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I'm seeing two types of responses from "our American friends" on Greenland. One is just the ugliest bullying, the joy in humiliating us for no reason, who they equate, in their mind, to the hated blue tribe.
And the other is total complacency; as if ignoring trump's constant threats, insults, and outrageous declarations that one or both allies will not defend the other, was the only option for america's (at this point, nominal) allies, indefinitely. Just pretend it's not happening, quietly absorb any pain that comes your way, and hope that things will go back to the way they were; "Nostalgia as a strategy", as Carney put it. I'm questioning whether war for Greenland or Canada would even wake these people up, or if they'd just act like the Japanese government over manchuria initially: "disregard that, it's just our army, we have nothing to do with that". "Shoot back? C'mon, we're both of christian culture, where's your loyalty to western civ?".
You only have to wait out Trump. The sneering at America from the general direction of Europe isn't going to stop, ever. Yeah, you have to put up with Trump doing his Sam Kinneson act in your general direction for a while. In the overall scheme of things, it really is no big deal.
There's talk, and there's what trump is doing. Those aren't jokes, or some trash-talk at the ballgame. When he says he doubts we will come to america's aid, insult aside, that means america possibly won't come to ours. So our alliance is worthless, and we need to make new arrangements immediately.
If he attacks greenland or canada like he threatens, it's even simpler: we'll just shoot, and people will die - maybe even a real war like russia-ukraine. It's not like Ukraine's weakness stopped ukraine from shooting back, like many thought. Or the fundamental stupidity of the operation stopped Putin from attacking.
This is reality. Trump is dispensing with some of the polite fictions because they are distorting peoples' perception of actual reality. In reality, there are not many scenarios where Europe can possibly come to America's aid in any substantive way other than moral support, regardless of treaty obligations. That's Europe's choice, and for better or worse it makes them a much less valuable ally.
So I interpreted it correctly. Let's just wind this thing down. I am honestly tired of explaining the value of an alliance with a bloc with a huge economy and population and very similar interests. I can't do it anymore, despite being an Americanophile through and through. We are too far apart on what we think the other brings to the table. Or maybe we hate each other like an old couple.
I want merz and everyone to tell trump to fuck off in no uncertain terms and stop giving him face-saving exits. Full tariffs, leave ramstein, etc. It's headed towards it anyway. They are slowly learning to deal with Trump's trick of defect defect defect until he finds resistance.
Why would you suppose we have very similar interests?
What sort of American?
There's a considerable number of Americans who would welcome this, I'd imagine.
I don't want to live in Europe. I don't want to live anywhere like Europe. I don't want where I live to become more like Europe, even marginally. I would prefer actual war against the authorities to this happening. Your entire social consensus is inimical to what I view as fundamental human rights and basic principles of liberty. We are not friends in any meaningful sense; you are allied with my tribal enemies, and will be for the foreseeable future.
Again, Carney says it best:
I perceive integration with Europe one of the major sources of my subordination.
You are vastly oversimplifying. There are twice as many people in Europe as in the USA - we are not 750 million clones of Angela Merkel or Schultz.
What makes a friend? Personally, I read much of what you write with interest and appreciation. Whatever you may believe, there is some level of sympathy between many Europeans and Americans like you. It's nosediving lately because so many Red Tribers are grinning and making teabagging gestures as Trump threatens to come over and take our stuff because he feels like it and we can't stop him, but it's there.
Sure, Europe and America are too integrated. That's partly because integration has been pursued vigorously by America over the last 50 years for obvious reasons, but it's likely harmful now. But there are levels of integration between 'you are allied with my enemies and I despise you' and 'Europe? never heard of it'.
Can you provide any examples of European sympathy when Thierry Breton decided to teabag Americans?
From the stuff I read:
https://unherd.com/newsroom/eu-is-spearheading-the-new-global-axis-of-censorship/
https://unherd.com/newsroom/banning-x-will-not-make-anyone-safer/
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/30/can-elon-musk-beat-the-eu-censors/
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/27/the-eus-empire-of-censorship/
Plus later:
https://unherd.com/2025/11/the-eus-new-censorship-machine/
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/25/the-eu-wants-to-censor-the-global-internet/
Broadly, it would be a mistake to:
Treat the behaviour of the EU and especially Thierry Breton as representative of the mass political will of normal Europeans. Broadly there is some correlation but the EU is famously non-democratic, and Thierry Breton is an unelected EU Commissioner. The former president of the EU Commission once said in public re: referendums, “If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue'.” The anti-democratic behaviour of the EU puts the American Deep State to shame.
Treat the behaviour of the EU as being about America rather than Europe. Yes, they loathe Trump and they really don't want him in the White House, and they know Americans who encourage them in this feeling and beg / order them to do something about it. But even then, they are far more worried about X encouraging populism at home, plus they are partially responding to (some) voters concerns about social media in general. They wouldn't like X any more if it were Australian. It would be far more sensible to disengage, but because of network effects and general shitness, Europe has totally failed to make its own social media (with exceptions for some countries like I think Finland ( @Stefferi ?) and cannot do so without blanket banning American social media like China does, which is not in the Overton window. Thus the increasing prevalence of stuff like the UK Online Safety law and these attempts to regulate foreign social media in the same way they would regulate local companies.
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