I think you’re thinking of Surströmming, which is Swedish and absolutely vile. (Properly prepared) Lutefisk is quite mild though definitely weird, even if you’re used to stuff like pickled herring. Ordinary pickled herring is fermented in brine (and own enzymes), intensity depends on age at the tail end of things you get fish sauce, Surströmming is fermented in lactic acid, Lutefisk is not fermented at all it’s stockfish (dried without salting) rehydrated in lye, then properly rinsed and cooked. It’s mostly the texture that’s weird.

If you find yourself in Scandinavia one thing to definitely try is elk salami.

Protip: Learn to growl. When Jehova’s witnesses or suchlike knock, be very polite, tell them they’re welcome, how you’re happy they came to you to find the light Lucifer brings.

that some land previously owned by the white labour extractors should be redistributed to those whose poverty is a direct consequence of their parents oppression.

Is that really going to fix anything though? As in: It’s <currentyear>, while agriculture is still important having a small farm is going to pay worse than being an engineer or something. Land does not have the socio-economic value it once had.

The most important bit, the key fulcrum to work with, I think, is social mobility in education. Make sure that schools are good enough to ensure that kids from poor parents are no less likely to excel than those of parents who have the means (monetary or intellectual) to coach their kids themselves.

For me, the question is easy: What’s your tax bracket?

I mean they’re the states, they (and the municipalities) are doing pretty much all of the day-to-day stuff. You’re paying taxes to your state of residence, not the federation, the school system is run by your state, not the federation, the vast majority of roads are municipal or state roads, all boots-on-the-ground police work is done by state police or at least according to state law (aside from the borders and the train networks), the list goes on and on.

The short version is that the Bundestag passes laws that only affect the federation on its own, when both federation and states are affected it’s Bundestag+Bundesrat, and when only states are affected neither decide, the state parliaments do, either separately for themselves or they enter treaties with each other. E.g. broadcasting law is uniform throughout Germany, but not federal law it’s an interstate treaty that all states are part of the federation has zero say in broadcasting.

The EEC is such an underexplored subject in the Cyberpunk universe. Member states are actually democratic (shocker, I know), votes in the European Council are allocated according to the member states’ wealth, a hundred million eddies per seat. Want to be a Merc? The European way is to go to a trade school which churn out licensed special force commandos. ESA literally rules space, even Arasaka has to bend the knee, there. Forget nukes if you try shit the EEC is going to drop a couple of asteroids on your head. Worker’s rights? Well yes your implants won’t right-out kill you if you quit your job, and the unions are probably just as capitalist as the companies, maybe reverting to a guild system (both are speculation, as said: Underexplored). Overall much more and much smaller companies, the EEC is actively working against Megacorps being a thing, though at least the Asian Megacorps have a solid position on the European market.

In our timeline it’s often forgotten how the EU started out as a trade cartel and that this stuff is still very deep in its bones, yet somehow the Cyberpunk timeline also manages to capture the fall of colonialism. The EEC is more than powerful enough to take over lots of stuff without breaking a sweat but I guess the consensus is “why should we take over Night City then we have to rule it”.

Regarding foreign policy: Canada indeed is the closest ally. NUSA relations are tense AF because Americans be jealous because NUSA politicians like to distract from their own incompetence and propagandise, USSR solid economical working arrangement (EEC can squeeze more productivity out of Eastern Europe than them and Moscow gets a cut), Asia in general, South America, Africa, generally solid relations but of course competetive, Japan, arch competitor. Also, ex-member of the EEC. Is it even possible to call Japan and Arasaka different entities.

And, yes, the EEC controls the eddie. Primary or secondary currency all over the world with the exception of the USSR.

I guess at this point it’s a matter of numbers: Cases do exist and are egregious (especially because the US somehow doesn’t understand that light 24/7 constitutes torture), but compared to the total number of Germans crossing the border it’s not even a drop in the bucket, they can’t say “The US has a policy of making your life hell” based on pure factual data because “isolated cases”.

So putting out a travel warning at this point would be Germany slapping the US across the face which, no matter how deserved or politically warranted or opportune, is not a thing mere civil servants are supposed to do.

Meanwhile, the outgoing minister is going to say “nah let my successor deal with that shitshow”. TBH Baerbock has been awfully quiet ever since the coalition broke. I guess she might actually have caught a case of civil servant fiddlesticks (An actual term in German, “whoever moves first loses”).

It’s not an agency it’s the ministry of foreign affairs and right now they’re operating in maintenance mode as we don’t have a government proper, only a caretaker government until the Bundestag constitutes itself on the 25th where a new chancellor can be elected.

The change looks like it does because it’s the kind of change a ranking civil servant can do without checking in with their minister, it’s considered non-political.

In ruins would mean the streets and buildings have decayed past the point of habitability and usability.

You’re being overly literal. The standing of the US, its position in the world, all that is certainly in ruins. And, yes, so are plenty of buildings and infrastructure. Whole states are, economically, barely on the level of developing nations, if that.

I live in a diverse multicultural community.

Which is not the US. Your community might make up part of the population of the US, but what you have regarding the “more” part of “more than the sum of its parts” certainly isn’t shared with the rest. It thus isn’t part of the American civilisation, for that there would have to be a shared civilisation, a shared “more”.

Pray tell, how is that rule of law going? Constructive political discourse? Good relations with your neighbours and allies?

“Not in ruins” my ass.

We just have a bad government.

Because you don’t care to have a good one. Because you don’t care to look over the brim of your burger, to connect with people who do not already happen to be in your in-group. None of those groups has any allies because each is saying “fuck you, got mine”. Solidarity is a curse word. “Solidarity”? Them marchers is all commies, tell me kid are you a red??!

How can you know you cross lines when you don’t care, are apathetic?

First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”

Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

…I don’t think I need to attribute that quote.

There may be traces left, true, but if OP’s “The American way is to not care” ideal is lived by, what I described is exactly what you get.

And, yes, Americans are a lot more alienated from another than pretty much any other people.

And you misunderstood entirely.

Last I checked, “not caring” has exactly the meaning I took it to have.

It’s not actually much different in Germany, there’s zero bins just randomly lining the streets. Areas with shops will have some, parks and playgrounds usually have one or two, but that’s it. “Park” here is to be understood quite broadly, it might be a footpath with nice view and some benches. Bus stops also tend to have bins.

You can’t have one when everyone’s alienated from each other, that’s the point. Civilisation is more than the mere sum of its parts: When you do not care about someone else deciding to e.g. oppress a fellow compatriot you only have the sum, not the more. A population, but not a civilisation.

You can have a civilization made of many civilizations

That’s not what e pluribus unum means. That’s what in varietate concordia means.

And that’s precisely why you have a country but lack a civilisation.

There’s already a low-key travel warning for trans and intersex people in place because the US’s stance on passports having sex entries not matching the birth certificate, or being anything but M or F, is unclear at best. Advise is “get the US embassy to sign off on your papers before trying to enter”. This might amount to a total ban: If your birth certificate says X and they’re not accepting X passports and neither ones which don’t match the birth certificate then there’s no kind of passport they do accept.

There is no Russia without Moscow and St. Petersburg as that’s the imperial core. Without central authority to enforce unity by force the rest would instantly splinter.

Point being FM coverage is almost universal in any area where there’s a significant number of people, not just lone homesteaders, uncontacted tribes, suchlike. Yes there may be people there that could be reached but the total number is small and if they want any news, they’re getting them from the town over once a month.

Contrast that to the situation when those shortwave broadcasts were originally set up where you had whole cities with actual population that had no electricity, no radio, and certainly no internet. You’ll still find settlements like that, but, as said, not a large amount of people. Alternatively, people behind the iron curtain: You don’t need short-wave to get into North Korea and any Chinese or Russian who cares can access any western media, anyway.

The purpose of these broadcasts isn’t “play some music to 20 evangelical homesteaders 100km away from the next road”. Those people aren’t the kind of people who might, one day, protest in front of the president’s palace.

The point is rather if you’re operating an FM transmitter, you not only have the money for a satellite dish and DVB-S decoder you already have one, and FM radios are dirt cheap. The electronics for short wave certainly aren’t more expensive but you’ll need a proper antenna. Meanwhile, much of Africa actually has quite decent mobile phone coverage, there’s some piss-poor countries and large areas of nothing, generally desert, but overall, if there’s people, there’s probably reception. Their whole banking system works via mobile phone.