The 'europoors' rants reflect an American insecurity
Social media has been inundated lately by Americans and Brits insisting life is much better in the US than in poverty-stricken Europe. The timing tells us more about them than it does about us.
There’s a particularly virulent strand of column-publishing and Twitter/X debate happening right now which, if it continues, will require me to seek medical attention for perpetual eye roll. It consists of American and British people gleefully writing about America’s explosive economic growth at the moment, and comparing it to Europe’s sluggish post-Covid recovery. Everyone seems to have their own opinion explaining the difference, the most convincing of which I find the idea that the EU has stuck with conservative neoliberal orthodoxies for the economy while America has been quietly more flexible.
On Twitter, these columns have then translated to a bunch of reply guys (it’s always men) gloating about the American economy and mocking the “europoors” who live in abject poverty while enviously looking across the Atlantic. Life is much better in America, they insist, because they have tumble dryers, bigger houses, bigger cars, higher salaries and, of course, freedom. These messages are not only coming from Americans but also from Brits - and it feels to me like the genesis for this is coming more from the latter than the former. There’s a particular strain of Tory Britain-bashing America-obsessed London elite, in the mould of Dan Hannan, who seem to think they are Americans born in the wrong body.
