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<title>17 September, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Second Trump Term Would Be a Scary Rerun of the First</strong> - Remember those “Jurassic Park” velociraptors learning how to open the door? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/a-second-trump-term-would-be-a-scary-rerun-of-the-first">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>China and the Lore of American Manufacturing</strong> - In Ohio’s Senate race, both candidates are employing anti-Asian rhetoric and neglecting to hold corporations to account. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/china-and-the-lore-of-american-manufacturing">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can Countries with Grave Human-Rights Records Help Fight Anti-Semitism?</strong> - In her new position at the State Department, Deborah Lipstadt hopes for trickle-down tolerance abroad. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/can-countries-with-grave-human-rights-records-help-fight-anti-semitism">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In the Queue to Say Goodbye to the Queen</strong> - The Queen was waited on, and waited for, every moment of her life. In death, the tradition continues. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/in-the-queue-to-say-goodbye-to-the-queen">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lionfish: The Joy of the Hunt</strong> - D. T. Max introduces us to a passionate hunter of invasive fish. Plus, Andy Borowitz on the power of ignorance in our modern age, and Sue Halpern on the legal fight for voting rights. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/lionfish-the-joy-of-the-hunt">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<li><strong>The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predictable</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tDBLVGkXeO6CU4CYQ5-qA-Q5dmU=/1256x117:3275x1631/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71379900/ariel.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Halle Bailey stars as Ariel in Disney’s live-action remake of <em>The Little Mermaid</em>. | <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5971474/mediaviewer/rm3493596417/" target="_blank">IMDB</a>
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are just the latest targets of racist fans.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5djVoz">
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Two new adaptations of <em>The Lord of the Rings </em>and <em>The Little Mermaid</em> are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects’ increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UofANy">
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Detractors of Amazon’s new <em>Lord of the Rings</em> series, which debuted this month, claim that casting Black and Asian actors undermines the show’s faithfulness to Tolkien’s world. Meanwhile, some ostensible fans of Disney’s animated <em>Little Mermaid</em> are rejecting the new live-action version for swapping out the titular mermaid’s famous blue eyes and red hair for the features of Black actress Halle Bailey.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dfpdfi">
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<em>The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power</em><strong> </strong>first <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/03/entertainment/lord-of-the-rings-amazon-controversy-blake-cec/index.html">drew widespread anger from fans</a> because it casts Black and Asian actors as characters across the spectrum of fictional Middle Earth races. Fans’ chief complaint was that the decision to include nonwhite characters had ruined the authenticity of Tolkien’s world, because he had never described his elves, hobbits, men, and dwarves as anything other than white. Then last week, Disney released the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-wPm99PF9U">first trailer</a> for <em>The Little Mermaid</em>, featuring Bailey singing “Part of Your World.” Thousands of YouTube users brigaded, leaving more than 2 million dislikes and countless derogatory comments on the trailer, and creating memes ridiculing the film for casting Bailey and mocking all of its supporters.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<div id="7NJIbu">
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<div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DqKFwi">
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To anyone who’s paid any attention to geek culture over the past decade or so, these arguments probably feel endless and exhausting. After all, this is the same cycle of backlash that plays out when any beloved story gets rebooted (or, in the case of <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-racist-backlash-1235211341/">Tolkien’s <em>The Silmarillion</em></a>, adapted to film for the first time) and makes any changes, big or small. The anger intensifies to a new level when they’re big changes that shake the foundations of a story that was originally framed within a white, male worldview. Let’s face it: Most of the stories that have been passed down to us throughout the centuries have been created for us by white men.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8dEkos">
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From a progressive standpoint, stories all could use a good shake-up by varying their points of view through casting, and pop culture is full of narratives ripe for retelling. Taking the detractors at face value, however, you have a<strong> </strong>pantheon of geeks who just want to see their beloved tales left alone. These fans now face repeated battles as they watch one franchise after another fall into the clutches of progressive directors and writers who insist on — gasp — casting women in the lead roles, or — gasp — casting actors of color in roles long reserved for white people.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uIMFJ0">
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The negative attention on <em>The Little Mermaid </em>and <em>The Lord of the Rings </em>has fueled a groundswell of support from other fans who view such anger as founded in racism. Complicating all of these arguments are angry right-wing politicians and influencers <a href="https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/09/anti-trans-troll-matt-walsh-says-black-mermaids-arent-scientific-air-meltdown/">like Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh</a>, who are using both franchises as an example of Hollywood and liberal “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy">wokeness</a>” run amok.
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</p>
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<h3 id="be21GS">
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On the historical accuracy of diverse hobbits and mermaids
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ty5Gh">
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On their face, the arguments over <em>Rings of Power </em>and <em>The Little Mermaid</em> are superficially absurd. The “historical inaccuracy” argument falls apart any way you look at it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xO6dV2">
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For starters, as many fans have noted, hobbits and mermaids aren’t real, so it shouldn’t matter what race they are. For another thing, even though Tolkien’s setting for Middle Earth is based on Europe, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/13/250184740/taking-a-magnifying-glass-to-the-brown-faces-in-medieval-art">people of color lived</a> throughout medieval Europe, so a diverse Middle Earth <em>is</em> historically accurate.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="deaDzV">
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As for Hans Christian Andersen’s short story “The Little Mermaid,” it was originally <a href="https://lithub.com/dear-internet-the-little-mermaid-also-happens-to-be-queer-allegory/">a sublimated allegory</a> for a closeted queer man, and its <a href="http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html">original setting</a> was “far out in the ocean.” Seeking historical accuracy from this type of fairy tale seems like grasping at best; but to further put to rest the argument that such characters have to be white, consider that the first<strong> </strong>Disney version made Ariel’s home a fictional amalgam of Greek and Mediterranean mythology somewhere in the middle of the North Atlantic sea. So the idea of strictly Caucasian mermaids from this vicinity is a stretch.
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</p>
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<div id="DO1AHp">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
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“Well the original little mermai-”<br/><br/>The original The Little Mermaid is a queer man’s self-insertion character, longing to be able to be in a relationship with another man, and at the end the mermaid dies.<br/><br/>You don’t care about the original, mate.
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</p>
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— Nome (<span class="citation" data-cites="NomeDaBarbarian">@NomeDaBarbarian</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/NomeDaBarbarian/status/1569328834385969152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2022</a>
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</blockquote></div></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uUddwO">
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Again, all of this is the stuff of fantasy, so really, who cares whether they’re played by white or Black actors?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WW5rHK">
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As it turns out, the answer is <a href="https://twitter.com/Crimson_Mayhem_/status/1568755429110415362">lots</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MaxKennerly/status/1569635559223558145">lots</a> of <a href="https://twitter.com/pegobry/status/1570040033327058944">people</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wvL3Pm">
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A key cry among these kinds of fans is that such productions are insisting on what they’ve dubbed<strong> </strong>“forced diversity.” Detractors claim that the goal isn’t <em>really</em> to meaningfully inject realistic representation into the universe, but rather to advance a “woke ideological agenda.” This argument has been particularly loud among right-wing politicians and conservative influencers.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xpreBj">
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The ideal for such fans would be something they tend to describe as “organic diversity” — something that would arise naturally from the canonical descriptions of characters. For instance, one Tolkien scholar complained to CNN that since Tolkien described elves as “fair-faced,” anything too tawny would ruin the authenticity of the show. <strong> </strong>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qhpMCJ">
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“This is not something organic that’s coming out of Middle Earth,” Tolkien expert Louis Markos <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/03/entertainment/lord-of-the-rings-amazon-controversy-blake-cec/index.html">told CNN</a>. “This is really an agenda that is being imposed upon it.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ITlv3u">
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Framing the mere existence of nonwhite characters in media<strong> </strong>as an inherently political stance is itself an ideological agenda. Moreover, it contradicts the long legacy of fantasy adaptations deviating from canonical descriptions of characters, and fans usually not minding — as long as the casting still reinforces a white, male-centric worldview.
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</p>
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<div id="nYRSNI">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
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Tyrion Lannister was specifically described as “One green eye and one black one peered out from under a lank fall of hair so blond it seemed white”. There was no outcry when he showed up in the show looking like this <a href="https://t.co/6vZnKdAela">pic.twitter.com/6vZnKdAela</a>
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</p>
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— Laura Shortridge-Scott (<span class="citation" data-cites="DiscordianKitty">@DiscordianKitty</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/DiscordianKitty/status/1566669300605374464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2022</a>
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</blockquote>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kfu4ow">
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This brings us to the larger issue at play. This isn’t <em>just</em> about hobbits and “fair-faced” elves and redheaded mermaids, but about the existence of real people in our nonfictional world.
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</p>
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<h3 id="Vx7dJG">
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<strong>Welcome to the culture war, for the 8 millionth time</strong>
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GX86R6">
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The endless culture war over increasingly diverse media has famously targeted everything from <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/20/20808875/gamergate-lessons-cultural-impact-changes-harassment-laws">games</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/30/21037815/ghostbusters-backlash-decade-black-panther-captain-marvel"><em>Ghostbusters</em></a>, and now it has arrived to a fantasy universe near you. See the latest <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/18/16791844/star-wars-last-jedi-backlash-controversy"><em>Star Wars</em></a> series, or <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/8/18254584/captain-marvel-boycott-controversy"><em>Captain Marvel</em></a>, or <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/16/17020230/black-panther-movie-theater-attacks-fake-trolls"><em>Black Panther</em></a><em>, </em>or <a href="https://thedirect.com/article/dwayne-johnson-black-adam-cyclone-quintessa-swindell"><em>Black Adam</em></a>, or <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/6/21046788/release-the-jj-cut-what-is-the-jj-cut-real-explained"><em>Star Wars </em>again</a> — or pretty much every familiar franchise being adapted or remade these days with women and/or Black protagonists.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rPnDds">
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Usually, the audience that resists change will decry every reason <em>except</em> racism and misogyny for their hatred of these changes. For example, they might argue that casting actors of color is a cheap aesthetic change that does nothing to deepen the worldview of a story. Or, if the casting does result in a shift in worldview, they might argue that said worldview isn’t faithful to the original creator’s vision. (This usually makes it clear they never understood the creator’s original vision at all, because these narratives nearly always have deeply humanist and optimistic themes that align far more closely with a progressive worldview than with a traditionalist worldview — especially a racist one.)
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RSVGnlE0WmulwKPW4DeJ3zd71yw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24029568/miriel.jpg"/> <cite>Amazon Studios / <a class="ql-link" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMGNjMDEwZDgtMjIzYi00OTA1LTg4YjUtOTZhZGNmYWMyYWU1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTEyMjM2NDc2._V1_.jpg" target="_blank">IMDB</a></cite>
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<figcaption>
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Cynthia Addai-Robinson as the Queen Regent Miriel in <em>Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power</em>.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6L8VxO">
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Diverse casting can come with pitfalls and sometimes can be a shortcut to appearing progressive without actually <em>being</em> progressive. (See: <a href="https://www.vox.com/22215076/bridgerton-race-racism-historical-accuracy-alternate-history"><em>Bridgerton</em></a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21305967/hamilton-debate-controversy-historical-accuracy-explained"><em>Hamilton</em></a>.) Studios such as Disney are often more invested in rebooting their existing IP rather than taking chances on new and exciting stories from minority creators. Fans argue that this emphasis on simply redoing an old story with a casting facelift has led to a repetitive, tedious emphasis on <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9337121/reboots-remakes-reimaginings">pointless reboots</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22565071/gossip-girl-review-hbo-max-revival">tired retreads</a> rather than something truly meaningfully different and expansive.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GqQRFr">
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However, these arguments often drown out the voices of fans of color who are overjoyed when they see themselves reflected in the legacy media they love — like the parents who celebrated the new <em>Little Mermaid</em> trailer by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/arts/little-mermaid-trailer-halle-bailey.html">sharing photos and videos</a> of their Black daughters reacting ecstatically.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tk5bWL">
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What’s more, when high-powered studios like Disney <em>do</em> take such chances on new original work, the resulting wonderful work often also draws tremendous amounts of inflamed backlash. Pixar’s sleeper hit <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22981394/turning-red-reviews-controversy-reactions-parents"><em>Turning Red</em> became a surprise culture war target</a> because of its culturally unique place and subject, as well as its characters.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HNAIxI">
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This all suggests that the arguments for less diversity are just as shallow and political, just as racist and sexist, as they sound. Journalist and period drama expert <a href="https://amandaraeprescott.com/">Amanda-Rae Prescott</a> learned this lesson well when she began tracking the fandom for the cult PBS series <em>Sanditon. </em>The series, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, features one character of color — hardly the racially diverse cast of much more high-profile period dramas such as <em>Bridgerton</em> and <em>The Gilded Age</em>. As Prescott <a href="https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol11/iss2/10/">observed</a>, despite many fans wanting more characters of color to also have more screentime, the majority of the show’s white fandom was committed to “maintaining <em>Sanditon</em> as the anti-<em>Bridgerton</em>” — in other words, to preserving its mainly white cast.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GOeGfr">
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Prescott next saw a similar form of racist gatekeeping around the recent Netflix adaptation of Austen’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23220006/netflix-persuasion-review-dakota-johnson-jane-austen-henry-golding"><em>Persuasion</em></a>, with white Austen fans <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/persuasion-discourse-has-revealed-racism-in-jane-austen-fandom/">masking racism</a> behind other critiques of the movie as well as ostensibly lighthearted memes making fun of the film in oblique ways.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N0b0qC">
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Both types of racist objections have attached to these new adaptations. The <em>Little Mermaid</em> trailer comments are currently wall-to-wall with haters making fun of people who like the trailer, using a variant of a copy/paste meme to mock the idea of liking the movie at all. The meme, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/11/23/13659634/alt-right-trolling">like so many politically motivated memes</a>, masks the real racist agenda behind it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jlL0Rz">
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The repetitive nature of all these forms of discourse, Prescott points out, is part of the system.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CazTyl">
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“The same people who were angry about a Black Queen and a South Asian Viscountess on <em>Bridgerton</em> are the same people who are now angry about BIPOC elves, witches, and mermaids,” Prescott told me in an email. “You can copy and paste racist comments about diverse period dramas onto the racist comments about these fantasy franchises. There are people in period drama fandom who watch these series because they don’t want to see Black or POC characters, and it’s the same trend in speculative fiction.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NvLEEf">
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Prescott said she believes a driving theme of these campaigns is obfuscation — the use of some other argument to mask the real one. With historical dramas, it’s the argument for “historical accuracy.” With fantasy and science fiction adaptations, it’s the argument for preserving whatever version of the franchise you grew up with. “Racists weaponize childhood nostalgia to oppose diverse casting in these sci-fi/fantasy series because they cannot rely on whitewashed history to oppose diverse casting,” Prescott wrote.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ejtRFQ">
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||
Here, again, though, these arguments prove facile and flimsy. After all, generations of Disney fans who grew up with the beloved 1997 version of <em>Cinderella</em>, a.k.a. “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22274811/brandy-cinderella-1997-disney-plus-history-whitney-houston">the Brandy <em>Cinderella</em></a>,” didn’t subsequently have meltdowns over later adaptations that cast Cinderella as white. Instead, last year’s <em>Cinderella</em> saw Billy Porter’s genderless fairy godmother facing — <em>sigh</em> — transphobic backlash, because if there’s one thing fairies are famous for, it’s their rigid gender binary.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LHtQ83">
|
||
In other words, the backlash only ever works in one direction, and it only ever has one ultimate aim: erasing and threatening difference and deviance.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UN7gma">
|
||
Prescott doesn’t have much hope that it will stop anytime soon.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uhNZsx">
|
||
“I believe racists are going to attack ANY series that they believe should have been 100% white,” Prescott wrote. “Racists are going to get mad at the next superhero or horror show that racebends a character, and they’ll be outraged over whatever the next <em>Bridgerton</em> is. Their goal is to stop all efforts to diversify Hollywood.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>Why it’s so hard to rewrite a country’s constitution</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/j7A0ThRCBnylycPzjVlHAHqbLxY=/345x0:4628x3212/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71379800/1242972561.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
People who supported the new constitution draft demonstrate in demand of a new constitutional process, a day after voters rejected the draft in a referendum, at Plaza Italia in Santiago, on September 5, 2022. | Javier Torres/AFP via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Why Chile’s attempt to rewrite its constitution failed, and what US reformers can learn from it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4DtjNK">
|
||
On September 4, 13 million Chileans <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/9/4/23336809/chile-new-constitution-boric">went to the polls</a> not to elect political leaders and government officials, but to decide through a national referendum whether they would adopt a new proposed constitution.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eHWjlU">
|
||
The <a href="https://www.chileconvencion.cl/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Texto-CPR-2022-entregado-al-Pdte-y-publicado-en-la-web-el-4-de-julio.pdf">proposal</a>, written by a 155-member constituent assembly, was championed by recently elected President Gabriel Boric and hailed as Latin America’s most progressive constitution, encoding protections for abortion, universal health care, Indigenous rights, gender parity in government, and the environment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wNmA17">
|
||
But a sizable 62 percent of Chileans rejected the text.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="slFNBW">
|
||
What makes the result so remarkable is that just two years earlier, when Chile put the question of whether to embark on the process of rewriting the constitution up for a vote, an impressive 78 percent of Chileans said yes. The process was a path forward out of Chile’s 2019 estallido social (or social explosion), when a <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/10/29/20938402/santiago-chile-protests-2019-riots-metro-fare-pinera">4-cent hike</a> on public transportation fares by the government galvanized people to take to the streets and prompted calls to mend the country’s rampant economic inequality by breaking from the free-market neoliberal economics codified in its 1980 constitution. (Economists have long praised the country’s stable prosperity as a “<a href="https://microform.digital/boa/posts/category/articles/378/miracle-of-chile-the-legacy-of-the-chicago-boys">miracle</a>.”)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="ii5DnZ">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sbLMXq">
|
||
The early enthusiasm for reform prompted constitutional scholars and progressive activists all over the world to watch the process closely and try to derive lessons for their own political systems. The effort was charged with symbolic meaning as well: Because the new constitution would have replaced one inherited from the far-right military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, it represented a way to move on from a brutal period in Chile’s history.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KdmEDj">
|
||
But sometime between October 2020 and September 2022, the effort to amend Chile’s social contract unraveled. According to <a href="https://elpais.com/chile/2022-09-05/chile-rechaza-rotundamente-la-nueva-constitucion.html">official figures</a> from Chile’s Servicio Electoral, the “approval” camp won in only eight of 346 municipalities, and even more liberal urban centers like Santiago rejected the text by 55 percent of the vote. In the voting district with the largest Indigenous population — the militarized Araucanía region — almost three-fourths rejected the reform, despite the proposed constitution’s promise of new protections for Indigenous people.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="chF8lV">
|
||
Many American constitutional scholars have met the results with shock and a dose of disappointment. “This is certainly a big setback,” said Robert L. Tsai, a constitutional law professor at Boston University School of Law.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c0Dykk">
|
||
But Camila Vergara, a Chilean political theorist and legal scholar at the University of Cambridge, said that the outcome was not completely unexpected. The referendum, she said, was marred by a conservative disinformation campaign that lured centrists to the “Reject” camp as well as by a process that shut out everyday citizens from having meaningful influence over the revision. The rejecters’ victory was driven by conservatism, but even for some progressives on the ground, “they were going to reject [the proposed revision] because they saw it as legitimation of an elitist project,” Vergara said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6lb9DW">
|
||
The failure has ramifications beyond Chilean politics. In recent years in the United States, proposals to update the 235-year-old US Constitution have cropped up with remarkable frequency in mainstream discourse — a sign of the mounting concern over the American system’s growing unsuitability for our polarized era.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mqo60Y">
|
||
In 2020, the Atlantic <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/what-if-we-could-rewrite-constitution/617304/">fielded proposals</a> from libertarians, conservatives, and progressives to amend the US Constitution. In August 2021, the New York Times launched a series on proposed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/04/opinion/us-constitution-amendments.html">constitutional amendments</a> titled “We the People.” The Boston Globe <a href="https://apps.bostonglobe.com/ideas/graphics/2021/12/editing-the-constitution/">followed suit</a> that December. Democracy: A Journal of Ideas organized a symposium on crafting a <a href="https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/61/the-democracy-constitution/">“Democracy Constitution”</a> (in which Tsai participated). And in July, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/04/us/politics/constitutional-convention-republican-states.html">introduced legislation</a> that would kick-start the process for a formal constitutional convention should Republicans retake Congress.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MAkSPN">
|
||
But while conversations about the US Constitution focus mostly on the legal paths to reform and their many roadblocks, Chile’s referendum shows just how politically difficult it can be to amend a country’s guiding document. Despite significant differences between the two countries, Chile demonstrates that would-be American constitutional drafters would run into at least three obstacles that they would do well to prepare for.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="C8GXGo">
|
||
A referendum on the president and the process, not the text
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tdK5Vi">
|
||
One explanation for the new constitution’s poor showing was that the referendum wasn’t about the constitution at all but the president in power. In the months since his election, Boric has seen his approval shrink — which may well have doomed the constitution he promoted.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="szYCgG">
|
||
In the US, elections that take place in the middle of a president’s term tend to become a referendum on the performance of the ruling party. It is close to an iron law of US politics that the incumbent president’s party <a href="https://www.vox.com/22899204/midterm-elections-president-biden-thermostatic-opinion">loses seats during the midterms</a>; this has been the case in all but two midterm elections since World War II (in 1998, when Republicans were seen as exceeding their mandate in impeaching President Bill Clinton, and in 2002, when President George Bush was riding a wave of popularity after the 9/11 attacks).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VUJEBq">
|
||
While <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-the-presidents-party-almost-always-has-a-bad-midterm/">studies</a> offer many reasons for why voters switch parties in the midterms, one especially compelling explanation is that voters choose to change parties in the midterms as a “presidential penalty,” or a check on the incumbent’s performance.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nax4n3">
|
||
Many in Chile believe the constitutional referendum, which came only six months after the new president was inaugurated, became an evaluation of the young administration’s performance. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chile-constitutions-santiago-charters-augusto-pinochet-bf6b51c0fee501e7391cce91fd52732b">As some reports noted</a>, the 38 percent of voters who voted in favor of the new constitution matched Boric’s 38 percent approval rating.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MY9hYQ">
|
||
Vergara points out that many progressive voters were dissatisfied with Boric’s policies — such as reduced <a href="https://www.fitchratings.com/research/sovereigns/new-chile-govt-stays-pragmatic-fiscal-strategy-due-in-june-14-03-2022">pandemic-era welfare benefits</a> — but they also disagreed with the constitutional process itself, namely the pacts he had brokered with the right to see the referendum through, as well as the overrepresentation of an elite expert class in the drafting process. But conservatives and centrists also had a strong showing for the Reject camp, partly because of the country’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/16/chile-constitution-mandatory-voting/">new mandate making voting obligatory</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OmRamz">
|
||
In Vergara’s view, the outcome only affirmed that Boric has been <a href="https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/chiles-rejection">unable to expand his constituency</a> since taking office. One antidote, should Chile’s reformers want to try again, would be a more representative process, one in which regular citizens have binding drafting authority and can provide more than just recommendations, she told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bsVqeZ">
|
||
But the broader theory for the vote’s failure — that it ended up being a referendum on an unpopular president and political system — may be harder to take universal lessons from.<strong> </strong>“Today, all political parties and institutions in Chile have less than a 20 percent approval rating,” Vergara said. “So this is basically an institutional crisis, and people voted in accordance with this crisis.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="NQfmTn">
|
||
Prepare to fight back against disinformation
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z7qMOe">
|
||
A problem that has been especially salient for democracies in recent years — the United States included — has been the proliferation of disinformation on a wide scale, thanks to social media. The same dynamics we’ve seen in other elections played out in Chile this time around.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N6WuCy">
|
||
On social media, claims that the constitution would have permitted “late-term abortions” on demand, the secession of Indigenous communities from the body politic, and the expropriation of private property were prevalent. None of these claims were true, yet they spread like wildfire.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T3WI9Q">
|
||
Just two days before the referendum, five Democratic members of the US Congress sent a letter to the leadership of Meta, TikTok, and Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAndyLevin/status/1565785569367572480">expressing concern</a> that “viral fake stories and lies have correlated closely with a shift in polls” and asking the platforms to take swift action.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hb8yBU">
|
||
But disinformation knows no national flags. “This is a reality that all governments face nowadays, and that’s because disinformation permeates all corners of the internet,” said Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at the nonprofit Free Press.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FtXu04">
|
||
One problem, she said, is that social media platforms have done a historically poor job of stemming the tide of Spanish-language disinformation. “Part of what we have to assess is the way that the social media platforms are actually unevenly distributing content, and thus, allowing non-English lies to linger longer than in English.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6VlSRo">
|
||
Social media platforms have had an at-best imperfect approach to counteracting English-language disinformation in recent years. But American constitutional reformers can expect an even more uphill battle in getting their message on the benefits of a new social contract to Spanish-speaking voters, whose <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/21574293/social-media-latino-voters-2020-election">electoral power is on the rise</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="xxF4cp">
|
||
Facing up to a country’s history can complicate politics
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pIvHz7">
|
||
While the Chilean proposal promised to greatly expand substantive rights (such as a human right to water, the right to be free from racial discrimination, and a fundamental right to housing), part of its political momentum was that Chileans saw an opportunity to move on from the violent history of Pinochet’s regime.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oxkpl4">
|
||
When the results of the referendum were announced, Colombia’s leftist president Gustavo Petro simply tweeted: “Revivió Pinochet,” or “Pinochet has come back to life.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="OVgllx">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="es">
|
||
Revivió Pinochet. <a href="https://t.co/zixLipcXsU">https://t.co/zixLipcXsU</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Gustavo Petro (<span class="citation" data-cites="petrogustavo">@petrogustavo</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/petrogustavo/status/1566573956915728384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2022</a>
|
||
</blockquote></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aChLIg">
|
||
One can expect a similar dynamic if US reformers embark on a similar project. After the popular uprisings in the US in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd, some believed that the United States could not reckon with racism if its founding text still contained clauses that dehumanized enslaved people and sanctioned slavery as punishment for a crime.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WN26Yt">
|
||
William Aceves, a dean at California Western School of Law, declared in an <a href="https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1259&context=penn_law_review_online">essay</a> for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review that “ours is a racist constitution.” He argued that until the country excised vestiges of slavery like the Three-Fifths and Fugitive Slave Clauses, it could not move on from its history of racial violence. In an interview with me, Aceves wondered: “Why are we so quick to celebrate a document that by its terms, in black and white, incorporates racist concepts?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nmztqc">
|
||
Even before 2020, antiracism scholar Ibram X. Kendi <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/how-to-fix-politics-in-america/inequality/pass-an-anti-racist-constitutional-amendment/">proposed an amendment</a> that would establish and permanently fund a Department of Anti-racism that would be tasked with monitoring and preclearing all local, state, and federal public policies to ensure they wouldn’t lead to racial inequality.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AABTPL">
|
||
One could see a similar dynamic unfold when the new Chilean constitution was being written. The constitution there, adopted in 1980, is a holdover from the brutal military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who rose to power after a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/world/americas/chile-coup-cia-museum.html">US-backed coup d’état</a>. His regime oversaw the torture of tens of thousands of Chileans and the execution or forced disappearance of thousands of political prisoners, a violent period that has remained etched into the national memory.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nAHyCJ">
|
||
Pro-reform activists certainly viewed the new constitution as a symbolic turning of the page from a brutal era. But while that impulse seemed enough to animate the movement to put a new constitution on the ballot, it dissipated in the face of the actual document itself, a lengthy, 388-article constitution that made the symbolic real — and consequently lost support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s5PMqJ">
|
||
Last Sunday, as he reflected on the 49th anniversary of the coup that brought Pinochet to power, Boric noted that although his camp had suffered a defeat at the polls, it had been a “democratic defeat” and did not lead to a country taking up arms and violence.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YW2OME">
|
||
But Vergara says the defeat came about in part because the “Reject” camp was careful not to rely exclusively on right-wing politicians to get their message to people. “The strategy was to disassociate ‘Reject’ from Pinochet, and they were very effective,” she said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TrKeCi">
|
||
For now, Boric is going back to the drawing board, looking for an opening to try again with a new constitutional text. After the vote, he immediately reshuffled his cabinet and called for a dialogue with the country’s conservatives, who are now bargaining from a position of strength. He has been careful to remind his constituents in public remarks that voters disagreed with the actual text, not the larger impetus for change they voiced in 2022.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hXe6LT">
|
||
Some US observers are also keeping the hope alive. Julie Suk, a professor at Fordham Law School who studies gender violence and women’s rights, and a participant in the <a href="https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/61/the-democracy-constitution/">“Democracy Constitution”</a> project, put it this way: The proposal “doesn’t become law today, but I think there are a lot of very interesting and innovative provisions in it that will reset the baselines from which the Chileans, and even people around the world, debate about what a constitution can do.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CS1GHX">
|
||
But as Chile’s attempt shows, remaking your country’s foundational document is a herculean task, even with the wind behind the cause of reform.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jGT6pS">
|
||
<em>Jesús Rodríguez is a writer and lawyer in Washington, DC, and the publisher of </em><a href="http://alienhood.substack.com/"><em>Alienhood</em></a><em>, a newsletter on law and illegality.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>Ukraine wants more weapons. But can Europe provide?</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Several soldiers on top of a tank that flies a Ukrainian flag." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ivXCFBA6Ie_O5SY3QfGlWZ-SLwU=/430x0:4629x3149/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71379607/GettyImages_1243192892.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A Russian soldier, taken prisoner by Ukrainian soldiers, lies on a tank on September 11 in Izyum, Ukraine, shortly after the city was recaptured from Russian forces. | Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
A battle over German tanks raises bigger questions about Ukrainian support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oHe3lx">
|
||
MUNICH — Ukraine’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/12/ukraine-continues-kharkiv-offensive-despite-apparent-russian-retaliation">counteroffensive</a> in the Kharkiv region shifted momentum in a <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/8/24/23311778/ukraine-war-russia-winning-six-months">grinding war</a>, as the Ukrainian military reclaimed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-calls-more-western-arms-after-russia-pullback-2022-09-12/">3,100 square miles of territory</a>, pushed back <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62874557">outnumbered Russian troops</a>, and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russia-war-ambassador-oksana-markarova-face-the-nation/">sparked bombastic claims from Ukrainian officials</a>. It also gave Kyiv a new case to make to the West: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-we-have-shown-we-can-defeat-russians-we-need-more-weapons-2022-09-10/">We can win; now give us more weapons</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tb9sut">
|
||
Even as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-announces-new-600-million-arms-package-ukraine-2022-09-15/">the US continues its overwhelming support of Ukraine</a>, Kyiv is urgently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/13/ukraine-tanks-russia-germany-offensive/">pushing for Western-made battle tanks and infantry vehicles</a> as it seeks to advance and solidify its counteroffensive. And it’s putting a lot of pressure on Germany to supply them. Except Germany seems pretty reluctant to provide that equipment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uWaJ4i">
|
||
“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide,” <a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1569637880204775426?s=20&t=i_Kr1QMEV5CKvDsnaCAHaw">Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Tuesday</a>. “Not a single rational argument on why these weapons can not be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses. What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1K7pcl">
|
||
Berlin’s hesitation in delivering German<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ukraines-advances-heighten-calls-for-german-tanks/a-63096241">Leopards </a>(a battle tank) and <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43014/germany-still-cant-give-up-its-marder-infantry-fighting-vehicles-after-half-a-century">Marders</a> (an infantry fighting vehicle) and Ukraine’s frustration over it underscore the biggest question about how this new phase of the war plays out. Ukraine can’t keep its recent territorial gains, let alone make more, without sustained support from the West. And no one really knows if, or when, allies will reach their limits on how much they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/26/germany-heavy-weapons-ukraine/">are willing</a> or even capable to give.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="APZc1y">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j4o71K">
|
||
Right now, Ukraine may be running up against one type of limit: European allies are running low on the type of older and refurbished equipment they’ve thus far been happy to part with. Now Ukraine is asking for more sophisticated Western-made weapons that Europe may not be able to provide without worrying about its own security. Germany and their tanks have become something of a symbol of this new, difficult frontier in Europe’s support for Ukraine.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BDNr21">
|
||
For Berlin, though, the actual record, is a bit more complex. Germany <a href="https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/">leads the EU in total financial support for Ukraine</a>, and has provided Ukraine with real advanced weaponry, <a href="https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/military-support-ukraine-2054992">including anti-aircraft guns</a>. And while Germany has not given Ukraine any high-tech Western-made tanks, neither has any other Western ally or NATO member — <a href="https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ramstein-ukraine-1.5653569?reduced=true">not even the United States</a>, which provided <a href="https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/">more than $44 billion</a> in funding for Ukraine since the war began. As German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said this week, Germany “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cd12e3c7-f016-41ea-84aa-6d592adc6fe9">won’t go it alone</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DOa-zgtIbXoUBdzq75kyuA2MKDM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24028716/GettyImages_1369146120a.jpg"/> <cite>Sean Gallup/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht stands next to a Puma infantry fighting vehicle as she attends a demonstration of capabilities of the Ninth Panzer Training Brigade during a visit to the Bundeswehr Army training grounds in Munster, Germany, on February 7.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SuJvbL">
|
||
Ukraine <a href="https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/09/11/if-ukraine-were-dependent-on-germany-for-defence-it-would-no-longer-exist-says-polish-pm/">and others</a> are putting so much pressure on Germany because they want it to take more prominent role. “Germany is obviously one of the most powerful countries in the EU, and also in the NATO context, and oftentimes punches below its weight,” said Aylin Matlé, a research fellow in the security and defense program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VTQveg">
|
||
As Matlé said, this is not a new story, but an old story, about Germany’s deliberate political culture and foreign policy. But it is one often mismatched for the current moment, with a war on the continent and allies and partners looking for leadership in Europe. Germany wants to take steps together; everyone else wants Germany to make the decisive moves.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xPQzMJ">
|
||
Right now, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220915-eu-s-von-der-leyen-vows-unfaltering-support-for-ukraine-on-kyiv-visit">the political rhetoric in Europe around Ukraine</a> is unified, and strong, but even the EU’s foreign policy chief <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/europe-s-east/news/european-weapons-stocks-running-low-borrell-warns/">has warned the bloc’s weapons stockpiles are running low</a>. (The US, with a much bigger military, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-war-depleting-u-s-ammunition-stockpiles-sparking-pentagon-concern-11661792188">isn’t immune</a>, either.) Europe is now facing an unpredictable energy and inflation crisis, driven by the Ukraine war, sanctions on Russia, and <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/gazprom-announces-nord-stream-stoppage/">Vladimir Putin’s retaliation</a>. Putin, at least, is hoping to test the West’s will.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WXGfln">
|
||
Which is why Ukraine wants to seize the moment, and why this debate over Leopards has become something of a proxy for the next phase of Europe’s support for Ukraine. These tanks and infantry vehicles “would have an effect on the battlefield in Ukraine, for sure. But it is also a bit of a symbol for the question of larger-scale Western support with Western-produced systems to Ukraine,” said Rafael Loss, coordinator for Pan-European data projects at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lrWn20">
|
||
It would also signal to Russia — at a time when all of the continent is under strain — that Europe remains committed to Ukraine. “Germany is the central country on a lot of questions in Europe,” Loss added. “And if Germany decided to provide these types of weapons to Ukraine, other countries would surely follow.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="ckGlRq">
|
||
Why Germany is getting all the pressure, again
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TWhPQM">
|
||
As Russia built up troops along the Ukrainian border last winter, Germany sent Kyiv <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/27/germanys-offer-to-send-5000-helmets-to-ukraine-provokes-outrage.html">5,000 helmets</a> and a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-rejects-arms-deliveries-to-ukraine-but-will-send-field-hospital/a-60523137">5 million euro field hospital</a>. It also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-ukraine-arms/germany-blocks-estonia-from-exporting-german-origin-weapons-to-ukraine-wsj-idUSL1N2U123W">blocked</a> other NATO countries from sending German-made weapons to Ukraine.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IteWre">
|
||
Days after Russia’s invasion, Germany <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/02/26/germany-weapons-ukraine-russia">did a complete about-face</a>, delivering thousands of weapons to Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also <a href="https://www.vox.com/22960493/germany-chancellor-reversal-defense-war-russia-ukraine">reversed decades of defense and security policy</a>, promising a massive German investment into its military. This <a href="https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/policy-statement-by-olaf-scholz-chancellor-of-the-federal-republic-of-germany-and-member-of-the-german-bundestag-27-february-2022-in-berlin-2008378">“Zeitenwende”</a> — basically, a turning point — was supposed to be Germany’s dramatic step toward the defense leadership role it hesitated to embrace before.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/X0dx15S1TvI4osfo25c6JDEcxF4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24028724/GettyImages_1241340805.jpg"/> <cite>Alexey Furman/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 16, the first visit to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia on February 24.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NKMKQi">
|
||
But the <a href="https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/policy-statement-by-olaf-scholz-chancellor-of-the-federal-republic-of-germany-and-member-of-the-german-bundestag-27-february-2022-in-berlin-2008378">Zeitenwende</a> has not been immediate, and the hand-wringing over Germany’s support for Ukraine has continued. Months into the war, the <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1516869379467714562?s=20&t=szNus6ZcRY94LhVZwYpYTw">German government split</a> on sending heavier weaponry to Ukraine. It did, eventually, though <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20220616/why-has-germany-been-so-slow-to-deliver-weapons-to-ukraine/">it was accused of being slow to deliver them</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="he5LdJ">
|
||
“I believe that many European states have thought, ‘Okay, Germany is willing to send weapons to Ukraine, now it can do more,’” said Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters, an expert in European security at Helmut-Schmidt-University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XIR9XO">
|
||
In some ways, this is a challenge of optics, as much as action. <a href="https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/">According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy</a>, Germany ranks third, behind the United States and the United Kingdom, for the total amount of military, financial, and humanitarian support for Ukraine. When it comes to percentage of GDP, that approximately $3 billion is admittedly a smaller share of GDP than many other (mostly Eastern and Central) European, countries. But then again, no one is yelling at <a href="https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/">France</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2G7TW3">
|
||
“Germany hasn’t done a very bad job at all, especially, if you think about all the non-weapons support Germany has been giving — but it’s done a terrible job of communicating this,” said Julia Friedrich, a research fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin. That has created this impression that Germany needs to be dragged, under pressure, toward any decision or action. “There’s always so much debate around it that at the end, they don’t even get any credit anymore for them doing it, eventually,” Friedrich added.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lj4D1I">
|
||
And so goes the debate around these high-tech tanks. Ukrainians argue that these Western machines will help them consolidate their offensive gains in this latest phase of the war. It will protect Ukrainian forces and allow them to maneuver as they face off against Russian artillery, Loss said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zjkqAR">
|
||
No Western government has delivered these types of high-tech tanks or infantry. Instead, they’ve mostly provided <a href="https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1544711188948422656?s=20&t=1xN8L8EvEB7Rpouna_IGEQ">older refurbished armored vehicles</a> or Soviet-era tanks (and Ukraine has reportedly picked up <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/09/13/russia-ukraine-counteroffensive-tanks-kharkiv/">quite a few Russian ones</a> in recent days). But that Soviet-era equipment is facing wear and tear and is becoming harder to maintain because of the inability to get replacement parts. Proponents of delivering tanks like the Leonards say that even if Ukrainians need training to use them, they will be easier to maintain and repair with Western supply chains and systems in the longer term.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="keDZVf">
|
||
Arguments against delivering them include the fear of escalating the conflict and provoking Russia. And others argue it may be too difficult and time-consuming to train Ukraine on this equipment to make immediate battlefield gains while also depleting Western stockpiles.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g3pPmN">
|
||
But the German government’s overriding stance is largely: We don’t want to go first. “There has to be a common decision that the next step — if there such a step — is that all agree that if you have such systems and you can modernize them, bring them from your old stocks, then we should do this together,” said Alexander Graef, conventional arms control researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, of Germany’s thinking.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="veMh6N">
|
||
But the problem is everyone else seems to think that Germany needs to take the plunge first among the Europeans, as a signal to Ukraine and perhaps the rest of the Western alliance. The United States, of course, has led on Ukrainian support but also wants to see allies do more — plus, it’s logistically a lot easier to deliver tanks from Europe. In an interview with the German television station ZDF, US Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann said while she welcomed Germany’s support for Ukraine, her <a href="https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/us-botschafterin-gutmann-kritik-bundesregierung-100.html">“expectations were even higher.”</a> The US Embassy in Berlin more or less backed her up with a tweet that called on all allies and partners to lend as much support as possible to Ukraine.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="sVfRF6">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="de">
|
||
Wie Botschafterin Gutmann in ihrem Interview am 11.9. erklärte, rufen wir alle Verbündeten und Partner dazu auf, der Ukraine im Kampf um ihre demokratische Souveränität so viel Unterstützung wie möglich zu gewähren. 2/3
|
||
</p>
|
||
— US-Botschaft Berlin (<span class="citation" data-cites="usbotschaft">@usbotschaft</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/usbotschaft/status/1569601656161202178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2022</a>
|
||
</blockquote></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uf2Kgq">
|
||
On Thursday, Germany <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-says-it-will-deliver-two-additional-multiple-rocket-launchers-kyiv-2022-09-15/">announced that it would send another big tranche of weapons</a>, including two multiple-rocket launchers and about 50 armored personnel vehicles. But so far, Leonards and Mardars are not on the list.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="1Glr9r">
|
||
The larger questions over the West’s ability to supply Ukraine
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zhLN6k">
|
||
In a speech on Thursday, Scholz defended Germany’s support for Ukraine. ”Weapons deliveries from us — but also from our allies — have contributed to things turning out differently to how the Russian president planned,” <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220915-live-ukraine-s-zelensky-involved-in-car-accident-not-seriously-injured">he said</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MJBPtu">
|
||
Western support for Ukraine has undoubtedly helped shape this war. The International Donor Coordination Center (IDCC) at US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, coordinates the multinational effort to deliver supplies to Ukraine. According to the IDCC, as of September 15, it has assisted in the delivery of more than 172,000 tons of equipment and more than 164 million lethal and nonlethal items.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XliLWB">
|
||
But how sustainable that support will be is a question that is starting to emerge, and may be why the debate over these tanks is so fraught. Right now, the challenge is less political will — with some <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-pro-russia-stance-inevitable/">exceptions</a>, Europe’s commitment to Ukraine persists — than a matter of practicality. There are only so many weapons to give, and you can only replace them so fast.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7E9rG8">
|
||
This is a problem for everyone, including the United States, but much more so for many European countries, many of which did not have the kind of arsenals or commitment to military readiness that exists in the US. And Russia’s invasion has changed <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/13/23069341/finland-sweden-nato-membership-russia-ukraine-war">the calculus for a lot of countries</a>, which all of a sudden saw the security situation transform and, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22960493/germany-chancellor-reversal-defense-war-russia-ukraine">like Germany</a>, realized their own defense strategies and investments had to change.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F2ceQv">
|
||
The decision to give weapons is largely a country-by-country, ad hoc decision. At the start of the war, lots of European countries looked at their stockpiles and basically said, “What can we afford to give away?” This was the military equivalent of digging in the back of the garage. Countries dusted off old Soviet-era weapons and cleared out weapons systems that they wanted to replace anyway, and that <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/04/anti-aircraft-missiles-germany-offered-ukraine-dont-work/">may or may not have worked</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8FDG4Y21egFvL3eqRHb2SVx3Gbk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24028734/GettyImages_1243255378.jpg"/> <cite>Ihor Tkachov/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Ukrainian artillerymen fire 2s7 Pion, a Soviet self-propelled 203mm cannon, on the southern front line of Ukraine on September 15.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1xTEYl">
|
||
But at a certain point, those obvious giveaways run out, and all of a sudden the inventory isn’t looking so robust. Countries now “have to dip into that and take bits and pieces from that and supply that to Ukraine, especially for the heavy ammunition for artillery,” said Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher with the arms transfers program at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). “And you start quickly looking at the bottom of your file, and it has to be replaced. It has to be replaced rather quickly.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VOyKBo">
|
||
Then there are the more advanced and expensive weapons systems — like those high-end tanks that Ukraine really wants but that these countries also need for their own defense. “If they give away equipment, they fear that they can’t or won’t be able to afford to replace that equipment,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And that inevitably leads to just hesitation.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1JwmKY">
|
||
As experts said, it’s really hard to know exactly what individual countries have in their stockpiles, and what weapons they can afford to part with. But this is likely why Ukraine is trying to push the debate, especially with Germany — to try to seize on its success and convince Europe that it is in its interest, now, to donate the advanced weaponry. And some in Ukraine, and in European capitals, are arguing that it is worth sacrificing some European capability in the short term, because Ukraine, ultimately, is the front line of the Russian threat right now.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UaX4EG">
|
||
And in some ways, it will force the West to reckon with the realities of long-term support for Ukraine. As experts said, European governments may need to replace the ad hoc donations with a more coordinated approach — things like plans to scale up industrial capacity, and better funding to balance the security needs of Ukraine and of EU member states, <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/07/22/european-peace-facility-eu-support-to-ukraine-increased-to-2-5-billion/#:~:text=The%20Council%20adopted%20today%20two,civilian%20population%20against%20the%20ongoing">beyond what already exists</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l3Ej7W">
|
||
“There is a pretty strong feeling that supplying weapons is a must,” said Wezeman. Ukraine “cannot do without — and actually, the more the better. It’s just a question of where is that more and where are those betters that we can at this moment hand over.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2pcE1d">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wmCZ8c">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J0hzGp">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1uNfql">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rjHOWu">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vansh and Mahika triumph</strong> - Sports Bureau</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Qatar ready to present its sporting metamorphosis to the world</strong> - The Lusail Stadium will host the most number of matches (10), including the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, and proved its merit with the most modern and impressive facilities</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Knotty Dancer, Angel Bliss, Forseti, Siege Perilous, Unyielding and Del Mar impress</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ahead Of My TIme and Mont Blanc show out</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Empress Eternal, Lady Mimi, Apsara Star, Turf Melody and Versatile impress</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rajnath on 3-day visit to Egypt from Sunday</strong> - The ministry said the two sides will review the bilateral defence ties, explore new initiatives to intensify military-to-military engagements and focus on deepening cooperation between the defence industries of the two countries.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Will not allow BJP to come to power in Telangana: Tammineni</strong> - ‘Tie up with TRS only for Munuguode byelection’</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Street corner’ meetings will strengthen BJP across Andhra Pradesh, says Deodhar</strong> - Party to organise 5,000 meetings from September 19</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>First Braille edition of Assamese dictionary launched</strong> - The Braille edition of Hemkosh, the Assamese dictionary, will be gifted free of cost to the visually challenged people of the state</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BJP, TRS triggered ‘Liberation Vs Merger’ debate to hide failures</strong> - Congress and Communists fought against Razakars: Uttam</p></li>
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||
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
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<ul>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Mass exhumations at Izyum forest graves site</strong> - The BBC’s Orla Guerin reports from Izyum as Ukraine looks for answers at the site of hundreds of graves.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Biden warns Putin not to use tactical nuclear weapons</strong> - The US president says Russia will become more of a pariah than ever if such weapons are used.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Twitter sued by Dutch town Bodegraven-Reeuwijk over paedophilia rumour</strong> - A conspiracy theory falsely claims that Bodegraven near The Hague was once home to a Satanic ring.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French police nab first-class wig gang suspects</strong> - A group of thieves stole €300,000 worth of goods from passengers on high-speed trains, police say.</p></li>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Viktor Orban: Hungary ‘autocracy’ verdict from EU correct, say activists</strong> - The EU voted on Thursday to condemn Hungary’s government, saying it was not a full democracy.</p></li>
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||
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Review: Dell’s XPS 13 Plus pulls high performance from a frustrating design</strong> - Sustained peak performance makes for a powerful 13-inch XPS. But there are costs. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1875417">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Punishment, puppies, and science: Bringing dog training to heel</strong> - Dog trainers have long relied on punishment as a training tool. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1881676">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kate Beaton on creating the best graphic novel of 2022</strong> - <em>Ducks</em> is a devastating memoir about life in the oil sands of northern Alberta. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1882099">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Federal court upholds law banning tech companies from censoring viewpoints</strong> - Critics warn the law could lead to more hate speech and disinformation online. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1882409">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Being a victim of rape costs an average of $3,500 in medical bills, study finds</strong> - The bills can discourage rape reporting and compound victims’ trauma. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1882387">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>A teenager brings her new boyfriend home to meet her parents.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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They’re disgusted by his haircut, tattoos, and piercings. Later, when he leaves, the girl’s mom says, “Dear, he doesn’t seem to be a very nice boy.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
“Oh, please, mom!” says the daughter. “If he wasn’t nice, why would he be doing 500 hours of community service?”
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||
</p>
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||
</div>
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||
<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Totally0G"> /u/Totally0G </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xgamy3/a_teenager_brings_her_new_boyfriend_home_to_meet/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xgamy3/a_teenager_brings_her_new_boyfriend_home_to_meet/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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||
<li><strong>What’s the worst combination of diseases you can have?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
Alzheimer’s and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, especially when you can’t remember why you’re running.
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||
</p>
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||
</div>
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||
<!-- SC_ON -->
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/KeckyOK"> /u/KeckyOK </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xg27xo/whats_the_worst_combination_of_diseases_you_can/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xg27xo/whats_the_worst_combination_of_diseases_you_can/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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||
<li><strong>I’m in an age gap relationship.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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||
<div class="md">
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
I’m 40, she’s 19.
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||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Anyway, we went out for a meal, as soon as we walked in the restaurant people shot me dirty looks, then the whispering started “nonce”, “pervert” "paedo.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
My girlfriend got upset and we left.
|
||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
Completely spoilt our 10th anniversary.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
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||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mackem101"> /u/Mackem101 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xfwkf1/im_in_an_age_gap_relationship/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xfwkf1/im_in_an_age_gap_relationship/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>What’s the difference between the dollar and the pound?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
I didn’t dollar your mom’s ass last night.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
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||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Kenhamef"> /u/Kenhamef </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xfsvnq/whats_the_difference_between_the_dollar_and_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xfsvnq/whats_the_difference_between_the_dollar_and_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>An 85-year-old man was requested by his doctor for a sperm count as part of his physical exam.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
An 85-year-old man was requested by his doctor for a sperm count as part of his physical exam.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The doctor gave the man a jar and said, “Take this jar home and bring back a semen sample tomorrow.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The next day the 85-year-old man reappeared at the doctor’s office and gave him the jar, which was as clean and empty as on the previous day.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The doctor asked, what happened and the man explained.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well, doc, it’s like this–first I tried with my right hand, but nothing. Then I tried with my left hand, but still nothing. Then I asked my wife for help. She tried with her right hand, then with her left, still nothing. She tried with her mouth, first with the teeth in, then with her teeth out, still nothing. We even called up Arleen, the lady next door and she tried too, first with both hands, then an armpit, and she even tried squeezin’ it between her knees, but still nothing.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The doctor was shocked! “You asked your neighbor?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The old man replied, “Yep, none of us could get the jar open.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Straight-Key2887"> /u/Straight-Key2887 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xfmt9u/an_85yearold_man_was_requested_by_his_doctor_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/xfmt9u/an_85yearold_man_was_requested_by_his_doctor_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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