• queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Europe is essentially a collection of neocolonies of the US empire. As Europe’s colonies gained independence and as NATO constantly increased demands for US military hardware and as fossil fuels became dominated by trade in dollars and as the Eurozone robbed them of currency sovereignty, they became stuck in a state of dependency on the US and USD. The amount of leverage Trump has to punish Europe is actually massive, tariffs are the tip of the iceberg.

    How does a winter without imported US gas sound? You can’t get it from Russia anymore, after all.

    The only hope I see for Europe is if they pivot to Asia, especially China. The only alternative is to get off of imported US natural gas and oil traded in dollars by switching to Chinese solar and electric vehicles, embrace electrification. The Netherlands backing down on stealing that Chinese chip factory gives me some hope that Europe isn’t going to alienate itself from China too.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        The US would just wait for the EU to collapse, because even a single winter without US imports would destroy them. The UK couldn’t ramp up production that quickly, they’ve been declining as producers for a long time. There’d be at least a few years when people can’t heat their homes or run factories because they’re cut off from the US and Russia at the same time.

        Trump also seems fully willing to destroy the US just to teach his enemies a lesson lol

        Besides, just drilling for more fossil fuels is going to kill us all. Electrification is the only serious solution.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            A sudden 20% drop would be catastrophic. Europe could possibly thread the needle but things would be hard for a while, at least causing a multiple year recession.

            I’m just explaining to you the material reasons for why Europe bends the knee to the US. What’s your explanation? They’re just dummies?

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                2 months ago

                Okay, I’m explaining my opinion. Whatever. I’m trying to root my opinion in the material reality of Europe’s dependency on the US (energy, finance, military) because I think that actually neatly explains why Europe constantly bends over backwards for Trump. Again, it’s not just fossil fuels. It’s NATO, it’s global trade in dollars, etc etc. Dependency is multifaceted.

                I can’t help but notice you didn’t explain your opinion on why Europe obeys the US’s demands. Do you have an explanation?