Recently in a comment thread of a Eurosceptic blog I started a discussion with one of the Eurosceptic commentators. He then wrote a comment where he claimed that somehow the EU was responsible for the death of of Pim Fortyn and ended with
Why don't you admit the truth, you would at least gain some respect for that. The EU is the new Socialist Block dedicated to central control and that the 'power to decide their own future has been taken away from the people because you believe that that power is better off in the hands of a few, who know best, in Brussels.
On such a basis there is just no point to discuss about anything. You can find the same today at the blog of "reasonable" Eurosceptic Daniel Hannan. He states that the EU is as Autocratic as Russia. And then the comments to this post!! One Example:
No, the EU is worse
At least there are SOME kind of elections for the President of Russia. Who elected Barroso?
Those guys are nuts.
Sucked into the wrong debate
Because I blog on English and read English Euroblogs I felt the need to address the nonsense and slander of British Eurosceptics. But the fact is that there is just no reason to do that. This not my debate and there is no way to convince people who are so far out.
5 comments:
As a French blogger, I can tell you that one of the paradox is that there are much more blogs in English than in French. But in the country who said "No" in 2004 to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (ie France), Europhile blogs are predominant (probably because of the strength of the European Movement).
There are some very interesting French Euroblogs. Unfortunately I can only read them using Google translation.
What I find interesting is the fact that French anti-EU blogs seem to hail from the left. This is quite different from Britain. I wonder if they display equally paranoid behavior.
So far I found only a few German blogs which focus on European subjects, and most are written by professionals who are somehow involved with the EU.
Free Europe?
Vote YES or NO at www.FreeEurope.info
Well, actually, I still haven't find a real French anti-EU blog. But my prefered one is Les coulisses de Bruxelles (by Jean Quatremer, a French journalist)
The goal of pro-EU people should be to make a distinction between these lunatics and rational euro-sceptics. You just can't debate with the former because it bogs down the debate to conspiracy theories and plain nonsense, it leads nowhere. And most of all distracts from the real issues, how can you talk about the benefits of the single market or European action in the world, when the other party is talking about the 4th Reich and corrupt eurocrats wanting to control the colour of their socks. It's like having a debate with a wall.
Post a Comment