Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

plausible.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 640 posts

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#281

Post by sfn42 »

pjc50 wrote: post #204
graemep wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not agree. The same division is spreading throughout the west, if not the world. From the very woke education system in the US to the electoral success of the AfD in Germany we seem to be following the US. Woke has not spread into Asia, but nationalism and racism were there already.

Trying to parse a comment where someone implies that nationalism and racism are bad but also that ""woke"" (diluted into meaninglessness by over use) is .. also bad?

It's two extremes. As with most things it's a spectrum, too far to either side isn't great. On the one hand you have racists and bigots, on the other you have people insisting that we should be asking everyone their preferred pronouns before addressing them and men who decide that they are now women should be allowed to compete in women's sports leagues, oh and actually gender is just a social construct because some women don't have uteruses or something like that, and so on and so forth.

To me, that's what woke means. Lots of making demands about how people should think/see things, and calling people names like TERF if they dare question the woke "truth".

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#282

Post by dcow »

iammjm wrote: post #118

Europeans were perfectly happy to buy American tech und military exports, thus earning U.S. money and making EU technologically and politically dependent from the U.S. - it really was perfect for the U.S. But the US decided that it was actually a BAD DEAL and they wanted to extort even more money and dependence from EU. So now EU is investing in their own tech and military, thus reducing the amount of money US is get…

The situation laid out in the article doesn’t really indicate in any way that people are just mad at Trump and fleeing to EU alternatives. Yeah that’s obviously part of the acute response in 2025, but everything indicated by the data and the points made in the article seems to say that, whether Trump made people newly aware or motivated aside, people are looking for privacy-focused software products. Mind you, a spirited interpretation of recent EU regulations and law almost requires data to live in the EU.

The US has done a terrible job regulating digital privacy irrespective of which party has held the office of president. The whole world absolutely should be challenging America to do a better job being the custodian of so much sensitive data. Competition in that market is very welcome and does not represent the death of American tech infrastructure. As an American citizen and alternative search user I love to see pressure on the Google and FB scale giants to compete at providing better privacy in their products. And I think that the only way to solve the data privacy issues rampant in our industry is through legal requirement and market pressure.

Finally, please try not to cheaply patronize Americans and Trump’s foreign policy. We can talk about this issue without the political zingers insinuating that Trump and his supporters are a bunch of reckless ye-haw cowboys-idiots.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#283

Post by iammjm »

logicchains wrote: post #250
iammjm wrote: post #118

Europeans were perfectly happy to buy American tech und military exports, thus earning U.S. money and making EU technologically and politically dependent from the U.S. - it really was perfect for the U.S. But the US decided that it was actually a BAD DEAL and they wanted to extort even more money and dependence from EU. So now EU is investing in their own tech and military, thus reducing the amount of money US is get…

> thus earning U.S. money and making EU technologically and politically dependent from the U.S. This came with a responsibility to provide military protection to the US via NATO. Trumps voters don't want America to be an empire, responsible for protecting a bunch of far-away places that don't share their values, that's why they called the movement "America first". Historically speaking being an empire generally turns…

>responsible for protecting a bunch of far-away places that don't share their values

You mean Europe? There's literally not a place in the world (except for Canada and Australia) that shares as many common values with the US as Europe. Unless the very definition of these values suddenly changed for the US with Agent Orange.

As far as "far-away places go", it might take a similar amount of time to get from east to west coast of USA as to fly from one of the US coasts to somewhere in Europe...

Europe has been aligned with US culturally and politically for decades and it helped to promote US interests worldwide and to fight US wars. And when we need you the most for the first time since the 1990 you decided to fuck us. I feel personally betrayed, and I imagine there are many, many more like me. Your decisions will ultimately be bad for us all.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#284

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

tossandthrow wrote: post #215
lupusreal wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has cutting edge domestic military tech in almost all relevant categories but don't build enough of it to matter because until recently their people and governments haven't taken defense seriously. Europe doing so now is good for America because it reduces the risk of Americans once again dying in yet another European war.

Last time Nato's article 5 was invoked it lead to Europeans dying in US wars. We need to go back to WW2 for you comment to have any value. I think Americans can thank themselves and nobody else for their people dying in wars.

>Last time Nato's article 5 was invoked it lead to Europeans dying in US wars.

US service members represented about 68% of the coalition deaths in Afghanistan and about 93% in Iraq:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_casualties_in_Afghan...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#Coa...

The expectation for a European war should be similar. Europe should supply about 80% of the effort, since they're the ones directly affected. Even now, the US has supplied almost half the aid to Ukraine:

https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-s...

So the US pulling out of Europe could be considered a necessary correction to reach parity with the Iraq/Afghanistan situation.

>We need to go back to WW2 for you comment to have any value.

The point of having a strong military is to deter your enemies, not fight them. The US has deterred the USSR/Russia in Europe for 80 years. What did that get us? HN comments about how we've supposedly "extorted" Europe.

It's really striking the amount of anti-Americanism that comes out of Europe relative to other US allies. This has been going on for years and years before Trump. There seems to be something uniquely dysfunctional about the Atlantic relationship, relative to other ally relationships the US has.

>I think Americans can thank themselves and nobody else for their people dying in wars.

Of course Europe's contribution to Iraq and Afghanistan should be acknowledged. Here it is on the State Dept website: https://www.state.gov/dipnote-u-s-department-of-state-offici...

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#285

Post by [deleted] »

dachworker wrote: post #267
iammjm wrote: post #118

Europeans were perfectly happy to buy American tech und military exports, thus earning U.S. money and making EU technologically and politically dependent from the U.S. - it really was perfect for the U.S. But the US decided that it was actually a BAD DEAL and they wanted to extort even more money and dependence from EU. So now EU is investing in their own tech and military, thus reducing the amount of money US is get…

There is a weird attitude among European elites where on the one hand, they point out how European countries have always been in a subservient position within the American sphere of influence, but then, instead of cheering that this era is ending, they seem to be all upset about it and want their collar to be put back on. Help me understand this. To me it seems that maybe the interests of EU elites differ from the in…

[deleted]

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#286

Post by drcongo »

flohofwoe wrote: post #83
pjmlp wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how much it gets consumed, but many places in Germany rather sell Fritz-Kola only.

...I've only ever seen Fritz-Kola as a Berlin phenomenon tbh. There are some other regional brands though (e.g. in the Eastern German parts you're likely to see Vita Cola next to Coca Cola - completely different taste though).

I've seen a lot of Fritz-Kola in the St Pauli area of Hamburg. I prefer it to coke too.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#287

Post by Moomoomoo309 »

graemep wrote: post #252
pjc50 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to parse a comment where someone implies that nationalism and racism are bad but also that ""woke"" (diluted into meaninglessness by over use) is .. also bad?

Yes, exactly my view. I am not signed up to a side and feel no need to follow a particular set of views because they belong to a group I identity with.

I'll bite: What is "woke" to you? The term's history has basically no bearing on what it means now. Preferably a definition, not examples, because often the examples, when you list enough of them, contradict.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#288

Post by navigate8310 »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #259
epolanski wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same Sarah Paine that speaks about how China lifted 1B+ people out of poverty and created tens of millions of millionaires?

Largely after abandoning damaging communist ideas and allowing private business to exist. China is no longer communist, it's this weird hybrid of capitalism with heavy government controls and heavy censorship.

Which is owned by the Government

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#289

Post by watwut »

dachworker wrote: post #267
iammjm wrote: post #118

Europeans were perfectly happy to buy American tech und military exports, thus earning U.S. money and making EU technologically and politically dependent from the U.S. - it really was perfect for the U.S. But the US decided that it was actually a BAD DEAL and they wanted to extort even more money and dependence from EU. So now EU is investing in their own tech and military, thus reducing the amount of money US is get…

There is a weird attitude among European elites where on the one hand, they point out how European countries have always been in a subservient position within the American sphere of influence, but then, instead of cheering that this era is ending, they seem to be all upset about it and want their collar to be put back on. Help me understand this. To me it seems that maybe the interests of EU elites differ from the in…

What is weird about not liking that former powerful ally is becoming a hostile entity actively trying to harm you? They are not cheering, because what is happening is loose loose situation and they dont like the loose part. Also, buying American tech und military exports in the past was not exactly something shameful. The way you write about it, as if trade was "being slave with a humiliating collar" is weird thinking.

> To me it seems that maybe the interests of EU elites differ from the interests of the EU common classes.

Common classes in EU are not benefiting from trade war, they are not benefiting from USA annexation threats and they are not benefiting from Russia expanding.

> The EU elites seem to have considered themselves as basically equivalent to American citizens in all but name, and were quite happy selling out their native countries in return for access to America.

This is nonsensical. You are making stuff up, big time. How is buying American arms a symbol of "considering themselves to be Americans"? I cant recall any call or push to be more America.

Re: Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?

#290

Post by thyristan »

pjc50 wrote: post #208
bratwurst3000 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes but coca cola lost in the western market. they sell mostly in the poorer countries. dont forget its cheap as shit water with sugar. The premium feeling comes because of marketing

No it's still absolutely dominant in the western market - partly because they own a whole load of other brands, and they have absolutely unbeatable distribution. There's a few countries where Pepsi is more dominant. But the only place where a non-Coke/Pepsi soft drink is dominant is Scotland (AG Barr's Irn-Bru and other drinks). I think they even bought out the last other holdout (Peru's Inca-Cola)

Well, if you accept Irn-Bru as a Cola replacement then Germany already isn't a Cola country anymore. The vast majority of sodas consumed is rather of the Cola-Mix kind (there are two very common products named "Spezi" and a ton of smaller brands) and Apfelschorle. CocaCola dominates the Cola market only, the sum of all the other sodas is far greater.
Post reply on HN