This is a “defeat for Russia,” said key European lawmaker after nail-biting referendum.
  • Justas🇱🇹@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    50·
    1 month ago

    That brings some memories.

    When the referendum for Lithuania’s joining of EU started, the attendance was abysmal.

    It picked up when a supermarket chain offered to exchange the “I voted” sticker for a bottle of beer, a chocolate bar or a small bag of laundry powder.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      1 month ago

      If there’s one thing I learned from observing Brexit first hand as an EU immigrant in Britain, is that the vast majority of people don’t really care about the EU unless they are or see a way to directly benefit from it (as I benefited from Freedom Of Movement) and even when they do care they don’t understand how most of the mechanisms which are the point of the EU affect their lives (hence Brexiters only saw immigration and not how an island with no natural resources and a Service-centric Economy can’t just default to WTO rules for exporting Services because WTO Treaties don’t cover those, whilst even Remainers couldn’t see the whole “together we’re stronger” side and kept claiming that Britain could “better change the EU from the inside”, which is not a teamplayer position).

      So EU membership ends up being sold to the public on pretty generic promises of improvement of their own lives and on single sides the EU’s many-sided nature, a message which is far easier to distort and even use in reverse by anti-EU actors.

  • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.mlEnglish
    295·
    1 month ago

    Imagine if this went to their supreme Court and it was like “actually no vote wins”

    Thats how things work in American elections at least

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.worldEnglish
    161·
    1 month ago

    Woohoo!

    So not only does putin get a big fat L, but the EU continues to grow! I believe from the EU and NATO partnerships, we will someday see 1 global, unifying government that will formalize conflict resolution, leading to a lasting and sustained peace on Earth. And what does global peace mean? It means a massive increase in standard of living for all, as well as expansion into SPACE! When we can unify as one people, only then can we truly embark on the journey Star Trek promised us.

    I just wonder what our flag will look like.

    But staying in the present, way to go Moldova. As a terrified American, it does me good to see favorable election results.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      111·
      1 month ago

      Two things:

      • That was kinda the dream after WWII, no?

      • Exploring space should be a uniting purpose of humanity, but colonizing space, as humans live now, is just wildly, hilariously impractical. It would be orders of magnitude cheaper and easier to live at the bottom of the ocean, or under the antarctic ice sheet. And this is speaking as someone really into exotic rocketry and transcendental sci-fi.

      I’d recommend reading through Project Rho, if you’re interested: https://projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/

      As well as “farther future” but grounded Sci-Fi like Orion’s Arm, where humanity doesn’t really resemble its current form. And play KSP! The more you read and see, the more you realize “wow, sending humans through space is hard, and living there kinda doesn’t make sense right now.”

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        30 days ago

        I mean, I still think that having an operational moon-based spaceport is something we could see in our lifetime.

        And as with all things concerning global affairs, it takes time and consistent pressure to overcome the lizard-brain us-vs-them mindsets that is inherent to our human political sphere. We’ve already grown to the point that we could take care of everyone on the planet, shuffling off the shackles of a scarcity-based economy which so severely hindered global human advancement in the past. I can only imagine what the combined efforts of the American, European, and Chinese economies/governments could accomplish if they put aside their differences, and embraced a true lasting partnership.

        Also the website you gave is so incredibly interesting, I need to look at it more before I can appropriately sing its praises

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          30 days ago

          I still think that having an operational moon-based spaceport

          Depends what it’s used for, but yeah. But I think the human habitation would be extremely minimal, and it would be more of a utilitarian “midpoint” for deep-space missions and a research site rather than a place of extensive human habitation.

          Also read: https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oaeg-front

          It’s a fictional universe in a wiki format (with some short stories), but based on hard science, and (IMO) a much more realistic idealized depiction of what future humanity could look like.

  • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
    85·
    1 month ago

    Mhm. For some votes I’d rather see a 65-75% requirement. Not every vote should be 50%, especially on a scale like this.

      • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
        43·
        1 month ago

        The EU isn’t just economic.

        And you can literally say only half the people want it, which doesn’t make sense for such big decisions. “Most” people should want it, but I wouldn’t call this “most people” in the practical sense.

        • JamesStallion@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          Canada has a law to this effect called the Clarity Act to make sure that Quebec never votes for independence by a margin like this.

    • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      Such significant commitments on a national level with international treaties should I think be carried by more than a simple majority. Its not a simple choice and without decent will behind it there is every chance it doesn’t last or causes enormous strife within the populace. But the vote is advisory and fundamentally will probably be based on the majority regardless so its now up to government to decide if its enough to move forward.