i dont think there is any point in going around and arguing with the phrase "european colonialism" and i feel like semantics would just take away from the topic at hand, which is usually exploitation of people of global south, which, indeed, the entire northern hemisphere benefits from.
however, i believe there is place for this discussion on separate posts. grouping entirety of europe in one homogeneous blob is counter-productive. not because i'd like to "feel better" about myself (or as one of my stalkers once spammed me saying i "believe eastern europeans are same as global south"), but because it's simplifying an issue of neocolonialism of the western europe against eastern europe.
we've already seen examples of food apartheids in eastern europe. while the practice of selling lower quality goods to EE has dwindled due to heavy penalties (so now western companies simply rebrand their worse versions of products and ship them as a different thing instead of doing it in secret; or simply not sell them).
but that inequality is not where it stops; WE will keep its ideas, education, vision, and then simply open factories in EE. german man draws the car, polak produces it. swiss man forms a chocolate company, opens a factory in croatia, hires people at less than half the price he would in switzerland, then doesn't even allow locals to buy the chocolate from his factory.
(before i get anyone jumping on me here: yes, the fact that switzerland is rowing through global south countries to even get chocolate is abysmal in the first place.)
and let's not even mention the brain drain; eastern countries will pay for education of their citiziens which then go on to work in the west. EE chronically suffers from lack of doctors, nurses, engineers and every other educated job. well it also suffers from physical jobs, because of emmigration! a man can work in construction both in germany and serbia, and one will pay him higher!
and lets go on! western companies have, due to privatization in the 90es, bought most of EE companies. austrian, italian and french banks and capital dominate balkans and central and eastern europe. these banks will tighten credit lines in times of crisis in the exploited EE countries to protect their homes! media, gas companies, electricity companies... everything's owned by foreign capital.
food costs more in balkans than it does in denmark while the salaries are less than half of the northern europe! apartments cost more on the adriatic coast and are bought by rich westerners while locals need to move out! i'm not even touching up on touristification of the mediterrenean coast in this post.
all of this is an issue and i dont think many people think about it, nor care to think about it. so while i dont see any merit in butting in on posts that dont speak about SE and EE, and i dont think i'll achieve anything in anyone's consciousness by constantly bringing up that europe is not a country but a continent with very large imbalance of power and resources, i guess i just wanted to write a post.
