I'm an American who moved to the Netherlands in July of '22. I spend a lot of time going back and forth. My then fiancé, now my wife, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during the pandemic. Given the obvious price difference for medication to treat the disease, I decided to move in with her instead of her coming to the US.

I find it disheartening to see what the rest of the world thinks about Americans up close. I am competently multilingual enough to hold conversations. I have to admit now that I understand why other natively born Americans pretend that they're from Canada outside of the U.S.

Despite my embarrassment about the body politic and discourse from my country, I find that the the same authoritarian, isolationist, and anti-intellectual mind-viruses that permeate through society in the United States (especially in rural communities) have a beachhead here in Western Europe. Either that or they've always been here to begin with. To me, the difference is that the scale is much smaller.

don't worry. this is like the fever stage of the virus.

we haven't even started the vomiting yet.

Keep an eye on your own countries, you're not immune to right-wing populism.

Just FYI, you in Europe should spend more time learning how not to freak out the moment you invite a relatively small amount of Muslim people of color to live among you as refugees and start pushing boats back into the sea to drown. We watch your society start to break apart the moment it drifts even a tiny bit away from white ethnostates. Hungary and Poland fell before the US.

Don't get me wrong, we're a flaming dumpster fire right now, but it gets very tired very quickly listening to you people look down your noses at the US like your shit doesn't stink as you teeter to and from the brink of far right parties taking power every 3 years on a platform of "no Muslims in Country X." You're not wrong, but glass houses my guy. You judge us, but the rest of the world judges us both.

I dunno. I just live here.

well i guess someone must be above the law then

well, he wasn't a pedophile at least.

FAR better! Like, not even ironically better, all the way better.

Yea, at least he cared about the crops or something

At least he gave a shit.

Literally every time I hear news out of my U.S my brain is boggled.

Do you really still need them at this point? I mean lets just come to the conclusion that what we're all thinking is true...

you realize that's what he wants, right?

if there's deep fakes of him and Epstein he gets to say,"well it's all fake!" and his base will gobble that shit up like candy.