• @[email protected]
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    286 months ago

    I hear the FDA actually controls American food in a much healthier way than European even though the opposite is commonly thought.

    Europeans can definitely be much louder and annoying than Americans.

    Europeans can be more racist, mention muslims or Romani people.

    European democracy is just as bad.

    • @[email protected]
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      86 months ago

      Europeans can definitely be much louder and annoying than Americans.

      I’m general or just in certain topics?

    • @[email protected]
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      246 months ago

      European democracy is just as bad.

      Have you got a particular country in mind or are you referring to EU elections?

      • @[email protected]
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        116 months ago

        As an European, I think the obscene amount of lobbying we allow to happen around EU institutions is something that makes “European democracy is just as bad” sound reasonable.

      • @[email protected]
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        66 months ago

        The politics of Italy, the UK, France, Germany, Hungary, and others all seem close to or worse than the current state of American politics. The only difference is that the US wields a lot more global influence and has no neighbors powerful enough to keep it in check (sorry Canada and Mexico, I still love you). Europe is not doing enough to prevent the spread of its own far-right/neofascist groups and the inevitable erosion of human rights.

    • @[email protected]
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      6 months ago

      FDA

      What are you smoking? We don’t even have corn syrup in our soda or chlorine in our chickens, no putrasene for chocolate, in Europe we don’t even know what tums are which seems to be a common thing to take in the US. We have chemical food dyes but just because they’re chemicals - as is everything - doesn’t mean they’re bad.

      I do agree the politics are shit though.

      • @[email protected]
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        76 months ago

        Tums is just calcium carbonate (chalk, basically) and is essentially the same as any other rapid relief antacid tablet. Google tells me that a brand called Rennie is the same thing and is apparently available in much of Europe.

        Might be more commonly taken in the US because Americans tend to eat greasy, heartburn-inducing food more often.

        • @[email protected]
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          56 months ago

          Might be more commonly taken in the US because Americans tend to eat greasy, heartburn-inducing food more often.

          Yeah that was the implication. Our food quality just doesn’t necessitate this sort of stuff.

          • @[email protected]
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            66 months ago

            to be fair, if youre arguing about the effectiveness of agencies like the FDA, im not sure that this is really relevant. You can make greasy, sugary, carb laden food out of the safest, purest, most well researched ingredients without any additives and it will still be an unhealthy diet. The FDA cant reasonably mandate that people have to eat their vegetables after all, at least not and actually expect people will listen to them. Im not saying that the FDA actually does do its job better or worse, I dont know that, but I feel like food quality in the sense that an agency like that can control is more a “does this stuff contain toxic ingredients” rather than “does the culture of this area like a well rounded diet”.

          • @[email protected]
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            26 months ago

            Might depend on the region/cuisine though and different things that set people off.

            I can’t eat most Italian food without taking a Tums or some omeprazole because the tomato, olive oil, and cheeses common in those sorts of dishes just wrecks me. But spicy food I don’t struggle with much at all, so Szechuan food and Mexican food doesn’t really bother me.

            The one time I tried an English style breakfast with greasy sausage and beans also had me feeling sick most of the day, and I also skipped the tomato with that one. I shudder to think of what a German currywurst might do to me.

    • Dr. Bob
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      266 months ago

      You are badly misinformed on this point.

      • @[email protected]
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        46 months ago

        More chemical food dyes are allowed by the EU.

        Which fascist did whatever EU country vote for this term?

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          More chemical food dyes are allowed by the EU.

          But their regulations are more strict overall. There are a lot of US foods can’t be imported without reformulating the product.

          Which fascist did whatever EU country vote for this term?

          Bruh, we literally just elected a fascist felon who tried to overthrow the government when he lost the last time who openly surrounded himself with fascists pushing project 2025. It’s not even a close challenge…

            • Da Bald Eagul
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              116 months ago

              People voting for fascists ≠ bad democracy.

              The democracy in the USA is bad because you have a two-party system, meaning that there’s barely any choice. In the Netherlands, we have a whole bunch of political parties that share space in Parliament, so that representation is proportional to the votes.

              As a result, we have both the PVV and GL-PvdA in Parliament; one is very right on most subjects, the other is pretty leftist.

    • Tar_Alcaran
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      536 months ago

      I hear the FDA actually controls American food in a much healthier way than European even though the opposite is commonly thought.

      What do you mean by this? Because when I look at lists of banned substances and why, or pesticide limits, the EC seems much stricter than the FDA.

      • @[email protected]
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        6 months ago

        I don’t know enough to speak effectively to the overall point, but the banned food additive list and is only a microscopic portion of what food regulators do

        • @[email protected]
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          176 months ago

          Where are you getting your information on that? Last time I checked there’s a whole lot of meats the EU won’t allow to be imported from the U.S., due to the additives and antibiotics used. This is particularly relevant to pork.

    • @[email protected]
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      26 months ago

      Muslims hated us first though and some of them (that currently live here) want to destroy our civilisation in favour of their barbaric medieval religion, and their continuing growth causes me some concern about when there are enough of them around, and someone has started a sharia party, and all the imams go “you must all now vote for sharia” how many of them will follow that decree (and how many non-muslim useful idiots will too).

      Not enough concern for me to start hating or discriminating against them on an individual basis, but everyone’s different and some are further down that road than I am.

  • queermunist she/her
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    96 months ago

    The Euro is just financial imperialism, whereby powerful Eurozone countries get to control the economies of weaker members.

    • @[email protected]
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      46 months ago

      And yet those weaker countries (a) want to get into the EU and (b) don’t want to leave it. Absolutely nobody is forced to be controlled by France and Germany.

      The Euro also brought some positive benefits for its citizens, no longer having to pay bank charges all the time for conversions between francs, lira, marks and so on. Which arguable was the original point, rather than some kind of imperialism.

  • @[email protected]
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    206 months ago

    This post should be changed to" Bad takes on Europe from people who get their news from Facebook."

  • fmstrat
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    6 months ago

    European and UK universal healthcare is able to exist in it’s current form and at it’s current cost because the US has private healthcare.

    Healthcare Companies give heavy discounts to UK/EU to make extra money, they are fully funded by US payors and thus patients. If US healthcare went public and it ate into profits, and other countries run low on healthcare funds (the NHS, right now), private insurance or more likely, increased taxes, in those countries may be required. The NHS is already considering pay-to-play models.

    Note: This is a simplification of lots of details around the international transactions and legislation.

    Note 2: Before disagreeing, pick a pharma company and look at their annual report.

    Note 3: Clarified form and cost based on an astute commenter below.

  • dandelion (she/her)
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    636 months ago

    How would people who live outside of Europe know what Europeans are not ready to hear? As someone who lives in the U.S. I know only a couple of people IRL who live in Europe.

    The thing my European friend was not ready to hear was that all his complaining about the social programs in his home country and the high taxes and so on comes across as entitled and spoiled. Because he’s never lived without the benefits of a state that will provide healthcare and so on, he is free to complain about his privileges and glorify the U.S. as a place where individual citizens fill in the responsibilities that the government should fulfill. He sees this as an unmitigated good, because he thinks it means more civic engagement.

    What he doesn’t understand is that this results in most people falling through the cracks, and until he falls through one of those cracks himself it won’t be real to him how bad it is to not be able to afford losing wages because you are sick or injured, or what it’s like when you can’t afford to see a doctor when you break a bone or get so sick you can’t leave your house.

    That said, I’m not sure every European needs to hear this, or that they’re not ready to hear it - just this one person seemed to be a little delusional and to have idealized the U.S. as some kind of right-wing libertarian utopia.

  • @[email protected]
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    566 months ago

    I thought America was racist until I saw a member of UK Parliament tweeting about a boat of migrants sinking with “Good riddance”.

    • Skvlp
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      96 months ago

      Most nations of the world refer to the beautiful game as football, or a derivative thereof. Then there’s that one nation…

        • Skvlp
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          56 months ago

          😄 Thank you. Obviously not what I was referring to, but still a point.

          In Japan the most common term is sakkā, that came into use from US influence after the war. Both futtobōru and football is in use, though.

          Although the official English name of the Japan Football Association uses the term “football”, the term sakkā (サッカー), derived from “soccer”, is much more commonly used than futtobōru (フットボール). The JFA’s Japanese name is Nippon Sakkā Kyōkai.

          Before World War II the term in general use was shūkyū (蹴球, kick-ball), a Sino-Japanese term. With previously exclusive Japanese terms replaced by American influence after the war, sakkā became more commonplace. In recent years, many professional teams have named themselves F.C.s (football clubs), with examples being FC Tokyo and Kyoto Sanga FC.

      • @[email protected]
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        76 months ago

        Then there’s that one nation…

        Sure, but we forgive Italy just because they love the game so much, they can have their own strange name for it if they want.

        • Skvlp
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          36 months ago

          Italy has to be Italy :) And Juventus Football Club plays calcio, so while they do have their own awesome word they seem to be on team football ;)

    • CelloMike
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      806 months ago

      Europeans: call a game where you kick ball with foot “football”

      Americans: call a game where you throw ball with hands “football”

      One of these makes more sense to me… :p

      • @[email protected]
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        386 months ago

        Europeans came up with the word “soccer” as a shortened form of “Association football” to distinguish it from the numerous other forms of football being played (rugby etc).

        So, it’s your fault anyway.

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          It was not Europeans. It was the British. And it was the upper class British. Specifically at the Oxford University. The people in both continental Europe and Britain always called it football.

          “Soccer” is technically a slur for lower class football.

          Even the British call it football now, but the soccer slur still lives on in America and other colonies.

          • @[email protected]
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            36 months ago

            It was not Europeans. It was the British.

            My brother you need to look at a map once in a while or resit your geography exams 🤣😂.

          • @[email protected]
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            76 months ago

            “Soccer” is technically a slur for lower class football.

            America: I’m not seeing the issue here.

            :P

            • @[email protected]
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              196 months ago

              A small group of people from of a single country does not represent the entire population of the continent.

              The sentence "Americans say ‘aloha’ instead of ‘hello’* is just as right or wrong.

      • @[email protected]
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        66 months ago

        Hey, don’t leave Australia and New Zealand out of club soccer, too. Soccer happens to be the preferred term in most anglophone countries.

    • @[email protected]
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      76 months ago

      OK, so this may shock some, but my posh English school called football ‘soccer’. Football was what most people would call rugby. Cricket was… Cricket.

    • @[email protected]
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      46 months ago

      soccer is an abbreviation of associated football. which apparently had rather upper class implications in the UK and as such the word never caught on with the hoi poloi

  • @[email protected]
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    55 months ago

    Commas are for separating thousands, periods are decimal points. Stop trying to be unique, you’re not.

  • unknown1234_5
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    15 months ago

    buy and large Europeans are much more racist than Americans. in america it is not at all uncommon to have a ton of different races (I’m from a small town in Texas and we had a lot of Mexicans, black people, and a couple different Asian races (yes there are different ones)). that’s not to say every European is racist and it’s not to say that none of us are, but European countries tend to be much more homogeneous than the us and as a result tend to be more racist.

  • @[email protected]
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    786 months ago

    You guys should start bulking up your militaries. At best, the US will completely abandon you, and I really don’t want to think about worst-case scenario as I live in the US.

  • @[email protected]
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    346 months ago

    The sound from my portable bluetooth speaker. But that’s mostly because it’s a shitty speaker and you can barely hear it when it’s sitting 3 feet away let alone when there’s at minimum an ocean between you and it.

  • @[email protected]
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    1046 months ago

    Based on the comments it looks like Europeans weren’t ready to hear some of these things. 😉 Let me pile on…

    Innovation in Europe is stiffled due to a risk-averse culture, complex regulatory environments, fragmented markets across different countries, limited access to venture capital, and a tendency for established companies to be less receptive to new ideas from startups, making it harder for innovative companies to scale up (compared to the US).

    • fmstrat
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      26 months ago

      Yea my healthcare one quickly got down voted. Someone used GPT to try to disprove it. I’m even a big propilonent of public healthcare, but you can’t assume it is perfect.

    • @[email protected]
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      46 months ago

      Ain’t no way you gonna put all of Europe into that statement. You do understand that each country have their own system, policies and regulatory laws?

      The problem here is that what you’re saying is maybe true for a handful of countries while completely false and inaccurate for a handful of others.

      We’re not one single entity. Your statement is just not accurate as a whole.

          • @[email protected]
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            16 months ago

            Doesn’t really count if you have to google it first to know what it is, that’s not what will save the European economy in the future. In the mean time other regions of the world dominate battery technology, battery-electric vehicles, handheld devices, social media, semiconductor technology, quantum computing, and basically the whole internet

            • Blaze (he/him)
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              76 months ago

              Doesn’t really count if you have to google it first to know what it is

              Are you saying that semiconductors and chipset manufacturing is not a critical domain today?

              battery technology

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umicore

              social media

              Ironic as you are using a Lemmy instance based in Austria

              A few other companies in the fields you mentioned:

              • Spotify
              • SAP
              • Volkswagen
              • BMW

              https://finance.yahoo.com/news/20-most-valuable-european-tech-221145055.html

              • @[email protected]
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                16 months ago

                Yes, and as we all know, feddit.org absolutely dominates the social media market.

                I specifically wrote that in these areas other regions of the world are dominating. I’m well aware that there are some players from the EU in these areas. That’s not the point. Europe is not leading in any major development of the last 30 years while in other areas they lose market share to the competition like automotive or space (with the notable exception of aviation).

                Let’s look at tech companies. Look at that list and tell me with a straight face that Europe is playing a dominant role:

                https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/largest-tech-companies-by-market-cap/

                Out of the 100 biggest companies, there are only 10 from the whole continent.

                • Blaze (he/him)
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                  36 months ago

                  ASML is such an undisputed leader in today’s chip ecosystem that it’s hard to believe the company’s market dominance really only dates back to 2017, when its EUV machine, after 17 years of development, upended the conventional process for making chips.

                  It’s also a testament to ASML’s dominance that it is for the most part no longer allowed to sell its most advanced systems to customers in China. Though ASML still does business in China, in 2019, following pressure from the Trump administration, the Dutch government began imposing restrictions on ASML’s exports of EUV machines to China. Those rules were tightened further just last year and now also impose limits on some of the company’s deep-ultraviolet (DUV) machines, which are used to make less highly advanced chips than EUV systems.

                  Yet although today everyone is banking on ASML to keep pushing the industry forward, there is speculation that a competitor could emerge from China. Van den Brink was dismissive of this possibility, citing the gap in even last-generation lithography.

                  “SMEE are making DUV machines, or at least claim they can,” he told MIT Technology Review, referring to a company that makes the predecessor to EUV lithography technology, and pointed out that ASML still has the dominant market share. The political pressures could mean more progress for China. But getting to the level of complexity involved in ASML’s suite of machines, with low, high, and hyper NA is another matter, he says: “I feel quite comfortable that this will be a long time before they can copy that.”

                  https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/01/1090393/how-asml-took-over-the-chipmaking-chessboard/

            • @[email protected]
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              26 months ago

              You keep using your phone, and ignoring what tech allows all modern computers to exist. Tech isn’t a major industry, right?

            • @[email protected]
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              6 months ago

              Doesn’t really count if you have to google it first to know what it is

              Maybe you have to Google it

    • @[email protected]
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      76 months ago

      Rather have stifled innovation than innovation running rampant like what the US is doing.

      With stifled innovation you only get through if you have an actual good idea instead of just an idea that makes money.

      • @[email protected]
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        6 months ago

        Some are, sure. I think most on Lemmy support those kinds. While I enjoy the effects, USB-C mandates aren’t written in blood, and I suspect the majority of regulations are of that variety.

        • Björn Tantau
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          186 months ago

          The USB-C mandate is a direct result of it being actively ignored by Apple. The way to universal chargers, first through micro USB and then USB C was also championed by the EU but only as a loose industry agreement or so. Definitely not enough to reign in Apple which is why it was now made mandatory.

          The main motivation was to reduce electronic waste due to every device having a different charger and often not even standardising in the same company.

          • @[email protected]
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            6 months ago

            I support the mandate. Just pointing out that the whole “blood of victims” thing, while true of some very important regulations, is nonsense for most of them. There were no victims of lightning ports. There was no blood involved in generic Champagne being called Sparkling Wine.

      • @[email protected]
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        96 months ago

        And other regulations are written by the lobbyists of big companies.

        Here in Germany we have so many regulations that don’t help anyone, except big companies who can circumvent or deal with them.

        I don’t want to reduce environmental or worker protection, but we need to simplify a lot of regulations so that the time to do the paperwork is reduced, one of the solutions should be good digitalisation.

    • @[email protected]
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      476 months ago

      at least the fragmented markets, limited venture capital and closed-mindedness of established compagnies are relatively well known and recognised, wouldn’t say Europeans aren’t ready to hear it

      • @[email protected]
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        106 months ago

        I was actually thinking the first two were the more detrimental, and are the reason behind lack of VC and closed minded companies. The fragmented markets is irritating, but overcomeable.

        • @[email protected]
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          36 months ago

          yeah I think I’d agree with that, hut I’m risk-averse myself so can’t go pointing blame at others

          • @[email protected]
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            56 months ago

            The opposite could maybe be said of the US: due to our crazy-pants lack of financial security, people are willing to do risky things, which, when successful, can drive innovation. I grew up in this culture, so it doesn’t make me uncomfortable, but understand it isn’t for everyone.

    • @[email protected]
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      106 months ago

      Start-ups in the US benefit from an immediate market of 400 million people. The EU should be able to enjoy a similar benefit but you are right about the red tape. Obviously Brexit in the UK was a total anathema to that as well.