Heautontimoroumenos

The first question when addressing such narratives is as always "cui bono?", followed by "a quo?". Who's selling this shit, why, & to whom?

First of all, it's safe to say that the ppl who regurgitate this bullshit aren't experts on Europe. What they are, in fact, is Trump voters.

So here's the "a quo": the audience for this propaganda is low-education US rurals to whom a trip to Paris is as likely as a flight to Mars.

And why are they lapping this up? Well, here's where we go on a wee detour. Let's look at US network television shows.

In many of those shows, you either have characters from Europe, or protagonists travelling there. And the depictions are fucking idiotic.

I remember one show - I think it was Chuck - where an episode was set in Paris, and it was basically something out of the 1940s.

As in, dimly lit streets, quaint old buildings, and if there were cars in the streets, they were decades-old rusty 2CVs & R4s.

@paulengelhard You know, Krugman has also been selling the idea that Europe is worse off than us for years. Less overtly, but consistently.

@pauliebeats183 We have huge systemic problems. Aging populations & dearth of kids. Debt. Inequality. But I'd rather live here than there.

@paulengelhard Krugman always goes on about how much worse austerity policy in EU has been, makes it sound like all of Europe is Milwaukee..

@pauliebeats183 Well austerity IS a load of bollocks and chips, and we Germans imposed it on a lot of people, alas.

@paulengelhard Oh, I know. But he's selling the idea that it's foreign to the US, as if we don't have austerity baked in to our very system.

@paulengelhard @MR_Abely To clarify, these people paint the entire globe-a crime-ridden hellscape.We in the US are as surprised as you!

@hyperlocavore @MR_Abely On one hand; on the other, everybody in Europe knows an exchange student who was asked if they had electricity.

@paulengelhard @hyperlocavore @MR_Abely please think of us poor Irish here who dance with the fairies & leprechauns in our tatched cottages

@tiners69 @hyperlocavore @MR_Abely WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY HELPING APPLE CHEAT ON THEIR TAXES damn leprechauns... :D

@paulengelhard @hyperlocavore @MR_Abely ohh don't mention the APPLE WAR. We sing folksongs about it by the fire every night!

@tiners69 @hyperlocavore @MR_Abely will there be Kelpies, or is that a Scottish thing?

@paulengelhard @hyperlocavore @MR_Abely Scottish. The leprechauns, fairies and banshees are enough, thanks

@tiners69 oops, sorry