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Comment by cassianoleal | Hacker News Reader

> the worst they can do is kick them out of the EU

As opposed to what? Armed invasion?

Yes. The EU has no army, no legal sovereignty within each country, etc. It's an alliance of countries NOT a single federal government. The individual countries remain in charge of themselves and the alliance is supposed to be structured in a way that only paases things the countries actually want.

So you think it would be better if the EU started a war with a member state that failed to uphold the union's laws?

Why would he or she think that? Your questions are close to strawman arguments in my perception.

Let's follow the timeline, shall we? It shouldn't be difficult as it's a pretty linear tree in the comments.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48423657

I mentioned that Europe is a lot more than the EU, and even within the EU member countries diverge.

2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48423908

trumpdong then makes a comment that I interpret as saying the EU doesn't have a lot of power over member states, and saying that the worst which could happen to one of them is to be kicked out of the EU.

3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48424244

Slightly shocked by the idea that the EU should be doing something worse than expelling a member for not following the Union's rules, I use a _reductio ad absurdum_ and ask if they thought the EU should be harder and actually perform an armed invasion of a member state that didn't follow them.

4. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48425100

To my shock, trumpdong literally says "yes".

5. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48425487

I, due to the shock described above, decide to question again in more words if that's actually what they mean.

---

Hopefully that responds your question. I see no straw man, but if you still do, please present it.

You did not ask that:

"ask if they thought the EU should be harder and actually perform an armed invasion of a member state that didn't follow them."

You asked this:

"> the worst they can do is kick them out of the EU

As opposed to what? Armed invasion?"

Where trumpdong reploed with a affirmative "yes". So the worst they can do is kick someone out. No one demanded the EU should do armed invasion.

They complained kicking out the worst. I suggested one possible worse possibility (again, in a reductio ad absurdum rhetoric), trying to understand what they thought should be done more than "just kicking them out". They agreed with it.

I don't know why you're taking their pain.

You seem to enjoy either pedantery to feel right, or genuinly missunderstood the conversation. And more pain I am not taking here.

I misunderstood the conversation I was having? Interesting.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com