The thing about Europe: it’s the actual land of the free now

https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/04/10/the-thing-about-europe-its-the-actual-land-of-the-free-now

by Sosolidclaws

35 comments

  1. A great perspective on what Europe gets right and wrong, in this new age where it will have to balance maintaining the most human-centric lifestyle and culture in the world with building economic dynamism and global leadership – to defend the space that America is leaving behind…

    Here’s the full article for those who can’t access:

    > The thing about Europe, the sneerers say, is that it is over-regulated. Mounds of red tape and punitive taxes mean there are no trillion-dollar entrepreneurial ventures in France or Germany to match Amazon, Google or Tesla. But that is not all Europe is lacking. Also absent from the continent are the broligarchs who sit atop such behemoths, some of whom have a tighter grip on power than on reality. There are thus no European Rasputins pumping untold millions into political campaigns, getting pride of place at leaders’ inaugurations or their own new-minted government departments to run. There are few unicorns in Europe, alas, and too little innovation. That said, there are absolutely no tech executives boasting on social media of spending their weekends feeding bits of the state “into the wood chipper”.

    > The thing about Europe is that it is indecisive, too slow to act. Every crisis requires multiple summits of the European Union’s national leaders, often quibbling late into the night. The boring processes of rule by consensus can slow the EU to a crawl: it took four days and four nights of haggling to agree on the bloc’s latest seven-year budget, in 2020. Then again, the European state apparatus does not arbitrarily shut down every few years when political agreement over funding proves elusive, leaving millions of public employees on furlough and basic services unavailable for days or weeks. Consensus rule also means that the petulant policy tweets of one misguided politician—125% tariffs on China, anyone?—do not result in global stockmarkets being sent into a tailspin. The EU’s top brass are unelected and sometimes unaccountable. Still, they would not dare be photographed playing a round of golf after having wiped out the savings of millions of their compatriots.

    > The thing about Europe is it freeloads on defence, not spending enough on its armed forces to single-handedly fend off threats. This will continue to be true for a long time, even as defence budgets are hiked across most of the continent. But it also reflects a different understanding of what “defence” means. For one, nobody in Europe—outside Russia, at least—is even casually implying they will invade other countries. There is no Brussels quip about turning an unwilling neighbour into “our 28th state” (on the contrary, many of the EU’s neighbours are desperate to join the club). Nor do European vice-presidents fly uninvited to places they are seeking to annex, on the pretext that their spouse wants to watch a sledge race. Europe may have scrimped on intelligence-gathering, but its various leaders do know the identity of the aggressor who initiated the fighting in Ukraine (hint: it is not Ukraine). Many foresaw the pitfalls of invading Iraq a while back.

    > The thing about Europe is that it lacks an absolutist attachment to free speech. See how judges in Romania and France derailed the careers of hard-right politicians, who have convinced themselves (with little evidence) that it was their ideology rather than their lawbreaking that got them in trouble. Yet to many Europeans the idea that free expression is under threat seems odd. Europeans can say almost anything they want, both in theory and in practice. Europe’s universities never became hotbeds of speech-policing by one breed of culture warrior or the other. You can express a controversial view on any European campus (outside Hungary, at least) without fear of losing your tenure or your grant. No detention centres await foreign students who hold the wrong views on Gaza; news outfits are not sued for interviewing opposition politicians. Law firms are not compelled to kow-tow to presidents as penance for having worked for their political foes.

    > The thing about Europe is that it is facing a demographic crisis. It is staving off a sharp decline in population only by shoring up its workforce with immigrants, some of whom have integrated poorly. Such immigration shows the appeal of the European way of life; for those who come seeking refuge from war, it shows Europeans’ generosity (sometimes misguided). And while Europeans occasionally make a show of cracking down on illegal migrants, they generally rely on legal ones to pick their crops.

    > The thing about Europe is its economy is permanently stuck in the doldrums, a global cautionary tale. And no wonder. Europeans enjoy August off, retire in their prime and spend more time eating and socialising with their families than inhabitants of any other region. Oddly, surveys show people in countries both rich and poor value such leisure time; somehow Europeans managed to squeeze their employers into giving them more of it. Even as they were depressing GDP by wasting time playing with their kids, the denizens of Europe also managed to keep inequality relatively low while it ballooned elsewhere in the past 20 years. Nobody in Europe has spent the past week looking at their stock portfolio, wondering if they could still afford to send their kids to university. Europeans have no idea what “medical bankruptcy” is. Oh, and no EU leader has ever launched their own cryptocurrency.

    > The thing about Europe is it is naive, the only global trading bloc attached to moral norms. It insists on complying with the edicts of the World Trade Organisation, say, or doing its part to cut carbon emissions. It is not a place that demands allies come crawling to it begging for “favours” on tariffs.

    > The thing about Europe is that it is like an open-air museum, yesterday’s continent. Is its model even sustainable? A good question—one that presupposes the European model is worth defending. It is a place blessed with walkable cities, long life expectancies, and vaccinated kids who do not need to be trained to dodge school shooters. Charlemagne’s realm is a place of many flaws, lots of them enduring. **But in their own plodding way, Europeans have created a place where they are guaranteed rights to what others yearn for: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.**

  2. I dont know why but americans always can tell you about their heritage and then they definitely know that Europe is not a country or the EU. And then they are ‘experts’ on x country..

    But as soons as it is any other matter than their heritage and dna everything is forgotten..

  3. Europe has enjoyed more democracy and freedom than the US for a very long time, perhaps since at least 9/11.

    Post 9/11 America has been a speed run of citizen liberties removal, increase of law enforcement and state aggression towards its citizens, and sustained degradation of standard of living which has led to less and less economic freedom for most Americans. The empire is now well and truly in its final collapse with the rule of law no longer mattering, corruption and kleptocracy becoming brazen and state violence becoming the norm.

  4. America was never the “actual land of the free.” If you have to repeatedly tell yourself and everyone else that you’re free then you’re not.

  5. “It freeloads on defense” – no mention that the US made Europe dependent by design.

  9. Well, everyone needs some direction. Nice to hear they still consider us attractive.

  10. Good article, although a bit too optimistic as it doesn’t mention the internal ongoing sabotage by factions repeatedly attempting to implement here what happens in other less-than-democratic countries.

    So, is Europe a good place? Yes, definitely. Will it stay that way for a long time? No, not without hard work, sweat and some blood.

    Edit: minor typo

  11. What has always been strange to me is that a country built on slavery calls itself *the land of the free*

  12. Imagine going back in time and telling the founding fathers that Europe, a continent of autocratic monarchs, would end up the most free, secular, democratic part of the world even ahead of the USA. The whole bloody country was founded on the idea of a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” with an electoral presidency and checks and balances and that a radical republic could beat a monarchy… Now look. You have European constitutional monarchies with more freedom than the land of the free.

  13. It has always been the most democratic land of the world save for the fascist adventures. The US freedom has always been performative, we are talking about the land of racial segregation, McCarthyism and everything happening there was set in motion during the Bush era with the Tea Party.

    We are talking about a country where someone can’t be held accountable provided he’s rich enough. Where judges can be elected and some federal ones revoked by the powers that be hence there’s no firewall between the executive and legislative power. American “freedom” has never been anything but a fairy tale to appease the masses, to give them a sense of exceptionalism.

  14. Oh yeah, Europe, the land of the free, unless you say something someone doesn’t like. Then it’s “Hand over your phone, you’re under arrest for mean tweets.”

    Germany’s over here handing out jail time for Facebook posts like it’s candy, because apparently hurt feelings are a national security threat now. Meanwhile, [the UK police are making 30+ arrests a day](https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arrests-a-day-for-offensive-online-messages-zbv886tqf) day for “offensive online messages” because nothing says “freedom” like being interrogated for sarcastic memes.

    Oh, let us not forget Finland putting an MP on trial for quoting the Bible—because free expression is fine, unless it makes someone uncomfortable.

    So yeah, Europe’s totally free… as long as you agree with the government, stay within the Overton window, and don’t tweet anything spicy. Over here in the U.S., you can stand in the middle of a Chick-fil-A parking lot screaming about Bigfoot, the IRS, and lizard people, and no one’s dragging you to court for “hate speech.”

    What a joke of a post. 🤣🤣

  16. Land of the free that prosecutes for mean internet comments lol ok. 

  17. Unless you dare to say anything on social media- then you go to jail

  18. Lol. Anywhere you can get legitimately arrested and convicted of a crime for posting the wrong opinion on social media is not the land of the free. Not saying parts of the US don’t have anti-freedom laws either.

  21. Like 3 European elections have been cancelled or outright meddled in because the candidates were right wing. Fellatio yourself more about how free you are.

  22. EU needs to stop letting in obviously bad cultures.

  24. Not only do I want Europe to become even better than it already is, ideally murica will crash and burn for all the horrible actions lately. Inexcusable.

  26. Its easy to mock America and for sure we are mock worthy at the moment but your leaders upholding the status quo are wildly unpopular and a bunch of EU Trumps may not be far behind. Please be careful.

  27. Ehh, I just saw post recently here where the AfD is now the biggest party in Germany in the most recent poll, I wouldn’t be too quick to say we’re the land of the free, that might change in the near future.

  28. We’re not always free, we still have our hierarchical bullshitery, luckily it is not as bad as it is in US, but we atleast still have our rights, freedoms, proper regulation and a sense of community preserved in Europe.

  29. Critizise the union for corruption in Germany and see how far free speech goes when employers, judges, prosecutors and administrators turn on you and you loose your job.

  31. But you get arrested for owning a gun, saying things that are against pro-immigration policies, for praying in public?

    That’s not freedom.

Comments are closed.