Europe
News and information from Europe πͺπΊ
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: Al Mayadeen, brusselssignal:eu, citjourno:com, europesays:com, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox, GB News, geo-trends:eu, news-pravda:com, OAN, RT, sociable:co, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media. Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the primary mod account @EuroMod@feddit.org
view the rest of the comments
This is the lazy and ultimately wrong way. Sure, it doesn't hurt, but its actual effect is not very powerful.
The better way to get back at USA is to start doing things better than they do. Stop fucking around and do stuff. We might be there in some limited areas, but in general the US rules over the world economically because they're good at making things.
If consumer boycotts wouldn't be powerful, why did the US pass anti-boycott bills? Why is there so much lobbying against consumer boycotts?
Also the US isn't good at making things. If they were, they would have a positive trade balance with most countries. Instead they have a negative balance and a lot of their exports are crude resources and other low-level refined products from them.
Yeah, perhaps I'm being a bit myopic here because I'm in IT. And it seems to me that in my field almost everything is either made in USA or significantly funded by them.
I disagree with your statement about quality. For instance, I'd much rather have a German car than an American one. America doesn't really make things any more anyway, most of it has been outsourced to China or other countries. The manufacturing expertise has mostly left the US. See for instance some of the most recent videos done by Smarter Every Day on YouTube where he talks about how hard it is to make a purely American made product.
What they have in the US is money so they can buy stocks and other things like that, so they make money off of things that others make.
They also make a ton of money off of everybody using the dollar as the global trade currency. That means that they can print a lot more money in the US without it causing as much inflation as it would otherwise, and the money they print are released into the US economy. They basically get to tax the holdings of companies all over the world that way.
You're not wrong but you're wrong when you say "ultimately wrong".
More than one thing can help here.
And your counter-proposal to "stop fucking around and do stuff" is not so hot.
Better advice: contact your MP's right now because this hasn't been ratified yet.
edit:
oof. π€ͺ Even in the glorified 1950s neither part of this statement has been (generally) true.
Do they? Most founders located in the USA are either heirs of Fortunes or foreigners.
They're especially good at:
Financing: they have been printing money line there's no tomorrow and pumped their stock market
Marketing: many of us here aren't native English speakers and yet, we communicate in English. This puts native speaker at an advantage
So no. They don't do so much better things. They are just reckless their own people for the sake of the economy.
And yes. Not buying from them, especially for things that are commodities (benzin, diesel) or bad for your health (soda, junk food) is actually hurting them.
Would be interesting to know if your attitude is a typical attitude in Europe. I would sell all my european funds and buy american ones to replace them if it is.
Yes. We're all like this. Go ahead π
Typical European here: yes, we are.
So just to clarify: Do you think that boycotting USA is more important than being better than USA?
Define better.
In this context: Doing better stuff better than they do.
Not only you use the word you need to define on the definition, but you use it twice.
We do better stuff better than US. They do some stuff better than us. Some third parties do better than either.
What's your point?