this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024
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I think you mean privatized energy and railways.
I agree, this was a complete shit show, especially in France.
Although, it's not the EU constitution and political systems that is fully at fault, but the people we elected to take the seats in the parliament. This time around we get fucked even harder, with a huge set back for Greens and Left in general, and big rise of hard-right and liberals.
Without the EU, how can our small individual European countries hold against massive Americans corporations and other giants like China or Russia? Neo-liberal policies would still dominate in our countries but all of or industry and agriculture and media would be enslaved to bigger entities of the "free market".
Today, the EU still helps us to stand against erosion of our privacy and mass surveillance (although there are big red flags on this point at the moment), push for better standards on technologies (universal charging, GDPR). Also, freedom of movement, unified currency. You know you can move to another EU country, find a job there, no need for any special work permit or visa, and then you can also vote for municipal elections there too ?
We have a lot to loose along side the EU. I guess that makes me a reformist more than a revolutionary.
This is a well balanced response
Yes sorry, I meant privatization, brain fart moment.
I don't think universal charging or gdpr are meaningful in my everyday life. Do you want to know how I dealt with Apple's bullshit premium prices on their slightly different shaped plug?
I didn't buy Apple products. And even with universal charging, I still won't. I literally do not care about this universal charging thing. USB has been a de facto standard in my life long before the EU decided to randomly care about it.
The only effect of gdpr is having to click on a trillion check marks every time you visit a website if you care about your privacy, or just give up and click the 'accept all' button, and even if you turn them all off, there's still a trillion trackers because of 'necessary' ones.
These two 'achievements' are the most meaningless things ever.
The thing that actually impacts my life, for example, is the EU's constant fight against biodiversity, by preventing the sales of any seed that isn't pre-approved in a list designed by some corrupt official paid by Monsanto and friends.
The EU can get fucked.
This is only the visible part of the iceberg for regular users and I agree it sucks. But most importantly GDPR take companies accountable for personal data management and data-breaches. They are mandated by law to disclose publicly when they have suffered a data-breach, which was not the case anywhere before, and still isn't the case in the US. It also mandates the data of EU-citizens must be managed and stored in the EU, and cannot be saved more than 1 year without renewed consent. GDPR is a very meaningful progress.
For all the agriculture and environment topics, I agree with you that it is a debacle.
And I'm sure all of these things are heavily enforced and companies face hefty fines when they don't follow these regulations lmao
They do: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDPR_fines_and_notices
Lol they fined google a whole 50 million.
Google has been fined 5 times so far.
I went back and added all the fines google got handed
137 millions
Estimates put Google as earning 50 millions per day on ad revenues alone lmao.
GDPR is truly a devastating blow for these companies, I can't possibly understand how they are able to cope with this incredible financial pressure.
Who else is holding them and other GAFAM accountable to any capacity? Not any single country by itself has this level of influence. Is it enough? No! Is better than anything done elsewhere? Yes!
This is what I want of the EU. I want it to do better. Especially for the environment, public transports, social protection. I believe the vote I casted last Sunday reflects that. I am sad not many of my compatriots see things the same way. But that's the system we have to deal with. It's true that 1 vote every 5 years, isn't as democratic as I wish.
Ah yes, such accountability. 5 whole ass fines (for an evil company like Google that probably deserves 10x more) of which they made the money back in less than 3 days lmao
I can't believe someone who seems as smart as you seem to be can look at that and be like "yes, this is meaningful" lmao. GDPR had absolutely no impact whatsoever. It's the most pointless piece of legislation ever passed by the EU and the competition is pretty stiff in that category. They fucking regulated the shape of fucking bananas and cucumbers. They ban companies from saying drinking water hydrates you.
Look, feel free to believe the EU gives half a fuck, in reality it's just the same bunch of neoliberal vampires who need to get publicly executed for their crimes against the people.
The fact they got fined 5 times should tell you just how many fucks they give about it.
Edit: lmao the second fine they got was a bank breaking 7 millions