The Grim Fairytale of Europe

I recently encountered a young Austrian woman on an extended visa to the US. She decided it was time to head home as Trump's fascism was just too much. I am used to Europeans' smugness. Despite their air of superiority, I used to find them charming, believing they had a point that their cultured lifestyle with smoky cafés and museums provided a richer life.

For many Americans, including myself, Europe was one big grown-up Disneyland with beautiful castle tours as the amusement rides. It all seemed a bit romantic, even the sanitized dungeons and torture chambers.

Most of us overlooked that real people were put on those racks or chained to walls with their blood long ago scrubbed away. The tour guide may have titillated with stories of executions of the king's enemies, but did we truly give thought that in another era, 'truth to power' could lead to a scaffold? In Jonathan Turley's "The Indispensable Right," he shows that our First Amendment rights blossomed from the European seeds of those who willingly submitted to punishment for unsanctioned speech.

Sipping coffee at an outdoor café in Paris or a beer at a German Biergarten, we forget that, for many of us, our ancestors came from Europe. They did not leave castles, they left slums or pogroms directed at ethnicity, religion, or simple poverty. If only we could have looked into their eyes to see their fear and poverty, hoping for a better life in a far-off land, making their way on ships dubbed floating coffins.

Ellis Island was not a Harry Potter experience where wisdom chose entry. Crude, hurried medical inspections were conducted, and those who failed were sent back home. Those who made it through the pearly gates were shuffled into slums and jobs with working conditions little better than what they left behind. But we, the descendants, visit Europe fancying ourselves to have more in common with the royalty rather than the poor. Perhaps that is why Europeans can be so smug. They see us as the castoffs they wanted to shed, while we pretend we are not.

The same day the woman spoke of Trump fascism, a 2021 video popped up. It was of German police beating lockdown dissidents. As bad as things became in the US, I recall no stories of being beaten to obtain "willing" compliance. While Biden took a playbook from Bush Jr.'s, 'you are either with us or against us,' updating it for hatred against the unvaxxed, we were not thrown into prisons, though Noam Chomsky wished it so.

The caption of the German video said, "Someday we will prevail." Well, that was partly right and mostly wrong. Yes, Covid madness has melted away, but the infrastructure for totalitarianism remains in Europe, and the powers that be are more emboldened, not less. A sinister shadow has engulfed Europe. It is a strange confluence of Marxist and fascist ideology all rolled up into one. It is as if Stalin and Hitler had a child that grew into an omnipotent bureaucratic state to be worshiped and obeyed.

In 1958, the European Union was sold as a way to prevent future intercontinental wars. As its website now proudly states: "What began as purely economic union has evolved into an organization spanning different policy areas – from climate, environment and health to external relations and security, justice and migration." So, what went from a basic trade policy for peace has morphed into a control of almost every aspect of European lives. And did European intercontinental wars really stop because of the EU? Considering the immense devastation of two world wars within a matter of decades, the thirst for physical war was surely quenched.

Since the end of WWII, intellectuals intentionally conflated the fanatic nationalism of Germany, which sought to create an "Übermensch-styled citizenry' with Patriotic nationalism. Patriotism celebrates a nation's citizens' values and achievements.

It is this healthy cohesion that propelled Britain, the US, and the French Resistance to fight the Axis powers. Equating the two has made Patriotism into a dirty word needing to be washed out of the mouths of citizens via the EU. The result? In the 20th-century world wars, Europeans died in a massive, brutal fashion, but they now risk dying a slow, gray death where they just fade away. One horror has been substituted for another.

For centuries, meritocracy reigned in the garden that was Europe. While the weeds of despotic rulers with their reigns of terror were inevitable, Europe bloomed with art, literature, music, architecture, religion, and philosophy. Our Constitution is the result of the best of European thought, not a rejection of it. While I dislike European smugness, I can bow in gratitude for the foundation they laid in the US. Our country is the offspring of Europe, whether they wish to acknowledge paternity or not.

When Vice-President Vance voiced concerns about Free Speech in Europe, it was deemed offensive. Their policies were intended to 'reduce harm', and how dare their noble endeavors be questioned by a ruffian from the US? The EU went from intercontinental physical wars to wars against its people under the guise of noble ambitions. Former enemies are now goose-stepping together to trounce their citizens' speech. Reiner Fuellmich, a California and Germany-licensed attorney, was once celebrated for litigating against Volkswagen for their fraudulent mileage reporting. While calling out unethical practices of Volkswagen was permissible, doing so against the COVID madness in Germany was not.

Fuellmich reportedly sits in a German cell. Not just any cell, but one referred to as 'white torture', where all forms of color, including food, are removed. But Fuellmich is not alone in being persecuted for 'harmful speech.' Persecution of those who wish to challenge the authority of the State is now an accepted way in Europe.

Or perhaps it always was lurking in the background, just waiting to come back into the light. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was targeted as a right-wing extremist for voicing the problems of massive immigration, for which Italy was ill-prepared to absorb.

In France, Marine Le Pen was sentenced to prison on murky terms, while Germany is doing its best to outlaw the ADF as a right-wing extremist party. The most cautionary tale is of Britain, the country to which we owe so much. A retired police officer posted a rather banal tweet in response to what he saw as an antisemitic statement, leading to his arrest. And in 2022, there was the arrest of a woman silently praying near an abortion clinic. While both incidents were later deemed "mistakes," there were no mistakes. Each arrest lays out how far they can go, gaining traction each time.

Perhaps the problem for Europe is that they are now treating their castles and fortresses as Disneyland buildings as well. Or, in the alternative, maybe it is European history repeating itself. European history is rife with stories of marriages and alliances to maintain the ruling class's stronghold. Instead of the old ruling class, today they have an updated ruling class. Scaffolding or torture chambers are no longer necessary. With technology, imprisonment need not be visible.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.