Great post! "Colonial Maverick" is a very solid concept, but as a Croat I need to say that you're misguidedly applying it to 2022 Croatia. Croatia *has* seen its share of Colonial Mavericks for sure, but the "big dick lion" PM is not a case of that. He's a case of something even more depressing.
(...)
OK so at this point I had started expounding the details, got to ~2000 words without being finished, and then for everyone's sake I cut it all. Your post is about "Colonial Maverick", and HDZ's PM Plenkovic isn't *that particular thing* (however much he otherwise does subjugate the needs of the Croatian people to the wants of the Globalist Empire). Let's just leave it at that for now. To stay on the topic of your article, of COURSE that we have a proper Colonial Maverick; what kind of Slavistan would we be otherwise?
In their present incarnation, they are called "Mozemo!" ("We Can!", the exclamation mark is an integral part of the name, no I am not kidding), and they rule Zagreb since 2021. Having debuted some two years prior, that is no small feat.
Their pitch had been roughly in line with what you wrote. Tired of the smelly HDZ/SDP duopoly? Want some Fresh New Faces who promise to break the cycle of misfortune? Vote for us! We love western values and we will wave a wand to make all this to be like the West! We're the Mavericks who know how! Don't focus on our CVs being razor thin outside of liberal-arts-n-humanities studies -- that is our advantage, actually! Didn't we already mention that we are Mavericks?
The Mozemo! is a notable update from the previous incarnations of Colonial Mavericks, in two respects.
First, previous Colonial Mavericks tended to appear as "star politicians" who joined one of the two duopoly parties, with all the "Croat who was very successful in the west" / "new face!" / "will turn things around" / etc. kind of woo. Ultimately they'd end up doing a few things in the interest of western capital, not doing anything much in the interest of Croats, and peter out after getting bogged into whichever usual disputes or affairs in the political swamp.
Second, the MO had been for them to appeal to the widest possible electorate, boosting nationwide vote for the particular duopoly party which they'd joined, effectively tailoring their promotional messages as a certain nudge in the "desired direction".
Mozemo! has done away with all that. The "wide-electorate-appeal / nudge-of-position" is so passé. They went straight for the urbanites, for the "Londoners" instead of the "Little Englanders" if you will, sliding in about as much of the woke/progressive agendas that the urbanites could digest at this moment. They handsomely won Zagreb's mayoral elections, even though they didn't make much of a dent in the parliament (yet). They were thwarted by a gerrymandering of Zagreb from the 90s, while being not even slightly popular outside of the urbanites. So as much as they may lack MPs, they are just getting started, and controlling Zagreb counts for a lot in this place.
You wouldn't guess in a billion years which particular billionaire is supporting them.
There are currently some heated facebook faceoffs about contested governance decisions of Mozemo!. (Urg. I'm still unused to putting a dot after an exclamation mark.) Following down the rabbit hole of participants, I was... surprised and not surprised to find participants with the Mozemo! insignia on their profile who are not merely trans, but trans *activist*. Not the "inward" ones, who are content to live out their self-mutilated lives. No. The "outward" ones, those with an itch - a yearning - to mutilate the fabric of society. Or whatever still remains of it. I'm sure you know the type.
I was surprised because the public visibility of this at the moment is next to none, and not surprised because it figures. Yes, they are in tow, and from what I saw, they are ready. The Croatian normies wouldn't even understand what I'm talking about, since the lid is pretty much still on, and the local Théâtre de Guignol between HDZ and SDP is blocking their view of the West. Give it a few years, and *boy* are they going to find out. (and then grumble some, and then yield. I'm not a man of many illusions)
Great post! "Colonial Maverick" is a very solid concept, but as a Croat I need to say that you're misguidedly applying it to 2022 Croatia. Croatia *has* seen its share of Colonial Mavericks for sure, but the "big dick lion" PM is not a case of that. He's a case of something even more depressing.
(...)
OK so at this point I had started expounding the details, got to ~2000 words without being finished, and then for everyone's sake I cut it all. Your post is about "Colonial Maverick", and HDZ's PM Plenkovic isn't *that particular thing* (however much he otherwise does subjugate the needs of the Croatian people to the wants of the Globalist Empire). Let's just leave it at that for now. To stay on the topic of your article, of COURSE that we have a proper Colonial Maverick; what kind of Slavistan would we be otherwise?
In their present incarnation, they are called "Mozemo!" ("We Can!", the exclamation mark is an integral part of the name, no I am not kidding), and they rule Zagreb since 2021. Having debuted some two years prior, that is no small feat.
Their pitch had been roughly in line with what you wrote. Tired of the smelly HDZ/SDP duopoly? Want some Fresh New Faces who promise to break the cycle of misfortune? Vote for us! We love western values and we will wave a wand to make all this to be like the West! We're the Mavericks who know how! Don't focus on our CVs being razor thin outside of liberal-arts-n-humanities studies -- that is our advantage, actually! Didn't we already mention that we are Mavericks?
The Mozemo! is a notable update from the previous incarnations of Colonial Mavericks, in two respects.
First, previous Colonial Mavericks tended to appear as "star politicians" who joined one of the two duopoly parties, with all the "Croat who was very successful in the west" / "new face!" / "will turn things around" / etc. kind of woo. Ultimately they'd end up doing a few things in the interest of western capital, not doing anything much in the interest of Croats, and peter out after getting bogged into whichever usual disputes or affairs in the political swamp.
Second, the MO had been for them to appeal to the widest possible electorate, boosting nationwide vote for the particular duopoly party which they'd joined, effectively tailoring their promotional messages as a certain nudge in the "desired direction".
Mozemo! has done away with all that. The "wide-electorate-appeal / nudge-of-position" is so passé. They went straight for the urbanites, for the "Londoners" instead of the "Little Englanders" if you will, sliding in about as much of the woke/progressive agendas that the urbanites could digest at this moment. They handsomely won Zagreb's mayoral elections, even though they didn't make much of a dent in the parliament (yet). They were thwarted by a gerrymandering of Zagreb from the 90s, while being not even slightly popular outside of the urbanites. So as much as they may lack MPs, they are just getting started, and controlling Zagreb counts for a lot in this place.
You wouldn't guess in a billion years which particular billionaire is supporting them.
There are currently some heated facebook faceoffs about contested governance decisions of Mozemo!. (Urg. I'm still unused to putting a dot after an exclamation mark.) Following down the rabbit hole of participants, I was... surprised and not surprised to find participants with the Mozemo! insignia on their profile who are not merely trans, but trans *activist*. Not the "inward" ones, who are content to live out their self-mutilated lives. No. The "outward" ones, those with an itch - a yearning - to mutilate the fabric of society. Or whatever still remains of it. I'm sure you know the type.
I was surprised because the public visibility of this at the moment is next to none, and not surprised because it figures. Yes, they are in tow, and from what I saw, they are ready. The Croatian normies wouldn't even understand what I'm talking about, since the lid is pretty much still on, and the local Théâtre de Guignol between HDZ and SDP is blocking their view of the West. Give it a few years, and *boy* are they going to find out. (and then grumble some, and then yield. I'm not a man of many illusions)