I see a lot of MAGA niggers trying to back into the hedgerow, pretending like they were always against the orange pedophile. Do not let them. Trump supporters might as well have raped the kids themselves.
6:00 False accusations and infantile arguments
7:00 Curfew in Minnesota and an amnesty on those accused of sexual offences in the Epstein files
8:00 Allegations of rape
10:00 Complainant
11:00 Most people are moronic, malicious and mad.
12:00 Judge Kavanaugh
14:00 Socialist Workers Party
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/09/socialist-workers-party-rape-kangaroo-court
16:00 Credibility of the witness linked to her sexual history
17:00 False accusations
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2019%3A15&version=NIV
19:00 Sexual intercourse without consent
20:00 Can a prostitute be raped?
21:00 Reasonable belief in consent
22:00 Statutory rape
Voltaire’s famous jab at the Holy Roman Empire wasn’t just a clever insult—it was a razor‑sharp diagnosis of an institution that, by his time, had drifted far from the ideals its name claimed to embody. His line works because each term—holy, Roman, empire—had become, in his view, a hollow label.
Why “Holy”?
- By the 18th century, the Empire was no longer a unified Catholic polity.
- The Reformation had fractured its religious landscape, leaving Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists under the same imperial umbrella.
- The emperor no longer served as the Pope’s temporal arm, a role increasingly overshadowed by the monarchs of France and Spain.
Why “Roman”?
- The Empire’s origins were Frankish, not Roman.
- Its claim to Roman continuity rested on medieval ideology rather than actual descent from the ancient Roman state.
- The political and cultural center of gravity was in German‑speaking Central Europe, not Rome.
Why “an Empire”?
- It lacked the centralized authority characteristic of true empires.
- Instead, it was a loose confederation of hundreds of semi‑autonomous principalities, bishoprics, free cities, and duchies.
- The emperor’s power was heavily constrained by local rulers and by the complex constitutional machinery of the Reich.
The Spirit of Voltaire’s Critique
Voltaire’s quip wasn’t just historical commentary—it was a philosophical move. He loved exposing the gap between names and realities, and the Holy Roman Empire was a perfect target: an institution clinging to grandiose titles that no longer matched its political or spiritual substance.
If you want, we can dig deeper into how Enlightenment thinkers used satire to dismantle inherited political myths—or even craft a Voltaire‑style monologue skewering a modern institution.
Why did France and Spain increasingly overshadow the Holy Roman Empire?
France and Spain didn’t eclipse the Holy Roman Empire by accident. They did it because they built the kinds of states the Empire couldn’t—centralized, wealthy, militarily coherent, and ideologically confident. The Empire, by contrast, remained a brilliant but unwieldy medieval relic trying to survive in an age of gunpowder, bureaucracy, and absolutism.
Here’s the anatomy of that shift.
1. Centralization vs. Fragmentation
France and Spain:
- Built strong, centralized monarchies.
- Kings could tax directly, raise standing armies, and impose uniform law.
- Royal authority expanded at the expense of nobles.
Holy Roman Empire:
- A patchwork of hundreds of states—duchies, bishoprics, free cities, knightly territories.
- The emperor depended on the goodwill of electors and princes.
- No unified taxation, no unified army, no unified foreign policy.
A king of France could act.
An emperor had to negotiate.
2. Geopolitical Advantages
France:
- Compact, agriculturally rich territory.
- Clear natural borders (eventually): Pyrenees, Alps, Atlantic.
- A single political center: Paris.
Spain:
- After 1492, a unified Iberian powerhouse.
- Access to the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
- A global empire with American silver.
Holy Roman Empire:
- Hemmed in by powerful neighbors.
- No natural borders.
- Constant internal disputes that foreign powers could exploit.
The Empire was a chessboard; France and Spain were players.
3. Economic Power
Spain:
- American bullion transformed it into the richest monarchy of the 16th century.
- Could finance massive armies and fleets.
France:
- Europe’s largest population.
- Strong agricultural base.
- Increasingly sophisticated fiscal administration.
Holy Roman Empire:
- Wealth existed, but it was dispersed.
- No imperial treasury.
- Princes guarded their revenues jealously.
Economic centralization = geopolitical leverage.
4. Military Modernization
France and Spain:
- Developed professional standing armies.
- Adopted gunpowder tactics early.
- Built centralized command structures.
Holy Roman Empire:
- Relied on contingents from princes.
- No unified military doctrine.
- Internal conflicts (e.g., the Schmalkaldic War) drained resources.
A modern state needs a modern army; the Empire had medieval military federalism.
5. Religious Unity vs. Religious Fracture
Spain:
- Fiercely Catholic, ideologically unified.
- Used religion as a tool of state power.
France:
- Despite the Wars of Religion, the monarchy ultimately reasserted control.
Holy Roman Empire:
- The Reformation shattered unity.
- Lutheran, Catholic, and Calvinist states coexisted uneasily.
- The emperor could not impose religious uniformity.
The Peace of Westphalia (1648) formalized the Empire’s political decentralization.
6. Dynastic Strategy
Spain:
- The Habsburgs built a global empire through marriage and inheritance.
- Spain became the senior Habsburg branch, overshadowing the Austrian one.
France:
- The Bourbons consolidated power and pursued aggressive expansion.
Holy Roman Empire:
- The emperor was often a Habsburg, but his imperial authority was weaker than his dynastic authority.
- Imperial institutions limited his freedom of action.
The emperor was powerful as Archduke of Austria, not as emperor.
7. The Empire’s Constitutional Rigidity
The Holy Roman Empire was designed to prevent tyranny, not to project power.
Its institutions—Diet, electors, imperial courts—were brilliant but slow.
France and Spain embraced absolutism.
The Empire embraced legalism.
One produced Versailles.
The other produced the Reichskammergericht.
The Big Picture
France and Spain overshadowed the Holy Roman Empire because they became modern states, while the Empire remained a medieval federation. Its pluralism made it culturally rich but geopolitically weak. Voltaire mocked it, but in truth it was a constitutional marvel—just not a competitive great power.
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Let’s dive into how France and Spain’s rise reshaped the fate of the Holy Roman Empire, especially through the crucible of the Thirty Years’ War and the long aftershocks that followed. This is one of those moments in history where you can almost hear the gears of Europe grinding into a new configuration.
🌩️ The Thirty Years’ War: The Empire Meets the Modern State
The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) wasn’t just a religious conflict. It was the moment when centralized monarchies—France and Spain—collided with the decentralized medieval federation of the Holy Roman Empire. The war exposed the Empire’s structural weaknesses with brutal clarity.
1. France Turns the Empire’s Weaknesses Into Strategy
France didn’t just fight the Empire; it weaponized its fragmentation.
- It funded Protestant princes inside the Empire to weaken the Habsburg emperor.
- It intervened directly once the Habsburgs seemed close to consolidating power.
- It used diplomacy to pry apart alliances among German states.
France understood something essential:
You don’t need to defeat the Empire; you just need to keep it divided.
This became a long-term French strategy for centuries.
⚔️ 2. Spain’s Overextension and the Habsburg Dilemma
Spain was the senior Habsburg branch, and its global commitments were enormous:
- Wars in the Netherlands
- Defense of American colonies
- Mediterranean conflicts with the Ottomans
- Rivalry with France
Spain poured money and troops into supporting the Austrian Habsburgs, but the Empire’s internal divisions meant that Spanish resources were being poured into a sieve.
The result:
Spain weakened itself trying to prop up an Empire that couldn’t centralize.
🏛️ 3. The Peace of Westphalia: The Empire’s Constitutional Freeze
Westphalia (1648) is the moment the Empire’s fate is sealed.
It did three things:
a. Legalized the Empire’s fragmentation
Princes gained:
- Full control over their foreign policy
- The right to make alliances
- Near-sovereign status
The emperor became more of a ceremonial figure than a ruler.
b. Ended the idea of a unified imperial religion
Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist states were all recognized.
c. Elevated France as the guarantor of the new order
France became the external power that could intervene whenever the Empire threatened to cohere.
In other words:
Westphalia turned the Empire into a legal federation and France into its supervisor.
🧭 4. Long-Term Consequences: A Europe Rebalanced
France emerges as the continental hegemon
- Louis XIV capitalizes on the Empire’s weakness.
- French armies push into the Rhineland repeatedly.
- French culture, diplomacy, and absolutism become the European model.
Spain declines
- The cost of global empire and endless wars drains its treasury.
- The Spanish Habsburg line dies out in 1700.
- The War of the Spanish Succession further elevates France and Austria—but not the Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire stagnates
- It remains politically brilliant but geopolitically irrelevant.
- Its internal diversity becomes a barrier to coordinated action.
- Prussia rises within it, eventually becoming the force that destroys it.
🔥 The Big Picture: Why This Shift Matters
France and Spain overshadowed the Holy Roman Empire because they embraced the logic of the modern state—centralized authority, fiscal coherence, standing armies, and ideological unity.
The Empire, by contrast, preserved the logic of the medieval order—distributed sovereignty, negotiated authority, and legal pluralism.
The Thirty Years’ War didn’t create this difference; it revealed it.
And Westphalia locked it in place.
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Why did the Catholics win the Wars of the Reformation in France?
The Catholics “won” the Wars of Religion in France not because they were always stronger on the battlefield, but because the political logic of the French monarchy ultimately aligned with Catholicism, while the Huguenots (French Protestants) never secured the demographic, geographic, or institutional base needed to overturn that logic.
The result was not a total Catholic triumph—Henry IV’s Edict of Nantes gave Protestants unprecedented rights—but the Catholic monarchy survived, and that was the decisive outcome.
Let’s break down the forces that made that victory almost inevitable.
1. Demographics: The Huguenots Were Always a Minority
- At their peak, Huguenots were 8–10% of the population.
- They were concentrated in certain regions (Languedoc, Poitou, parts of Normandy).
- Catholics dominated the countryside, the clergy, and the urban poor.
A minority can win battles; it cannot easily win a civil war for national control.
2. The Crown Needed Religious Unity to Preserve Royal Authority
France was a kingdom built on the idea of one king, one faith.
The monarchy feared that religious pluralism would fracture the realm.
Even when kings were sympathetic to moderation (Charles IX, Henry III), they believed:
- A divided religion = a divided kingdom
- A divided kingdom = a weak monarchy
So the monarchy’s instinct was always to defend Catholicism as the glue of the state.
3. The Catholic Church Was a Powerful Political Machine
The French Church was:
- Enormously wealthy
- Deeply embedded in local governance
- A major landowner
- A source of patronage for nobles and royal officials
The Huguenots had no equivalent institutional backbone.
4. The Ultra‑Catholic Faction (the Guise) Had Foreign Support
The Guise family, leaders of the Catholic hardliners, enjoyed:
- Spanish support
- Papal subsidies
- A network of militant confraternities
This gave the Catholic side:
- Money
- Arms
- International legitimacy
The Huguenots had some foreign allies (England, German princes), but never at the same scale.
5. The Huguenots Were Militarily Strong but Politically Divided
They had brilliant commanders—Coligny, Condé, Henry of Navarre—but they were:
- Split between moderates and radicals
- Divided by regional interests
- Often at odds with their own nobles
They could win battles, but they struggled to convert victories into political control.
6. The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre Broke Their Momentum
The 1572 massacre:
- Decapitated Huguenot leadership
- Terrorized Protestant communities
- Strengthened Catholic militancy
It didn’t end the wars, but it shattered the possibility of a quick Protestant ascendancy.
7. Henry IV’s Conversion Ended the War on Catholic Terms
Henry of Navarre—leader of the Huguenots—became king in 1589.
To secure the throne, he converted to Catholicism in 1593.
His famous line captures the political reality:
“Paris is well worth a Mass.”
This was the turning point:
- The Huguenot leader became a Catholic king
- Catholic legitimacy was restored
- The war ended without a Protestant takeover
Henry IV then issued the Edict of Nantes (1598), granting Protestants rights but preserving Catholic primacy.
8. The State, Not the Church, Was the Real Winner
The monarchy emerged stronger because:
- It ended the Guise challenge
- It tamed the Huguenots
- It reasserted royal authority over religion
Catholicism won because the monarchy needed it.
The monarchy won because it absorbed and neutralized both extremes.
The Big Picture
The Catholics won the Wars of Religion in France because the French state was structurally Catholic, and the Huguenots never had the numbers, institutions, or political leverage to overturn that structure.
The wars ended not with a Protestant defeat on the battlefield, but with a Protestant king choosing Catholicism to unify the realm.
If you want, we can explore how this outcome shaped French absolutism, or how it compares to the English and Dutch Reformations, where the Protestant side did win.
*******************
1:15:00 Why race cannot be your religion
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