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The UK is politically, culturally, and geographically close to Europe. China has always been authoritarian (and hyper-centralized). The US is working hard to

by ronsor 1y ago

The UK is politically, culturally, and geographically close to Europe. China has always been authoritarian (and hyper-centralized). The US is working hard to copy bad ideas from authoritarians, but can't do it in exactly the same way, otherwise the ability to criticize the EU, UK, and China is lost.

pmlnr 1y ago
> The UK is politically, Europe generally has constitutions, and not precedence laws, which is a massive difference. > culturally Debatable. As a Hungarian, living in the UK. > and geographically close to Europe This one is true.
rrr_oh_man 1y ago
> The UK is politically, culturally, and geographically close to Europe. Closer than to the US? I'm not sure about the first two. The latter is also debatable, at least from the UK's point of view. Ireland feels closer to Europe than the UK does.
- Barrin92 1y ago
  >Closer than to the US? Much closer. It's a unitary state with a monarchy and parliamentary sovereignty, it's highly centralized economically and culturally. It's more European than much of Europe. Post war Germany, republican and decentralized economically is structurally more like the US than Britain. The only reason people in the US tend to identify with Britain is Anglo-Protestant identitarianism. Britain in reality operates a lot like France or Russia, an overwhelmingly strong capital and grand historical old world nationalism with relatively weak constitutional or formal limits on government.
- peanut_merchant 1y ago
  I get that maybe you meant culturally, but Ireland is a member of the EU whereas the UK is no longer. This forces a tighter alignment so makes your point about Ireland redundant. The UK has continuously been pulled between it's dying imperialist vision of itself as a world power, it's close but conflicted ties with the US, and it's similarly close and conflicted ties with the EU.
- octo888 1y ago
  > The latter is also debatable Only in terms of perception or semantics or applying a huge negative weighting to a bit of water and ignoring boats, trains and planes exist. But then you say... > Ireland feels closer to Europe So are you slyly conflating Europe and the EU? Some crazy person might say this is really subtle "UK isn't part of Europe" propaganda similar to that in the lead of up Brexit

by ronsor 1y ago

pmlnr 1y ago

> The UK is politically, Europe generally has constitutions, and not precedence laws, which is a massive difference. > culturally Debatable. As a Hungarian, living in the UK. > and geographically close to Europe This one is true.

rrr_oh_man 1y ago

> The UK is politically, culturally, and geographically close to Europe. Closer than to the US? I'm not sure about the first two. The latter is also debatable, at least from the UK's point of view. Ireland feels closer to Europe than the UK does.

Barrin92 1y ago
>Closer than to the US? Much closer. It's a unitary state with a monarchy and parliamentary sovereignty, it's highly centralized economically and culturally. It's more European than much of Europe. Post war Germany, republican and decentralized economically is structurally more like the US than Britain. The only reason people in the US tend to identify with Britain is Anglo-Protestant identitarianism. Britain in reality operates a lot like France or Russia, an overwhelmingly strong capital and grand historical old world nationalism with relatively weak constitutional or formal limits on government.
peanut_merchant 1y ago
I get that maybe you meant culturally, but Ireland is a member of the EU whereas the UK is no longer. This forces a tighter alignment so makes your point about Ireland redundant. The UK has continuously been pulled between it's dying imperialist vision of itself as a world power, it's close but conflicted ties with the US, and it's similarly close and conflicted ties with the EU.
octo888 1y ago
> The latter is also debatable Only in terms of perception or semantics or applying a huge negative weighting to a bit of water and ignoring boats, trains and planes exist. But then you say... > Ireland feels closer to Europe So are you slyly conflating Europe and the EU? Some crazy person might say this is really subtle "UK isn't part of Europe" propaganda similar to that in the lead of up Brexit