“Meanwhile, global warming continues. The White Christmases of the past are a distant memory in many parts of Europe. Unless something is done about fast fashion and excessive consumption more broadly, the only snowflakes most of us will see over yuletide will be those printed on cheap jumpers.”
This is the concluding paragraph of a Euractiv story published on December 22, which lamented ugly Christmas sweaters and the carbon footprint of the textiles industry. We all know what this winter has been like for most of Europe. I blame the author of the above story. He should’ve known better than to tempt fate.
There is a lot of “should’ve known better” going around these days. New England should’ve known better than to shut down its nuclear plants but it didn’t, so it had to become the second place in the world, after Saudi Arabia, to use oil for more than a third of its generation during the heavy snowflake fall earlier this month.
Those accusing Shakespeare of being a White supremacist or something along these lines should’ve known better, now that it has emerged that he was, in fact, a black Jewish woman with a multicultural identity. Of course, the more discerning among us already knew that, and we also knew that woman was neurodivergent and a vegan as well.
Emerging countries should’ve known better than to tie their economies to “power-hungry heavy industry”, such as cement, steel, and plastics, while the much smarter West bets on 21st century industry in the form of building data centres, which, no one would be surprised to learn, do not need any steel, cement or, indeed, plastics.
The Ukrainian president should’ve known better than to set 2027 as the target year for the country to join the European Union, seeing as a day after he did that, Germany’s Chancellor Merz said this was out of the question due to the existence of a certain procedure that takes years. To be fair, however, that same Merz and his friends should have known better than to promise Z-man there would be no problem to join the EU in 2027.
A lot of people should’ve known better than to push for the ever-faster expansion of that same EU under current rules, which brazenly give every member state the right to veto common decisions. Which is why there is now an idea of introducing a two-speed Europe, in which a core group of the six biggest economies in the existing EU will begin what they hope would be a federalisation drive. They should know better but they don’t, so this is going to be fun to watch from the “Rest of Europe”.
Big Tech should’ve known better than to expand into Europe. Now, Europe has realised the mistake it made in allowing this, and will be going after all the giants with its biggest regulatory guns. Separately, the eurofeds will be nurturing their own version of Big Tech by deploying industry-building tools of an unspecified nature — while the EU diversifies away from American LNG, no less, because what was not too long ago celebrated as energy independence has revealed itself to be just another dependence, but a lot more expensive. They should’ve known better.
The UK’s Starmer should’ve known better than to go to China but he didn’t, so now he’s angered Daddy and Daddy has hinted there will be consequences. There are always consequences and the sooner that fine human version of a bacterial infection learns it, the better. I admit I am enjoying the squirming though it is simultaneously extremely cringy, which is the best word Gen Z has bestowed upon us so far.
Hungary should’ve known better than to become a member of a trade bloc that would evolve into a dictature telling everyone where they should and shouldn’t get their hydrocarbons from, but in fairness, we should all have known better. Now Hungary, and Slovakia, will have to splurge on a lawsuit against the bloc, only to learn law doesn’t matter to dictatorial formations. And learn it they will. All in all, it’s been an extra-educational January. Can’t wait to see what February will bring.
P.S. On a personal note, HP should’ve known better than to put the Start button next to the Delete button on laptops but here we are.
Your posts are peerless – the linguistic and analytical equivalent of drinking a chilled cane-sugar Coca-Cola while watching the sun rise over a massive pile of freshly prepped metallurgical coal with a Gieseler Fluidity of 1000+ ddpm, a Free Swelling Index of 9, a Coke Strength after Reaction of 70, a Coke Reactivity Index of 20, an ash content of 7%, a sulfur content < 0.5%, a volatile matter content of 18%, and a Vitrinite Reflectance of 1.3%.
I hope you have a great day!
The last one!
Well, to be fair, Apple has deemed a similar layout on their MacBooks...
Now, what's this I hear about the EU generously offering to Australia the opportunity to become part of the gang, which would lead to untold thousands of 'migrants' that have shown themselves to be such a beneficent force on the West being able to freely move to Oz?