Ben Atabong

[Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry @pegobry_en]

Hard to imagine a worst case of projection. 99% of Americans don't think about Britain 99% of the time meanwhile entire swathes of the British population have built their identity around misinformed snobbery about the US.

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

Brits are caught up in terrifying night of violence as French music festival descends into stabbings and rapes with multiple women stabbed with syringes https://t.co/0wRWwBPxMo

[SightBringer @_The_Prophet__]

⚡️Europeans are seeing America without the curated anti-American filter, and it is breaking part of their worldview.

A lot of European elites have built their self-image around the idea that America is rich only at the top and socially broken underneath.

They see New York dysfunction, LA homelessness, gun stories, obesity, politics, healthcare horror stories, and assume the median American lives inside a declining empire with worse taste.

Then they land in ordinary suburbs and see something different.

Huge houses.

Wide roads.

Big cars.

Full restaurants.

Mass retail abundance.

Air conditioning everywhere.

Youth sports complexes.

Warehouses full of goods.

Families with space.

Middle managers living in homes that would look elite in much of Europe.

That produces a psychological shock because Europe’s status story depends on believing it traded American excess for civilization, balance, taste, and social protection. Some of that is real. Europe has beauty, density, history, public goods, walkability, and cultural depth America often lacks.

But materially, the American upper-middle and middle-class suburban machine is vastly richer than many Europeans expect.

The deeper mechanism is productive dynamism.

America still builds the frontier: software, AI, chips, cloud, capital markets, defense, space, biotech, platforms, venture, energy, entertainment, logistics, and the companies that define modern life. Europe often regulates, critiques, consumes, and imports the future.

That is why the line “Europe buys the future, America builds it” lands so hard.

Europe is not poor.

Europe is losing the frontier.

That distinction is everything.

[Ed Normann @IanEdNorman]

Seeing the fan culture at this World Cup, bars being drunk dry, fans out about soaking up the cities they’re in and making an impression on the locals makes you realise how utterly shit Qatar 2022 was.

[John LeFevre @JohnLeFevre]

America should host the World Cup every single time.

We've got 40+ stadiums that hold 65,000+ spectators. The rest of the world combined can barely match that.

FIFA ticket sales?
2010 (South Africa): $300 million
2014 (Brazil): $527 million
2018 (Russia): $541 million
2022 (Qatar): $686 million
2026 (Mostly USA): >$3 billion projected

Even adjusted for more teams (48 vs 32) and more group stage matches, these numbers are off the charts, and exclude hospitality, F&B, travel, hotels, etc.

Just ask Freddy.

[@levelsio @levelsio]

They don't

They tell European founders to immediately incorporate in the US or they won't even invest

From then on they become American companies and benefit the American people!

[Aporia @aporia9n]

What keeps London alive is simply the lack of credible alternatives for highly ambitious Europeans / non-US citizens.
- Paris, Madrid and Milan are simply worse value propositions
- The US immigration route is effectively closed (lottery system, >$100k H-1B)
- Singapore/HK are just too far from family/friends and boring
- Dubai used to be the alternative, but recent events reshuffled that

[Mikli @CryptoMikli]

LeBron James reveals the high school game that made him realize he was destined for the NBA

"We played Oak Hill Academy, the No. 1 high school team in the country. They had future NBA players, Division I talent, and a lottery pick named Sagana Job. Before the game, I was nervous as hell. But once I stepped on the court, something came over me. I was out there doing things I didn't even know I was capable of doing"

"The next day, all the newspaper articles were talking about the NBA scouts who came to see Oak Hill. They were there to see Sagana Job and the rest of their stars, but they left talking about LeBron James. When I heard NBA scouts saying my name, I told myself, 'As long as I stay the course, have fun with my friends, and don't do anything silly, I'll be alright.' Where I grew up, things could be good one day and bad the next, so my mindset was simple: don't mess it up"

[Oyiga Micheal @Nsukka_okpa]

No one calls Netherlands “holland” anymore.

Growing up that used to be a thing.

[Daniel Friedman @DanFriedman81]

In 2007, the standards of living in the United States and Western Europe were similar, and most people don’t realize how much things have diverged since the US boomed after the global financial crisis and Europe didn’t.

They don’t fully understand how we’re living and we don’t fully understand how they’re living; even when we visit Europe as tourists, we don’t see their tiny, sad flats and their depressing grocery stores.

That is why Europeans visiting for the World Cup are going to, like, a Waffle House or a Taco Bell and losing their minds. Stuff we don’t even like or care about is wildly superior to everything everywhere else. We have no idea how rich we are.

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

Incredible watching all of the Europeans here for the World Cup realize that America is indeed the greatest country in the world…

The EU bureaucrats sold them a fake image of the US while holding their own nations back.

[Patrick Ruffini @PatrickRuffini]

The gap in living standards between Europe and America is due to policy choices.

A lot of the investment that European World Cup tourists are now marveling at has become possible thanks to trillions in U.S. tech wealth.

That wealth is available to anyone who participates in the stock market, not just tech founders.

And Europe? It doesn’t have major tech companies. It regulates them out of existence.

They have an entire regulatory framework built — GDPR — around the imaginary problem of data privacy.

The results? No stadiums like ours in every city. No 24 hour gas stations with 50 types of food.

[Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 @JasonJournoDC]

💥NEW: CNN’s Fareed Zakaria *DELIVERS BRUTAL TAKEDOWN* of California’s “FAILING MODEL OF GOVERNANCE”💥

“The frustration is real and JUSTIFIED… it is a case study in how a rich society can spend more and more — while producing less and less of what its ordinary citizens need.”

[Chino @ChinoUTD]

🚨 Klopp on the USA’s impressive World Cup opener:

“This USA World Cup opener vs Paraguay is a masterclass in how a properly run country prepares for the biggest stage.

Some love saying the United States don’t take football seriously. But the painful truth is this: even the level of seriousness and professionalism they bring to the game is still higher than what we see from some nations that claim football is their everything.

Yes, they have many immigrants in the squad… but that’s not the main reason they’re a decent side. The real secret is the incredible platform, world-class training facilities, and development system they give these players. That’s the difference.

Look at the result: they came out in the opening game and delivered a scoreline better than the previous three matches combined. Thatt can’t be luck. That’s preparation meeting opportunity. This is exactly why they are so proud to be hosting the World Cup. They are not just showing up to participate… they came to make a statement and put the world on notice.”

[HexClad @hexclad]

HexClad hybrid cookware combines the durability of cast iron, the searing power of stainless steel, and the convenience of nonstick—all in one genius pan that's FREE from forever chemicals.

[Jon Hartley @Jon_Hartley_]

“Texas overtakes California as 'America’s center of gravity,' says Treasury Sec Bessent” via @FoxNews https://t.co/Kc0XTQn3co

[DHH @dhh]

May Europe one day wake up and start striving for this level of capitalistic homerun. Dump the degrowth nonsense, celebrate progress, and once again reach for the stars.

[Bull Theory @BullTheoryio]

A man working as a welder at SpaceX for $28 an hour has just become a millionaire.

Juan Hernandez, who came from Mexico, welded rockets for SpaceX at $28 an hour.

SpaceX gave him $10,000 in stock when he went full time in 2015, and he bought more with every paycheck for 10 years.

$SPCX is now trading at $167, making his shares worth over $1 million.

[Mr. S.T.A.R. @favelaoverlord]

Amazon is a fantastic litmus test because it’s the single clearest example in existence of a capitalist doing an incredible and immense service to humanity and leftists still invent bunk reasons to hate it.