100% agree. I’m Dutch and he’s sent there to represent me/us/the country, it’s fucking disgusting.

I totally agree with you and fuck this guy, but there is some context to his sentence here in the Netherlands:

One legal distinction is that Van de Velde is unlikely to have been convicted of rape had he stood trial in the Netherlands rather than England. In England, sex with a 12-year-old is rape, regardless of the circumstances: an under-16 cannot legally consent. But after he was extradited to the Netherlands, having serving almost a year of his prison sentence, he was released after less than a month. Under Dutch law, his crime was deemed to be the lesser offence of ontucht, sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms.

From https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/30/netherlands-child-rapist-olympics-steven-van-de-velde

Wait so you can get married under the age of consent? That seems completely illogical… if you can’t consent to sex surely you can’t consent to marriage?

Just to be very clear I’m not defending him in the slightest, this whole thing is horrible and I agree he raped her.

I was just explaining the situation and the differences in law in England and the Netherlands.

While I agree that this crime should definitely fall within the definition and corresponding punishment of rape, I don’t agree that no 15 year old can ever consent to sex.

I’m not sure what the law ought to be though. I personally think a 16 year old should be legally able to have sex with their 15 year old partner. Maybe in england the difference in age matters. But if not, and a 15 year old legally cannot consent, is this hypothetical 16 year old now a rapist? That doesn’t sound right to me.

A 19 year old having sex with a 12 year old? That is clearly wrong and that’s rightfully already illegal here. But it’s not automatically rape because Dutch law does recognize consent from people under 16. I have no idea at what age people can give consent though. I’m not sure if there is a minimum. But if the 12 year old in this situation did not consent then it would obviously be rape, just to make that clear.

A question: what is the situation in other countries with high schoolers having sex? It must happen all the time that some 18 year old is dating a 15 year old and that they have sex. I think the overwhelming majority of Dutch people would not want that to be illegal, let alone considered rape.

Not saying it’s right, but for context:

One legal distinction is that Van de Velde is unlikely to have been convicted of rape had he stood trial in the Netherlands rather than England. In England, sex with a 12-year-old is rape, regardless of the circumstances: an under-16 cannot legally consent. But after he was extradited to the Netherlands, having serving almost a year of his prison sentence, he was released after less than a month. Under Dutch law, his crime was deemed to be the lesser offence of ontucht, sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms.

From https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/30/netherlands-child-rapist-olympics-steven-van-de-velde

Absolutely, long-term it’s a fantastic investment. Hopefully the government stays committed and keeps funding its education in order to raise the quality. Getting so many more kids going to school is a great step in that process.

Why wouldn’t you want an expert to run the economy is such trying times?

Because this so-called expert is a danger to the the common Argentine. His way of “fixing” the economy is by growing inequality, privatizing key government duties and destroying unions.

I personally disagree with him on many points, such as:

he has called for the elimination or merging of major ministries such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity, and the Ministry of Health.

Milei articulates a critical view of the role of the state in economic matters, calling it “the greatest enemy of wealth”

Milei wants to privatize public health care providers

Milei has expressed support for legalizing organ trade

Also, he is president of the country, not just the economy. I totally disagree with him on points like:

A supporter of law-and-order politics, Milei endorses the unrestricted ownership of firearms

Milei opposes both abortion and euthanasia … Milei holds that abortion is morally indefensible, even in cases of rape

He intends to eliminate the law that makes comprehensive sex education (CSE) in schools mandatory, which he has linked to brainwashing, and said that students are “hostages of a system of state indoctrination”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Javier_Milei

regarding your comment:

So let me hear it. What would you do to so wonderfully fix the economy that an expert is getting all wrong?

This is a fallacy. It is of course not necessary to know the right answer in order to know that another answer is wrong. I might not know what 483 × 749 is, but I know it’s not 10. Or 100. Or 1000.

I think to a large extent it’s a case of cognitive dissonance.

Loads of these people have defended Trump for years, supported him despite his obvious lies and grifts and so you kinda have to believe that whatever else he comes up with is also true. If you believe all his previous falsehoods, why not the next?

To admit he’s full of shit means your whole belief system has to change. Trump supporters have lost friends, alienated family, spent their money on him… It’s much easier to keep believing in him than it is to admit you’ve been wrong all this time, cause that would mean having to admit you’ve been taken for a fool this whole time AND it means all your efforts and sacrifices have been for nothing.

Only know him from Party Down but this sounds cool!

Damn, I wouldn’t have recognized him from that photo alone. Fuck cancer, I hope he can enjoy the rest of his life which will hopefully still be many years.

Because the price of solar is going down rapidly and China is actively mining huge amounts of the raw materials necessary to produce solar panels. The amount of solar energy produced will increase very quickly as it will become (by far) the cheapest option and no longer requires subsidies.

Sounds like a nice setup. I have an old laptop I could potentially use for this.

Thanks, will check it out!

Politically also a non-brainer, right? I would think the vast majority of voters would be in favour of higher wages for teachers. All over the world teachers don’t get paid enough and I don’t understand what the objections are to paying them more. Sure it costs money, but a highly educated new generation will pay that back manifold. Not to mention it’s obviously the right thing to do to pay people a decent wage.

Yeah but you won’t know if it will pay off until many years after studying, so it’s a gamble.

For the majority of cases having a university degree will give you a higher salary, not to mention the value of the experience of going to university as well as the connections you make there (both personally and professionally).

University in the US is just stupidly expensive and the loans have a crazy interest rate.

I’m from the Netherlands where you’ll receive money from the government while studying. You can take a loan on top of it with minimal interest and so it’s basically always worth it if you can afford it and are academically able to.

Your wish has been granted, there are plenty of countries other than Bhutan with relatively few tourists. Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia I think are all way less popular with tourists than Vietnam and Thailand, for example. Loads of countries in Africa are barely visited by tourists too. No need to pay a daily fee in those places.

With that attitude it sounds like they wouldn’t even want you to visit. A huge part of the appeal is that Bhutan remains very unique, with a distinct culture and few tourists.

They don’t want people to come who are looking to climb a famous mountain, go partying, chill on the beach, and other things people go to nearby countries for.

I’m from the Netherlands and certain parts of Amsterdam are full of tourists almost all the time, with very few normal people living there. Venice is an even more extreme example, or some party islands in Asia or the Mediterranean.

Bhutan goes in the opposite direction. By making it so expensive to visit they filter out a whole bunch of people who could/would ruin what they want to preserve.

if those were his actual proposals of course he wouldnt be the best candidate

OK but my question still remains: where is the line for you? Because I think it’s fair to say that he would want to make abortion illegal, abolish sexual education in its current form, and let terrible things happen to the environment because he doesn’t believe in climate change.

Those things are apparently not enough for you because you still say he’s the best candidate. Maybe you disagree, but I think it would be terrible if women lost their right to a safe abortion or if children wouldn’t receive sex education.

Why not cast a voto en blanco? Just because other politicians are worse doesn’t mean you have to vote for Milei.

You say Argentines aren’t stupid and I agree. Americans and Brazilians are also not stupid. But how did far-right populist presidents work out for them?

I’m not saying the current politicians in power are good, but why support this asshole just because he opposes who you oppose?

The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend, it could just be another enemy.

So by that logic as long as a candidate doesn’t support the “practices that put us in this decadence” they are good enough to vote for?

If this guy would be in favor of rounding up all gay people and shooting them, would you still vote for him? What about making it illegal for women to do paid work? What about shutting down all newspapers? If he proposed those things, would you still think he’s the best candidate?

If not, then where is your line? Because to me he already seems pretty fucking extreme.

You can also not vote or cast a voto en blanco as a protest. Why not do that instead of vote for a Trump / Bolsonaro type person? Do you think they were successful presidents who made things better in the US / Brazil?