On social media, the upcoming generation is expressing more European solidarity than the continent has seen in decades.
A futuristic EU soldier stands guard, laser blaster at the ready. European fighter jets zoom through the sky over thumping Eurodance beats. An imaginary map shows a vastly enlarged EU, swallowing everything from Greenland to the Caucasus.
Welcome to the wild world of pro-Europe online propaganda, where the EU isn’t a fractious club of 27 countries but a juiced-up superpower on par with China or the United States, only wiser and more cultured.
This type of content, which re-imagines the EU as a pan-European empire, a European Federation or the United States of Europe — take your pick — has flooded social media platforms over the past two years, garnering billions of views collectively on X, TikTok and Instagram as the EU has reeled from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a U.S.-EU trade deal decried as “humiliation” for Brussels in many parts of Europe.
Realistically, we have the technology to have universal translators on the shelves by next Christmas.
Old joke.
The Mafia gets ripped off by a professional thief. When they catch him they realize he only speaks French. They find a French speaking hooker and tell her to translate.
The thief says “You got me. The diamonds are in the hotel safe under the name ‘Charles DeGaulle’ You can have the jewels and my family will pay them a $5million ransom if they let me go.”
The hooker tells the Mafia, “He says you’re bunch of monkeys and he’ll never say where the diamonds are.”