@whatanerd i feel like this is the case about so many things, many EU countries are always “not as bad as the US” but getting consistently worse at the same pace as the US (or faster even). “At least it’s not as bad here as in the US” becomes a way for people to convince themselves that things are fine and they don’t need to do anything about it, while politicians make it their mission to make things as bad as they can be while still just a little bit less bad than in the US.