I hope more “Americans” (*) reading this would take it to their heart and check what they’re posting, commenting, and up/ down voting. Change starts from ourselves.
(*) Americans is a term I am not comfortable with, but there’s no alternative, right? I am from South America and always pissed me a bit that up there they are “the Americans”. Is like the argument over the Gulf… only that it was never discussed :(
On that, I think it took an extreme, real caricature to make me more cognizant of that. Like, it’s mind boggling that some are cheering on the Gulf renaming, but I guess it’s a microcosm of what’s been going on for a long time.
Speaking as an American, it would also be awesome if the fediverse explodes in Europe, and the dominant topics/discussions shift to EU focused ones.
I’d certainly love this. I’ve blocked all American(-focused) communities to achieve this already. Honestly, I often feel Dutch people know more about US internal politics than those of the EU or even the Netherlands, and I’ve myself gotten a bit sick of 80% of the news I see being about America (even in traditional media I feel America takes up way too much space).
I think in our media America should have a presence a bit bigger than China.
My main ‘traditional media’ (newspapers, news broadcasts) are all Dutch and German language. Like I said, even there there’s too much of a focus on America.
Honestly I would love to be immersed in EU topics instead. Even some open Chinese discussion. I am ashamed of how much American politics blots out the sun atm, and the less attention our tantrums get the better.
Eh. It’s not America’s fault its soft-power works so well, nor that Europeans apparently prefer flocking to US (and Chinese, bizarrely) social media instead of coming up with their own. There is also a good rationale for the in-detail reporting on US politics, considering it’s by and large the protector of the status-quo in Europe (though I’ve read European reporting on US internal politics is very lacking).
But yeah, it’d be great if, under this Europe-first atmosphere, media (on- and offline) also start focusing more on Europe.
It’s not that some European startups haven’t tried. Americans came up with it first, so it’s the first mover and network effect rule at play, I guess. Facebook is defacto communication across large swaths of the world.
We actually had a Facebook-like social medium called Hyves in the Netherlands, which was very big until Facebook also took off here, indeed probably because of the network effect. I’ve never been a fan of online social networks as a concept, though, so I didn’t like either :p
Maybe we will now get our own evil oligarch-run social network monopolist!
I’d like to know more about my european neighbors, too, but unfortunately, there’s a language barrier and news reports in english that cover more than the most important stuff is not that common.
We probably need more pan-european media to learn more about Europe.
Last time I used such a feature (which, tbf, was a few years ago) it was a weird translation with word-by-word translations and weird choices putting content in the wrong context.
This would be a fascinating social experiment.
Ban Twitter/Facebook while the US keeps them, and see how the populations of the two countries diverge.
Speaking as an American, it would also be awesome if the fediverse explodes in Europe, and the dominant topics/discussions shift to EU focused ones.
I too would love less America and all my social media feeds…
Signed Canada
😁
I feel the need to apologize for my country. Sorry!
I hope more “Americans” (*) reading this would take it to their heart and check what they’re posting, commenting, and up/ down voting. Change starts from ourselves.
(*) Americans is a term I am not comfortable with, but there’s no alternative, right? I am from South America and always pissed me a bit that up there they are “the Americans”. Is like the argument over the Gulf… only that it was never discussed :(
On that, I think it took an extreme, real caricature to make me more cognizant of that. Like, it’s mind boggling that some are cheering on the Gulf renaming, but I guess it’s a microcosm of what’s been going on for a long time.
I’d certainly love this. I’ve blocked all American(-focused) communities to achieve this already. Honestly, I often feel Dutch people know more about US internal politics than those of the EU or even the Netherlands, and I’ve myself gotten a bit sick of 80% of the news I see being about America (even in traditional media I feel America takes up way too much space).
I think in our media America should have a presence a bit bigger than China.
Quickest way to avoid American content is to not use English.
My main ‘traditional media’ (newspapers, news broadcasts) are all Dutch and German language. Like I said, even there there’s too much of a focus on America.
Honestly I would love to be immersed in EU topics instead. Even some open Chinese discussion. I am ashamed of how much American politics blots out the sun atm, and the less attention our tantrums get the better.
Shun us. Please, I am begging you, lol.
Eh. It’s not America’s fault its soft-power works so well, nor that Europeans apparently prefer flocking to US (and Chinese, bizarrely) social media instead of coming up with their own. There is also a good rationale for the in-detail reporting on US politics, considering it’s by and large the protector of the status-quo in Europe (though I’ve read European reporting on US internal politics is very lacking).
But yeah, it’d be great if, under this Europe-first atmosphere, media (on- and offline) also start focusing more on Europe.
It’s not that some European startups haven’t tried. Americans came up with it first, so it’s the first mover and network effect rule at play, I guess. Facebook is defacto communication across large swaths of the world.
We actually had a Facebook-like social medium called Hyves in the Netherlands, which was very big until Facebook also took off here, indeed probably because of the network effect. I’ve never been a fan of online social networks as a concept, though, so I didn’t like either :p
Maybe we will now get our own evil oligarch-run social network monopolist!
I’d like to know more about my european neighbors, too, but unfortunately, there’s a language barrier and news reports in english that cover more than the most important stuff is not that common.
We probably need more pan-european media to learn more about Europe.
Ever heard of auto traslate? Is a feature most modern browser come included with
Last time I used such a feature (which, tbf, was a few years ago) it was a weird translation with word-by-word translations and weird choices putting content in the wrong context.