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by varjag 6 hours ago
[flagged]
5 comments

It's because there's a big heat wave in certain parts of Europe right now. I'm not American (I'm Finnish), but I have also thought how weird it is that in central/western europe AC is so rare. I has definitely been needed for decades already in places like Germany and France.
The Economist is not an American publication though.
For what i see, these us vs europe thigs have spiked recently, who'll benefit from it?
You don't think it has to do with all the dying from a heatwave going on there?
Most airconditioning is supplied by Asian manufacturers anyway. Not sure what is in it for big USA. Other than a general increase in consumption.
I am from northern part of the US. 30+ years ago there was a 2-week convention in Tulsa OK in June. I volunteered to work there.

I thought I was going to melt, and everyone from the North suffered. Few passed out due to the heat. I asked people from Tulsa "is this heat normal for June". They said "No, it does not get hot until August". I had no idea what to say.

I will never when go south again and will only go in Jan of Feb if I have to go.

So in the South, I would have to live in a freezer in the summer. A/C is required down there.

It takes a few weeks to acclimate, so visiting for two weeks you experienced just the suffering before you would have adjusted. If you moved there it would feel different. Not pleasant, but different.
We have a major continental war raging on for years here with combined casualties of well over a million people. Which you're adamant is none of your business. So no, I don't think so.
*half of the maga trump shits are adamant.

In case you haven't noticed, they are waning fast.

You have a point but the way I see it they can't be an insignificant minority. That this is a proudly pursued official policy has one corollary: there are no perceived electoral consequences to the vice president, senators and representatives for this among their voters.

The ACs for us Europoors is however another matter.

Quick, somebody sent them American brothers and sisters some of those Covid era Chinese bodybag scaremongering videos, dubbing it „EurOpOoRs dying from heatwave“
Big Air Conditioner
It's synthetic even when it doesn't feel so. If an article features a product of any kind, no matter if it's brand-specific or not, and the article isn't a blog post, then it's a pretty safe bet it's a paid advertisement. It's hard not to notice once you start seeing it.

This one is particularly on the nose about Europeans not buying enough air conditioners, though. What with the normative headline phrasing that calls out Europeans specifically (who are infamous for their stubbornness against American consumerism!). I can usually appreciate the subtlety in these articles[0], but this one's about as subtle as a brick to the face.

0: https://paulgraham.com/submarine.html