How would people who live outside of Europe know what Europeans are not ready to hear? As someone who lives in the U.S. I know only a couple of people IRL who live in Europe.
The thing my European friend was not ready to hear was that all his complaining about the social programs in his home country and the high taxes and so on comes across as entitled and spoiled. Because he’s never lived without the benefits of a state that will provide healthcare and so on, he is free to complain about his privileges and glorify the U.S. as a place where individual citizens fill in the responsibilities that the government should fulfill. He sees this as an unmitigated good, because he thinks it means more civic engagement.
What he doesn’t understand is that this results in most people falling through the cracks, and until he falls through one of those cracks himself it won’t be real to him how bad it is to not be able to afford losing wages because you are sick or injured, or what it’s like when you can’t afford to see a doctor when you break a bone or get so sick you can’t leave your house.
That said, I’m not sure every European needs to hear this, or that they’re not ready to hear it - just this one person seemed to be a little delusional and to have idealized the U.S. as some kind of right-wing libertarian utopia.
How would people who live outside of Europe know what Europeans are not ready to hear?
-Goes on to do exactly that
Bröther
Just ignore he was talking about one specific european he knows, that was making out the states to be superior
You take your lööps for granted, Eurøpeans. Your Sïster grows weary.
A Møøse once bit my sister…
Opinions differ from person to person, some people here really are a bit disconnected from reality
of course, I assume most Europeans are not like my friend :-)
French food is wildly overrated, as is Paris.
GDPR is great, but we all hate cookie banners
I thought America was racist until I saw a member of UK Parliament tweeting about a boat of migrants sinking with “Good riddance”.
The US is not a mono-culture and most of us (unfortunately not all of them voted) are against most of the things we as a country are ridiculed over.
I swear, replace “US” or “Americans” in some of the stuff Europeans are posting/commenting with any other country, and those would sound xenophobic AF. But somehow, because 'Murica, it gets a pass.
any other country
Hey hey, don’t forget about China lol. ‘Oh you’re Chinese? You must be brainwashed AF. Lemme teach you a few things about 4 June 1989.’
Even within States, there is a diversity of culture. Looking at Louisiana, the New Orleans area is highly influenced by French history resulting in Cajun culture, while the rest of the state is generally Southern. Florida is similar to Ancient Greece and its city-states in that the metropolitan areas have their own culture. But even within the southeast metro area, Miami and West Palm Beach are culturally quite different. Even more zoomed in, consider the Bay Area (Frisco). The Haight-Ashbury district is commonly considered the birthplace of the hippie movement, whereas across the bay is Oakland, birthplace of the Black Panthers. Both were quite progressive yet at odds with each other due to cultural differences stemming from race.
We can zoom out and look at cultural differences across the country within the same racial group. For example, there’s the famous East Coast vs West Coast rivalry in hip-hop that is so real, it resulted in the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Even within the same coast, New York hip-hop, such as Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, and Wu-Tang, is noticeably different from Atalanta hip-hop, such as Outkast, Missy Elliot, and Ludacris. Even as static as race is, white rapper Eminem is often included in Black culture.
Within the White rural sphere, we can contrast Upper Peninsula Michiganders (Yoopers) with their major influence coming from long harsh winters to the Appalachians who are known for being culturally isolated, having a mistrust of outsiders and a history of conflict with mining companies. Then, we have rural white people from West Texas to Nevada that are influenced by the Wild West period and local native cultures. Even within that, Texans are much more conservative with social matters whereas Nevada has legal gambling and prostitution. They way I make sense of culture in the US is that it is an overlapping area of varying fields that interact with each other so that even direct lifelong neighbors can have have vastly different cultures.
I don’t think I have to explain that obviously, this is the case in Europe as well. E.g. Germany alone has 16 vastly different states, and each state has multiple subcultures. The main difference is, our subcultures are more than a thousand years old, and the US 250.
This is a widely recognized principle: kicking those above is OK, kicking those below isn’t. The US is the most powerful country in the world, its culture dominates the globe, and celebrates that fact. So they are OK to kick.
So Europe acknowledges that USA is superior?
Close the thread, we got 'em
If Europeans looked at states like countries it’d make more sense to them. Hell it almost is with the size of states vs counties, the amount of land and the fact that every freaking state still has its own set of laws that may differ.
True, but even then each state isn’t even a mono-culture. I’m as guilty as any when it comes to stereotyping states (particularly Florida via “Florida Man”) but I’m trying to get out of that mindset myself lol.
Wyoming is a monoculture. It’s too small of a population to be anything else.
/s
It’s kind of funny because if you go look at the reply about soccer, several people are like “that wasn’t the Europeans, that was the brits!”
It’s the same thing here with different states doing different crazy things … Not that we also don’t do some stuff nationally that’s crazy, like electing a certain felon, but ya know
The UK is literally not in the EU. Florida is literally in the US.
Isn’t the UK in Europe though? The statement was about Europe, not the EU.
Yes
The amount of people who equate brexit to the UK leaving Europe and not the EU is ridiculous
Isn’t the UK in Europe though?
Of course, and both Canada and Mexico are in North America.
Europe is nothing other than a geographical location, western Russia is also in “Europe”, but surely you can see how this is not the same as the US, which is not a geographical location but a specific political entity?
People obviously don’t judge Venezuela for what the US does and vice versa, so why include the UK in discourse about EU?
Iirc I assumed you simply used Europe as short-hand for EU, kind of like saying America but you really mean the US, because otherwise the comment makes no sense at all.
Also I’m kind of confused how quickly you’re giving the UK the cold shoulder. It was in the EU for 47 years and has only been out of it for 4 (less than a tenth of the time), and yet you seem really quick to dismiss it and what it may or may not have brought to the EU. Why is that?
The UK was giving the rest of the EU the cold shoulder for most of its time in the Union. Not willing to switch to the Euro, not wanting to join Schengen.
Not sure if you are British, but even though I would be happy if the UK would join the EU in a few dozens years, I also understand why people feel a bit cold towards the UK in the context of Brexit.
why include the UK in discourse about EU?
This thread is about soccer, homes.
I mean including the UK in any soccer/footbal related discussion is just unceccesarily cruel to the UK so may as well leave it out.
Lmao I’m in the wrong thread 💀
That now makes more sense ha ha
European racism is out of control to the point of cringe. The new world cannot hold a candle to you.
Here is a quick example. Netflix released a Norwegian movie called “Christmas as Usual” (translated). It essentially takes the concept of the American 1967 film “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, moves it to Norway and gives it a holiday twist. According to Netflix, this 2023 film was in the Top 10 in thirty countries. How? How is a movie concept from America’s peak civil rights battles era working for you in 2023?
My wife is European and my largest clients are European with European staff and the abundance of casual racism is hard for myself and my staff to handle. Don’t get me started on my family in-law.
EDIT: Europeans were definitely not ready to hear this one. LOL
Nah, your example is just shit and that the new world cannot hold a candle to us is fucking insane, y’all just re-elected Trump ffs. We definitely have a racism problem in European countries as well but our Trumpian party in Germany is currently polling at 19%, which is awful enough but to claim that it’s that much better in the US is fucking nuts. I’m in an multiracial marriage myself and while my wife experiences racism in Germany, it’s to a somewhat similar extent to the US
Looks at the world yeah "European racism is out of control. " 🤡
European racism is out of control to the point of cringe.
Oh damn it’s all the way to cringe? Now that’s serious lol
Rapidly approaching can’t even status
Your point really doesn’t land. Netflix released a movie? Okay… And?
The film was one of the few of the time to depict an interracial marriage in a positive light, as interracial marriage historically had been illegal in many states of the United States. It was still illegal in 17 states, until June 12, 1967, six months before the film was released, and scenes were filmed just before anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.
Makes more sense with this context.
I still don’t get it. Why is a movie’s success with an anti-racist trope an indicator of racism?
Because it should be a non-issue and not an impactful or driving feature of the film.
That feature of the film moved the status quo in 1967. It seemed like that was the point.
If a film were released in America today that pushed interracial marriage as an issue, most would find it racist because it is not a large issue in the greater culture (for the most part).
But I thought the movie only has a similar plot to this 1967 movie, which only featured interracial marriage in a positive light. Does it actually focus on interracial marriage? Because so far nobody has mentioned anything objectable.
Honest to God slavery is going on and this chuckle fuck is worried about Netflix…
Agreed. We have been sold xenophobia by our politicians and media for longer than America has existed.
Wikipedia describes the origin different, so maybe the parallels were not intended:
The film is based on the true story of Holmsen’s sister, a Norwegian, and her relationship with an Indian, whom she brings home for Christmas Eve. The film was released to negative reviews.
You misunderstand. I don’t mean that it was a remake, just that it was the same concept. I think the term is “trope”.
The fact that the Norwegian film is based on a true story just makes it all so much worse.
Do you not think the problem is divided equally? Some Europeans tend to not notice casual racism, whereas many Americans tend to see racism where it didn’t exist to start with?
I think you are missing the context of the film I used as an example. All the friction and the “comedy” in the film comes from the racism. From the start, it is the point. The taxi driver picks them up from the airport and asks the main character if he is from India. When he replies yes and asks if the driver if he’s ever been there, his reply is no but he stopped in Turkey once. The when they arrive the soon to be mother-in-law assumes that the Indian boyfriend is the Taxi driver and the driver is the boyfriend. We are five minutes into the film at this point and it goes downhill from there.
That is just one easy to digest example using media. Our real life daily interactions with the staff from our European clients is a never ending source for more.
So you’re saying the film points out the casual racism in an effort to shame the people that do it, even accidentally, and using comedy as the vehicle.
Whereas you just got angry and self righteous at said film
That’s what I mean
The scary part is that this racism is very alive in German politics right now
What does the movie have to do with anything? Your in-law?
Hopefully someday we’ll learn to be more like USA police and judicial system.
The Europeans have had -many- centuries longer to screw -everything- up in -every way- and then, eventually, regret it. A bit. So, like most of us humans, who learn most lessons the hard way, they have finally settled on something they can live with … and they call it civilization. With pride.
Amongst those living there who don’t know all of that history - like most humans - they assume that things got that way reasonably. And brag about it as if it was true.
Unlike the middle East - which has had -millenia- longer to learn - and which was, is, and it seems always will be, screwing everything up in every way. While they all point their fingers elsewhere. And build very large monuments to survive them.
This post should be changed to" Bad takes on Europe from people who get their news from Facebook."
Some of the takes are okay, to be fair they’re not from Europe
buy and large Europeans are much more racist than Americans. in america it is not at all uncommon to have a ton of different races (I’m from a small town in Texas and we had a lot of Mexicans, black people, and a couple different Asian races (yes there are different ones)). that’s not to say every European is racist and it’s not to say that none of us are, but European countries tend to be much more homogeneous than the us and as a result tend to be more racist.
European and UK universal healthcare is able to exist because the US has private healthcare.
Healthcare Companies give heavy discounts to UK/EU to make extra money, they are fully funded by US payors and thus patients. If US healthcare went public and it ate into profits, and other countries run low on healthcare funds (the NHS, right now), private insurance or increased taxes in those countries may be required. The NHS is already considering pay-to-play models.
Note: This is a simplification of lots of details around the international transactions and legislation.
Note 2: Before disagreeing, pick a pharma company and look at their annual report.
If war breaks out between NATO and Russia, Europe hasn’t kept up enough military power to hold the Russians back while waiting for America to come bail them out. Their countries are gonna get hardcore trashed in the process.
France, Germany, and Austria all have a military-industrial complex problem. MIL money might not dominate their politics the same way as the US, but there is a problem there.
Even with their post-WW2 defensive militaries, Germany and Austria are perfectly ready to sell military hardware to anyone with the cash. H&K, Glock, and Steyr all hail from those two.
France sold off the Exocet anti-ship missile to just about anyone. As far as I can tell, it has only been fired in anger at the boats of other NATO members. Thanks, France!
Many of us I the US want to come there, and we’re willing to contribute, but the barriers of entry are too high. I likely won’t be able to until after retirement and that probably won’t be until I’m too old to move. And I have a lot to contribute if I could find a way to get on my feet. The US doesn’t allow for building enough wealth to start a business right out of the gate, unless you’re already born wealthy or get lucky and are willing to be exploitative, and in that case I could use a different visa to get in. Immigration isn’t all welfare cases and even with those who do need that help having a system in place to allow then to contribute while they get on their feet would benefit everyone. Dump the idea that you need to be extreme capitalists like the US and start embracing the people who need help to get started and most of them will contribute significantly as they will be so prideful of the place that took them in.
Europeans like to pretend they’re innocent, but they are the benefactors of most the damaging empires to have ever existed. They colonized nearly the entire world, extracting value from other cultures while destroying them. They pulled out once it was financially wise, keeping the wealth they extracted and leaving behind the destruction they created. They then blame everyone else for their issues while bragging about how awesome the EU is while overlooking that the EU is only possible due to the wealth they stole from everyone else. Europe likes to discuss that they had their social hardship discussing WWII, but the origin and impact of WWII there was internal to Europe. Had Europe been subject to colonization from elsewhere, it would be just as much a mess as other places. Look at the situation in former Soviet Pact countries that were practically colonized by Russia for maybe half a century. Now imagine if instead of half a century, it was hundreds of years and 5 times as brutal.
Fun fact: The term “colony” comes from Christopher Colombus’ name, which is Spanish is Cristobal Colon. Even the term colonization derives from a European.
tl;dr: Europe got to where it is by destroying the rest of the world while blaming the rest of the world for their issues. Their critique of USA is merely a distraction from their own responsibility.
The state of Western Australia is bigger than all of Europe.
