French MEP says US should give back Statue of Liberty
Raphaël Glucksmann, a center-left member of the European Parliament, has strongly criticized President Donald Trump's radical change of US policy on the war in Ukraine.
I think we should if they pay us for the shipping charges in French-made guillotines. We need a lot of those in the US right now.
Someone's been keeping tabs on the price of copper.
To whom? Macron, who refuses to respect the will of the voters, and continues to elevate the far right in France?
Thank you; people keep getting excited whenever France makes moves towards forms of leadership these days but I can't help but suspect that Macron doesn't want to eradicate the global hegemony America had held through recent history but put France in its place.
Demanding back a gift given in celebration of America's abolition of slavery solely on the basis that France was the one to gift it (i.e. ownership) is too on-the-nose, even if you tried.
You don’t need to suspect. He’s confirmed it plenty of times. He will shut the country down before allowing the left to seize power.
Yeah. Macron is extremely bad with domestic politics which is why the French far-right keeps gaining ground. I tell the so-called blue MAGA that if Americans could articulate their thoughts away from the cringey false dichotomy of "blue, liberal Democrats" versus "red, conservative Republicans", the Democratic party is at best a neoliberal centre-right party who still value private property and free market, however socially progressive they are. Hence, as Macron and the Democratic party demonstrated, liberals will always side with fascists when it comes to it, instead of actually curb stomping the far-right for good.
But since we are talking about how awful Macron's domestic policies are, the opposite side is Macron being inversely good in foreign policies. He had been proven correct searching for strategic autonomy, and able to stand up to the bullying tactics of both Trump and Putin. Someone in Reddit mentioned Macron is probably easily bored with local politics. I have to agree and I am exactly the same. I prefer international news and politics over local; because the latter is like keeping up with school gossip with too many white noise. And the details of the story change every damn time. Meanwhile, international politics typically settles over a bit quickly and you get the fuller picture as a result. Besides, I think if you follow international news and politics more, you see the entire forest than just a tree and thus you could easily see solutions to local problems by applying what other nations are doing right.
That's rich coming from a party which saved the (partially) far right government from dissolution.
There's a big difference from the far right and full blown nazis
Yeah, that difference is about 8 years.
"Welcoming huddled masses" is no longer US policy. Statue of Liberty is "woke propaganda", and US should now welcome getting rid of it. No horribly inappropriate/misplaced Ukraine warmongering justification needed.
Hasn't been since before ww2
This feels appropriate
welcome to Lemmy btw :)
Y'all can come take it, I'm not gonna stop you but I'm also not going to pay for it
Well, no, it would be us paying for it. Taxes aren't yours, they're ours.
Thought that this was a joke originally.
THAAAAAT'S THE SPIRIT
wtf I love the French now.
I love to hate on the French but in reality they are far more based than other European powers.
Let’s not forget the Napoleonic code
Love you too bro. Now riot
Not just yet... we're waiting for checks notes the government to individually wrong every last one of us directly while not hurting our enemies in any way
I mean not me, My pitchfork is fresh, but I'm not going out until there's a crowd :) Murderbots will be hunting me down in the street.
My real worry is that instead of calling on the military to quell violence, they'll call the military industrial complex who will send in the murder drones.
I mean, they're the country we probably owe the most to.
I could legitimately see this happening, by now. Fox News builds it up for a week, then Trump/Musk make a big spectacle of sending it back and replacing it with a giant statue of Trump.
replacing it with a giant statue of Trump.
Made of plastic, made in China
A giant dump would also fit to the current timeline.
They're the same picture.
They'd probably melt it down instead, just to avoid giving it back.
This is pretty funny tbh.
Until they replace it with a Trump statue
He is not wrong.
has the us ever truly stood for the values the statue is said to represent?
My family came to the US via Ellis Island as poor Jewish immigrants escaping pogroms of Eastern Europe.
Yes, the US once was a land of opportunity that did help the lives of many poor & oppressed families.
They slammed the door shut shortly before ww2. So the statue had meaning for like 30-40 good years.
Depends on what you think it represents.
It's traditionally a symbol of opportunity, or new start style liberty.
America has, for a long time, been a place of hope or opportunity for immigrants. Not necessarily welcome, kindness, or prosperity, but hope.
With the visibly growing xenophobia this has tragically waned, but even still we have some of the highest immigration rates in the world.
The poem at the base of the statue, The New Colossus, makes its meaning pretty clear.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The US never lived up to the promise the statue made.
Give it back to you? How about you pay repairations to Haiti or Algeria or any of your other former colonies before you act like you're worthy of the Mother of Exiles?
Yeah, give it to Russia or China who have never used military expansion for their own self serving purposes.
This should be the new “OK boomer”
Oh fuck off.
Did France not forever debilitate Haiti's economy by enslaving it and then requiring Haiti to compensate France for the monetary loss of its liberation before being willing to recognize it as a legitimate country?