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birchbarkcanoe  ·  1843 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Brexit and Charles de Gaulle’s Last Laugh

    Europe has always been "over there" to the Americans and the "Phoney War" to the UK while to the French it's the Maginot Line

Yes! America has always had the bizarre privilege of being super far away.

    you step outside of the funhouse for one minute and empires look like empires

So much this. Honestly one of my biggest realizations / takeaways while living abroad. I didn't realize how "American" my perspective was before I started reading more international news, and it has startled me a bit. What I'm seeing here re: Brexit is a reaction that I didn't really anticipate, it's more of a "Yeah they're shooting themselves in the foot but that's their problem" kind of attitude, accompanied by a question of concern for non-British EU citizens who have created a life for themselves in the UK and suddenly have a major citizenship question on the horizon. Of course there is interest in exactly what's going down, but the way it's being presented (and discussed between humans) isn't what I anticipated.