It was more than a decade ago now that I wrote about “Soviet Sweden.” The focus was that nation’s suicidal multicultural and immigrationist policies and suppression of free speech. Even if Sweden then “led” its continent in this regard, however, all of Western Europe exhibited the same cultural trajectory. And now, 11 years later, another writer notes, “The European Union is fast becoming the ‘politically correct’ reformulation of the old Soviet Union.”
Of course, many have made a similar observation — notably Vice President J.D. Vance. In his now legendary Munich speech last Friday, he criticized European governments for enforcing woke standards via free-speech suppression. In contrast, President Donald Trump is negotiating with Russia, whose leader, Vladimir Putin, the Biden administration wouldn’t even talk to. It’s a striking turnaround, one that raises some questions.
With Russia being nationalism-oriented and Western Europe largely internationalist, are we now more culturally aligned with Moscow than the EU?
And how much can the U.S. (at least its MAGA portion) have in common with today’s uber-woke Western Europe?
Is Western Europe Now the “Sick Man of Europe”?
Addressing the latter question is the aforementioned writer, one J.B. Shurk. As he opines today:
I do not enjoy having European toffs lecturing us about the blessings of “green” energy, the dangers of free speech, or the morality of turning a Ukrainian civil war into an excuse for turbo-charging WWIII. I find it stunning that the leftovers from Europe’s hereditary guild of inbred nobles still see themselves as global leaders of anything when they lack the military strength to protect their own countries from invasion.
My, Shurk should stop mincing words and tell us what he really thinks. Joking aside, he goes on to mention how the U.S. first rebuilt European economies with the Marshall Plan. We subsequently enriched them further by, for decades, paying for their protection and tolerating lopsided trade deals. Shurk then writes:
Censorship and political persecution are endemic across Europe today. The U.K. locks up pro-life Christians for praying silently on the street. Germany arrests citizens for making fun of politicians online. Romania cancels elections when the “wrong” candidate wins. European governments may be too impotent to declare war against actual foreign enemies, but they are lions when it comes to waging war on their citizens’ private thoughts and public speech.
Finally, Shurk sums up: “Europe has built an unaccountable bureaucracy that forces its citizens to obey and calls this ‘democracy.’ The European Union is fast becoming the ‘politically correct’ reformulation of the old Soviet Union.”
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