#European meme

[historynerdj2]

History memes #47

[vavuska]

Every European kid asking why it's called “Palms Sunday” If we bless everything except real palms:

Palm Sunday is a Christian holiday. As you might have guessed from the name, it’s on a Sunday — always the Sunday before Easter. That’s because it’s meant to commemorate Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, a week before Easter Sunday.

However, plams doesn't grow up everywhere, so each Christian country adopted their own version.

In the memes I summarize some of the European traditions I know:

North Italy, Slovenia and Croatia: small olive branches are blessed and distributed to the faithfuls at Churches. In Slovenia there are also “butarica”, that is traditionally a bundle of greenery, flowers or colored wood shavings. In Ljubljana, they are made of colored wood shavings, similar to the Polish tradion illustrated below

South Italy: interweaving palm leaves

Germany, Austria, Finland and Hungary: pussy willow or catkin branches

Bulgaria: Willow twigs, something weaved into crowns with other flowers

Poland: the faithful bring to churches their own “palms” generally made from willow branches decorated with evergreen plants colorful and vibrant crepe paper flowers and green bilberry or juniper bushes affixed to the top of dried flowers and colorful dyed grasses.

Source: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, 2007, dir. by Gore Verbinski

[haley-harrison]

[destiel-news-channel]

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'There's a petition to ban conversion therapy in the EU' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

If you are a citizen in the EU please sign this petition:

[gayforcarstairsgirls]

I made this and put it in a reblog but I'm still chortling so I'm giving it its own post

[sailoreddy]

[contemplatingoutlander]

All the Americans who died in WWII fighting fascism would be appalled by JD Vance's speech in Munich and his later meeting with the a neofascist AfD leader.

Vice President JD Vance urged European leaders on Friday to end the isolation of far-right parties across the continent, an extraordinary embrace of a once-fringe political movement with which the Trump administration shares a common approach on migration, identity and internet speech. [...] The vice president singled out his German hosts, telling them to drop their objections to working with a party that has often reveled in banned Nazi slogans and has been shunned from government as a result. He did not mention the party, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, by name, but directly referred to the longstanding agreement by mainstream German politicians to freeze out the group, parts of which have been formally classified as extremist by German intelligence. “There is no room for firewalls,” Mr. Vance said, bringing some gasps in the hall. He punctuated the message by meeting on Friday with Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor in this month’s election, as well as other German leaders. [...] Mr. Vance aggressively challenged the diplomats in the hall in Munich, telling them that their biggest security threat was not from China or Russia, but “the enemy within” — what he called their suppression of abortion protests and other forms of free speech.

It was breathtakingly hypocritical for Vance to scold Europe for not being true to its democratic ideals--much less to do so in a speech delivered in Germany, which in the mid-20th century had lost its democratic institutions because some Germans allowed Nazis to get a foothold in their government.

If you give fascists an inch, they will take a mile.

In his speech, Vance was indignant that Europe has erected "firewalls" against far-right political parties. Ignoring the fact that fascism took over Germany through a democratic, legal process. Specifically, once he became prime minister, it only took Hitler and his Nazi cronies 53 days to destroy the Weimar Republic through legal, constitutional means.

Germany in particular KNOWS if they give fascists an inch, they will take a mile.

It doesn't help Vance's case that in less than a month's time, Trump, Musk, and MAGA Republicans have taken a sledgehammer in the U.S. to the law and the Constitution, and appear to be trying to establish an autocratic if not downright neofascist state.

No politician has a "mandate" if they were elected because of disinformation and lies.

Vance clutched his pearls that the Romanian government just nullified an election because it was proven that there was a deep Russian disinformation campaign to propel a far-right party into power.

Besides the fact that Vance hypocritically works for Trump who attempted "coup" to overturn a fair election, Vance wants the world to ignore the fact that any political candidate who is elected into power based on lies and disinformation is in fact NOT a representative of the will of the people because they were elected fraudulently (i.e., if they had told the truth, they might not have been elected).

Consider Trump. If he had not lied and distanced himself from the deeply unpopular Project 2025, but had instead said he planned on using it as a blueprint for his second term, how many of those swing state voters would have actually voted for him?

Therefore, Trump has NO mandate that reflects the "will of the people" not only because he was NOT elected by a majority of the voters (just a plurality) but because he lied about his true intentions for a second administration during his campaign.

[See more about how Vance hypocritically turns "free speech" on its head below the cut.]

Vance turns "free speech" on its head.

Vance took hypocrisy to a new level in his Munich remarks, when he talked about "free speech":

Just as the Biden administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds, so the Trump administration will do precisely the opposite, and I hope that we can work together on that. [...] You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail, whether that’s the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news. [emphasis added]

Well, what Vance said is laughable given that Trump, Musk & their cronies have been fully behind censorship of not only speech, but of ideas, which they have demonstrated by:

Purging federal departments of anything related to DEI, including any "words" such as "gender" or "diversity," and any personnel who have promoted those ideas, or who have even attended one diversity training years ago.

Threatening to prosecute private businesses that promote DEI or provide diversity training to their employees.

Purging the study of or mention of "climate change" from government websites.

Withholding government funds for public schools and even universities that teach subjects related to racism, sexism, and gender studies and (in the case of K-12 schools) who choose NOT to teach a whitewashed "patriotic history."

Threatening to go after the mainstream press if they criticize Trump or his policies too much. (Already he has cut access to the White House for the AP's refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America, and has kicked important news media like The New York Times from their offices in the Pentagon, replacing them instead with right-wing media outlets.

Threatening to use the DOJ to go after the "enemy within" (i.e., politicians who do not support what Trump is doing, regardless of political party).

And lets not forget Trump's purge of civil servants who have different political views, and who will not pledge loyalty to Trump over the Constitution.

Through all of the above, Trump, Vance, and other MAGA GOP have shown us that they have no problems stepping all over the freedom of speech/of the press protections of the First Amendment over and over again.

I could go on and on about the hypocrisy of that speech, but the bottom line is that JD Vance embarrassed our nation by what he said in Munich. He also presented the Trump administration as being firmly on the side of the far-right/neofascist political parties in Europe.

At this point, many europeans must see very little difference between the US under Trump and Russia under Putin.

How far we have fallen as a nation in less than one month.

_______________ Image sources (before edits/captions): WWII meme photo source; "Inch" gif video source; "No mandate" photo source; "Freedom of speech" image source.

[petitesmafia]

Chuuya’s first impression of Verlaine be like

[typhlonectes]

[historynerdj2]

History memes #13

[glittering-under-the-glass]

European musicals explained really badly:

Woman keeps seeing her imaginary friend well into adulthood. This ruins lives.

Rich guys new wife is obessed with his previous deceased wife. This is the only thing she and the housekeeper agree on.

Child prodigy realizes that being an adult sucks.

Village boy battles vampires and bisexuality.

Two kids decide that dying is better than enduring their families’ bullshit.

Girl just wants to perform in the Opera, forced into a love triangle where both men suck.

Adolescent girl is under a lot of pressure in her new school, starts talking to a statue in the garden.

Crownprince only has dysfunctional relationships and he is very sad about it.

[diamondtrashangel]

wish it was snowing already

[destiel-news-channel]

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'The EU has passed the worldwide first major AI regulation' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

[lunareclipses-moments]

How much you want these to be accurate?

Me : no

My Tokyo debunker memes until Friday comes

[zenos-stuff]

my favorite french