Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU • Hacker News Board

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#221

Post by DaSHacka » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 6:22 PM UTC

koonsolo wrote: post #196

mrcwinn wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, I hope you can identify strongly as an Australian. Why bother telling yourself you’re something of a European? In any case, I hope countries form ties with Europe. Europe needs be economically stronger than it is. Better for the world, so long as they can slow their tendencies toward government control and censorship.

Censorship? Do you mean the fact that we hold platforms accountable if they post hate speech or misinformation, or is this something else?

> Censorship? You mean when we censor people for speech we don't like?

uh, yeah.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#222

Post by yurish » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 6:33 PM UTC

YZF wrote: post #169

jmyeet wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the summer of 2023 when Ukraine's big counteroffensive had failed my own view was that the situation was stalemated and Russia will wait until the West gets bored or the situation changes and Russia's geopolitical position improves. Russia has that option available to it in a way the West doesn't. Sanctions in general don't work. They don't work against enemies. Arguably they only work against allies (eg apartheid…

Or maybe the lesson to Russia is that if the US can't win against Iran how is it going to win against Ukraine? Another angle to look at it is through who does China support (Russia and Iran?). I think your perspective is interesting and not wrong. The weakness of the US (and the west) is emboldening Putin. I do still think the order of events starts with Russia, China and Iran's challenge the post USSR collapse statu…

I am puzzled why do you think the level of democracy in Russia has anything to do with the war in Ukraine. The US being democracy has not stopped them from kidnapping the foreign leader, plundering the country by stripping it of its oil resources and to unleash the war in the Middle East.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#223

Post by koonsolo » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

DaSHacka wrote: post #221

koonsolo wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship? Do you mean the fact that we hold platforms accountable if they post hate speech or misinformation, or is this something else?

> Censorship? You mean when we censor people for speech we don't like? uh, yeah.

Speech inciting hatred, violence, or plain misinformation is harmful and so should be illegal or restricted.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#224

Post by DaSHacka » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 6:47 PM UTC

koonsolo wrote: post #223

DaSHacka wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Censorship? You mean when we censor people for speech we don't like? uh, yeah.

Speech inciting hatred, violence, or plain misinformation is harmful and so should be illegal or restricted.

Cool idea, feel free to run your police state of a country that way.

I'll continue enjoying my 1st and 2nd amendments though.

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#225

Post by koonsolo » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 7:09 PM UTC

DaSHacka wrote: post #224

koonsolo wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speech inciting hatred, violence, or plain misinformation is harmful and so should be illegal or restricted.

Cool idea, feel free to run your police state of a country that way. I'll continue enjoying my 1st and 2nd amendments though.

I like the small % of nutcases in my country. We also consider disinformation a national security threat. That way a foreign adversary cannot push the public into voting for an incompetent, ignorant and arrogant criminal narcissist. I don't want my country to turn into an idiocracy.

And concerning your 2nd amendment, I also own guns. The difference is that only sane, non-violent people can have guns in my country, and crazy people not. You know, crazy people that would take their guns to schools and start shooting.

Enjoy your freedom!

Re: Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

#226

Post by swat535 » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 7:58 PM UTC

jmyeet wrote: post #96

This and Canada are just kneejerk reactions against the chaos of the Trump administration. While that makes sense, my prediction is that in the short-term it won't amount to much. In the long-term, history books will write about these years as redefining the world order that's existed largely since 1945. As for Canada, nobody really knows what associate membership means. Given that EU freedoms are reciprocal I just d…

> This and Canada are just kneejerk reactions against the chaos of the Trump administration.

As a Canadian, I can promise you that this not a "knee jerk reaction".

Replacing TRUMP with a democrat isn't going to solve it. Canadians have realized that relying on United States is a national security risk, hence the government been building larger trader alliances with both EU and China.

Any American thinking that this is just a TRUMP thing is missing the forest for the trees.