xNIBx

I mean this is what homophobes use when they say “hate the sin, love the sinner”. You are still a sinner. And this isnt just some interpretation or parable, it clearly says it is an abomination. It’s just silly.

Turkey under the Kemalists is an example of a primarily Muslim nation at least attempting to build a liberal democracy.

Yes, building a liberal democracy by using military dictatorships. When you are trying to force something on people that dont want it(at least the majority), thats when you get Erdogan. It might suck for turks living in Western Turkey and in cities like Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara but the other half of turks have a majority.

And one of the fundamental principles of a democracy is that majority rules. You cant use the military to overthrow democratically elected governments just because you dont like their policy.

However, i agree with your point, there are plenty of turks who selfidentity as muslim and are ok with lgbtq, etc, just like there are christians. Though i never understood how that works. Like how can the Church of Sweden participate in Pride parades. At what point something stops being christianity and becomes a social club? In the Bible is clearly says that homosexuality is bad.

Noone is using windows because it is cool and hip and i doubt microsoft advertises windows. People use windows because they work and do what they want. Maybe they could use ubuntu, but why would they do that? What does ubuntu offer that windows dont?

I’ll tell you why they(including me) dont use linux, because maybe their wifi wont work(or they will have to compile the universe to make it work) or their favourite app or game wont work. And even if you could make a piece of hardware or software work in linux, the performance might be inferior because it will be using generic drivers, instead of the proprietary windows only drivers that the manufacturer has made.

Ultimately, people dont care about open source or privacy enough, to sacrifice their convenience.

Andorra.

Nah, it’s just that noone is making any kids and tons of young people have migrated elsewhere. The average lifespan of italians/greeks is pretty high, thanks to climate and diet. Italy/Greece have one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Italy is #190 and Greece is #181 in the world in fertility rates, with 1.3 and 1.4 births per woman.

For comparison, the US has 1.7 and Germany has 1.6. Spain and Portugal have 1.3. Japan has 1.3, China has 1.2 and Korea 0.9.

There was one time, when Turkey had a legitimate chance of joining the EU, back in 2005ish. Back then, one of their biggest supporters of their EU candidacy was Greece. Greece wanted to normalize the relation with Turkey and Turkey wanted to become a normal european country. Greece was even willing to throw Cyprus under the bus, by supporting the Annan Plan, which was objectively terrible for Cyprus. Though the thinking was “if Turkey becomes “normal”, then any negative part of the deal wouldnt be relevant, it could be like Belgium”. Though Cyprus(and pretty much all its political parties) voted against the deal.

Erdogan was seen as the extrovert, moderate muslim, someone who could merge moderate Islam with european values.

Nowadays, Erdogan and Turkey are on a completely different place. Erdogan has said “we might come on night” and “our missiles can reach Athens”.

https://www.politico.eu/article/recep-erdogan-turkey-threat-against-greece-g20/

https://www.politico.eu/article/erdogan-warns-greece-that-turkish-missiles-can-reach-athens%EF%BF%BC/

Turkey is constantly pushing their “blue homeland” concept, which basically includes a lot of greek islands in the Aegean. And thats on top of ridiculous Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) claims that basically say “(greek) islands have no EEZ rights”. Turkey feels that it has been historically wrong and that they need more “breathing space” in the Aegean sea(where Greece owns all the islands except 3).

And even the turkish society is different. There is a greater chasm between western/urban Turkey and the rest of Turkey. There was a hope that the rest of Turkey could slowly transition closer to european values, but nowadays it seems the country is getting split in half and each half is moving further away from the other.

And last but not least, the russian invasion of Ukraine has shown to the world that integration and shared economic interests do not always translate to peace. So do we really want to do the same mistake with Turkey?

PS I am greek, so i am biased.

I know it’s been 80 years since WW2 but it seems a lot of people have forgotten the main reason for the creation of EU. The EU was created in order is to avoid wars in Europe. It might sound ridiculous to many, but Europe used to have A LOT of wars in the past.

Economic criteria, corruption, etc are all great metrics but in the end, it is about avoiding wars. And a Ukraine inside the EU means a safer EU, a safer Ukraine and even a safer Russia. Russia wont be able to go full retard and Ukraine would have to compromise and reach some peace agreement in order to join the EU.

Inclusivity is very important for the EU. Reminder that even Russia could join the EU but a country like Russia, which sees itself as a super power, wouldnt want to be the 5th-6th most important member of the EU(in economic terms).

I havent played Genshin but from what i have heard, Star Rail(from the same developer) is even better(though very different gameplay). Tighter story telling, amazing music(timed with in game actions) and a lot of quality of life features that dont exist in Genshin.

I think you underestimate how many doctors, programmers, etc already use ai. And how good the ai is most of the time. And if you are knowledgeable enough, you can catch its bullshit and it can improve its outcome with your guidance. The ai as is right now is useful and the ai is now the worst it will ever be(unless they shackle it even more).

People already believe random bullshit lies written in social media. Imagine if those lies are accompanied by images, sound and video.

Motorola mobility(the one that makes phones) has been sold to Lenovo(chinese company). Their recent phones range from great value for money to mediocre. Their moto g32 was(and still is) great value for money

https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g32-11733.php

Snapdragon 680(6nm), 90hz screen, water repellent design, fm radio, 5000 mah battery, 30w charging, 85% screen to body ratio, headphone jack. All that for 160€ which is basically as cheap as you can get(a decent phone).

For me, their main feature is the flashlight shake, that allows you to turn on the flashlight just by doing a shake motion(no need to go into menus and stuff).