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Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

It is more and more crucial that Europe, while remaining a stolid ally to the US, tries not to be fully involved in American (economic) wars, propaganda and protectionism. We have been fully dependent on them, now it is time to be good mates, but each with separate domestic and foreign policies. If Republicans win next year, this is not gonna get any better.

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> while remaining a stolid ally to the US

nice typo

> From Middle French stolide, ‘stolid’…

> calm and not emotional

You're right, I've always misinterpreted the word, it's more neutral than I thought!

It comes from the Latin stolidus: “inert, dull, stupid”. So it's a strange case of a word with initially negative connotations that becomes somewhat neutral. Although Oxford Languages (Google's source) lists also "bovine", "lethargic", "torpid" and "stupid" as similar words, after "impassive", "unemotional" and "calm".

Europe's past foreign policy, which relied on Russia and China, is what got them into trouble now. They should be more aligned with US, which they finally realized.

NATO chief urges China to stop supporting Russia's war in Ukraine https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-chief-urges-china-...

How China helps keep Russia's economy afloat https://www.dw.com/en/how-china-is-helping-keep-the-russian-...

Keeping America close, Russia down, and China far away: How Europeans navigate a competitive world https://ecfr.eu/publication/keeping-america-close-russia-dow...

I partly agree with you because Europe is not a monolith. The countries that decided to depend on Russia most weren't its direct neighbors. Basically all countries that share the border with Russia warned the rest that Putin can't be trusted. But all in, he managed to somehow deceive everybody, including the USA, into thinking that although it's an authoritarian state, it's somewhat civilized and we can do business with them.

So with Russia, we're past that rude awakening moment. With China, it hasn't happened yet.

He didn't even fool Trump who introduced sanctions against Russian gas counter to German politicians wishes. What does it say about European politicians who did nothing of the sort?

No wonder EU nations like Germany are going bankrupt - all industry fleeing since Germany now pays 4x the cost of energy to the U.S.

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