American rhetoric in defense of its technology industry comes at a time when Europe’s dependence is already well advanced. No sooner have these overtures been called into question than once new arguments arise to sustain European passivity. Recently, freedom of expression has been exploited by the American political establishment to undermine any plans by a foreign state for digital regulation; in this view, regulating the tech sector is construed as an assault on liberty and democracy itself, whose terms are, of course, to be determined and judged by Washington alone. At this juncture, Europe is unable to escape the rhetorical clutches of a United States determined to preserve its technological as well as geopolitical stranglehold.
~ Baptiste Detombe via American Affairs

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Loneliness has reached such a point that a town in France has built a bench dedicated solely to social interaction; a sign specifies that it is a place designed for people to meet, implying that the rest of the public space is no longer such a place. 62 percent of young French people today say they feel lonely on a regular or chronic basis: such a rate can only be that of a sick society.
~ Baptiste Detombe via American Affairs

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Just as God shaped man in his own image from clay, Europe was to be shaped by the United States according to its will. Immersion in consumer society was not enough; the same logic demanded the penetration not only of households and groceries with American wares but of people’s minds with American ideas and norms.
~ Baptiste Detombe via American Affairs

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