Trolls are from Norway
October 12, 2012 3:26 AM   Subscribe

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to the EU. Some are unamused.
posted by Skeptic (25 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, but the combo of jokey outrage title plus a Daily Mail link makes this pretty much self-derailing. Please do repost tomorrow if it hasn't been posted in the meantime, and contact us if you have any questions. -- taz



 
I think my mailman could do a better job of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize than the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
posted by MarshallPoe at 3:46 AM on October 12, 2012


Jack of Kent @DavidAllenGreen

"Sixty years of peace in Europe" also means that one has to pretend the former Yugoslavia not part of Europe for the ten years from 1990.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:48 AM on October 12, 2012 [3 favorites]


They're really trying to live up to the standard set by the Time Magazine 2006 Person of the Year committee.
posted by paperzach at 3:51 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Every time the Daily Mail gets posted to Metafilter, a little piece of me dies inside.
posted by creeky at 3:56 AM on October 12, 2012 [6 favorites]


Every time the Daily Mail gets posted to Metafilter, a little piece of me dies inside.

That's usually my view too, but in this particular case the Schadenfreude is just too strong...
posted by Skeptic at 3:59 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Some are unamused.

Where "Some" refers to two right-wing papers and something not fit to be called a paper.

Well-deserved, in my opinion. The EU with its emphasis on human rights, free movement and the blurring of national boundaries has been a great force for peace.
posted by vacapinta at 4:01 AM on October 12, 2012 [4 favorites]


Dude, the LAPD got totally robbed on this one.
posted by 7segment at 4:01 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


WHOOOOO, I won a Nobel prize!!!!
posted by Pendragon at 4:02 AM on October 12, 2012


Needs a 'publishersclearinghouse' tag.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:03 AM on October 12, 2012


And maybe a 'weaponsmanufacturers' tag.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:05 AM on October 12, 2012


Stillnot as bad as Kissinger.

The Nobel peace prizes have always been about asskissing the powerful, with the occasional nod to a symbolic but ineffective liberal saint.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:05 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Where "Some" refers to two right-wing papers and something not fit to be called a paper.

Hey, I could have linked to Nigel Farage and Dan Hannan too! I also think it is well-deserved, and like the award on its own merit (plus, this now fulfils my long-held ambition to become a Nobel Prize winner), but I must admit that the collective mental meltdown of the British Europhobic papers is going to be the most enjoyable aspect of this award. *Grabs popcorn*
posted by Skeptic at 4:06 AM on October 12, 2012


For what it's worth, the reaction on twitter from left-wingers in Greece has also been very negative / incredulous. Not with the idea as a whole, but that this is probably the worst year to have chosen to award it to the EU, considering what's going on there (in Greece) right now.
posted by molecicco at 4:07 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


GallonOfAllan: Yugoslavia wasn't part of the EU.

At least the EU has kept the peace among its members. Who, you will recall, have a previous history of merrily rolling up their sleeves and invading one another. The sixty-plus years in which no army has crossed the Rhine is the longest period of peace in Europe's history since the height of the Roman Empire.

If New Zealand was up for a Nobel Peace Prize would you criticize the decision on the basis that they hadn't brought peace to East Timor?
posted by cstross at 4:07 AM on October 12, 2012 [5 favorites]


Absolutely deserved. And this comes from somebody who fought tooth and nail against the Maastricht treaty some twenty years ago.
posted by kariebookish at 4:08 AM on October 12, 2012


Heh, maybe the EU will get the Economics prize, too...
posted by smoke at 4:11 AM on October 12, 2012 [3 favorites]


The EU ended military conflict in Western Europe, is dangerously close to doing so in the Balkans, and helped strengthen human rights and stability in Eastern Europe too. Europe is now too economically codependent to make war viable. It's hard to see many winners that have as good an institutional or personal record.
posted by jaduncan at 4:11 AM on October 12, 2012 [2 favorites]


Makes sense, the EU seemed like they could really use the money.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 4:15 AM on October 12, 2012


I'm confused. The rules. EU population 0.5 billion.

0.5 billion >> 3.
posted by edd at 4:16 AM on October 12, 2012


Ah wait, special exception for the Peace Prize.
posted by edd at 4:17 AM on October 12, 2012


jaduncan, suggested reading: 1, 2
posted by 7segment at 4:35 AM on October 12, 2012


Yeah, it's hard to conceptualize just how incredible an achievement a peaceful Europe is. I think it finally completely clicked for me this year when, if I remember this correctly, I was reading a blog post by strategy and wargaming expert Troy Goodfellow where he mentions sort of off-hand that it would hard to create a wargame set in modern Europe because you would need somehow to model just how impossible it seems for one European country to go to war with another. Even making a game about war in Europe seems hard to imagine. In the history of Europe, war has never been an impossibility. It has neve been hard to imagine, to give random examples, the Dutch invading England, the Austrians invading Italy or Sweden invading Norway. Today you could only use this metaphorically. Dutch football fans invade England. Austrian holidaymakers invade the beaches of Italy. Swedish art-lovers invade Norwegian museums. Which, when you're Norway, seems like a pretty good thing and worth giving an award for.
posted by Kattullus at 4:40 AM on October 12, 2012


Every time the Daily Mail gets posted to Metafilter, a little piece of me dies inside.

The DM on MeFi is a little like realising a sandwich has human waste in, much as it would be if UKians linked Fox News.

Offtopic: I know someone who committed suicide at a party where drugs were present as a teen and the DM ran a full 'a middle class clever child committed suicide, drugs are teh evilz and this teen is a tragic addict' story that ignored his long term depression and just entirely made up a drugs OD because it was a juicier story. Legally they can't libel the dead, but they certainly could increase the the grief of mother, father and sister by pissing on the not-week-old grave of a dead child.

Their editorial stance of racism, xenophobic lies, and further hit pieces interleaved with blatant sexism, a constant interest in the weight of female celebrities and the dubiously alleged cancer causing/curing properties of various things have also not endeared them to me before or since.
posted by jaduncan at 4:40 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm guessing this is one of those desperate “please, for the love of God, don't fuck this up” Nobels, like the one Obama got 23 milliseconds into his presidency.
posted by acb at 4:49 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


The EU has accepted the award and said they are greatly indebted.
posted by sien at 4:50 AM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


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