#FromTheLeft - Twitter Hashtag

@AD1968F

6 months ago

🇺🇸 #FromTheLeft | To Europe’s American Scolders: Spare Us the Moral Superiority To America’s loudest critics across Europe — especially those who style themselves as the global conscience of the left — let’s clear something up. The United States is not waiting for your approval, your lectures, or your selectively deployed indignation. And frankly, much of what passes for “critique” sounds less like solidarity and more like evasion. For decades, European progressives have perfected a comfortable routine: denounce American power in theory while depending on it in practice. Condemn U.S. militarism while sheltering under U.S. security guarantees. Decry capitalism with one hand while benefiting from an American-backed global order with the other. It is an easy posture — radical in tone, risk-free in reality. The American left knows this hypocrisy well, because we live with its consequences. When Europe underfunds its own defense, Washington is expected to compensate. When Europe hesitates in the face of authoritarian aggression, American escalation is framed as recklessness rather than necessity. When Europe preaches restraint from the safety of distance, American communities are left to absorb the economic, political, and human costs of maintaining global stability. Moral clarity is always cheaper when someone else carries the burden. Let’s be honest: much of Europe’s criticism of the United States is not rooted in principled internationalism, but in unresolved dependence. The postwar arrangement — U.S. power underwriting European peace — allowed Europe to build generous welfare states while outsourcing hard power. That was a bargain, not a virtue. Yet today, when Americans question that imbalance, we are accused of imperial arrogance. From a leftist perspective, this is not solidarity. It is freeloading dressed up as ethics. European progressives also need to confront their own contradictions. You invoke international law as sacred scripture — until it collides with your economic interests, energy dependencies, or domestic political anxieties. You condemn American police violence while tolerating fortress borders that brutalize migrants. You denounce U.S. racism while ignoring the structural exclusion, colonial amnesia, and rising ethno-nationalism within your own societies. American politics may be loud, ugly, and chaotic — but they are loud because they are contested. Our conflicts are visible because power is fought over in the open. Europe’s calm often reflects consensus among elites, not justice for those left out. Stability is not the same thing as equity, and civility is not the same thing as progress. This is not an argument for American exceptionalism. The American left is deeply critical of our own country — its militarized policing, its corporate capture, its obscene inequality, its history of racial injustice. But critique carries weight only when paired with accountability. We fight our battles because they are ours to fight. What we reject is the idea that Europe gets to outsource responsibility while exporting judgment. If European leftists want a real partnership with progressive Americans, here’s what that requires: invest seriously in collective security, take responsibility for your own borders and energy choices, confront your colonial legacies without euphemism, and stop confusing anti-Americanism with anti-imperialism. One is easy. The other demands sacrifice. America does not need to be liked by Europe to pursue justice at home or restraint abroad. We need allies willing to share risks, not spectators fluent in critique. Cooperation is built on reciprocity, not moral posturing. So argue with us — fiercely, even. But don’t mistake distance for virtue, or dependency for wisdom. A transatlantic left worthy of the name is built on mutual responsibility, not one-sided condemnation. And that starts by dropping the pretense that America’s legitimacy depends on Europe’s approval.

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