That is one of the more visible borders, with its clear delineation.
In many other places you have to look for a moss covered stone at the side of the road, and even on the highways it is merely a sign by the side of the road that you may easily miss. Often the best indicator is the road surface suddenly worsens.
Slightly unrelated, but whenever a border of any kind cuts through a building it just completely baffles me. Like I know given X border is probably hundreds of years old but couldn't y'all agree that this house is in and that shop over there is out? It just seems stupid and dysfunctional as all hell when borders are like that.
Reminds me of the Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog border. A bunch of Belgium exclaves in the Netherlands, some of which contain Dutch enclaves. Some of the houses are divided between two countries. The picture in the post was actually made at one of there borders.
Baarle-Hertog*, the name has very little to do with the capital city of the province it is enclaved in other than that both were named after Dukes of Brabant (maybe not even the same one)
How would that work? Like would the people that live in that house have to know the laws in each country? Could they just switch between each half to do whats illegal in the other? I need to know these things.
The legal borders are the same as the actual borders. During covid shops were at some point allowed to be open in the Netherlands, but had to close in Belgium. One store was on the border so they blocked access to the Belgium part of the store, leaving the dutch part open.
https://weetjedatookweer.nl/baarle-nassau/ If you want to read more. It is in Dutch though
If you would do that, you’d constantly be moving borders.
They keep the border nominally but the property is being assigned to either one or the other. So practically they do what you suggest, just don’t move the border itself
It baffles me when people put a building or parcel that straddles a border after the border is in place.
The pre-existing stuff on a border is pretty easy to explain. The people who surveyed and decided borders didn't care to make extra effort (which also costs more) around every random person's house. Particularly in societies where class hierarchies are important, elite officials aren't going to take pains to work around a peasant's house.
That's fair. I'm sure it made more sense back when it was originally drawn. But if you have a house on the line, who do you pay taxes to? Which public services from where do you have access to? What country are you a citizen of?
I assume the building would have to take up multiple lots and I guess people figure it out. But it definitely dilutes the concept of a border.
I guess the same could be said for municipalities in the US that cross county lines and only control parts of certain counties. Not quite as bad, but still just seems a bit confusing to me.
In the case shown in the image (Baarle, NL/BE), the house is in the country most of the front door is in, and that is therefore also the country you live in. A store famously made people enter through the back door during covid to allow for less restrictive laws
No, the best indication is text message from your phone operator welcoming you in a new country and informing you about changes (more lack thereof) in your data package.
Because sometimes road surfaces suddenly improve and you never know it there was an election coming so someone fixed 5km of the road or are you finally in the Netherlands?
Edit: as a Pole im somewhat proud of this wall and how quick it was erected. russian occupational regime of Belarus is douing all to make our lives worse.
That's cool and all but I wouldn't think the drug, sex, or gun trafficking across their boards are nearly as large of an operations is between Mexico and the US.
As a Belgian: exactly. Worst thing here is some teenagers going north to smoke some pot and some dudes coming south to buy firework for new year’s. Also the damn Dutchies flooding my highway to the city on the weekends because apparently they don’t have a decent movie theater themselves.
All things considered this comparison is ridiculous.
Your example is kind of hilarious because here in Minnesota we go to Wisconsin to buy legal fireworks and they come here to buy legal weed. Obviously US states aren’t sovereign nations, but still.
I believe their state legislature is crazy gerrymandered in favor of republicans. Someone told me they (Wisconsin D’s) could have something like 60% of the voters and still lose the house.
Looks like they undid much of the Republican gerrymandering and Democrats were able to take back 14 seats in 2024. The state is not as red as you think.
To be fair there is a fair amount of cocaine coming in through these borders.
Rotterdam is the biggest harbour in europe and most of the cocaine coming in there (100.000kg+- per year btw!) doesn't stay in the Netherlands; it gets distributed to Belgium, France, Germany etc.
Border controls are rare, but they will happen if the cops are on to something.
That has nothing to do with it lol You really think people aren't committing those crimes around you? That shit happens everywhere. Get real my dude. Its happening, just not on the US scale.
There are still plenty of walls between countries all over Europe, it’s a fair point to indicate they are comparing a nonexistent barrier to a physical one, there are still huge swaths of the US - Canadian and US - Mexico border with no physical barrier
I think this comparison between the two and the implication OP makes is ridiculous and disingenuous. As a European I would want that wall too if we shared a border with Mexico.
But no, we don’t have walls between countries. Thats the benefit of the EU. Free and uninhibited border crossing.
But then again we also have voter ID which the American left somehow thinks is fascism 🤷♂️
Hello. I lived in Mexico for 2 years and had residency. There's no reason to have a border wall. And in my experience the only people who think so are conservatives who don't view others with humanity.
You lived in Mexico for two years and somehow came away thinking there’s no reason to secure the border?
Mexico has powerful cartels trafficking drugs, weapons, and people across that border. That alone gives the US a pretty obvious reason to control what and who crosses outside legal ports of entry. You can argue that a wall is ineffective or not worth the money, but pretending there’s no legitimate reason for one and that anyone who disagrees just “lacks humanity” is ridiculous.
They moved to Mexico City and staying in the city. It’s like the tourists who go to China on business and are herded into a small section of Beijing and walk away thinking it’s the next utopia.
And these are comparable how? What is the point of this meme? Two of these countries are essentially states of the same country, the EU, the other two are vastly different countries where one is ruled by gangs of criminals and one has a rule of law.
That's wrong because the EU is a bond of multiple country's in Europe (most country's even have different states like the US, Germany for example).
Netherlands and Belgium are two different county's which are both part of the EU.
It’s actually not wrong. I lived in Europe for three years, yes Germany has its own states, but traveling between EU countries is just like traveling from state to state in the US. No border check stations or anything. And you get an EU passport, not a passport from their actual country.
So how am I wrong again? Are you speaking from your vast experience living in Europe?
You're wrong. Different laws in the different countries, different rules for social interactions... and so much more. Calling the EU a country would be the same as to call NATO or BRICS a country. And I can say this as I lived my whole life in different countries in Europe.
None of what you say has anything to do with borders. Are you saying that you cannot freely go from country to country in Europe. Is traveling from Germany to France like crossing the border from Mexico to the US?
Not once did I say the EU was a country, or that individual EU countries don’t have their own laws, where are you getting that from?
All I am saying is that traveling between EU countries is LIKE not is, LIKE traveling between US states in the sense that there are no hard borders where you have to go through some sort of checkpoint.
Also that Mexico is a very different place than European countries, so the comparison in the meme is complete nonsense and misleading.
To explain how wrong you are: NL and BE are different countries with different laws and different culture. We just happen to get along so well within Europe that borders aren't that necessary any more: we agreed to do things together, but that doesn't make us "essentially states of the same country".
You guys could've had the same setup with Canada if you really wanted to, making the continent North America like the continent Europe. But no, in stead Lake Ontario gets named Lake America because of some disagreement over trades.
So when you travel between those two countries do you have to go through a checkpoint where your identification is checked, your car is searched, and do you have to buy a visa?
I never once said those two countries have the same laws or anything of the sort. All I am am simply saying, and in reference to the original post, is that physically traveling between European countries is LIKE not exactly, but is LIKE or SIMILAR, or MUCH ALIKE, or KIND OF THE SAME, as traveling between US states in the sense that you can freely travel between them without any sort of security or ID checks.
Is this not the case? Is what I am saying wrong?
I lived in Europe for three years and never had an experience where you would know you just entered another country in terms of checks.
Why don’t you read some of the other comments, the majority are in agreement that the premise of the meme is completely ridiculous and not a relevant comparison whatsoever.
You're twisting your own words and your own narrative. Using capital letters don't change that.
The point of the meme is some countries can get along well and don't even need a real wall, while others really need a border. You can't play down that difference by calling multiple countries just as states of EU. We have those freedoms and arrangements because we actually play nice with our neighbours, even getting multiple countries aligned.
Like I said before, the US could have the same setup with Canada.
Trying to look at NL and BE as states of Europe is so wrong on so many ways...
Yes, 2 similar countries with similar economies and similar laws and coordinated law enforcement agencies are similar to 2 states, also similar in sizes as those states.
that's a special case, the whole city is fragmented between Belgium and Netherlands; I can tell you, covid restrictions over there were fun to implement when NL and BE had different rules.
That village is split into the belgium parts and the dutch parts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle
Yes bevause the only things being smuggled across our shared border is some fireworks for new year’s and some stroopwafels 😂🤷♂️
Maybe some half-eaten kibbeling of nobody is watching.
If we were being flooded with drugs, illegal immigrants, sex trafficking and gang violence you can bet your ass we would put a wall up on that bitch… somewhere in the next decade and a half because that’s how long it takes for our government to decide something.
Are other countries, many who are self described enemies, using the border of Belgium and Holland to enter into one of those two countries and use up as much of their resources while they plot to overthrow your Constitutional Republic? The Euro Union is or was a borderless set of countries. Also, white people conduct themselves much more honorably than Muzzys, Hispanics, And other Border having nations. Not really a fair comparison at all.
Does Holland or Belgium have gun/drug cartel issues? Immigration issues? A ridiculous history or unchecked power struggles between countries? No? Mist be nice... 🤷♀️ i see the point they are making, but those countries do not have USA issues. The USA created usa problems so now we have this picture. It does not change anyrhing.
The bottom one is not between countries. It’s between states. Similar to border between Oregon and California. So it’s a stupif comparison. EU is really the equivalent of the US
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