II did himself. The only thing in defence of Belgium is that this is the legacy of our monarchy, and one crime Leopold II (and his alleis) commited, and like with every genocide not everyone in that country is responsible for even at the time, but it should properly looked into

and our entire monarchy needs to be cancelled for this, especially Leopold II who should be removed from all historical references and purged from the fact that he once existed. Silenced to death, as the person whose name we never mention: the voldemort of belgium.

++++++++++++

[CumbrianLefty]

Lots of us are aware of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, and the US complicity in it. The idea that this never gets mentioned by anybody is simply not true.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

"Genocide" most often means, in the present, "mass killing of people I want to highlight for political points and/or to make myself feel good/bad".
If the term is taken to mean any large killing of people for any reason it becomes utterly useless.
But that is what overuse of terminology results in anyway...
"Genocide" and "mass killing" are not necessarily synonyms. It is fine for there to be a legal definition that courts can use. But abusing that definition for sake of political football is clownish behavior that somehow seems to be in vogue these days.
And something isn't suddenly OK just because it isn't a genocide.

[Zinneke]

The Consitutional Council has ordered the re-opening of theatres and other cultural activities except for cinemas and bowling allies (the latter are taking the matter to a higher court instance.

This is actually a staggering decision in my mind because at no point did the legal judges think maybe, just maybe the 6 month curfew was also totally disproportionate, or the closure of cafes that made signficant time investments to make their spaces safe was also disproportionate. It seems to me that it was just to get De Croo off the hook. He and Vandenbroucke have lost of a lot of political capital in the Francophone media, and are being briefed against by Francophone politicians. It seems like a bit of payback for Wilmes's incompetence that was highlighted a lot by the Flemish media, who now keep quiet over De Croo. 

What's taking place in China technically isn't a "genocide" per se but the difference is academic so calling it a genocide is certainly justified.

Perhaps "People's Dispatch" and "Daily Worker" aren't the best sources of information out there...

"Genocide" most often means, in the present, "mass killing of people I want to highlight for political points and/or to make myself feel good/bad".
If the term is taken to mean any large killing of people for any reason it becomes utterly useless.
But that is what overuse of terminology results in anyway...
"Genocide" and "mass killing" are not necessarily synonyms. It is fine for there to be a legal definition that courts can use. But abusing that definition for sake of political football is clownish behavior that somehow seems to be in vogue these days.
And something isn't suddenly OK just because it isn't a genocide.

I don't use the terms ''genocide'' lightly, but there is ample evidence what is going on in Xinjiang is a genocide. There was a recent independent court decision that set out the argument that while no mass killings were going on, the sterilisation policies and systematic eradication of Uyghur culture constituted a genocide. Mass killings are indeed "worse" in terms of optics, but I fail to see how I should support people like the PVDA-PTB who want only live in a binary world where the USA is the Baddie and everyone who opposes it is the Goodie (including genuine fascists like Putin or the Iranian Regime).

Don’t vote for the fascist-lites responsible for how broken Belgian politics is.

To clarify also, I only said I'd consider voting for N-VA in Brussels regional elections for obvious reasons (to block the institution so that we could finally be done the farcical nature of the Belgian institutional system in general) but its also worth noting that N-VA Brussels are different animal altogether than their provincial counterparts - very "Dansaert flemish" hipster vibes.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

but I fail to see how I should support people like the PVDA-PTB who want only live in a binary world where the USA is the Baddie and everyone who opposes it is the Goodie (including genuine fascists like Putin or the Iranian Regime).

don't forget to continue to make things up.

if this is how journalists work, the right is right to call it fake news.

PVDA-PTB has not called Iran or Russia goodies. The USSR perhaps (some), but not modern Russia, certainly not.

The only thing they might oppose is the decision to antagonize those countries or blow up deals with them (like the Iran deal), but IMO that is not a situation of calling America baddie and Iran goodie, because if that is the case, Obama and the Democrats would also call America baddie and Iran goodie. They opposed the decision to repeal the Iran deal, and that was the right thing to do. I would worry more about parties that oppose the deal in our country.

I'm not sure why you're on such a quest to spread lies about PVDA-PTB.

They have no reason to call them goodies, they aren't even remotely left-wing.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The Consitutional Council has ordered the re-opening of theatres and other cultural activities except for cinemas and bowling allies (the latter are taking the matter to a higher court instance.

Both politicians as well as the court have been a total failure during this pandemic, contributing to the global trend of eroding democratic values in name of a pandemic which today is no pandemic anymore. It is already a cold; given the high rates of infection and low rates of hospitalization.

However the consitutional council made the right decision in this case.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

"Genocide" most often means, in the present, "mass killing of people I want to highlight for political points and/or to make myself feel good/bad".
If the term is taken to mean any large killing of people for any reason it becomes utterly useless.
But that is what overuse of terminology results in anyway...
"Genocide" and "mass killing" are not necessarily synonyms. It is fine for there to be a legal definition that courts can use. But abusing that definition for sake of political football is clownish behavior that somehow seems to be in vogue these days.
And something isn't suddenly OK just because it isn't a genocide.

I don't use the terms ''genocide'' lightly, but there is ample evidence what is going on in Xinjiang is a genocide. There was a recent independent court decision that set out the argument that while no mass killings were going on, the sterilisation policies and systematic eradication of Uyghur culture constituted a genocide. Mass killings are indeed "worse" in terms of optics

I'm sure if i set up a poll in individual politics: which is worse: The Indonesian Mass Killings or the Uyghur Genocide, a majority of people would vote for the latter. Obviously both are bad, but this forum continues to baffle me lately.

[PSOL]

There is no Uyghur genocide given the “independent studies” come from either white nationalists or unreliable political opponents of Chinese regimes. There’s a reason why the basic b••ch NPD of Canada voiced concern about the sources.

[Zinneke]

ok mate



Anyway, Jean-Luc Crucke, the Walloon Minister for Finance and Budget is on the brink of resigning after Georges-Louis Bouchez came out and said he preferred Zemmour to Pécresse but would still vote Macron despite being disappointed. the internal battle between the 2 is well publicised and Crucke could take a sizeable chunk of MR moderates with him. Denis Ducarme, a nominally hard right figure who always had an axe to grind with the Michel clan (that sponsors GLB's meteoric rise in exchange for favours such having the younger Michel brother, a numpty with zero degree, get a ministerial position!), also came out attacking GLB saying he was out of control.