That silly little phrase gets smugly mentioned on this site so often that it should be labeled a parody of itself. As a European myself, I can't generalize shit about people from my enormous multi-ethnic continent of several hundred million inhabitants and dozens of states, mini states and assorted autonomous regions. It's full of contradictions, problems, social disasters, bureaucratic fuckeries, authoritarian nonsense, simmering brands of racism/xenophobia and other assorted crap that varies widely from one little part of its landscape to another, sometimes drastically.
Many other Europeans on this site should consider climbing down from their imaginary pedestals of moral superiority. Very little about either past or present day Europe (insofar as you can generalize about it at all) merits such a sense of superiority, at all. It all comes with trade-offs.
Reading some HN comments from "As a European" types, you'd think they were already living in a wonderfully socialist version of the singularity, and it got built right next to the Pearly Gates, where it daily receives the airy blessings of winged angels.
> Reading some HN comments from "As a European" types, you'd think they were already living in a wonderfully socialist version of the singularity, and it got built right next to the Pearly Gates, where it daily receives the airy blessings of winged angels.
Hearing stories about the US, that is indeed how it feels. I pretty regularly read unironic stories of people that literally lived on the street because of some random misfortune. I just can’t imagine that happening in my home country (e.g. socialist paradise), and I’m inclined to believe much of western Europe is the same.
Like I clearly said, there are tradeoffs in all of these comparisons, but they include unpleasant or downright shitty things about Europe too, and because you can't imagine that happening in your home country doesn't mean you can generalize about Europe being completely superior to the US in all such ways, or the US being as you generalize it in all ways.
Many other Europeans on this site should consider climbing down from their imaginary pedestals of moral superiority. Very little about either past or present day Europe (insofar as you can generalize about it at all) merits such a sense of superiority, at all. It all comes with trade-offs.
Reading some HN comments from "As a European" types, you'd think they were already living in a wonderfully socialist version of the singularity, and it got built right next to the Pearly Gates, where it daily receives the airy blessings of winged angels.