Most other rich and powerful countries have done/are doing all those same things too. It’s absolutely right to identify and fight against those abuses, but America is certainly not alone in acting like a psychopath, some could argue that it’s not even the worst historically (though they’re pretty close to the top of the pile right now)
Amongst all countries here, we really, trully, did shit to everbody in the World, even did it to each other.
Unlike America, we’re not actually proud of it, the public opinion around here are generally against doing it now (though the elites are still fucking sociopaths) and we’re actually trying to stop doing it which is why there is a lot less warmongering here than in the US and hence much smaller military budgets even though Europe is right next to the imperialist nutters in Russia.
Also as somebody else pointed out, there is nowhere near the same level of flag shagging in most of Europe as there is in the US.
The only exception to most of this is Britain, and even they are somehow mid-way between the US and the rest of Europe rather than at the level of the US.
Yeah, the biggest difference between how an European and an American look at their countries history is that the European goes “we did some fucked up shit we shouldn’t have.” while the American goes “we did nothing wrong, except slavery but we modernized it so it’s fine”.
There was marine le pen, there was the Canadian Freedom Convoy. There are parties like AfD. it amazes me that these things can exist, but perhaps it shouldn’t. You may be well educated and empathetic but I guarantee many of your peers may not see the world the same way you do. There are people among you who understand this well enough and will take advantage.
the first step to becoming the devil is to be unable to imagine oneself sinking to the level of those they hate. please stay vigilant, it can happen to anybody
The Far-Right in Europe are having to portray people coming over her as bad for people living here to get support.
There is little or no public support in most of Europe, even amongst the Far-Right, for projecting European power abroad by attacking foreign countries.
Also you don’t hear the Far-Right in Europe celebrating colonialism and demanding to go back to that. The few times some tried it just fell flat and they shut up about it (and as a side note, curiously the same happened when they tried American-style mixing of Religion with Politics)
Even the support for white supremacism abroad (in the form of Israel) is happening against the desires of the European public opinion and is definitelly not overtly about “our fellow whites” (and for those with any doubt that Isreal is a white supremacist nation, just go read how they treat black Jews over there according even to newspapers like the Haaretz)
Whilst the direction of travel in politics is the same in Europe and the US, the public opinion Europe is decades “behind” the American mindset in areas such as supremacism and warmongering.
From what I can tell the people who are actually obsessed with our flag here are a minority, then there’s the football hooligans and the racists (some overlap). Pretty much everyone else doesn’t really use flags.
When was the last time you saw a French flag on a mug or a pair of shorts? Or a Dutch flag, or even a Spanish flag?
The flag in Britain gets pushed into a lot of areas to were the flags of other European countries don’t get pushed to.
My own impression (having lived for over a decade in Britain) is that the flag in Britain gets shown a lot more outside formal occasions than the national flags in other European countries. This also dovetails with the nationalistic push in the discourse of mainstream politicians and even how British news vs International news are reported in Britain (trying to make it sound like in international events everybody is paying attention and following what British politicians say or reporting on some meaningless blunder in some small provincial place elsewhere in Europe in a “look at those silly foreigners, this would never happen here” tone that implies “we’re much better than that”).
And don’t get me started on how, almost a century later, at least every 5 years there’s yet another film about WWII coming out from Britain.
The push for Nationalism and for the belief in National Greatness is much higher and widespread in Britain that anywhere else in Europe I lived in (which, by the way, includes Germany), something which is partly behind Brexit and the shit show it became because British Politicians went to negotiate the Exit Treaty with a “they’ll give us everything we want because we’re so important”.
The whole thing in Britain with the Empire and WWII reminds me how during the time of the Fascist dictator Salazar in my native Portugal there was an almost constant remembering and celebrating the past glories of the country (even though the Age Of Maritime Discoveries was 5 centuries past) which is not at all the case nowadays under Democracy.
As for the far-right and football hooligans in Britain, they’re so extreme in their flag shagging that the ones in England will not only do it with the British flag, they’ll even do it with the St. George’s.
It’s not alone in the acts they’re doing, but I’d argue they are alone in the weird feeling of the citizens about the flag itself. The kind of patriotism found in the US people is rarely found anywhere else.
Most other rich and powerful countries have done/are doing all those same things too. It’s absolutely right to identify and fight against those abuses, but America is certainly not alone in acting like a psychopath, some could argue that it’s not even the worst historically (though they’re pretty close to the top of the pile right now)
I’m in Europe.
Amongst all countries here, we really, trully, did shit to everbody in the World, even did it to each other.
Unlike America, we’re not actually proud of it, the public opinion around here are generally against doing it now (though the elites are still fucking sociopaths) and we’re actually trying to stop doing it which is why there is a lot less warmongering here than in the US and hence much smaller military budgets even though Europe is right next to the imperialist nutters in Russia.
Also as somebody else pointed out, there is nowhere near the same level of flag shagging in most of Europe as there is in the US.
The only exception to most of this is Britain, and even they are somehow mid-way between the US and the rest of Europe rather than at the level of the US.
Yeah, the biggest difference between how an European and an American look at their countries history is that the European goes “we did some fucked up shit we shouldn’t have.” while the American goes “we did nothing wrong, except slavery but we modernized it so it’s fine”.
The majority, one would hope.
but people forget.
There was marine le pen, there was the Canadian Freedom Convoy. There are parties like AfD. it amazes me that these things can exist, but perhaps it shouldn’t. You may be well educated and empathetic but I guarantee many of your peers may not see the world the same way you do. There are people among you who understand this well enough and will take advantage.
the first step to becoming the devil is to be unable to imagine oneself sinking to the level of those they hate. please stay vigilant, it can happen to anybody
The Far-Right in Europe are having to portray people coming over her as bad for people living here to get support.
There is little or no public support in most of Europe, even amongst the Far-Right, for projecting European power abroad by attacking foreign countries.
Also you don’t hear the Far-Right in Europe celebrating colonialism and demanding to go back to that. The few times some tried it just fell flat and they shut up about it (and as a side note, curiously the same happened when they tried American-style mixing of Religion with Politics)
Even the support for white supremacism abroad (in the form of Israel) is happening against the desires of the European public opinion and is definitelly not overtly about “our fellow whites” (and for those with any doubt that Isreal is a white supremacist nation, just go read how they treat black Jews over there according even to newspapers like the Haaretz)
Whilst the direction of travel in politics is the same in Europe and the US, the public opinion Europe is decades “behind” the American mindset in areas such as supremacism and warmongering.
From what I can tell the people who are actually obsessed with our flag here are a minority, then there’s the football hooligans and the racists (some overlap). Pretty much everyone else doesn’t really use flags.
When was the last time you saw a French flag on a mug or a pair of shorts? Or a Dutch flag, or even a Spanish flag?
The flag in Britain gets pushed into a lot of areas to were the flags of other European countries don’t get pushed to.
My own impression (having lived for over a decade in Britain) is that the flag in Britain gets shown a lot more outside formal occasions than the national flags in other European countries. This also dovetails with the nationalistic push in the discourse of mainstream politicians and even how British news vs International news are reported in Britain (trying to make it sound like in international events everybody is paying attention and following what British politicians say or reporting on some meaningless blunder in some small provincial place elsewhere in Europe in a “look at those silly foreigners, this would never happen here” tone that implies “we’re much better than that”).
And don’t get me started on how, almost a century later, at least every 5 years there’s yet another film about WWII coming out from Britain.
The push for Nationalism and for the belief in National Greatness is much higher and widespread in Britain that anywhere else in Europe I lived in (which, by the way, includes Germany), something which is partly behind Brexit and the shit show it became because British Politicians went to negotiate the Exit Treaty with a “they’ll give us everything we want because we’re so important”.
The whole thing in Britain with the Empire and WWII reminds me how during the time of the Fascist dictator Salazar in my native Portugal there was an almost constant remembering and celebrating the past glories of the country (even though the Age Of Maritime Discoveries was 5 centuries past) which is not at all the case nowadays under Democracy.
As for the far-right and football hooligans in Britain, they’re so extreme in their flag shagging that the ones in England will not only do it with the British flag, they’ll even do it with the St. George’s.
It’s not alone in the acts they’re doing, but I’d argue they are alone in the weird feeling of the citizens about the flag itself. The kind of patriotism found in the US people is rarely found anywhere else.