I don’t think you do recall correctly. Electrek has European EV sales at +33% in 2025 over 2024. It’s not possible for Norway to turn a negative in the rest of Europe into an overall positive. https://electrek.co/2025/12/11/global-ev-sales-jump-21-in-20...
I don’t think I’ve even seen a recumbent cyclist in real life without a high red or neon yellow flag on the back of the bike, presumably for exactly this reason.
The thing about those flags is they don’t address the problem of inattentive blindness. Drivers don’t expect to see something taht shape so don’t see them - flag or no flag. Secondly the flag doesn’t help with visibility where it really matters which is when the bike is really close to the vehicle on either side.
Luckily there are other defensive alliances in place.
The broad advantage of having a "felt of society" —mutually overlapping circles— as opposed to a "fabric of society", is that the latter is much easier to tear.
Not well developed would be to our advantage if the casus foederis were in a grey area.
(It's somewhat :lolsob: to note that Thucydides already distinguished between "stated reasons" and "real reasons" behind a conflict; remember "Remember the Maine!"
EDIT: looks like there may not even be a need to be part of an existing mutual defence alliance; sending troops to take part in Operation Arctic Endurance might suffice for an Art 51 response to invasion?
And what will we Europeans do if Denmark triggers article 5. A single US carrier group could stop all commercial traffic to Europe and a single USA submarine could keep the parody of navies we have in check.
Why? Because even if Oceania, Rasia, and Eastasia want to play 1984 sphere of influence games, we can probably position ourselves neutrally, to trade freely with all of them — and whenever one has designs on us, then the other two would naturally be forced to counter.
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