September 2, 2023

"I'm going to call it: Europe is over. Not as a land mass, obviously.... But as a trading partner, cultural influence, serious political player and..."

"... most crucially, holiday destination, I think it is now safe to say that 'the Continent,' as we little Englanders have always somewhat solipsistically styled it, is finished... It’s on fire. Literally on fire.... And when it’s not on fire, it’s 45 degrees in the shade.... [A]ll my soppy liberal friends whinge on about how Brexit means their kids can’t go and live and work in Europe as easily as we once could.... But why would they want to? I spent a year working in Paris when I graduated, and it was ghastly. Couldn’t wait to come home. When Hemingway, nostalgic for good times with Gertrude Stein, Proust, Picasso, Simone de Beauvoir etc, called Paris 'a moveable feast' he meant if you’re a loaded, pansexual waster. But if you were a Jew or an Algerian around that time, it was more of a moveable abattoir. My family, mainland European on all sides, fled their homes for Britain between 1900 and 1939 because it was the only safe and decent place to be within a thousand miles. And I fear it is becoming so again...."

Writes Giles Coren, in "Our love affair with Europe is over, at last/They don’t want us to visit or buy their houses, and now they’ve dressed Harry Kane up as a Bavarian beer-hall bully" (London Times).

82 comments:

tim maguire said...

He is right that Europe is in decline and its days as the center of the civilized world are coming to an end but, as an Englishman, he's in no position to gloat. The UK is just as big a train-wreck.

RideSpaceMountain said...

The great replacement is real and it is nowhere more apparent than in Western Europe. Just look at the Notting Hill carnival this last week:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2023/08/29/notting-hill-carnival-terrorized-by-men-with-knives-8-stabbings-275-arrests-marred-by-serious-violence/amp/

Although I'm glad we 'Brexited' before it was cool, we're not doing so well ourselves. There's a major inflection point coming. The entire world can not live in the G7 countries, and when enough people realize that the deafeningly loud gunpowder powered electric polka will begin.

Darkisland said...

Oriana Fallaci totally nailed 20 years ago.

Read The Rage and the Pride. Not available in Kindle. Not available new on Amazon.

She died under an indictment that made pdjt's various indictments look like models of legal probity. You really can't say things like that about Europe.

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Oriana Fallaci totally nailed 20 years ago.

Read The Rage and the Pride. Not available in Kindle. Not available new on Amazon.

She died under an indictment that made pdjt's various indictments look like models of legal probity. You really can't say things like that about Europe.

John Henry

chickelit said...

It’s linguistically still very interesting. I’d live there again for that reason alone.

planetgeo said...

It's not just Europe. The entire Western world is in decay from its descent into hedonism and submission to leftist nutty ideology.

Temujin said...

Interesting, if funny rundown of Europe. But then, everyone has always had their shots at Europe, haven't we? And yet it persists (sorry...couldn't resist). Although...probably not for long, not as we knew it. When half of your population suddenly goes from generational French, Belgian, Germans, Italians, etc. to North African or Middle Eastern, things are bound to change (gang rapes, anyone?). And while generations have long treasured European history and culture, the new arrivals hate it. All of it. And most of them intend to change it.

My feeling is to get to Europe sooner rather than later, if you have any interest (I do). There's nothing like it and it's here on a limited run.

A final note is that the author clearly has the leftist fear of anything right of center. So all people right of center are 'far' right, not just on the right. You're either on the left or you're far right. And much of Europe, having seen enough of leftist policies is now moving to the right. Or the far right, depending on your viewing post.

Original Mike said...

I believe Europe is in decline. Germany especially. You can't run a 21st century economy on windmills.

Rich said...

Brexit is more like a comorbidity, weakening the UK’s ability to rise above larger crises by slowing growth and business investment. But crucially, it was self-inflicted. And doctrinal Brexiters (such as Sunak) continue to deny the harm of their project.

There is still the issue of political culture. UK and EU political cultures are fundamentally different and do not reconcile. Not sure there is much appetite in the EU to have the UK MEPs back in the European Parliament, shouty, flag-waving, turning their backs, childishly trying to interrupt. Or a UK Prime Minister calling fellow Europeans “turds”, or the endless comparisons with Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Behaviors that are okay in Westminster but highly offensive on the continent. The EU is build on consensus and compromise, concepts that are alien to Westminster.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

They are ahead of everybody in speech suppression coordination.

There’s a lot we could learn from what they are doing.

J L Oliver said...

Europe isn’t ending. Western civilization is ending. But isn’t that the project?

Mary Beth said...

I think we're headed for serious problems. I've been thinking more about China and its rising unemployment rate. I'm concerned that its problems are much worse than we're allowed to know. I'm afraid that if it crashes, it will be hard and fast and will drag down most of Africa, because its investments there will suddenly cease and we will suffer because we rely so much on products made in China.

Europe will probably just create another world war to get itself out of its problems.

Today is not my day for optimism.

hombre said...

"... it was the only safe and decent place to be within a thousand miles. And I fear it is becoming so again ...."

Maybe, if you are not Christian, stay away from Londonistan and can ignore a whole village of little girls being sexually exploited by "Asian" (Pakistani) men with police complicity.

Readering said...

Just spent most of a month in Britain (festival and school friends), France (family) and Italy (photos). Folks don't seem to see it this way. Although 1 Brit friend (half Swiss) said he has detected French hostility since Brexit. RECOMMENDATION: Fly back through Ireland on Aer Lingus. Great pre-clearance operated by US immigration and customs.

Rich said...

Original Mike wrote: “I believe Europe is in decline. Germany especially.”

My yardstick for economic success is a country's trade balance. Germany and China both have trade surpluses while the US and UK, to name two, have huge trade deficits. Their economic "growth" is based on consumers spending the trillions printed by their central banks. That isn't sustainable growth as is becoming clearer by the day.

Narr said...

Fallaci was prescient, and Bat Yeor ("Eurabia") too.

The big test, the one that shows whether Europeans are more now than merely the world's greatest soccer fanboys, will probably come over the next winter.

Narr said...

The Germans, of course, are still dangerous because they are still idealistic. Their next lurch is unpredictable, but lurch they will.

Big Mike said...

He is right that Europe continues its decline and its days as the center of the civilized world ended decades ago but, as an Englishman, he's in no position to gloat. The UK is in many ways a dven bigger train-wreck.

@tim maguire, FIFY.

wildswan said...

You guys may be right and Europe is in irreversible decline. Demographically this is so. But is it true that "non-ethnic" Europeans can never be "European?" In America in the first decades of the 20C it was said that non-Anglo-Saxon Americans, in particular those who were Catholic, still worse, Irish Catholic like my relatives, could never be "real Americans" and it was noted that the "real Americans" were in irreversible demographic decline. But World War II ended this because the war would not have been won if the "unreal Americans" had not fought for their country, America. As late as 1960 many said that a Catholic could not be President. The lesson I would draw is that a country with universalist principles can absorb immigrants from other cultural traditions. Those immigrants over time give the past a future by assimilating the local to the universal. Still, I don't know whether "Europe" seems local or universal to those who are having children there right now. The future belongs to them, whoever they are, not to the grotesques on a high horse right now.

Yancey Ward said...

The Europeans don't have the will to save their cultures, so they won't. The last chance was 2015, and every single country in western Europe failed the test, including the UK.

William said...

I heard an interesting observation the other day: The Germans are always trying to purify something. With Luther, they tried to purify religion. With Kant, they tried to purify reason. With Marx, they tried to purify economics. With Hitler, they tried to purify race. Now, they're trying to purify air. They routinely wash their garbage before putting it out for disposal.....The Germans have a tendency to march off cliffs and take a lot of their neighbors with them. But I'm sure things will work out better this time, and we'll all be grateful to the German Greens for showing us the way.

Joe Smith said...

Religion of Peace® y'all.

We need a new Crusade...

hpudding said...

What a bunch of total horsesh*t. They’re doing much better than the UK is, but who can be expected to know that if they never leave the US, let alone visit either of those places? Maybe if Harlan Crow offered to pay? (But I guess he only does that for people with actual, if unearned, power).

Anyway, thanks for the opinion piece. I guess that’s a great substitute for any actual facts, especially considering how horrible Britain’s housing and other basic living markets are. But I get it. Xenophobia is so enticing for the uncultured. So much so that the subcontinental PM never even seems to figure into the silly narrative.

hpudding said...

[A]ll my soppy liberal friends whinge on about how Brexit means their kids can’t go and live and work in Europe as easily as we once could.... But why would they want to?

For the opportunities that don’t exist in Britain. Meanwhile your pundit whines about trivialities from 60 years ago or wars 80 years ago. What a loser. Yes, Britain is a great place to live in the 16th century while foreclosing actual opportunities for your kids in the 21st.

traditionalguy said...

Europe has been lost since they declared open borders. We can remember them as the home of the Marxist intellectuals who convinced the EDU crowd over here that in reality there really is no realty, only social constructs. Good riddance. Enjoy yourselves as the enslaved minority your new masters who are burning down your formerly Christian Cathedrals for fun.

Earnest Prole said...

Shorter version: Blah blah blah. This spring I visited Porto and Lisbon, Copenhagen and Stockholm, and they were as lovely as could be. This piece reads as ‘deadline less than an hour and I still haven’t picked a subject’.

Michael K said...

Hungary might soon be the last civilized country in Europe. There is a good interview with Viktor Orban by Tucker Carlson. Here it is. Tucker asks Orban how to solve the Ukraine problem. "Bring back Trump."

chuck said...

I spent a summer working in a small town NW of Hamburg. Heat wasn't a problem, but it could get cold and rainy. The work was outdoors, and most of workers -- Spaniards, Italians, and (french) Africans -- had rain gear and jackets. I didn't. And I must say that I also didn't get the German speaking experience advertised :) Although I did learn to wash my clothes using a bucket, sink, and washboard.

gilbar said...

Europe?? do you mean West-Asia? Wake UP, and smell the coffee

gilbar said...

London’s famous Notting Hill Carnival reached its highest level of stabbings in seven years

in seven years

in other words.. Like MOST of West-Asia; Britain is now sunk; and Has Been for At Least seven years

madAsHell said...

My daughter took her French-born husband to the San Francisco Embarcadero.

They stumbled upon an outdoor clam chowder house. Our Parisian was SHOCKED to see people eating chowder from a bread bowl!!

"I suppose they eat the bowl when they are done!!" was his comment.

The kid at the next table over proved him exactly right!!!

re Pete said...

"Don’t put on any airs

When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue"

Joe Smith said...

'They stumbled upon an outdoor clam chowder house. Our Parisian was SHOCKED to see people eating chowder from a bread bowl!!'

One of the great delicacies of all time. But make sure the sourdough is really sour.

Rich said...

Patience... Orban’s days are numbered. When you vote for a clown the circus comes with it. He'll soon be history. Economics, the bane of all would be dictators. Once you concentrate too much power, too many decisions are taken by the people without enough knowledge.

It’s as if democracy was a good thing.

Jupiter said...

You may not be interested in Europe. But Europe is interested in you.

Aggie said...

Follow any river in Europe and you'll be seeing lots of Baroque and medieval architecture, built on Roman ruins that are still visible in places, too. In spite of the Vikings, the Romans, the Huns, the Mongols, and the Persians - and Europe is still there, going all the way back before the interlopers, for all to see. They'll get over their death wish and still be there.

Michael K said...

Blogger Rich said...

Patience... Orban’s days are numbered. When you vote for a clown the circus comes with it.


"Rich" is such a great source of leftist wisdom. Maybe MSNBC would be interested in you.

Narr said...

wildswan, what sweet notions.

The differences between Europe today and the 19th C US are so numerous it's hard to know where to start.

Q: How many immigrants can a rich place takes from poor places, and turn into good citizens?

A: Almost any number, if the poor folks want to become good citizens.

The great mass of Euros that came to the US wanted to be Americans and were willing to jettison most of the bad old ways; the Muslims (mostly) who are flooding into Europe consider themselves superior in all respects to the natives and Have no desire to be Europeans.

Only dunces and ideologues (BIRM) don't realize this.

Iman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Indigo Red said...

Oh, geez! How many times have I heard this through the centuries? Folks were saying the same thing when Alaric and the Visigoths sacked Rome 1,613 years and 1 week ago. Europe has always been lost. The problem is that it won't go away.

rcocean said...

An abattoir = slaughterhouse. God, I am so tired of these drama queen writers bringing up their family history of 90 years ago, like it happened yesterday.

France and Paris between the wars was never a "slaughterhouse" for anyone. Go read Stein or any number of American Jews who lived in Paris at the same time as Papa Hemingway. But you cant get these MSM writers to stop shoehorning antisemitism (Oy, how we suffered) or racism into EVERY discussion.

As for the American bourgeoisie - stay the fuck out of Europe. Yeah, its terrible for you. And if enough of you stay home, I can enjoy Europe more.

Jamie said...

The lesson I would draw is that a country with universalist principles can absorb immigrants from other cultural traditions.

Yes, wildswan - with universalist principles. And, importantly, faith in those principles.

Like several here, I lived in the UK for a few years long ago (during Thatcher! That long ago!), I've visited regularly over the years and have friends there, and I just got back from about a month in Europe. Does either the UK or Europe still believe in itself? I'm not sure.

Even when I was a high school student in Suffolk, Britain already had doubts about itself - back then it was the anti-Thatcherites complaining (or officially protesting) about her economic policies, but also it was the nuclear war propaganda movie Threads (scared the bejeebers out of me) and the valorization of Things Not British. Now, in both spheres, it seems to have crescendoed, not so much among the immigrant population with whom we interacted (that is to say, mostly cab drivers and hospitality workers) but among the OG Brits/Europeans: they don't seem to believe that their natal culture is worth preserving.

Interestingly, in Switzerland we were talking with a young server in a bar restaurant who asked us where we were from. "America," we told her, and she sighed wistfully. "America..." she murmured, "where everyone wants to be."

It shocked us. The last time we'd come across that sentiment was in Crete in the early 1990s, when all the mature adults we talked to thought the US was the sh*t. (The young people didn't talk to us - they assumed we were British, ignored us, and went on chatting each other up.)

We, in the US today, are obviously struggling with our own sense of identity. If Trump did nothing else (and it's my opinion that despite his many personal peccadilloes and eccentricities, he did a lot of good things), he'd still have been worth it for two reasons:

1. He made explicit the idea that it's not only OK to consider yourself American, but you should be proud to be American, no matter how you or your family got here and despite our faults - and that it's important to fight for the first Constitutional republic ever founded on the principle that where you came from doesn't matter as long as you subscribe to our core beliefs and values.

And 2. He exposed how rare that sentiment is among the ruling elite, and how far they'll go to cement their grip on society and culture, such that it hardly matters whether they continue to hold the actual levers of government.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

A couple of key points have been overlooked, and they change the picture somewhat, for some people. The problems, as in America, are overwhelmingly URBAN. I personally am so insanely multi-lingual that with the exception of Greece, Albania, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, I can get along linguistically in every country of "Europe", albeit using some sort of Pan-Slavic mutt outside of Poland and Russia.

Paris is a lost cause, but rural and southern areas are not, and they themselves are having significant problems in dealing with their own urban elite. Rural Germany is fantastic, and the people are super friendly from the moment they realise you understand their lives. In central and eastern Europe, even the cities are fine, Budapes[h]t in particular is wonderful, and if you speak English or German, you'll do fine.

If downtown Baltimore is not to your liking, skip the European cities. For the same reasons.

tcrosse said...

Giles Coren is not as clever or funny as his dad, Alan Coren.

wild chicken said...

"it was the only safe and decent place to be within a thousand miles. And I fear it is becoming so again...."

That doesn't make sense tbh. She fears it is becoming safe? Or is this just more sloppy Brit writing?

n.n said...

Immigration reform, social progress, and Green blight.

Narr said...

My previous post, answering wildswan, ended with a reference to dunces and ideologues. I did not mean that wildswan was either one, or both.

FullMoon said...

London’s famous Notting Hill Carnival reached its highest level of stabbings in seven years

Obviously, the festival eight years ago was worse.

Rich said...

Michael K wrote: “Hungary might soon be the last civilized country in Europe.”

On November 4th 1956, the Hungarian Revolution was stopped by the intervention of the Russian army. Thousands of Hungarians were killed and nearly a quarter of a million fled the country.

In February 2022, the Russian military invaded Hungary’s neighbor. There have been far more dead and injured on both the Russian and Ukrainian sides than Hungary suffered in 1956. Millions have fled Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled abroad to avoid the draft. Russian forces have committed countless war crimes of looting, rape and murder. Budapest is home to a famous WWII memorial, “Shoes on the Danube Bank”. This a stark reminder of the brutality of the Nazi’s in Hungary.

Victor Orban was born after the Russian invasion of his country so I guess his school history either skipped that time or portrayed it as a “glorious liberation of his country by the USSR”. Orban appears to have acquired a very distorted view of history and of the present.

Anybody who looks to Orban as the future cannot be trusted with leadership of the United States. Everything Orban does depends on autocratic control of the government and the end of a free press.

I find the American left insufferable much of the time, but at least AOC and Bernie aren't trying to cancel elections and destroy the machinery of democracy. They will rise and fall (and fall, mostly) based on how people vote.

As someone born in 1964 to a Republican father, it is almost inconceivable to me to see the Republican Party aspiring to do to America what Orban has done. Republicans I knew growing up had fought and won world wars because they did not want the United States to be ruled by a dictator. What has become of that GOP?

rcocean said...

A]ll my soppy liberal friends whinge on about how Brexit means their kids can’t go and live and work in Europe as easily as we once could.... But why would they want to?

Yeah, it reminds me of the old joke of 2 old ladies at a bad restuarant:

Old Lady: The food here is terrible. Not good enough for a dog.
Companion: Yes, and the portions are so small.

rcocean said...

BTW, if the only way you can like the USA is by trashing "Yore-up", you got no patriotism.

Rich said...

@ Michael K
I guess it makes sense, that authoritarian-minded conservatives would try to import or imitate a politics and ideology like this one rather than root it in the soil from which it actually grew. It's telling that an entire party is aping soft foreign dictators (whatever they are) as their new model for power.

What the right forgets is our deeply pluralistic society doesn't resemble the homogeneity of Hungary. Conservatives may win their states, but this is a big country, with a history of revolt from within.

The Tucker Carlsons of the right may think eradicating "wokeness" (eg, anything that the right fears or dislikes) will be easy, but American protest is as engrained in our history as the "freedom" they claim to be defending.

rehajm said...

Trade is good. Comparative advantage gets a bad rap but always because of some combination of patriotism or ignorance or politics. No way is it worth giving up your sovereignty over, however…

(I see the lefties here are still smarting over Brexit. Haha…)

England was doing just fine strangling its economy before they left. They aren’t obligated to listen to the global government, however. (Not the one in Star Wars with the cool floating baseball box seats but the one with the fabu gord display in the middle of the room every fall…)

PM said...

Absolutely.
I spend my dollars at Pappy & Harriet's in the CA desert.

Mikey NTH said...

If Doom is Nigh why do anything?

That's why I despise apocalyptics no matter where they are from. All is Lost. Great. That's an argument to do nothing.

I recall the fire at Notre Dame cathedral and all saying it was all over, it would be rebuilt with minarets or a waterpark or what other g** d*** endtimes notion that ran over their fevered brains.

No, that isn't happening, it is being restored, carefully, as should be done. Rebuilding a structure like that takes care and time. For the love of...the lead roof melted, that sort of heat is no good to any stone building.

To shorten this: when the French cease insisting on the Frenchness of La Belle Republique I will acknowledge the fall of Europe. Until then I refuse to panic and will continue to despise those who do.

Gusty Winds said...

Fuck Europe. Everyone sane fled for a reason. The Spanish Inquisition, Irish Potato famine, two bullshit world wars, and the Holocaust. Americans still subsidize all their security. They tried to form a Republic (The EU) and turned it into an unelected totalitarian "democracy". They still suck colonial money out of Africa. Their guilt is so deep, they've chosen to destroy the most enjoyable parts of their cultures. Whip yourselves with cattails and kneel on rice, would ya???

The arrogance, and lack of self-awareness are tiresome. Only American closet homosexuals like Rick Steves are welcome there. They are no longer their ancestors who created Western Civilization. Now they are just lazy fucks who want two months vacation per year, while the rest of the world works overtime.

What other continent has caused more death and destruction in the last two-hundred and fifty years; both to themselves, and to people that want nothing to do with them.

Fuck Europe. Last great thing they produced was the Swedish Bikini Team.

Gusty Winds said...

Europe is like Madison, WI of the planet Earth. All they sell is fake prestige. Surviving and riding the coattails of a once admirable past.

They suck the life out of their American great-great-great-grandchildren, just like Madison sucks the life out of Wisconsin with student dept and taxation. Both reside in fake Ivory Towers.

The only thing produced is unqualified arrogance.

Gahrie said...

I don't give a shit about the continent, but the England I grew up in and love died the day they opened the Chunnel.

Original Mike said...

"My yardstick for economic success is a country's trade balance. Germany and China both have trade surpluses while the US and UK, to name two, have huge trade deficits. Their economic "growth" is based on consumers spending the trillions printed by their central banks. That isn't sustainable growth as is becoming clearer by the day."

Germany is deindustrializing. China's "growth" is a fiction; ghost cities built with loans that are not going to be paid back.

Gahrie said...

They stumbled upon an outdoor clam chowder house. Our Parisian was SHOCKED to see people eating chowder from a bread bowl!!

"I suppose they eat the bowl when they are done!!" was his comment.


Both the French and Italians are remarkably snobby about food, which is understandable since that is all they've had to be snobby about for quite a long while.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

“They don’t want us to visit or buy their houses.” Let me get this straight, UKers want to visit and buy houses, but the place is over?

Gahrie said...

Giles Coren is not as clever or funny as his dad, Alan Coren.

Or his sister, Victoria Coren-Mitchell.

Gahrie said...

1. He made explicit the idea that it's not only OK to consider yourself American, but you should be proud to be American, no matter how you or your family got here and despite our faults - and that it's important to fight for the first Constitutional republic ever founded on the principle that where you came from doesn't matter as long as you subscribe to our core beliefs and values.

And 2. He exposed how rare that sentiment is among the ruling elite, and how far they'll go to cement their grip on society and culture, such that it hardly matters whether they continue to hold the actual levers of government.


The Left has never forgiven us for winning the Cold War.

Gahrie said...

Germany is deindustrializing.

Industry requires energy.

China's "growth" is a fiction; ghost cities built with loans that are not going to be paid back.

China has wasted an incredible amount of wealth and it's looking like the One Child Policy is coming back to bite them in the ass. I expect a total societal breakdown and chaos soon. My only fear is that they might try to take the rest of the world down with them.

chickelit said...

“Now they are just lazy fucks who want two months vacation per year, while the rest of the world works overtime.”

That’s a bingo, Gusty!

Michael K said...

"Rich" again

What the right forgets is our deeply pluralistic society doesn't resemble the homogeneity of Hungary. Conservatives may win their states, but this is a big country, with a history of revolt from within.

Mostly in Democrat governed big cities. That's why you lefties hate "Try that in a small town."

The Tucker Carlsons of the right may think eradicating "wokeness" (eg, anything that the right fears or dislikes) will be easy, but American protest is as engrained in our history as the "freedom" they claim to be defending.

"Wokeness" is an invention of the looney left, which you represent nicely. It is already a passing fad. Any luck with MSNBC ? You seem about as smart as their commentators.

Michael K said...

Victor Orban was born after the Russian invasion of his country so I guess his school history either skipped that time or portrayed it as a “glorious liberation of his country by the USSR”. Orban appears to have acquired a very distorted view of history and of the present.

Anybody who looks to Orban as the future cannot be trusted with leadership of the United States. Everything Orban does depends on autocratic control of the government and the end of a free press.


"Rich" do you get a thrill showing how stupid and uninformed you are ? What a liar !

Michael K said...

Republicans I knew growing up had fought and won world wars because they did not want the United States to be ruled by a dictator. What has become of that GOP?

A lot of them sold out and lost touch with their voters. You sound like an idiot when you support the corrupt oligarchy that rules this country illegitimately

rcocean said...

People didn't flee the "Spainish Inquisition". The Spainish Queen/King gave Non-christians a choice (1) leave or (2) convert.

Most left. Some converted. And a few stayed but just pretended to convert. The spainish inquisition went after those people. The ones who wouldn't leave - but wouldn't truly convert either. And there were more muslims than Jews, that did this. And more muslims were kicked out of spain than Jews.

And most of the muslims and jews just moved to other places in Europe or the med. very few came to the new world.

Old and slow said...

Why is it that any mention of Europe brings out the very worst of so many Althouse commenters?

wildswan said...

It's Trash and Treasure time in our culture - a strange time. Put all the heritage out on the curb and see what the next generation picks up. How can we know? one man's trash is another man's treasure. Though I believe the American dream is a living hope, we really only know of the next generation that, in this day and age, their parents decided to have children. Who does that?

Narayanan said...

They stumbled upon an outdoor clam chowder house. Our Parisian was SHOCKED to see people eating chowder from a bread bowl!!
=========
when I had a bowl of chowder there I was shocked to see it came out of a big can!!! Campbell

Original Mike said...

"China has wasted an incredible amount of wealth and it's looking like the One Child Policy is coming back to bite them in the ass. I expect a total societal breakdown and chaos soon. My only fear is that they might try to take the rest of the world down with them."

Their demographic profile is a slow rolling disaster.

The Crack Emcee said...

Fuck Yurp. Imagine hanging out with Simone de Beauvoir, as she was seducing young girls for that frog she called a man, and saying THAT was "a good time". It wasn't. It was sick. And so Are they.

Fuck Yurp.

planetgeo said...

Rich, I find your perception of which end of the political spectrum is the one that loves and acts like dictators quite "rich". So in your worldview the forced belief in more than 2 sexes, the cancellation of people who disagree with a particular set of beliefs, and the dictating of what kind of car you can drive or light bulb you can use or what kind of person can riot or commit crimes with impunity is the result of Republican dictators? Interesting.

stlcdr said...

Europe is in political decline. As Brexit showed, the politicians of Britain and Europe want to do all they can to punish the people like malevolent rulers - “it’s for your own good!”

lonejustice said...

I love Europe. Maybe because I was born in Bavaria, Germany.

So much of the best of Western Civilization began in Europe. I love the people, culture, history, museums, castles, palaces, monuments, food, hiking -- almost everything.

Mason G said...

"So in your worldview..." all the crap stuff you do, you blame on others so when it goes to shit, you can say "See?" and grab for more power to fuck things up even worse.

Progressives are garbage people.

Hassayamper said...

Reminds me of the famous headline, supposedly in the Times of London in the 1950's:

FOG IN THE CHANNEL
CONTINENT CUT OFF

MattJ said...

I've been to Budapest half a dozen times over the last 20 years, it's my favorite city in the world. Anyone looking for a European vacation that isn't yet already swamped with tourists could consider it.

Narr said...

Budapest is on the list, if/when next I alight on the Continent. Hungary is a very interesting place to me--hope to get out of the metropolis too.

traditionalguy said...

The Europeans will keep losing their culture as long as they keep playing soccer rather than baseball. And their wine and cheeses are overrated. But thank God the idiots did send us their Jewish nuclear scientists.