→ Over half of Europeans demand stricter migration
The bosses and bean-counters in Brussels can’t seem to catch a break. After recent criticisms over its alleged movement into online censorship, the EU will be disheartened by a new poll from Euronews and Ipsos which shows that just over half of Europeans disapprove of the bloc’s migration policy. Where 16% of respondents think the Union is doing a good job on border control, a full 51% want stricter rules on who can enter member states.
With 26,000 respondents from 18 EU states and various age groups and professional backgrounds, the poll is a comprehensive survey of how the continent feels about migration. The most critical nation is France with 62% disapproval, not altogether surprising given Emmanuel Macron’s approval of legislation to tighten controls earlier this year. Even in Left-wing and liberal EU groups, such as the Socialists and Democrats, over a third of voters have a negative view of Brussels’s policies. With so much popular support for stricter measures, it’s no surprise that Right-wing parties are projected to storm this year’s European elections.
→ Richard Dawkins joins the memecoin sphere
What do the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist and a meme dog have in common? To mark his 83rd birthday today, Richard Dawkins has joined Doge in the ranks of those who have lent their name to a cryptocurrency. The scientist and author announced the arrival of Dawkoin on social media last night, though he made clear that he wasn’t behind this development himself. “I don’t even know what that means,” Dawkins said of memecoins. “But it sounds intriguing.”
Well, just fancy that. To commemorate my birthday, 26th March, and the coining of the word “meme” in 1976, somebody has created a meme coin, the Dawkoin. I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds intriguing.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) March 25, 2024
The post merited a positive response from X owner Elon Musk, whose online presence has increasingly been marked out by his fondness for memes. The tech mogul has Dawkins to thank for that, given that the word meme was first used in the latter’s 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkoin was therefore hailed online as “most memecoin of all memecoins”. The atheist academic’s progression to beloved elder shitposter continues apace…
→ Christopher Rufo: conservative Twitter is a mess
What is happening on conservative Twitter right now? That was a question posed on X today which seems to have figures on the American Right talking.
Kanye-style antisemitism, right-wing identitarianism, online grifting, extreme conspiratorialism, etc. None of these are right on the merits and they are a threat to a functional, popular conservative movement.
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 26, 2024
“The economics of online discourse are increasingly at odds with forming and mobilizing a successful political movement,” replied conservative activist Christopher Rufo. “Kanye-style antisemitism, right-wing identitarianism, online grifting, extreme conspiratorialism, etc. None of these are right on the merits and they are a threat to a functional, popular conservative movement.”
Days earlier, the online Right had kicked off Holy Week with a massive argument over Candace Owens’s exit from the Daily Wire following her alleged endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy theories. The incident culminated in a low-stakes Spartacus moment, in which numerous influencers tweeted out “Christ is King” in a show of solidarity with Owens, who had first tweeted the phrase in November during a public spat with Ben Shapiro. The narcissism of small differences…
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SubscribeI’ll be honest! Looking at these two women, I am convinced that the EU will never solve any of its problems
Interesting news snippets as usual :). On item 3 about conservative twitter’s crisis, the phrase ‘narcissism of small differences’ captures all the tense alliances on the political right quite well, haha. Or maybe there’s just something particularly bitter about disagreements between supposed in-group members.
Illegal immigration is destabilizing Western countries. This is why people are turning to the far right.
Has destabilised. And may already be too late to correct.