After the death of George Floyd on 25th May 2020, America was rocked by weeks of protests and rioting – 25 people lost their lives and property damage totalled $1–2 billion.
The protestors’ main grievance was “systemic police racism”. As the media reported endlessly at the time, black people make up around 30% of the victims of police shootings despite comprising only 13% of the population. Black people, it was said, could not even walk down the street without fear of being gunned down by a racist police officer.
Yet the narrative was flawed. After all, victims of police shootings are overwhelmingly male, but this doesn’t mean the police are sexist against men. It is simply that men are more likely to get into situations where a police officer ends up shooting them.
What’s more, activists were vastly inflating the numbers. According to the Washington Post’s police shooting database, only 12 unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019 –in a country of 330 million.
We now know that part of the problem was innumeracy. In 2020, Skeptic Research Centre asked a representative sample of Americans, “How many unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019?” Options were: “about 10” (the correct answer), “about 100”, “about 1,000”, “about 10,000”, and “more than 10,000”. Results are shown below:
As you can see, “very liberal” respondents – the ones most supportive of the protests – massively overestimated the number of unarmed black men killed by police. Over 50% said “about 1,000” or greater, and only 16% gave the correct answer of “about 10”. It’s possible that America would have been spared the unrest in the summer of 2020 had people been better informed of the facts.
It’s now three years later, and Skeptic Research Centre just asked another sample of Americans the same question. What did they find? There were slight improvements, but “very liberal” still massively overestimated the number of unarmed black men killed by police. Results are shown below:
Fewer “very liberal” respondents gave answers of “about 1,000” or greater, and more gave answers of “about 100”. Yet only 17% gave the correct answer of “about 10” – just one percentage point more than in 2020. “Conservative” and “very conservative” respondents did about as well as last time.
On the one hand, it’s surprising we don’t see more improvement among “very liberal” respondents. There are numerous articles and videos debunking the narrative about “systemic police racism”, and the Washington Post’s database is freely available online; anyone can download it and check the numbers for themself.
On the other hand, it’s not surprising. Why not? Because the mainstream media hasn’t levelled with its audience. Liberal Americans don’t get their news from the kind of outlets that question the narrative about “system police racism”. They get their news from CNN and the New York Times. And those outlets still cover race and crime in a highly misleading way.
You can’t expect people to update their beliefs when they don’t have correct information.
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The Gravy Train is old, wobbly, and crowded but it must roll on providing a good living for the old elite. Or not.
He came, he saw, he gave them a right bollocking. The Spirit of 1776 lives on. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.
If he and the boss do right by the American electorate, he could be in the White House in ‘January 29, through to January ’37.
By then, the current shoal of European minnows, sprats and piranhas should have been swept well out to sea, and a better breed of fish will be clearing up the mess.
Still early days. Onward and upward.
The original sin of the AfD was that – roughly a decade ago – some prominent member, possibly Björn Höcke, chose to take a certain side in the so-called 1980s quarrel of the historians by claiming Germany had existed for much longer than 12 years and that any particular period of 12 years, especially an increasingly past period, perhaps isn’t that important anymore. That’s something the German political establishment absolutely doesn’t want to hear because it derives it whole legitimacy from this eternal 12-year-ism and something which gets people who say it in Germany with one leg into jail (German idiom for something that’s borderline criminal and will end badly unless changed fundamentally).
Vance should know that and hence, this bollocking was a bit airheaded. Germany is governed (or rather administrated) in line with the principles the Allied Control Council laid down for this and while there’s room for interpretation and classifying the AfD as Nazis is obviously nonsense, a fundamental freedom to disagree, oppose and speak your mind about it has never existed in the FRG and was never meant to exist there.
Being a Brit, I’m not really acquainted with the nuances of German politics, present or post-war past.
But fair to say, I think, Mr Vance was addressing Europe in general, rather than Germany (or Britain) in particular, albeit with specific examples taken from Germany (and Britain, and Romania).
The firewall is a specific reference to the German AfD sizable parts of the political establishment would outlaw rather today than tomorrow if they only could. And the political system where something like this is not only legitimate but actually called for as duty of all really upright citizens is an Allied legacy for Germany (and a bunch of other European states, namely, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland).
When are you going to explain what you mean clearly, instead of these vague references to an “Allied Legacy for Germany” and other states including Hungary, which does not seem to be suffering from whatever it is you are darkly referring to…
This is a clear reference, you’re just not familiar with what it’s referring to, namely, the “anti-nazi” provisions of the German basic law which limit exercise of the right of free expression and association, of the freedom to teach and research and of personal property to purposes which are not designed to “fight against the free and democratic basic order” and which allow prohibition of political parties seeking to change the political order in ways the powers-who-are aren’t happy with (one could argue that the very purpose of a political party is to change the established political order in some way and that hence, strictly speaking, all political parties in Germany are principally illegal).
It’s perfectly possible to get jailed as terrorist in Germany for publishing poems/ song texts politicians really don’t like.
Similar restrictions to freedom of speech etc were reportedly imposed onto all German allies of WWII (which I named). I have no detailed knowledge about this, though.
Ok. I sort of get it now. So basically Germany has no democracy and therefore F c u k e d ?
I ask the same question. Clear and plain English is required.
What is your point? Please clarify. I want the AfD to win. We want common sense to win.
And the unelected EU parasites are the cause of the world’s problems.
That’s certainly an upcoming classic (paraphrase):
Vance: Democracy means listening to the people!
Merz: We have a different opinion about that!
Apart from that, put your money where your mouth is, Vance, and revoke the so-called law 104 which – to this date – is the precise reason why Merz has “a different opinion” about which kinds of opinions are legitimate in the German so-called democracy and which aren’t.
Who passed this law, and in which country?
That’s the German law implementing the Allied Control Council directive 24 for “elimination of national socialism and militarism” which – to this date – is an implied part of the German basic law (Article 139). One would assume that, after almost 80 years of “elimination of national socialism”, not much can be left of it but the German political establishment, especially, the left-wing parts of it, think otherwise: The more elimination takes place, the worse the situation reportedly gets, crying for yet more elimination.
The liberal elites who rule most of Europe cannot get their brains around the notion that “populist” political parties are called that because they have “popular” policies.
These liberal elites and their presstitutes in the main stream and legacy media are afraid of losing their power if they allow the great unwashed public to elect anyone that goes against the neoliberal wet dream of borderless countries with a multicultural society all living in harmony.
Many in the European electorate are far too savvy to believe this neoliberal nonsense.
Whilst we’re at it Russia is no threat whatsoever to Europe and only want to be equal partners with mutual respect for each other.
I’d love to know exactly who war gamed that Ukraine would be able to defeat Russia – no doubt some highly skilled lol, NATO computer modellers were involved. I wonder if they factored in the fact that they were dealing with a country that lost 30 million plus souls in largely winning WW2,.hardly a single family would be untouched.
So we have German tanks complete with Balkenkreuz rolling across the Steppe again.
For many EU leaders – particularly Tusk and UVL they are just carrying out the family tradition. Sadly the UK joined in, particularly Johnson whose eagerness to participate has been ably matched by Starmer and the Wests MSM. Somehow history has been turned on its head – Russia and anyone supporting them are Nazis?!
A few weeks ago Putin said that European leaders would bark and growl (at the peace talks) but shortly thereafter come running to the feet of their master – with their tails wagging.
For me it is immensely satisfying to see them squirm at the collapse of their brave warmongering efforts – very easy to say when you’re not actually fighting.
However that’s nothing compared to the sadness and anger I feel at the totally unnecessary loss of life suffered by both sides.
Much like the covid debacle it’s so sad that the bastards responsible will escape any form of justice on this earth at least.
Time will tell on your last point.
This was an absolutely brilliant, astonishing, powerful speech by US Vice President Vance. Thanks to Eugyppius and the DS for featuring it and the reaction.
Eugyppius is, however, mistaken in worrying that “Vance drove a vast wedge between himself and the centre-Right Union parties of Germany.” The truth is that “Centre-Right Union parties” DO NOT EXIST anywhere in Europe or the UK. They are all Leftist Traitors hiding behind a facade of conservatism, and their only purpose is to deceive the public into drawing away from True Patriots in every nation.
Merz has recently made an about-face by trying to end Merkel’s open borders policy in favour of something more in line with what the CDU used to stand for, which used to be an anti-immigration and pro-German party (within the usual limits for that). Reportedly, he has back-paddled since then and no potential coalition partner for the CDU would accept anything but open borders but this could be a start. It even got the supposedly retired Angela back into the ring to declare that something like this must not happen. Yet, it was spoken and voted on in parliament.
But Merz is a total fake, and is only back-peddling to deceive the public again, just like the evil Communist Globalist Tusk has been making similar noises in Poland.
How Tusk managed to get re-elected is a mystery, but as Stalin said, it’s not the voters, but who counts the votes that’s important.
Among other things, Merz has in the past voted against a law requiring politicians to declare their commercial interests publically. He’s also committed to saving the climate etc. The ‘fake’ is out of question. But generally, people articulating CDU positions of 20 – 25 years ago are immediately shouted down as Nazis by the German political establishment and hence, him openly doing so was nevertheless a political earthquake (offices and other buildings of the CDU obviously got immediately targetted by the anti-fascists because of this.)
Note to the author: Populist is a smear term people knowingly governing against the will of the population (and usually, for its detriment) use to claim that there is no alternative to that and that people who support alternatives policies are either dishonest or misguided and ill-informed: They’re either trying to trick people into voting for them by supporting popular policies despite they know about the almighty TINA or they’re too stupid to understand her ways.
There are great many very intelligent people in the AfD which was – after all – originally founded by a professor of economics opposed to the Euro and I don’t think they’re particularly dishonest, either, at least not for politician’s standards. There are certainly alternatives to heat pumps and wind-generated electricity, namely, what we’ve been using so far for this. Only rabid would-be planet-savers claim otherwise.
It is hard to put into words how much contempt I have for all these establishment people in positions of power. There is nothing redeeming about them. They are despotic, they have no capacity for self reflection, they are badly lacking in intelligence and wisdom. And to top.it off they talk down to people that are better than them in almost every way; people who are smarter, more honourable and honest.
They are really scum.
Especially the current British Labour Cabinet, who are irredeemably thick and talentless
That’s a great description, and reminds me of an old Monty Python sketch, in which John Cleese described a group as “irrepressibly dull and awful”.
If only they were that smart and gifted.
No doubt what many European Politicians are worried about is Trump and Putin agreeing that the fighting will stop, the Ukraine border will be redrawn near to where it is now and there is an agreement that Ukraine will never be part of NATO. Then more and more people will start asking ‘what was it all for?’ The 100s of thousands killed and injured, the 100s of billions of dollars of devastation that needs to be rectified, the upheaval to families, businesses and infrastructure. What’s happened to Ukraine is a political failure on a massive scale, going back decades, and the politicians who failed the dead and injured will be desperately trying to distance themselves from any culpability.
Just like with the Covid PsyOp, this was no failure when you consider the UK has been training up Ukrainian forces since around 2014. Destabilising Russia seems to be part of the plan. The failure is to stop Trump bringing an end to the bloodshed. that’s why they’re throwing their toys out in a panic.
They’ll also look (even more) stupid when after things settle down, it turns out Putin wasn’t on a mission to conquer all of Europe as everyone was told after the invasion. Scare tactics like always to get everyone into line and behind the morons that pretend to lead us.
Shame that coup de’etat failed, because only a revolution will shift these ‘liberal’ tyrants.
President Trump has already described the speech as brilliant..As fine an analysis as this is, it misses the main drivers of the US , one is the need to get the budget under control, they can’t afford to pay for the West’s security, at the expense of their own taxpayers and secondly they have no interest in being a slave to the mad ideas of Davos,,,,,,which by dumping those mad plans also saves them a fortune and gears up their economy……
The EU needs to wake up fast, as far as the US government is concerned Davos and all it stands for ,is dead……very soon many of it’s biggest fans, like Soros and Gates, are going to be asked some very hard questions, about all the US taxpayer money, they have been getting, in their tame NGO’s, as are the likes of many of the EU’s biggest supporters…..
The reaction in Munich was more than likely not intellectual, it was the first inkling that their gilded lives were about to become very ordinary.
JD Vance: “Europe does not accept free speech.”
Europe: “The Vance speech is not acceptable.”
Lol.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek
Jesus wept, is this man on his period or something? Somebody give him a bolus of testosterone, stat! The cherry on the cake is that he gets comforted by a literal female ”Nazi”: Alice from the AfD, lol;
”The poor little chairman of the Munich Security Conference had a full-on pathetic meltdown, sobbing like a toddler, all because JD Vance dared to hurt his precious feelings by criticizing European leaders.”
https://x.com/politblogme/status/1891423658985279524
Hilarious!
Oh blimey, sticks and stones might break my bones…
…You couldn’t get away with being a wimp like that in the playgrounds and streets I remember from all too many decades ago, when the big boy from that big boys’ school started taking the mick.
Someone get that man a packet of Kleenex and a backbone transplant.
What an utter disgrace that R s hole is. Absolutely pathetic. Shameful.
If Germany gets a coalition of CDU/SPD/Green nutters after the election then their downward spiral will probably pick up speed as businesses will know that the country is uninvestable for years to come. The impoverished people will have even less to spend every month prompting the crisis of lack of income from sales tax to fund the states. Munich ironically is one already struggling as consumer sales drop away. Will the last industrial company padlock the gates as it departs for cheaper locations.
If Germany gets a coalition of CDU/SPD/Green nutters after the election… then too many will have effectively voted for it.
And the point is?
Do you realize that politically sanctioned thugs roam German streets and beat up people who are suspected to support the AfD? AfD politicians too, obviously, who can expect to run into all kinds difficulties in their jobs, have their business boycotted and their premises attacked, possibly with “home-made” firebombs in the dead of the night, and who can expect to be preferred target for knife-wielding religion of peace adherents on the prowl.
There were votes in the USSR and strangely, people always voted for the party. So, it’s clearly all their fault.
I’m really starting to wonder how obviously f***ed a system can be for the routine victim blamers to realize that the victims are not the prepetrators and that they didn’t really have a choice.
No. I did not realise this.
Certainly I am aware of two-tier justice in the UK with outrageous cases of illegals evading deportation on spurious excuses and left and right leaning political rallies policed in entirely unbalanced ways. Violence by left-leaning demonstrators far outstripping that by right-leaning demonstrators.
As for victim blaming: Yes. For example I blame Londoners for re-electing Khan. They knew what he stands for and they had alternatives. The UK elected the current Labour government and I hope the nation suffers and through that realises and does not repeat its mistake.
Yes, media coverage is unfair. If people will not look beyond the state media they will not get a balanced view.
As far as I understand it the German electoral system is rigged to result in coalition more often than not. If the people don’t want a coalition government they have to do something about it.
The UK’s electoral system is rigged against insurgent political parties. A breakthrough from insurgent to mainstream is the only way to overturn the current uniparty. I was disappointed but not too surprised when the UK voted against AV in the second national referendum. PR is what gives Germans no real choice. FPTP gives the UK a choice of one. Both countries need real change.
There once was a VP called Vance
Who shook the élite from their trance:
”If you block your cloth ears
To your countrymen’s fears,
Then frankly you don’t stand a chance.”
Wonderful!
“This is not acceptable and this is not the Europe and not the democracy in which I live and for which I am currently campaigning”
You are in the ‘right’ side of what the establishment agrees with.
Well I think maybe the esteemed author may be overthinking this. I don’t see how anyone could speak honestly and clearly about what’s happening in Europe without incurring the wrath and alarm of the European establishment, however subtly it is phrased – especially not someone from the Trump administration who are all viewed doubtless as “far right extremists” already by said establishment. Ultimately the kind of ideas that Vance expressed need to become respectable among the majority of European populations otherwise we are screwed whatever happens.
I am a little confused, because previous items by the author seemed to indicate contempt for the status quo in Germany and a hope that change was on the way from good showings in the polls from AfD. For me, if the AfD are the largest party but the rest of the German political system contrive to exclude them, just as if Reform become the largest in the UK, after the locals, without cooperation from the uniparty, it will hopefully only speed the demise of the outdated establishment in future elections. Vance’s speech was one of the most earth shattering, welcome interventions into European politics in years.
What a great line for a future quote, Cotfordtags!
“Vance’s speech was one of the most earth shattering, welcome interventions into European politics in years.”
Absolutely.
Vance reading them the riot act:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlXUeNexTCw
No Prisoners!
It was a Master-Class in FREE SPEECH. The right to say what you think, even if it offends the sensibilities of people who disagree with you.
I hope he (or Trump) does exactly the same to our own Authoritarian PM when he visits next week.
I really enjoyed the Vance speech and know he’s bang on the money. However, unless European and UK governments will not listen, they are so convinced they are right these regressive Marxist will double down and become more authoritarian and dictatorial.
These communist thugs know they are being beaten back and will do everything they can to stay in power.
God bless America for seeing the light, we need to catch up quickly.
We need a JD Vance in the UK. Even Farage is not capable of saying half of the stuff Vance said in Munich!!! This was a I am a Berliner moment. Seismic. Incredible and brave. I would vote for him any day!
Great speech and his claim to be next Republican President. And thank you J.D.Vance for spelling out to Starmer and the unitary what we, the people, have been voting for all these years
What the main German political parties apart from the AfD are saying is that the Nazis destroyed Germany’s democracy forever and Germans should forever accept that they need to be governed by totalitarians to eliminate the return of Nazism. I as a Brit don’t think this is true and I hope the good people of Germany agree with me. Vance, I hope, has opened the German people’s minds to the effect of their current governing parties and the way they want to maintain the status quo, which I hope now they feel free to talk and vote against. We in Britain have a current government aligning itself with the undemocratic elements of the EU and working hard to destroy our democracy and right to free speech unless we the people can fight against them, they will destroy our country and its previous reputation as a bastion of freedom and free speech we were once the envy of the world for.
“I would say that a coalition between the CDU and the AfD is at this point a near-impossibility”
Maybe. That will depend on the results of the election. In the opinion polls, the AfD are polling at least 20 percent, with the Union parties at 30 percent or less. Given that the polls probably understate support for the AfD, the true result could easily be 25 percent for the AfD, with about the same or only a little more for the CDU/CSU. That would change these considerations completely.