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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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Do American on The Motte feel that the country is generally in favour of breaking from its old European alliances?

I'm assuming you mean military/political alliance here.

I may have grown up in a more rural place (read: red tribe) than most of the others here, but for the most part, except for middle aged men who are really interested in WWII, I don't get the feeling that most Americans think about Europeans that much. When people do think about Europe, I don't think alliance is the first thing that comes to mind. I think both "nice place to have a vacation" and "land filled with effeminate men and hot women" would show up in peoples' minds before "ally".

I should be clear here, I don't sense a ton of animosity towards Europeans. Most of the people I know can trace their ancestry back to Europe. There's some vaguely positive feelings, but I don't think alliance is the association most of the people I grew up with would draw. I would expect a vague desire to be friendly with Europe, all other things equal, but I would expect a modern "Why die for Danzig?" campaign would leave most Americans scratching their head for a reason. Especially post Afghanistan/Iraq where getting involved in foreign places has the connotation of both "expensive" and "will get people angry at us".

I also don't think Americans think about foreign policy nearly as much as you think. Foreign countries are a long way away from most of the people I know. Most Americans never travel to another country and have little reason to pay attention to foreign policy unless they're trying to look smart to impress someone. I also think it's quite likely that if an actual crisis that mattered to the US cropped up, you could must up enough jingoism to get people to want to intervene on Europe's behalf.