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.
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.
The US would just wait for the EU to collapse, because even a single winter without US imports would destroy them.
Yeah… That would never happen. The EU only imports less than 20% of its LNG from the USA. The majority of LNG that used to be imported from Russia is now being imported from Norway.
The UK has been ramping down its oil and gas drilling on purpose, to meet the climate goals. They could ramp it up again. Maybe the EU would suffer higher gas prices for one winter, until the UK ramps up and there are other countries other than the USA or Russia to buy the gas from, it just takes time to get the agreements and infrastructure in place.
The EU would most certainly not crumble even if it completely stopped buying EVERYTHING from the USA.
The USA would just suffer alongside the EU, maybe less than the EU, but both would certainly suffer. If anything, the USA might collapse due to inevitable civil war.
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?
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?
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe consequences are for the best. Time to wake up and wean off being dependent on USA goods and technology.
All Trump has is his fucking tariffs, which are doing as much damage in the USA as the other countries.
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.
The UK could start drilling more oil and gas, that would alleviate some of the pressure.
Also, who would the USA sell all that surplus gas that was destined for Europe? It would hurt the USA too, although not as much of course.
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.
Yeah… That would never happen. The EU only imports less than 20% of its LNG from the USA. The majority of LNG that used to be imported from Russia is now being imported from Norway.
The UK has been ramping down its oil and gas drilling on purpose, to meet the climate goals. They could ramp it up again. Maybe the EU would suffer higher gas prices for one winter, until the UK ramps up and there are other countries other than the USA or Russia to buy the gas from, it just takes time to get the agreements and infrastructure in place.
The EU would most certainly not crumble even if it completely stopped buying EVERYTHING from the USA.
The USA would just suffer alongside the EU, maybe less than the EU, but both would certainly suffer. If anything, the USA might collapse due to inevitable civil war.
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?
No, you’re just expressing your opinion, which you are entitled to.
And I am entitled to disagree with you, while expressing my own opinion.
I guess this is where we agree to disagree.
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?