That’s what I would describe as a “nominal” religion. In Britain, Christmas is pretty much a secular festival anyway.
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I have to say that Spain is a big surprise there.
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Not religious can have such a huge variety of meaning to different people. To lump it together with Atheists which is quite a clear segment of people is going to skew the results. Some would consider attending Sunday service as religious. Some would believe you just have to be a good person to be religious. Some would say they pray everyday. But then I would suspect that most people will align with some behaviours or values of a religion they know the best or most without really being ‘into’ it. That would be my definition of not religious.
It really does depend on the question asked. I think a lot of people in the UK describe themselves as “Church of England” or “Roman Catholic” or whatever simply because that’s what their parents were. Chances are, they never go to church other than for weddings and funerals.
In Germany, I simply describe myself as having no religion. Essentially because I don’t, but also it is taxable. There are probably quite a few German people who are nominally religious but don’t want to pay for the privilege. That does make it very difficult to compare between countries.
I believe the most “atheist” country is meant to be Czechia. I visited there and still saw a lot of churches, so I don’t know if that is simply a linguistic thing. Oddly enough, neighbouring Poland often comes top of the most religious countries.
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I have always felt that is is quite interesting how the Popes are chosen in the context of world geopolitics… The last 3 out of the 4, maybe even all 4, are placed/chosen strategically.
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Possibly. I always viewed it as a liberal/conservative split, but at one time the Pope was always Italian. Since then we have had Polish, German, Argentinian and now American.
The Cold War and securing the New World.
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Rubio currently telling Orban how wonderful he is , after Orban was singing Trump’s praises.
Just. Fuck. Off.
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I think this is Enver Hoxha (Hodgah) effect. He was communist dictator from '44 to '85 who banned all religions.
Enormous Stalin fan and when Stalin died in '53 and later in '76 his second idol - Mao Zedong he became paranoid, he ordered more than 600.000 bunkers to be built. He left Warsaw Pact in late 60’s I believe.
This is what I remember.. may some expert on this correct me if I got it wrong..
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Topics discussed: how to drive the economy into the ground while enriching yourselves, general authoritarianism and how to manipulate upcoming elections you are bound to lose otherwise
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https://x.com/MarkJCarney/status/2023430745159877033
SAFE stands for Security Action for Europe, an EU initiative under the Readiness 2030 plan providing €150B in low-interest loans for joint defence procurement, focusing on boosting production of ammo, missiles, and other capabilities.
For Canada, as the first non-EU member, benefits include access to EU funding and contracts, export opportunities for Canadian firms (up to 35-80% domestic content), diversification of defence partnerships, and integration into European supply chains. It requires fees of €2.5M upfront and €7.5M annually.
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He can try specific instead. EFTA states.
If someone could please just give a nod or say something in the Russo-Ukrainian war thread, it would be nice, given that I have reached the spam limit there.
But this little news bit can go here as well (maybe better in Global Politics, I don’t know)
So that doesn’t look good.
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Here’s an interesting article on how Germany’s big army boss judges the situation in regards to Russia, and on their willingness to rapidly develop into Europe’s biggest army.
Among other things, he says that by 2029, Russia will have reached the ability to start a direct direct war against the NATO countries. So for him, it’s a race against time in order to be ready for that.
I also didn’t know that German troops are permanently deployed in Lithuania, and that they will triple that number in the next years. It’s certainly worth reading.
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Our Bundeswehr trainees from last year were going out there. They should be well covered if WWIII breaks out and they need to fit a geriatric fall monitor.
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,Our Bundeswehr"
You are a German? (Bist Du ein Deutscher?)
Because the AfD, i would left Germany in 2028 or 2029 and do settle in the Netherlands or Belgium (Flanders). Both countries have parties such PVV and Vlaams Belang, but NL and B will not become a country like Poland or Hungary from Viktor Orban.
I’m a British national (originally from Liverpool, although I lived mostly in Scotland).
The company I work for makes medical monitoring equipment and we have trainees that come in for their civilian training. We supply a lot of equipment to the Red Cross, hence training military personnel in case they need to assist in war zones.
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Insel Affe!