European countries are multi ethnic and multiracial.
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I mean, to be fair the US's food safety laws, healthcare, and gun laws are all kind of shit, but you don't need to look all the way to the EU to find better examples. Canada or Cuba are much closer.
But, like, I've seen some traditional european food that really does not seem healthy...
@celesteh Oh yeah, I'm not arguing that Europe is a good comparison, but rather that this is also rooted in racism and white supremacy (Europe good because white and pure and old/simultaneously modern)
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European countries are multi ethnic and multiracial. Most are modern democracies who have experienced waves of migrations from different places at different times.
The assertion of European countries as mono-cultural, white ethnostates is a white supremacist fantasy, disturbingly popular in the US.
@celesteh people also often like to bring up how racist Europe is, and how we regularly let refugees drown in the mediterranean etc. to support the idea of Europe as monocultural white ethnostate
but like people need to understand these aren't mutually exclusive things
a ton of Europe is deeply racist especially towards new immigrants, but also has a relatively multi-ethnic population and a strong diversity of cultures
and also like, you aren't generally going to be randomly kidnapped and thrown into a concentration camp for looking too immigrant-y here so there's that too
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@celesteh this also shows up in wellness where people are like "this food additive is bad because it is banned in Europe" or "this food is good for you because it is traditional in <insert European country>"
@LeafyEricScott @celesteh admittedly the EU has a far more careful and consumer protective approach to food additive regulation than the U.S.
The whole burden of proof is swapped, so that one is a good rule of thumb -
I mean, to be fair the US's food safety laws, healthcare, and gun laws are all kind of shit, but you don't need to look all the way to the EU to find better examples. Canada or Cuba are much closer.
But, like, I've seen some traditional european food that really does not seem healthy...
@celesteh @LeafyEricScott oh, come on, what is a bit of carcinogenic burnt matter on your pizza, it improves the taste!
(I'd trust the EU food safety laws way more than the US ones, but then I'm from the EU, and it's much easier to get to know about US laws (whether one wants or not) than, say, Canada or Cuba)
(but not the “traditional European food, thus good for your health”, that's just bullshit)
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White Americans want to imagine themselves as part of a European diaspora and therefore fantasise about Europe as a place that is simultaneously more 'advanced' than the US and also fixed in time at some nostalgic or idyllic moment.
These fantasies are also racist in that they erase the diverse communities who actually live in the counties and fetishise a projected whiteness into a cultural superiority. The simultaneous and contradictory freezing in time makes that country an eternal, fixed homeland, free of diversity or the same structural problems of capital that plague north america.
This becomes problematic at various junctures, most often in north america, but also in europe when the US's billionaire class pumps money into fascist political projects that share their racialised nostalgia.
The idea of countries being 'advanced' relative to each other is already highly sus.
Unfortunately, the thing where Euros pop into a U.S. current events thread about some ongoing local horror to chitter, “Boy I’m sure glad I don’t live there! WE don’t do THAT!!” is also a reality.
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White Americans want to imagine themselves as part of a European diaspora and therefore fantasise about Europe as a place that is simultaneously more 'advanced' than the US and also fixed in time at some nostalgic or idyllic moment.
These fantasies are also racist in that they erase the diverse communities who actually live in the counties and fetishise a projected whiteness into a cultural superiority. The simultaneous and contradictory freezing in time makes that country an eternal, fixed homeland, free of diversity or the same structural problems of capital that plague north america.
This becomes problematic at various junctures, most often in north america, but also in europe when the US's billionaire class pumps money into fascist political projects that share their racialised nostalgia.
The idea of countries being 'advanced' relative to each other is already highly sus.
@celesteh fun fact: when I was a kid (in the 80s), America was this mystic land of "progress".
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European countries are multi ethnic and multiracial. Most are modern democracies who have experienced waves of migrations from different places at different times.
The assertion of European countries as mono-cultural, white ethnostates is a white supremacist fantasy, disturbingly popular in the US.
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@celesteh fun fact: when I was a kid (in the 80s), America was this mystic land of "progress".
@draco But by the 90s, people buying very expensive chocolate, wine and olive oil (in California, near very high quality producers of all of those things) looked wistfully towards Europe.
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I mean, any country has unneven diversity. The Randstadt is extremely diverse, but like Den Bosch is much less so.
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I mean, any country has unneven diversity. The Randstadt is extremely diverse, but like Den Bosch is much less so.
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White Americans want to imagine themselves as part of a European diaspora and therefore fantasise about Europe as a place that is simultaneously more 'advanced' than the US and also fixed in time at some nostalgic or idyllic moment.
These fantasies are also racist in that they erase the diverse communities who actually live in the counties and fetishise a projected whiteness into a cultural superiority. The simultaneous and contradictory freezing in time makes that country an eternal, fixed homeland, free of diversity or the same structural problems of capital that plague north america.
This becomes problematic at various junctures, most often in north america, but also in europe when the US's billionaire class pumps money into fascist political projects that share their racialised nostalgia.
The idea of countries being 'advanced' relative to each other is already highly sus.
@celesteh while i agree with the general sentiment, i take issue with the last statement. Some countries are definitely more advanced than others, I think this is actually pretty non-controversial, provided you don't conflate contries with people or cultures. I guess this is mostly about institutions - these definitely could and should be compared.
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