2016 has got off to a bad start. Among heightened security all around the world, including an extra 3,000 firearms officers along the Thames in London and 6,000 officers in Times Square (many of whom were undercover), it also became apparent that many iconic new year celebrations from around the world had been cancelled.

The Kremlin announced that the Red Square, the traditional location for Russian new year celebrations, would be closed. The government, however, is downplaying potential terrorism as the cause for this. The celebrations in Brussels were also cancelled after information was gathered suggesting an attack was being planned, leading to six arrests.

But the thing that angers me the most is Paris. After being attacked for exercising their freedom of expression at the beginning of last year, and after losing 130 innocent civilians in November, the iconic and beautiful fireworks display was cancelled for the first time ever. And 10,000 troops will be deployed to the streets of Paris. After being robbed of over a hundred lives over the course of 2015, 2016 has started with the French being robbed of their very way of life. An event of cultural celebration, solidarity and somber reflection on the events of the year gone--and one of the world's largest--simply didn't happen.

This from a people who marched in their millions in the face of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, who put flowers in the bullet-hole riven walls following November, and who roared "We are not afraid" in the face of terrorism. For 2015, this was the character of the French:



And yet the year has begun with a very sinister realisation: they are afraid. As are many others. Greater security measures are obviously needed to preserve our well-being against these theocratic fascists, but not at the expense of our values and our way of life. If more people have to die in order for us to go on living as we wish to live, then so be it.

We fight against the new world order. And we will be successful.

Can somebody give this guy a warning or something?

Fearmongering is fun

Not really, it was an honest mistake. Not that it detracts from the point I'm making, anyway.

Fireworks aren't a part of what makes us civilized.

Irrelevant; the point is that innocent people are trying to freely celebrate an event of global importance, and are being prevented from doing so by those who would kill us. Did people still celebrate? Yeah, but we're talking about the Parisian fireworks display: an iconic event of cultural significance. This is the first time it's been cancelled; it's substantial because it's essentially part of French--and even global, given their widespread appreciation--life around this time of year.

Anybody who thinks this isn't a problem isn't paying attention.

You can't deny borderless Europe is not a problem.

Quote from: Desty on January 01, 2016, 01:18:11 PM

What is the point you want me to understand?

That this is fundamentally the reason why we fight them, and that defeat means the wholesale capitulation of our culture.

Well, yeah, I agree with you. We fight to preserve our culture, and our lives, just like with any other enemy.

Either we have nations or we don't. Which one is it going to be?