Comment on [OC] My feeling as European reading news on Lemmy/Reddit

• Damage@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Europeans tend to prefer discussing local matters in their own language

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  • hibsen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Possible I missed something, but nothing I see in the world news rules about posting in languages that aren’t English. My (admittedly small) point is that nothing prevents Europeans dominating these spaces apart apparent apathy and disinterest.

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    • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      but nothing I see in the world news rules about posting in languages that aren’t English

      Isn’t it pretty obvious? If literally any European posted news in their native language, outside of the Brits and the Irish, it would be literally incomprehensible to 80-90% of the continent.

      Not to mention ^(proceeds^ ^to^ ^mention)^ the problem that we don’t care about each other’s internal politics and don’t know enough about their context to follow them. People might follow the EU topics and the large-scale shitfests such as Brexit, French protests and of course the Russo-Ukrainian war. But that’s it.

      E.g. I just realised that my country borders six other countries and I can’t name the current PM/president of two of them. (for somewhat excusable reasons, but regardless of that it’s not a good look)

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      • merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        As someone who lived in Europe for a bit, it seems like one reason for that is that, no matter who wins, the swings are smaller. No matter who wins in the elections, there don’t tend to be dramatic policy shifts. European politics often have multiple parties, with some parties containing complete nutters, but because those nutters are not in the main parties, the main parties are more similar.

        In addition the US is the only remaining superpower, so US politics has a big impact on every European country, probably not as much as all their neighbors combined, but maybe more than any one of those neighbors on their own.

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      • hibsen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        At the rush of digging myself an ever deeper hole, then…why complain? I wouldn’t ask, but I see this complaint like every few weeks or so. If it literally can’t be a thing because of how Europe is, why blame America?

        We do enough like real stupid shit people can be mad at us about. This one doesn’t seem like it’s on us.

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• ParsnipWitch@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Different states are not like literally different countries.

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  • nl_the_shadow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Exactly, different states still have their country as common ground. Most Europeans identify with their nationality first, and as a European second.

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    • halferect@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      When asked where I’m from I say my state, I don’t say I’m American.

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      • hibsen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Yeah I don’t know any Americans that don’t do this. Like I get it, I don’t like us either, but going from Colorado to Texas is more jarring to me than going from France to Germany.

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    • Siegfried@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      If I remember correctly, most Europeans identifiy first with their city, then with their country and third with the EU…

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  • merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Different states in the early 1800s might be like different European countries are today. But, today, states have a lot less power, and people generally think of themselves as American first.

    In addition, European countries speak different languages. That severely limits the common ground you share with neighbouring countries.

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    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They also have different cultures, traditions, history, etc.

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      • merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Yeah, European countries have histories going back a thousand years or more. While there’s going to be some shared history in border regions (often they swapped back and forth between countries depending on who was strong and who was weak), there’s a lot of differences between them that are pretty deep seated.

        If those countries shared a common language the cultures would tend to blend over time. When they speak different languages that process is a lot slower.

        IMO the differences between major US cities are smaller than the differences between any given city and the rural areas surrounding that city.

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    • MBM@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Even then, different states in the early 1800s had more or less the same history/origins (colonists that arrived relatively recently)

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