[lordofgibbons]

You left out the reason why Germany was so dependent on Russian gas for energy: their out of touch with reality, (the conspiratorial amongst us might say fossil fuel company funded) plans to completely rely on fossil fuels until a transition to renewables can be completed in multiple decades.

All of this while they already have a viable green solution: Nuclear, which they planned on completely shutting down by 2022.

[pastacacioepepe]

Oh please. Cheap Energy is what made Germany the industrial powerhouse of Europe. Getting gas from Russia was one of the best things Merkel did for her country and its citizens.

[looping__lui]

What???? 1) It was Schröder (not Merkelh that started this entire gas thing with Russia (getting paid by Gazprom still) 2) Merkel decided in a completely irrational overnight move to just phase out nuclear. There was no strategy, just a personal preference by her ideological conviction Energy in Germany has been significantly more expensive than in the rest of Europe for probably a solid decade now… The big challenge from what I see is somehow managing to “balance the ingestion of renewable energy which is very unpredictable and random” and the “actual need” which is rather constantly high and predictable.

[pastacacioepepe]

> It was Schröder

Northstream 2 was planned under Merkel.

> Merkel decided in a completely irrational overnight move to just phase out nuclear.

No, it was an almost unanimous vote where even the opposition agreed with the government[0]. Nothing irrational about it, they decided to go for renewable instead of nuclear.

- 0: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/30/germany-end-nu...

[looping__lui]

Oh, Merkel certainly made it worse, but Schröder had a leading role… https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/world/europe/schroder-ger...

The opposition agreeing - you mean like the Green party who wanted to end nuclear like forever? Merkel had essentially absolute power in Germany and was leading some major changes that are hard to believe now… 1) shut down nuclear, 2) abolish compulsory military service, 3) open the borders for an uncontrolled influx of male refugees, 4) completely ignore Corona at first and then bulldoze over our Basic Law.

[pastacacioepepe]

> The opposition agreeing - you mean like the Green party who wanted to end nuclear like forever?

No, I mean pretty much everyone: 513 yes to 79 no.

> abolish compulsory military service

hard to believe? I guess we agree to disagree.

[looping__lui]

You need a viable military in an advanced and wealthy society. If you disagree you are imho naive.

A military coup is one of the largest risks to any society. The “best” people to serve the military are the young people that stand to lose their country and have a million things that they get excited about - except going to war and fighting.

A society itself needs to protect itself.