Freeloaders And Fantasies
Freeloaders And Fantasies
Why Europe Collapsed While America Course Corrected
Trump as plain-speaking truth teller who communicates complex realities to ordinary people
Europe's self-inflicted irrelevance through destruction of economy, industry, military, and diplomatic influence
The freeloader analogy comparing Europe to an employee who cannot perform, will not learn, but expects full compensation
Statistical reality of Europe consuming sixty percent of world welfare spending while representing twelve percent of population
Trump's warning to Germany about Russian gas dependency and their dismissive laughter followed by the five thousand helmets debacle
Net Zero as industrial suicide illustrated by Britain unable to produce virgin steel
The North Sea hypocrisy of Britain shutting down domestic gas production while importing gas from Norway drilled in the same waters
Green energy paradox where petroleum required to manufacture and maintain wind and solar often exceeds fossil fuels replaced
Net Zero producing net zero growth over twenty years while energy prices climb and industry flees
DEI and Net Zero as potential Russian and Chinese strategy to degrade Western civilization
America's divergence from Europe by never fully implementing destructive energy policies or making electricity unaffordable
Uniparty governance in Europe where both major parties delivered identical policies leaving voters no real choice
Fundamental difference between European conservatism based on tradition versus American conservatism based on values
European inability to defend against cultural attacks on their history versus American pushback through elections
Iraq and Afghanistan as failures of the Western intervention model but survivable errors if strength had been maintained
Rules-based international order exposed as fiction and smokescreen by its own proponents
Path forward through abundant cheap domestic energy production
Tax policy reform to encourage business and entrepreneurship
Welfare reform starting with no benefits for foreign nationals
Cultural renewal and rejection of civilizational self-hatred
Realignment as opportunity rather than crisis with conversation finally started
I’ve been watching the world wake up to something I’ve been saying for years, and frankly, it’s about time. President Trump has done what great communicators do. He’s taken complicated realities and distilled them into plain language that ordinary people understand. That’s his superpower. He speaks to the man and woman who actually pays the bills, raises the kids, and wonders why everything keeps getting more expensive while the people in charge keep telling them everything is fine.
What we’re witnessing isn’t really about Trump at all. What we’re witnessing is the exposure of a fraud that’s been running for decades. Europe has made itself irrelevant. They’ve destroyed their own economies, gutted their industrial capacity, hollowed out their militaries, and squandered whatever diplomatic influence they once had. And now someone has finally said it out loud in a way that can’t be ignored.
Think about it. Europe represents about twelve percent of the world’s population. They generate roughly a quarter of the world’s economic output. And they consume sixty percent of the world’s welfare spending. That’s not a civilization preparing for the future. That’s a civilization in hospice care, arguing about what color to paint the walls.
The Americans, behind closed doors, call Europeans freeloaders. Are they wrong? I don’t think so. When you hire someone to do a job, and they can’t do it, won’t learn how to do it, but still expect the paycheck and the benefits, you fire them. In business, that’s called deadweight. In life, those are the neighbors who contribute nothing but always show up when there’s something to take. Eventually, you stop answering the door. That’s what Europe has become to the United States, and Trump is simply acknowledging reality.
Now, there are exceptions. Poland, for instance. They’re less infected with the woke virus because they live next door to Russia. When your neighbor has a history of rolling tanks across your border, you tend to stay focused on things that actually matter. But overall, the European project is collapsing under the weight of its own delusions.
Remember when Trump warned German leaders that their energy policies were making them dependent on Russian gas? They laughed in his face. Literally laughed at him. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and suddenly Germany’s big contribution to the defense of a free nation was five thousand helmets. Not tanks. Not ammunition. Helmets. That tells you everything you need to know about what decades of fantasy-based policy produces when reality comes knocking.
The whole Net Zero agenda deserves special attention because it perfectly illustrates the self-destructive madness that’s consumed the Western world. Britain can no longer produce virgin steel because of policies designed to save the planet. Meanwhile, they import gas from Norway that comes from the exact same North Sea where Britain has shut down its own production. Let that sink in. They won’t drill for their own gas, but they’ll happily buy gas drilled from the same body of water by someone else. That’s not environmental policy. That’s performance art for people who feel good about themselves while accomplishing absolutely nothing useful.
The obsession with windmills and solar panels follows the same pattern. The amount of petroleum required to manufacture, transport, install, and maintain these green energy systems often exceeds whatever fossil fuels they supposedly replace. The mining operations for rare earth minerals are environmental disasters. The disposal of worn-out solar panels and turbine blades creates toxic waste problems nobody wants to discuss. But we’re told this is saving the planet, so don’t ask questions.
I’ll tell you what Net Zero has actually produced. Net zero growth. Twenty years of this nonsense, and the result is stagnation across Europe while energy prices climb higher and higher. Industry leaves. Jobs disappear. And the people responsible for this catastrophe pat themselves on the back at conferences in Switzerland while ordinary folks wonder how they’re going to heat their homes this winter.
Here’s a thought that might make some people uncomfortable. This whole DEI and Net Zero movement looks an awful lot like a Russian and Chinese operation to degrade Western civilization. Whether it was intentional or just exploited by our adversaries, the result is the same. Europe has been effectively neutralized as a global power. They’ve done to themselves what no enemy army could have accomplished. And the genius of it is that they did it while congratulating themselves for being morally superior.
The Americans, to their credit, never went as far down this road. Yes, the Democrats talked about green energy and climate emergencies. But in practice, America never stopped producing energy. They never made electricity so expensive that manufacturing became impossible. They deindustrialized somewhat, but that was about trade policy with China, not environmental suicide. And when ordinary Americans saw what was happening, they elected Trump. Twice. That’s the difference.
In Europe, the parties that should have pushed back were just as captured by the delusion as the parties they were supposed to oppose. Whether you voted for the red team or the blue team, you got the same policies. Net Zero. Open borders. Welfare expansion. Cultural self-flagellation. The voters had no real choice, so nothing changed.
There’s a deeper issue here that explains why Europe succumbed and America didn’t. European conservatism has traditionally been about preserving tradition. American conservatism is about defending values, often with religious foundations. When the cultural left told Europeans that their past was evil, that their history was nothing but oppression and exploitation, the European right had no response. How do you preserve something you’ve been convinced is wicked?
The Americans faced the same attack, but they had an answer. Family matters. Faith matters. Individual liberty matters. Hard work matters. These aren’t appeals to history. They’re appeals to timeless principles. And when someone on the American left says those principles are outdated or bigoted, a substantial portion of the American public simply disagrees and votes accordingly.
In Britain, when they were told that Winston Churchill was actually a villain, the response was confusion and retreat. In America, when they were told the Founding Fathers were irredeemable, tens of millions of people said no, they weren’t, and elected leaders who agreed with them. That’s why Europe is collapsing and America is repositioning itself for a new era.
Now, none of this means America is without problems. The war in Iraq was a disaster. Afghanistan was handled badly after the initial response to the attacks of September 2001. The idea that we could invade countries and transform them into Western democracies through sheer force was always delusional. People in those regions didn’t want what we were selling, and pretending otherwise cost us dearly in blood and treasure.
But here’s the thing. If the Western alliance had remained strong, even those mistakes would have been survivable. You can make errors when you’re powerful. What you can’t do is make errors while simultaneously weakening yourself. Talking tough means nothing if everyone knows you can’t back it up. That’s the position Europe finds itself in now. Lots of speeches about values and rules-based international order, but no ability to enforce any of it.
The rules-based international order itself has been exposed as a fiction. Mark Carney, who represents everything about the globalist consensus, the belief in post-national institutions, the devotion to climate agreements, the assumption that treaties and declarations matter more than power, even he admitted at Davos that much of this exists only in the imagination. It’s a smokescreen. The decent drapery covering ugly realities has been torn away, and what’s underneath isn’t pretty.
So where does this leave us? The path forward is actually straightforward, even if it requires political will that may or may not exist. First, energy policy has to be rebuilt around abundance and affordability. Produce as much cheap energy as possible, domestically. Stop the insanity of shutting down production while importing from the same sources. Let industry rebuild because industry can’t function without affordable power.
Second, tax policy has to encourage business and entrepreneurship rather than punishing it. Every time someone creates a business and employs people, that’s a contribution to society. Treat it that way. The countries that understand this will prosper. The countries that keep squeezing entrepreneurs to fund ever-expanding welfare states will continue their decline.
Third, welfare itself needs reform. A simple starting point is that foreign nationals don’t receive benefits. If you arrive in a country and your first act is to collect from the public treasury, you’re not an immigrant seeking opportunity. You’re a freeloader. Decent people will always provide emergency medical care because that’s what decent people do. But housing, income support, and the rest of it should be reserved for citizens who’ve contributed to the system.
Finally, and this is the hardest part, there has to be cultural renewal. The self-hatred that’s consumed Western civilization has to end. Our history includes mistakes, like every civilization’s history. But it also includes extraordinary achievements in science, medicine, law, art, and human liberty. A society that can only see its flaws is a society preparing to be replaced by others who have no such doubts about themselves.
The realignment happening now isn’t something to fear. It’s an opportunity. The fantasies are being exposed. The people who built careers on those fantasies are losing credibility. And ordinary citizens are starting to understand that they were lied to by people who benefited from the lies.
It’s going to take time. You don’t undo decades of bad policy and cultural decay overnight. The crazies won’t go quietly. The deadweight will resist being cut loose. But the conversation has finally started in earnest, and that’s the first step toward fixing anything.
Think about it.