/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Heads up: I’m Italian, and as such I’m genuinely fascinated by how often American leftists have an utopian view of Europe, supposedly for its egalitarian and “socialist” policies, which actually runs counter to my experience. They might as well be the EU’s strongest soldier, believing in the EU more than the average European.
Granted, I never lived in the part of “Europe“ people talk about when using the term (which usually refers to just north-west Europe), but I do think Americans’ perception of what modern European countries (particularly those west of the Berlin Wall) are very distorted. For the sake of argument, I’ll be focusing on the EU.

For starters, both world wars and the instability of the European spring of 1848 has led to a lack of development of negative rights as well as the notion to more democracy = censorship, which is why censorship is more normalised in Europe than in America which has the first amendment. The biggest example would be the ECHR’s article 10 which makes it clear that freedom of speech isn’t absolute, which is a good example of how illiberal tendencies can exist in a seemingly “liberal” land. On the top of that, inequality is high in Europe, especially in terms of the holding power of the former aristocratic classes on European politic. As an example, Britain still has appointed lords even though the nobles’ powers have diminished a long ago, and by the time the French Revolution ended most of the aristocrats assimilated themselves into France’s political machine, whilst in Scandinavia wealth inequality is high.

As for racism, I would say that Europe is worst based on both data and personal experience. Remember Shiloh Hendrix? Well, if she did the same thing she did but in any European country, no one would bat an eye. Remember, hate speech laws are just lawfare, they’re not about “protecting minorities“ as its supporters claim. But it’s not just the micro level since hiring discrimination and lack of access to meaningful resources means many immigrants that weren’t wealthy on arrival (e.g., expats) are stuck on welfare and meagre wage or none. This in contrast to America where immigrants are treated better socially in spite of the lack of fringe benefits like universal healthcare.

I mean, Denmark is robbing refugees as a deterrent policy, France is suppressing Islamic religiosity while letting tradCaths scot-free (at least from an outsiders’ POV) to enforce its concept of state secularism (i.e., laïcité) which stands at odds with Americans’ conception of religious freedom. Many of these things (courtesy of Europe’s PMC) would be controversial among American leftists if done in America since it would remind them of the problems they see at home, further underscoring how nonsensical their glazing of Europe is.
And now, for foreign policy: Besides being partners-in-crime with the American empire, certain EU countries maintain their own formal empires such as France’s franceafrique and Quebec as well as its overseas territories, Britain with its commonwealth like Canada, and Denmark with Greenland.

As for domestic policy? Besides Starmer doing Trumpian cuts on the much-vaulted British welfare system, other European countries committing to austerity in order to boost their own war machines, as well as seeing European reactionaries managing to get second place in their latest elections (e.g., Portugal with Chega, Germany with AfD, etc…) or win them outright (e.g., my own country with the “post-fascist” FdI, or Sweden with a righ-to-centre-right coalition supported by the far-right Sweden Democrats), Europe is far from the progressive paradise Americans imagine it to be.
Culture? If the fact that the Democratic Party (the American party of the bourgeoisie) doing well in many European polls isn’t a big tell, then I‘ll spell it out to you: European culture in general is very bourgeois, with the populace being enthralled with everything bourgeois.

This is more noticeable in north-west Europe, unlike in the poorer parts of the EU across its southern & eastern members which is more subtle but still there. You’ll notice this whenever they talk about America in general, where the venomous parts aren‘t just for the US government but also for Americans as a people. in fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it’s a form of classism since in contrast to European/EU culture, that of the USA is very prole-coded and has been so for a long time, and I think part of the friction between Europeans and Americans has a lot to do with American culture being relatively egalitarian for all of its faults. At least, that’s what I think.

Special mention doesn’t end at the welfare state (which is actually not socialist, but capitalist and has often served as a means to stave off any proletarian revolt since it was often pushed by religious Christians in 19th and 20th century Europe to reduce the power of socialist and more radical labor movements), but at the fact that the EU’s constitution and its legislation on private property means that it’s impossible to be a socialist, let alone communist, EU member legally.

Now that the blockade of the strait of Hormuz is set to be worse than both of the 1970s energy crises, one wonders if the cargo-cult-level worship will continue on even as both Britain and the EU will become more totalitarian and fascist in the coming decades regardless of the incumbent government. I mean, Europeans in general are already “arabising” insofar that wignat-levels of retarded reactionary politics based on accomplishments that are becoming increasingly irrelevant is already becoming popular across the EU and post-Brexit UK, so it’s hard to say if American leftists will start to look over China for inspiration, or continue to worship the capitalist welfare states of Scandinavia or not.

With all that said, the question remains: Why do American leftists (particularly socdems and shitlibs) glaze over Europe/EU, and do they still do that?