The Apple no fall far from the tree...
US came from EU...
They are one and the same in the bones
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- Thread starter bd popeye
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US came from EU...
They are one and the same in the bones
Sorry, I must've misconstrued that metaphor about the garden and jungle. Besides, the slip was from the EU foreign policy chief, so it's not like I can take it too seriously. I must simply accept Europeans have a special way of communicating I cannot understand as a foreigner.
In seriousness though, I can believe that skin color is less of an issue in Europe. But isn't the human rights + liberal democracy ideology its own form of supremacy? I'd argue that although power (or "the center of the world") has passed from the British Empire to the US, the reason the transition was so comparatively seamless was because the US was a direct European descendent. West Europe and North America share cultural DNA which is why Europeans happily live their imperial glory days vicariously through the US. The US, the "strongest nation in the history of the world", carries on the Western torch and is living proof of their exceptionalism. Europe will struggle hard against rise of China and the rest because we are fundamentally different civilization type. If the rest of the world succeeds in overthrowing their ultimate champion, the US, then it directly disproves this Western mythos.
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Are they actually in the US? What they said is pretty much treasonous content. Maybe I can report them to the government for a minor reward.
Lethe
Captain
While there are certainly contexts where it can be useful to do so, conflating all the various nations of Europe with each other and especially with the United States is going to obscure more than it illuminates.
I think those celebrating the difficulties that nations such as Germany are now experiencing are rather short-sighted. The European Union has long had the latent potential to serve as one of the major poles of a multipolar world, distinct from the United States. The political and economic fallout from the invasion of Ukraine has put an end to this. The Americans are back in charge of Europe now, and with the diminution of especially Germany, and the very different priorities of Eastern Europe as distinct from Western Europe, it is difficult to imagine that in the medium-term Europe could return even to even the "unrealised potential" of the recent past. Now, there is no potential. Henceforth Europe will consist of countries that are either (a) irrelevant or (b) American proxies. And in the aggregate those European countries will dance far more readily to America's tune on China going forward than they would've only a few years ago, reflecting those new configurations of power.
On the subject of the United States and the prospect of new configurations of power producing changes in culture, folks should check out Patrick L. Smith's short book (really, extended essay) Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. It was published in 2013 in the wake of the failure of the War on Terror and reflects upon precisely these issues. Here are some of my favourite excerpts:
I think those celebrating the difficulties that nations such as Germany are now experiencing are rather short-sighted. The European Union has long had the latent potential to serve as one of the major poles of a multipolar world, distinct from the United States. The political and economic fallout from the invasion of Ukraine has put an end to this. The Americans are back in charge of Europe now, and with the diminution of especially Germany, and the very different priorities of Eastern Europe as distinct from Western Europe, it is difficult to imagine that in the medium-term Europe could return even to even the "unrealised potential" of the recent past. Now, there is no potential. Henceforth Europe will consist of countries that are either (a) irrelevant or (b) American proxies. And in the aggregate those European countries will dance far more readily to America's tune on China going forward than they would've only a few years ago, reflecting those new configurations of power.
On the subject of the United States and the prospect of new configurations of power producing changes in culture, folks should check out Patrick L. Smith's short book (really, extended essay) Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. It was published in 2013 in the wake of the failure of the War on Terror and reflects upon precisely these issues. Here are some of my favourite excerpts:
Reminds me of sailors stranded at sea who needed to drink their own piss to survive.
I think that EU would only verbally bark at China. Or give symbolical sanctions on Chinese officials and individual companies like Huawei, or from Xinjiang, not to China as a whole.
They already have it enough from Russia, GDP freezing and 10% inflation, I don't think they want to x10 that with China.
Regarding Ukraine, they could still lie to themelves that its because of their own "safety", they are doing sanctions and surrendering weapons, since Russia is also bordering them, but in the Taiwan scenario, it isn't the case in my opinion.
Comrade Trump is at it again.
There is no sign that US *MANUFACTURING* exports will ever go back to pre-trade war trajectory. In 2022, they fell 3%. US exports of semiconductor equipment and chips finally slowed (demand, export controls). Medical supplies too. Aircraft and autos continue to struggle.
Don't get me started on the EU bureaucracy. The current leaders are so utterly incompetent and corrupt that they turned many European Federalist types to anti-EU people. And ironically these people are not elected despite their daily preaches regarding democracy (which is a quasi-religion nowadays with its own mythos and sins). Borrell's garden comment was idiotic.
The power passed seamlessly from the British to the USA because of European rivalries. The British Empire got butthurt about then rising Germany and Russia. To cover its West it had to ally with the USA. Then the French and British spent themselves in their 50 year long rivalry with Germany. Two massive wars erupted in this time frame. By the end of the second of the said wars Europe was wartorn and Russians and Americans were already in every part of Europe. Otherwise the change would not be seamless. Just look at the late 19th century. The French were 100% okay with killing Germans. The political concept of "the West" didn't exist.
If there was no US propaganda most people would be OK with China. Uyghur genocide accusations etc are what made China this unpopular recently. The problem is the same again. Unchecked US influence