←back to thread

The thing about Europe: it's the actual land of the free now

(www.economist.com)
160 points cruzcampo | 1 comments | 11 Apr 25 08:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
Show context
axegon_ ◴[11 Apr 25 09:13 UTC] No.43651922[source]▶
The sad thing is I've always seen (and still do see) the US as a friend, despite the fact that the current government is trying really hard to turn the US into a dictatorship(shutting down medias that criticize them, cozying up with literal criminals, murderers and worse and so on and calling it "freedom" - the exact same approach lenin had). I know things will turn around eventually since this is not the first such instance in the history of the US. Coming from eastern Europe, the US was the place to be when I was growing up and this carried on into the first half of my 20's. I immigrated into western Europe in my teens and continued my education there but as soon as my country entered the EU, somehow the appeal of going to the US slowly started to vanish. The idea of dealing with immigration offices and endless bureaucracy was really not pleasant. And surprisingly after I completed my studies, I moved back home and all things considered, this was probably the best decision I've ever made.

Now let's set something straight: Europe is bureaucratic hellhole, which is the reason why entrepreneurship is fairly uncommon. Here we are taught to go through the procedures, get whatever licenses and paperwork is required, make sure we follow all steps and cover everything up and then and only then start building a product. The US philosophy is the complete opposite approach: start building and figure it out along the way, which is the reason why Europe is always behind the curve.

This however ended up being both a curse and blessing in disguise for us: the digitalization of everyday life took longer, whereas everyone and their dog in the US had a smartphone and social networks from day 0. In addition, here in Europe we've been exposed to bad actors such as russia for centuries and many of us can navigate through their tactics, whereas the US instantly swallowed everything that was thrown at them with the oldest trick in their book: "media is lying to you, see this picture/video only here". A decade and a half of actively trying to discredit establishments and it ended where it's at. And as much as GDPR is a pain in the ass, companies here are very well aware how badly things can go for them if things are not kept in check. Which, as a citizen, is a great thing.

The other problem with the quick rise of digitization in the US in conjunction with practically non-existent regulations around privacy are grifters, which truly swarmed the internet. Business strategy: make a dumb video "owning someone", share it around so people learn who you are, get them roiled up against one another, having half of them become your worshipers, release a book, merchandise or courses and you are set for life. From practical nobodies all the way up to presidents - it's a guaranteed success. But you have to have 0 moral values to do that and at some point you will need people around you. Thing is that it's only a question of time before everyone around you starts realizing that no one has moral values and start screwing each other up. The US is currently in that stage.

All things considered, the US has fallen really far behind in terms of freedom in single digit months.

Edit: Some time ago my mum was watching some interview with an analyst who really summed it up: "I used to believe the US was about 100 years ahead of China in terms of innovation. I was wrong, it's probably closer to 50. And if you ask me where we are in Europe? Preoccupied with coming up with more inconvenient bottle caps to solve a problem we don't have".

replies(1): >>43657117 #
ojl ◴[11 Apr 25 18:49 UTC] No.43657117[source]▶
> the digitalization of everyday life took longer, whereas everyone and their dog in the US had a smartphone and social networks from day 0.

This very much depends on where in Europe you were living. In parts of the Nordics (at least Sweden and I think Finland as well) cell phones were very common already in the 90s, and a few years later smart phones as well. I don’t even remember when it wasn’t possible to handle taxes, banking and similar stuff with an app or online. We also had social networks but I guess most died when Facebook arrived here. The US are usually ahead of us in consumer products, but to say that all European countries are bad at all kinds of innovation is quite exaggerated.

replies(1): >>43657930 #
1. axegon_ ◴[11 Apr 25 20:03 UTC] No.43657930[source]▶
True but the mass adoption and flooding social media was far more gradual compared to the US still - all the big social media came out of the US really, so did all the massively centralized services. Computers in general have a steep learning curve so they are at large useless for remote rural areas in the US(in Europe you are never too far from a large city with universities and all the modern day creature comforts). Smartphones on the other hand are basic commodity with no entry barrier. 200 bucks and you have access to infinite and unfiltered information, which is what ultimately seems to have caused the issue: Across Europe(like mentioned before) we were all(and sadly still are) collectively playing catch up. And again - Nordics are all too familiar with how russia operates, whereas the US is still far from figuring it out. Hence the reason Europe is far more immune to it, although many are still falling victim. Europe also knows how to protest, which is still at large something the US has no clue about. Imagine if the leader of any large European country shamelessly pulls a pump and dump the way Trump did (twice as a matter of fact) this week. People in Europe pull out their pitchforks for infinitely less.