We’re living in a fascinating summer where Europeans are traveling to the U.S. for the World Cup and are experiencing American life for themselves. Many of them, like a German X user named Freddy, are falling in love with the U.S., especially the South.
This trend is showing us that European media — particularly in the countries that lean the most to the left — have portrayed the U.S. in the worst possible light. It also shows that there’s no substitute for experience to combat those narratives.
Related: The Left Warned World Cup Tourists About the South. Then One German Fell in Love With It.
In Europe, we’ve seen a most egregious example of the opposite side of this: Europeans so marinated in anti-American propaganda that they attack Americans simply for traveling to Europe. This happened in Trondheim, Norway, when the cruise ship Silver Dawn docked.
Tove Elisabeth Rooney writes at the Norwegian conservative site Document:
Approximately 150 protesters met the “MAGA tourists” in Trondheim. There were heated exchanges of words, but from a safe distance, writes Nettavisen. Among the slogans from the crowd were “no fascists in our streets” and “MAGA, go home.”
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) branch in Trondheim and the surrounding area organized the demonstration “A mega big no to MAGA in Trondheim” and encouraged all affiliated unions to participate.
Rooney provided an English translation of her original article.
Some of the American tourists shouted “F*** you!” back to the demonstrators. While that doesn’t do much to dispel the “ugly American” stereotype, it shows that the Americans weren’t just going to sit there and take it. A news outlet captured footage of the exchange.
“It has previously been reported that the cruise is organized by the conservative Hillsdale College, which has close ties to the MAGA movement and President Trump, writes Nettavisen,” Rooney reports. “‘However, this is refuted by a crew member, who states that this is a completely normal cruise, and that guests associated with Hillsdale only make up a small portion of the passengers.’”
Rooney continues:
A senior member of the crew, whom the newspaper Nidaros has spoken to, believes that the Norwegian media coverage of the so-called “MAGA cruise” is based on factual errors. Nettavisen writes: “It’s pathetic. The media has just swallowed the story raw without checking what a newspaper wrote. This is a completely normal cruise with a small group from this college. We have Norwegian and Swedish guests, as well as 20 other nationalities, the man claims.”
A Norwegian news outlet posted the story on Facebook, and commenters reacted with embarrassment at the treatment of guests to Trondheim. “Shameful behavior towards our guests in the city. You don’t behave like that towards others. Shame on you,” wrote one commenter.
“What an advertisement for Trondheim. Let’s hope foreign media don’t catch this,” commented another. Too late — Rooney sent the word out to several American outlets, including PJ Media.
The Norwegian establishment, including longstanding newspapers like Adresseavisen, left-wing groups, and trade unions, has helped set the stage for this kind of treatment of Americans. And Norwegian conservatives are speaking out.
“LO and the extreme left are proud of having showered American tourists with hatred in Trondheim, while Adresseavisen and the Union of Education legitimize the hatred,” writes Bente Haarstad at Document (translation courtesy of Grok). “With Trump and MAGA as a pretext, anything goes in the new Norwegian ‘democracy’ — including calling people ‘cockroaches.’ Political discrimination in public spaces is mainstream in Norway.”
I’m not a soccer fan, but I love how the World Cup has turned into an American charm offensive for unsuspecting European guests. But when I see incidents like this, I wonder if the wall of propaganda is too thick to break through.
The left has spent years telling Europeans that America — especially the South — is backward, dangerous, and hateful. But now that visitors are seeing this country for themselves, many are discovering that the real America looks nothing like the caricature they were sold.
That’s why independent conservative media matters. At PJ Media, we push back against the narratives that legacy outlets, left-wing activists, and their overseas echo chambers want everyone to believe.
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