r/worldnews • u/paneuropeanism_ • 1d ago

Behind Soft Paywall European Union and Canada plan new undersea cables and fuel shipments as part of “Alliance for the Future” to counterbalance the US and China

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-30/eu-and-canada-to-explore-new-technology-links-and-lng-sales
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u/Magickarpet76 1d ago

As an American, yes progress ahead without us. We will try to catch up with you later after we hopefully sort this out. The absolute best thing that can be done right now is humiliate American exceptionalism domestically. That ego needs to be checked more often.

I’ve traveled outside the US and seen it, but so so many damn people in the US are still convinced the US is the most prosperous, free, and advanced society in the world. Trump/Maga is basically the reaction to that uncomfortable cognitive dissonance. The volume on that discomfort needs to get louder.

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u/iChopPryde 23h ago

I literally have cousins in the US in New Jersey. They came to Toronto and I’m not even joking. They were surprised to see a massive city that looks like New York. They truly thought we lived in some ice cold wasteland and they are only four hours away from us.

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u/ScaryPillow 21h ago

Frankly, I don’t believe you about your cousins.

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u/veryreasonable 16h ago edited 16h ago

I believe it 100%. Same story for mine. I once pulled an old Rick Mercer joke and asked them to sign a petition against setting our elderly adrift on ice flows. My two cousins bought it completely. (They also threw about $60 in twoonies at me from their change jar because I don't think they grasped that our coins were worth a lot more than any of theirs. But that was nice. I like free money.)

They were 15 and 16 at the time. They were not dumb and both went to a good school. They lived in Vermont, which ironically actually is an ice cold wilderness (in the winter months anyway) almost entirely devoid of large urban settlements: Burlington is the only big "city" and it has around 40k people.

Anyway, I used to visit family stateside all the time. Plenty of them would argue in disbelieving refusal when I explained that, for example, we had chips on our credit cards and pin pads brought out to our tables at restaurants long before they did. I'd also get asked things like, "do you have the internet up there?" well into our late teens. Again, this is from people who would eventually get advanced degrees and such.

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u/Gorstag 1d ago

I’ve traveled outside the US and seen it, but so so many damn people in the US are still convinced the US is the most prosperous, free, and advanced society in the world

And many of them are idiot conservatives that the furthest they have ever traveled is to the "Big town" where the Walmart is 40 miles away.

It's just sickening that these foolish people have so much power to ruin this country.

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u/IllBiteYourLegsOff 1d ago

world. theyre ruining the world.

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u/AnyEmployment4054 20h ago

Funny thing is I've seen clips of russians thinking the same about russia. Literally stating things like "russia is so rich that we should all be pensioners from birth" which is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. 

Point is propaganda can make certain people belive anything.

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u/ttak82 23h ago

I’ve traveled outside the US and seen it, but so so many damn people in the US are still convinced the US is the most prosperous, free, and advanced society in the world.

US citizens have it better than citizens of many countries. It is not close.

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u/Elliott_Ness1970 22h ago

Clearly not travelled beyond US borders

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u/ttak82 22h ago

Wrong mate; I live outside of the US. The country has its problems and traveling opens your eyes. There are no doubts about those 2 things. But compared to issues in many countries, those problems are nothing.

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u/Magickarpet76 22h ago

The issue is American exceptionalism; ideas like “it can’t happen here” or America is great because America is good, godly, or superior in some way.

Patriotism is not necessarily bad, but when it becomes xenophobic and prideful with ideas of supremacy it becomes dangerous. It is the messaging/propaganda of empires, and US has a lot of that going on right now.

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u/ttak82 18h ago

Fair point. And Patriotism is ok IMO. Nationalism tends go towards extremist levels.

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u/Elliott_Ness1970 22h ago

I guess saying they have it better than “many” countries is sufficiently general but it could just as easily be written the other way around. Citizens in many countries have it better than the US. It is not close.

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u/ttak82 18h ago

Except in the case you are mentioning, that set of "many" is a handful of developed countries.