Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland • Hacker News Board

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#281

Post by nxor2 » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:10 PM UTC

srean wrote: post #184

jacquesm wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a tough question. There has always been a meddlesome quality to the USA that the rest of the so called developed world turned a blind eye to. Along the lines of 'their bastards, but at least they're our bastards'. Of course that does not make it good, but the balance calculation worked out in favor of toeing the line and being careful not to get pulled out of joint too much. 9/11 changed all that and effective…

"Meddlesome" is certainly a light way of labeling torture training. What I find more troubling is that Trump has popular support. It's just not Trump. The rot goes far deeper.

It's the two party system. If liberals are okay with 'pro lgbt muslims' and say things like 'gang violence isn't a problem' then people no longer vote for liberals.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#282

Post by nxor2 » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:10 PM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #238

srean wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Meddlesome" is certainly a light way of labeling torture training. What I find more troubling is that Trump has popular support. It's just not Trump. The rot goes far deeper.

Trump doesn't have popular support. Many of his 2024 voters are furious with him. What Trump has is oligarch support - an unholy alliance of weird and cranky tech billionaires, old(ish) money, foreign money, media owners, and insane white supremacist patriarch-wannabes, some of whom operate through think tanks, some through megachurches. The media are doing an excellent job of normalising this, not least - but not on…

Does JB Pritzker, who many people want to run in 2028, have oligarch support?

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#283

Post by ericmay » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:11 PM UTC

Eupolemos wrote: post #69

ericmay wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US wouldn’t even need to “attack” Greenland. What is there to even attack? 50 Danish soldiers? They could just say “that’s ours”, ignore whatever Europe says, and start doing whatever they wanted to do and instead force the EU to attack American forces or civilian business interests. I’m not suggesting this is a good idea or anything but there’s a ton of other ways that something like this could play out which in…

What power? Economic power (US will no longer be the world reserve currency). The power of allies (see Trump begging for help in Hormuz). All the soft power it ever had.

> Economic power (US will no longer be the world reserve currency).

As a reminder, reserve currencies are just currencies that are held in large amounts by national banks and other important institutions. The USD, like the Euro, Yen, Pound, and others are all reserve currencies.

The USD is the dominant currency, in part because the US is in the Middle East right now doing exactly what it is doing by using the military to enforce trade for oil in USD. But if the US loses that "status" it just.... reverts to being more like the EU? Doesn't seem so bad to me.

There's also pros/cons with being "the reserve currency".

> The power of allies (see Trump begging for help in Hormuz).

See Europe begging for help in Ukraine. I don't think this is a good argument. If 4 years of Trump being mean was all it took to erase all soft power the US ever had, then it never had it in the first place and it wasn't worth caring about.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#284

Post by aprentic » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:11 PM UTC

petterroea wrote: post #142

steinvakt2 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems weird. China is definitely falling behind. India is not.

They are pretty happy with having superiority on high tech manufacturing and robotics. You basically cannot manufacture something without using China - even if you try. I don't think they consider the TSMC EUV monopoly a long term threat. Doing good on AI as well, you bet the OSS chinese models causing stock panic in the US makes them laugh. On the topic of manufacturing outside China, the YouTuber "Smarter Every day…

And he's just making a grill scrubber.

I just ordered a bunch of drone parts. The majority of those part were only available from China.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#285

Post by kannanvijayan » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:12 PM UTC

philipallstar wrote: post #77

ta20240528 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah mate, Rich powerful countries could also keep slaves and no one would be able to stop it by force. But they don't. Civilisation advances.

They don't because the west banned slavery on moral grounds, and enforced it on the rest of the world. That advance is actually just western power in effect.

That seems like a simplistic take, given that slavery in pratice still exists and we just decide not to call it slavery due to technical loopholes. The countries most closely associated with the global economic oil supply for example, are largely run on slave labour.

"The west" is no longer a well defined thing. America is its own thing now, and I don't think it fits in with any traditional notion of "The West" anymore, outside of historical inclusion. And without America the term just means Europe, so you might as well just refer to things directly instead of coming up with a new term: America, Europe, Canada, etc.

It provides no analytical value anymore to talk about "the west" as a shared family of identities or cultures. That concept was more an ephemeral artifact of some colonial history combined with the post WW2 global landscape and the fact that the US was the last industrialized country remaining that didn't have its industrial base bombed to smithereens.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#286

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:12 PM UTC

srean wrote: post #251

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump doesn't have popular support. Many of his 2024 voters are furious with him. What Trump has is oligarch support - an unholy alliance of weird and cranky tech billionaires, old(ish) money, foreign money, media owners, and insane white supremacist patriarch-wannabes, some of whom operate through think tanks, some through megachurches. The media are doing an excellent job of normalising this, not least - but not on…

I want to believe this desperately, but from what I see (well, on YouTube videos, surveys and polls) it makes it very hard for me to do so. I still see massive endorsement from the not so well to do in the hinterlands. I will however grant you that my sampling is no where close to uniform.

Unless all of the useful idiots in this thread are bots there is plenty of popular support. And it's not like they couldn't know better.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#287

Post by mcv » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:12 PM UTC

Jensson wrote: post #187

mcv wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a law against it. It's blatant corruption. The fact that lawmakers and supreme judges have the power to make their own corruption legal, doesn't make it any less corrupt. The Nazis made their crimes legal, and they were tried anyway.

> The Nazis made their crimes legal, and they were tried anyway. They were tried after being beaten militarily, who will lead the rebellion against Trump and the American military backing him? The military doesn't dislike what he does and those are the main ones that could oppose him.

Plenty of soldiers and veterans hate what he does. The current leadership doesn't because Trump purged them and promoted loyalists.

But ultimately, it's the people of the US who have to do this. You're absolutely right that nobody else is going to do it for them.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#288

Post by YCpedohaven » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:13 PM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #238

srean wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Meddlesome" is certainly a light way of labeling torture training. What I find more troubling is that Trump has popular support. It's just not Trump. The rot goes far deeper.

Trump doesn't have popular support. Many of his 2024 voters are furious with him. What Trump has is oligarch support - an unholy alliance of weird and cranky tech billionaires, old(ish) money, foreign money, media owners, and insane white supremacist patriarch-wannabes, some of whom operate through think tanks, some through megachurches. The media are doing an excellent job of normalising this, not least - but not on…

[dead]

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#289

Post by sschueller » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:13 PM UTC

empath75 wrote: post #12

jacquesm wrote: post #3

Of course they were. The United States has never before damaged its own reputation in Europe as much as they did in the last 12 months. And the same goes for Canada, possibly worse. You don't go around threatening your allies unless you really have plans and that's why you don't elect senile old guys to positions of power.

The only way the US can fix our reputation will be to try and imprison our current leadership after they are eventually removed from power. And in particular, the Trump family needs to have all of its assets seized.

And change the constitution to fix the issue of an administration just ignoring the law.

Re: Denmark was reportedly preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland

#290

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 1:13 PM UTC

aprentic wrote: post #284

petterroea wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are pretty happy with having superiority on high tech manufacturing and robotics. You basically cannot manufacture something without using China - even if you try. I don't think they consider the TSMC EUV monopoly a long term threat. Doing good on AI as well, you bet the OSS chinese models causing stock panic in the US makes them laugh. On the topic of manufacturing outside China, the YouTuber "Smarter Every day…

And he's just making a grill scrubber. I just ordered a bunch of drone parts. The majority of those part were only available from China.

If you want: motors, ESCs, flight controllers and radios those can be sourced from outside of China, and competitively priced too (if you're in Europe, outside you'd still have to add taxes).