You are right: here in the EU we often refer to ourselves as 'Europeans', thus implicitly excluding people from the non EU part of Europe. That's inacurate (and a bit disrespecful to non-UE Europeans, if you ask me). For that reason I try to always use the expressions 'EU' and 'EU citizen' instead of 'Europe' and 'European'.
Which reminds me that USA != America, also. It would be perfect we should not have to deduce from context when 'American' refers to anyone from the whole continent, from Canada to Chile, or just someone from the US. I guess it would be more practical to use 'US' and 'US citizen', for clarity...
I think the EU is ultimately the best option for europeans.Though I also think that it will always be prone to making super weird or counterproductive decisions by design (steering a ship with 27 different rudders will always be hard).
I guess I have a generally slightly negative opinion of Europe (or more accurately, of the portrayal of Europe I generally see online), having lived there for a little while. I guess it's that I honestly see a lot, lot more of harsh america bashing than criticism of europe. But ultimately, I'm a bit of an outsider to both the US and Europe and it might be that the constant, louder "america bad" makes eu bashing less apparent to me.
I am American and think it sucks. America is also closely aligned with capitalism which is praised far too much. Combine that with any American praise and America is warmly received here. The entire site is based around neoliberal capitalists. Of course it’s going to be slanted pro America in some sense and negatively EU and maybe Europe on the other hand.
what’s your position on the EU? perhaps I notice the negative comments more because I’m very pro-EU, and vv for you?