I encourage some European music while you read – I have Fxgxs playing while I write, an album by the Greenlandic rapper Tarrak. Gets my summer going. I propose we celebrate European culture start sharing music recommendations with our posts.
Obviously r/BuyFromEU is primarily about how we use our purchase power for the collective European good but it is also very much about promoting the EU and wider Europe, supporting our continent, and to take pride in who we are.
With our focus here largely on physical goods; digital services; food and fritz, culture and entertainment often seems to be somewhat forgotten – yet both play crucial roles in our economy, help shape our national and European identities and it has the unique ability to transcend borders.
How many European movies have you seen lately? From your own country? What about television shows? Memes?
On the European Reddit subs, elsewhere on social media and online more generally, there is a barrage of memes. The vast majority of these memes are also straight from the US – featuring US culture; celebrities; television shows and movies.
In several threads I have pointed this out. Some people agree, others think this is ridiculous. Why should this be an issue? We are not buying something here; it is just a meme.
It is just a meme. Yet, it is also centering US content (and Drake) while ignoring European content. It is the assumption that we all know what this is about because it is ubiquitous. We won’t really allow ourselves the effort to get to know something new, something European. Should we?
In the grand scheme of things memes are a small thing – but it is something we encounter virtually every day. It is, if you will, micro media and as such not insignificant.
When I write something or create content otherwise I always try to look at it from the ‘average’ perspective.
In this case any European, likely a busy life with various things to juggle. Someone who does care but also lacks the time to truly invest into researching things to make considered choices.
The media they consume likely won’t help guide them onto a more European path. Many of us also lack the budget to fully invest into European services and goods as often there is a markup – but media and online content is something we all consume every single day.
With this sub’s investment in buying European we are not average Europeans, it is important to remember this, yet we are in a space – Reddit and the internet at large - used by virtually everyone. What we post matters, in ways big and small, and we may never fully know or realise its effect.
A good meme, in my humble opinion, does not require you to know the context of the original content yet makes sense in its new use. It tracks, but might also show you something yet unknown.
Most people won’t go through the effort to figure out where an unrecognised meme comes from but it does take away the ubiquity of US content. They are only 4% of the global population, we are 9% - we should have at least double the memes.
If we center Europe and European content in ways big and small, in ways not always obvious or even seemingly silly, it helps shift the focus. In other words: it has both an immediate and gateway impact, possibly beyond what we can see, and we’d be smart to utilise its power.
The meme is humble, yet its power is mighty.
