Following the dismantling of the American federal Ministry of Education, and the transfer of its tasks to the 50 U.S. States, my blog title suddenly becomes relevant. Do California, Florida, and New York actually need (a) Trump?? “Following the American Revolutionary War, the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781 to establish the federal...
Identity
Trump’s Revolution of Common Sense
23 Jan, 2025
It’s easy making fun of Trump’s Revolution of Common Sense. The words common sense hardly match with Trump’s (erratic) attitude, behaviour, and personality. His words often feel like the opposite of common sense. Example #1: Trump has proposed a 10% tariff on all U.S. imports (eg, Reuters, 6 November 2024). That’s a guarantee for a (much) higher American inflation...
Is our identity important?
5 Dec, 2024
For the government, our identity is almost equal to our (Dutch) Social-Fiscal number, or our Social Security number (eg, USA). That number contains some relevant information, like our name and birthdate (source). Wikipedia: “[..] the Social Security number has become a de facto national identification number for taxation and other purposes.“...
Why do people radicalise?
19 Nov, 2024
Late May 2024, I published my Dutch language blog: Is radicalisation a consequence of feeling powerless? Today’s blog is an open rather than a closed question. The trigger for this blog was a discussion with a friend, who lives abroad for at least a decade. I suppose that “detail” is relevant. I have made a diagram that is - ultimately - based on the diagram as used...
Victim roles: individual versus collective
18 Nov, 2024
Apparently, collective guilt is an issue for Germans and for Russians (eg, German collective guilt, Russians And Collective Guilt). However, it might only be a media and/or a political topic (eg, DW-2019, Hungarian Conservative-2022). At least, guilt is an emotion rather than ratio. How about individual and/or collective victim roles?? “Victim mentality is...
Dutch PM: migrant integration failed
13 Nov, 2024
Monday, the Dutch PM said something that (very) many people (probably) believe as well: migrant integration has failed (eg, Volkskrant). In my view, not only in the Netherlands but also in Europe and in USA. Blaming Angela Merkel’s 2015 comment (“Wir schaffen das”) is relevant though too simple. The context of the PM’s remark is relevant: the Amsterdam soccer riots....
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