They are, YouTube and Instagram are full of folks trying to pass the actual information, at least from the time being MSNBC and CNN are also putting the good fight, while FoxNews is hardly indistinguishable from state TV of any authoritarian country, hence why the adminstration already pointed out they should be put into their place.

Many folks are rising up, question is how long, and how hard it is going to get, will they push the army into the population, for example.

It's a modern problem in a lot of places, but especially in America that what people see on TV and social media is reality to them - which is heavily distorted. It will have to start reaching their own paychecks in order to have an impact. There are rumors that the administration will stop making Social Security payments, let's see how that goes.

Just like the average person doesn't understand income tax (i.e. they think "tax breaks" means they will pay less in taxes even when the tax breaks don't significantly affect their income brackets because they think X% on income exceeding $Y means if you make more than $Y all your income will be taxed at that rate), the average person doesn't understand tariffs (i.e. that it's a kind of tax paid to your own government by the domestic corporation or individual importing the tariffed goods, not something the foreign exporter pays, and that it can compound for goods that need to move multiple times across borders during the manufacturing process) and the average person doesn't understand that "trade deficit" is completely meaningless when it comes to determining who's taking advantage of whom (i.e. it's not about the difference in relative value of the goods exchanged, it's about which side of the exchange uses more currency than goods and services for the exchange; e.g. Hong Kong has a trade deficit to the US because it imports American goods and services but the US imports very little from Hong Kong - but the US has a major trade deficit to Mexico because it imports a lot of goods from Mexico, presumably especially from manufacturing outsourced to Mexico?).

This isn't a uniquely American phenomenon but Republicans have spent decades fermenting "post-factual" propaganda and a culture of deliberate ignorance to an extent that is difficult to compare. In Germany we've only really seen anything of this level during COVID (this was when Germany became the country with the largest QAnon movement outside the US) although of course media like the Springer news publishing outlets have also been pushing deliberate misinformation for half a century - it just didn't really connect to a political movement until relatively recently. Prior to the Ukraine invention and the sanctions on Russia, a lot of this in Europe also seems to have had close ties to Russia - either through direct financial support or through Russian "alternative news" channels like Sputnik and RT.

It's also worth remembering that not all Americans support Trump's policies and most don't support all of them. Most that do express unconditional support don't want to talk about the policies they don't like or outright deny them. I've seen Trump supporters in the same thread argue that there won't be a recession, and that a recession is good and necessary actually - but never with each other, always only attacking their shared outside enemy. It's not really about the politics for them, it's about allegiance and loyalty. But these are not the majority of people who voted for him - they're just the most dedicated ones.

No, across history and geography people are caught doing "unexplainable" things--and I use this word because I don't want to sound offensive--time and again.

Here are a few examples:

- The expulsion of the English from Havana in the 18th century

- The European inquisitions, and while we are at it, some elements of faith in general.

- Hitler's fascism (Hitler was elected)

- Fidel Castro's Cuba

- North Korea

- Italy's demographic problem

- Japan's demographic problem

... and so on. In all cases, you need the cold clarity of hindsight and a lot of detachment to see that people were acting foolishly. But during the time when the events are ensuing, stoked passions and outright manipulation prevent people from acting rationally. It's not like people act irrationally because they want to. It's simply too difficult to accept the right information, since each argument opposed to one's own beliefs is interpreted as a move from the enemy group.

This is the world we live in.

Keep in mind this does not reflect US companies producing cars in the EU. I see as many Teslas in my part of rural Germany as I see any other brand. But Tesla also produces these cars in Europe and so I doubt most of them are imports.

That said, automotive companies have way too much influence on European (and especially German) politics. While the consequences of these companies failing or shrinking would undoubtedly be bad, the upside is that this might reduce their influence too. Not saying one would outweigh the other.

That's because most US-made cars barely fit in many streets and parking spaces around here.

And now look at the tech sector, things might balance out, EU buys software and services USA buys cars and wine.

Unfortunately yes. Our biggest company is Novo Nordisk, a company that sells weightloss drugs to Americans. It narrowly beats out LVMH, a company that sells luxury goods to Americans.

Well, maybe they can be used in the arms industry.

> initiated by the US

While I don't approve, didn't the EU charge the US tariffs that were twice as high as what the US charged the EU?