Talk:Europe

Archives for this talk page:

<1>

, (new)

This article is... pretty awful

Lengthy coverage of a lesser-know Bushism, outdated comments on the EU's economy, and a section on American TV ads. Would anyone object if I just scrapped the whole thing and started again? Balaam (talk) 18:03, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Nope. Тy^rannosaurs 18:05, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Not surprising as it hasn't been edited in over 9 months. El Taj^{Don't make me do stuff} 18:09, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

It's ghastly. Crucify it and resurrect it by all means.--Bob^{"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."} 18:10, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Got started. Right now it consists mainly of a chart I pinched from Wikipedia, but it's a start. Balaam (talk) 18:28, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

What we really need to focus on would be something about levels of pseudoscience in Europe. Any particularly European woo.--Bob^{"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."} 18:34, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Nothing specifically European comes to mind (though there is definitely something there about authoritarianism). I keep seeing the word "Swedish" being used in late night infomercials...but that should be under Sweden. -- Seth Peck (talk) 18:36, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Maybe I was being ambitious when I wrote that. The thing is that our country articles don't really concentrate on the mission statements and if we are going to recreate Europe then it would be nice to focus on them from the ground up.--Bob^{"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."} 18:42, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

In fact, as your hijacked chart shows, it's a bit difficult to generalize about "Europe".--Bob^{"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."} 18:45, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, pseudoscience generally doesn't follow continental boundaries, with a few exceptions (Afrocentrism, for example). About the only subject that springs to mind in terms of mission is the association made by American wingnuts between Europe andall manner of godless liberalism, but I wouldn't say that's really worth going into detail about, at least not yet. Balaam (talk) 18:51, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Looking at the mission statements: 1. Analyzing and refuting pseudoscience and the anti-science movement. 2. Documenting the full range of crank ideas.3 Explorations of authoritarianism and fundamentalism. .4 Analysis and criticism of how these subjects are handled in the media.

Not much I can think of uniquely European on 1. European crank - Atlantis? 3 Authoritarianism - the far right. fundamentalism - eastern Europe. Can't think of anything on 4.--Bob^{"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."} 19:21, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Europe claims to be the most civilised and advanced continent, which would be true if it didn't tear itself apart with massive wars every few decades. Something about that? Sophie^{because liberals} 22:06, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I would argue that Europe IS a case where woo followed a continental trend. Not in every country, but in many countries up until recently homeopathy and other alternative medicines were covered by government health care... and in still others, they still are covered. There is more formal regulation of homeopathic treatments there, too. As recent as this year did all universities in the UK drop their alternative medicine courses entirely. . ±KnightOfTL;DR^{longissimus non legeri} 22:14, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

@Sophie. People do make those kinds of claims about Europe so there could be a bit of woo there I suppose. European wars over the last four hundred years and who fought who? Or would that just be a list?

@KnightOfTL. There certainly could be some mileage in that. I wonder of we could find an analysis be country?--Bob^{"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."} 06:07, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Well, I haven't researched that hardcore yet, but anyone looking to start should definitely check out this page and the Europe section. My crazy professor actually tipped me off to this, when he bragged that '80 percent of all European doctors are homeopathic doctors!' Of course, this wasn't true in the slightest, but it did help me notice a few things. On another topic, for many woo-meisters European images are fairly popular, especially in fluffy-bunny/irresponsible-teenager chapters of neopaganism and Wicca. When they aren't peddling kabbalah or native american or eastern traditions, anyway. Nothing like invoking the idea of ancient Celtic/Norse/Irish/Gaulish/'fantasy medieval european' traditions while selling people stuff that most certainly wasn't part of that area in ancient culture, like tarot cards or Ouija boards. ±KnightOfTL;DR^{just shut up already} 06:25, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

"Blow each other up every few decades"

What? Historically this might be true, but in a modern sense Europe is at complete peace, and will continue to be. Perhaps we should remove that part. ^{— Unsigned, by: 73.238.42.229 / talk}

It's a joke. We know Europe isn't a war-torn hellscape, though Ukraine might disagree with your "complete peace" sentiment. ikanreed ^{🐐Bleat at me} 21:38, 6 September 2018 (UTC)