Isn't USA a country? How is a country-by-country comparison "typical Reddit ignorance"?
I'm gonna use my typical Reddit ignorance to guess you are indeed from the USA.
Many states in the US are as large as countries in Western Europe. Both Texas and Alaska are larger than France in land size.
If the US broke apart, California and Texas would take 2 slots in the top 10 world economies (by GDP) with NY at 11 and Florida behind them beating out Spain. Less known states (in terms of world recognition) beat out many countries too. Illinois beating Switzerland & Pennsylvania running about even. Ohio, Georgia, Washington (the state, not dc) N. Carolina soundly outpacing Belgium, Sweden & Ireland. etc
For size, population and GDP, the combined countries of west Europe (that is fuzzily grouped together for these purposes) is comparable to the collection of states in the US. Thus, should either be compared by similar US State to single European country, or USA to the Western Europe conglomerate of countries.
That is how many Americans see the US. Culture, customs and even beliefs and language* can vary between states in ways one would think they are in a different country. This way of American's seeing the US vs Europe also relates to geography, sure, most Americans can't point European countries on a map and name them, but how many people outside NA can locate & name US states that are not CA, NY, or maybe TX?
* yeah it's pretty much all english, but there are a few distinctly different version of english where some could have trouble understanding each other (as can happen in large countries). Some 13% speaks Spanish. While it's all Spanish, Texas Spanish is not the same as California Spanish; try using your very limited Texas Spanish in Spain if you want funny looks.
Moreover, USA have their supreme leader and (the former) constitution. In Europe, each country has their own parliamentary setup, presidents/ministers, their own legislature, fiscal politics, etc.
Of course someone from USA is of the opinion that Europe is some small homogenous entity, while each us state is unique in its own way, that's not at all surprising.
And to be fair, our Supreme Leader is also getting away with being Supreme Leader by proxy of western European states that keep capitulating to his whims on specific things; our hell is their hell. US states ave their own equivalent of parliamentary setup, presidents/ministers, their own legislature, fiscal politics, etc. In some states women have bodily autonomy, in others they are a miscarriage away from being suspected criminal.
> Of course someone from USA is of the opinion that Europe is some small homogenous entity, while each us state is unique in its own way, that's not at all surprising.
If you are suggesting that is my view, then you completely misread what I wrote.
Americans seeing each state as its own little country neatly grouped together in a geographical region does not equal Americans seeing Europe as a single country. I was pointing out why the individual states can be comparable to individual countries in Europe based on size, population, laws and economies.
The simplest things are incomprehensible to you due to seemingly emotional states of mind, like that comparing the Netherlands to the USA is a nonsensical exercise in performative intelligence.
You were told the USA is a country and the Netherlands is also a country; thus you cannot even realize that violating the two is logically and realistically insane. In sure you’ve seen Idiocracy, right? It’s like that scene where the “cabinet” keeps repeating the phrase about “Brawndo being what plants crave” as the protagonist is trying to explain the use of water to grow plants.
I wish you well and hope you can break free of the little boxes you’ve been conditioned to think in by your masters.
But I will use that same perspective to guess that you are from the US of A (a proto-religion, a kind of cult or something yet unclassified but related).
> I wish you well and hope you can break free of the little boxes you’ve been conditioned to think in by your masters.
Hehe, I invite you to spend some time in Europe some time in your life. I believe it will be eye opening.
Your access to booze, cigs and healthcare is very different in NM than it is in MA.
You can also say the same thing about the individual states in Germany.
Think of it this way, the USA in its current corrupted form is far more like the EU that has been effectively conquering the sovereign countries through simply elbowing and corrupting its way into power through its weight. The USA is supposed to be more like the EU was up to about 2010, even though this corrupted and rotten state of the EU was always inevitable, because it was the very objective of the bait and switch operation, that especially the young of Europe have no clue they were conned with to deprive them of their freedom.
You should maybe read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as a starting point and then think about how they outline a structure that is different than what exists today in the USA and especially how it is extremely different from the illegitimate and proto-tyrannical EU.