When I hear the left run down the US in favor of "sophisticated" Europeans, I often chuckle. The left seems to forget how many absolutely insane conspiracy theories are accepted casually in some European nations. (Eg. France made a best seller out of truther nonsense tying 9/11 to Mossad.) Nor do they seem to realize how much casual antisemitism is accept as a matter of course. In truth, much of the political debate in "sophisticated" Europe sounds more like the "redneck militias" the left insults than anything they would accept as permissible debate.

For example, I was watching a silly trailer for an even more silly Finnish movie about Nazis who hid out on the moon (don't ask), when I found these bizarre quotes:

Fat, lazy, Jew-worshiping yanks vs. nazis? I don't think so. The Americans would lose in? a heartbeat.
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They forgat? the part with Rabbis in New Jersey harvesting peoples organs.
How about Goldman Sachs and the Fed Reserve stealing and looting trillions while unemployment and foreclosures rise?
Where's the Jewish movie on that?
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Serbs did indeed fight the nazis in ww2 on behalf of jews. The serbs lost over half their male population at that time.
What did they win?
USA bombs from jew Maddy Albright and Jew Richard Holbrooke killing serbs while the Albanians came in and slit throats, raped women, cutting breasts off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
American shabbas goy, judas goats and treacherous,? evil Satanic jews screwed the world and now the world is comin' back.
Damn jews
realzionistnewsdotcom
jewwatchdotcom

Now, I am not certain these are all from enlightened Europeans, but from the names (freeserb) and the description "Yanks", I have to assume they are.

And it should not be surprising. For some reason the left accepts near racist nationalism from Europeans they would abhor in an American. They would cringe were we to suggest that we should preserve American culture, but shrug off European laws explicitly designed to preserve a "national character". They would cringe at state run churches here, but think them oh so enlightened in Europe. Over and over they accept from Europeans concepts they would find horribly regressive or even evil if we were to propose them in America.

Then again, perhaps not. As I described before, for all its multicultural posturing, the American left is itself pretty condescending toward minorities, homosexuals, even women ( "Eurocentrism? Racism? Liberal Traits All", "It Is All In How You Say It", "The Racism of the Left", "Utopianism and Disaster", "Mainstreaming hate", "Best of the Web Confirms My Theory"), so perhaps they are of one mind with Europeans, and just won't admit it. In fact, maybe that is why they are so publicly "offended" by racism in America, it is not so much that they detest the racists as they worry about the fact that they feel a little too much kinship with "rednecks" they otherwise despise.

POSTSCRIPT

Before any angry Serbs write, I am far from an anti-Serb polemicist. I have often written that our view of the former Yugoslavia is terribly distorted. For instance, we regularly omit the fact that other ethnic groups engaged in similar attacks, though we only hear of the Serbs. Of course, having inherited the bulk of the former military, the Serbs did have more success in general, but they were hardly the only offenders. Nor do I think Kossovo was handled well, as evidenced by subsequent offenses against both Serbs and Roma.

Then again, Yugoslavia had always been something of a mess, even by Balkan standards. Beset by more brutal nationalism than most regions. Offensive and destructive as nationalism/ethnic separatism is, sometimes I think we might be better off accepting realty and, instead of trying to establish "autonomy" for each tiny ethnic group, which would result in 10,000 tiny nations, each fighting over  handful of marginal cases, it might be better to create a new strong man able to keep the groups from killing each other. Even if the outcome is unfair to most groups, I think the long term benefits of learning to coexist without killing, as well as ending ethnic murder, might more than outweigh the harm. (Normally this would be a terrible idea, but as the events in Kossovo show, even once you break a nation into its constituent ethnic groups, fighting between or within groups can still break up those units even more, with no end in sight, making separate ethnic enclaves impossible to create or maintain. See "The Problems of Group Identity".)

But that is an essay for another time, and with such a thorny problem as intractable nationalism it would take a lot of thought and writing to come up with even a workable answer. And that is far from my topic in this post. So, perhaps it will be a topic at some future time. For now let me just say I have no issue with Serbs, just find this specific Serb's blatant antisemitism disturbing, yet very "European", at least for some parts of European culture.

POSTSCRIPT II

To be fair, the characterization of all rednecks as racist is the left's not mine. There are surely still racist rednecks, as there are racists in many walks of life. On the other hand, I have found almost as much racism among the academic elite, just better concealed and masked by "concern". However, if you take seriously many statements from "multiculturalists", they have a much more condescending attitude toward blacks and other minorities than rednecks. Most redneck racism consists of excessive generalization, seeing all blacks as being like the inner city blacks with which they are familiar, while the racism of the multiculturalists consists of seeing blacks as unable to succeed at all without the help of the all powerful white liberal elite. You tell em which is perpetuating the racist trope of the "white man's burden?"

POSTSCRIPT III

Let me make one more point. As in America, European racism seems confined to a few specific groups. Oddly, the traditional blue collar, "National Front" type racism is waning. Yes, there is a lot of concern over concessions to Islam and separatist Islamic enclaves, but I don't consider that racism, but concern over Islamic separatism, which is something different.

No, as in America, most of the racism seems to be centered among the elite, especially the intellectual, left-leaning elite. Oddly, the groups most concerned with "tolerance" seem the least tolerant. Though, to be fair, the US elitists at least hide their racism, while many European nations (though far from all) have a tradition of casual antisemitism which is disturbing to most Americans when they first discover it. Other forms of racism are usually just as covert as in the US (or maybe a bit less, especially toward former colonies for ex-colonial powers), but antisemitism is strangely open in some nations.

DISCLOSURE

As I have said over and over, I am a Jew, but that is not why I am so offended. Were they bashing blacks or Asians or Pacific islanders I would be just as disturbed. (I do not include religions and sexual preferences, as those are choices -- wait a moment and I will dismiss complaints about that statement below -- I only include Jews as antisemites have made of Jews a race, and so one cannot choose to not be a Jew in their eyes.)

I say that homosexuality and religion are choices because they are. I know some think homosexual orientation is inborn (a position with which I disagree - "Don't Liberals Notice the Contradictions?", "Myths of Homosexuality", "Correlation and Causation Revisted", "A Question About Biological Theories of Sexual Identity", "Update"), but even if it is, just as I choose to act on my heterosexual orientation, they must choose to act. And if you choose to act,t hat choice is subject to valuation and criticism. Similarly, by adopting a religious belief system, you make a choice. Thus that is also subject to evaluation by others. On the other hand, race does not carry with it any choice, nor does it, in itself, impose any behavioral aspects on anyone, and so is not subject to criticism. As I said above, I do include Jews as a race as the antisemites do. They have decided it is not enough to not practice Judaism, once you are born a Jew, you are one forever, making of it a race, which is , again, not a valid subject for criticism. (Strangely, in the eyes of antisemites, if you choose Judaism, you suddenly join the race, as do your descendants. Not quite sure how that works...)