Impressions from recent visit to Brussels and the ways in which the city is and is not changing in the 2020’s 🧵
This is not a complaining thread, more just to describe Brussels as it is today and the extent to which Brussels is or is not changing. ‘TLDR’ - Brussels is possibly the worst capital in Europe in terms of demographic change, migration has run wild and the city has transformed
Had not been to Brussels for maybe a decade and had fuzzy memories of it being… ‘bougie’ if dull, visiting recently - rare I am genuinely shocked by the pace of change nowadays but I was pretty shocked. It’s more Yookay than the Yookay if that is even possible. Has changed a lot
Molenbeek is one of the most infamous municipalities in Europe - right at the edge of the Belgian and European Union capital and known both for its very large migrant community and for producing a large number of Jihadis. I went on a tour 🧵
Molenbeek is the largest migrant enclave in Brussels and one of maybe most known on the European continent given its location in the EU capital. Infamously it has been the home of many Islamists; eg the 2004 Madrid Bombers, Paris 2015 terrorists and Brussels 2017 Station Bomber
Just to note, Brussels today is probably the most ‘diverse’ capital in Europe - even more so than London or Paris. It really is transformed now so when you do go to the most ‘diverse’ neighbourhood of already the most ‘diverse’ city the jump is not as sudden as you might expect
Impressions from recent visit to Copenhagen and the ways in which the city is and is not changing in the 2020’s 🧵
This is not a complaining thread, more just to describe Copenhagen as it is today and the extent to which Copenhagen is or is not changing. ‘TLDR’ - Copenhagen’s reputation as about as Basically Fine as you can get is well-deserved but it is too soon to say it is out of the woods
To get straight to the point, Copenhagen is a very nice city. There are certain parts of the city that in the summer sun look so nice that it can actually be annoying - in the sense of “why don’t we have this elsewhere?” A high human capital city too, hard to beat on that front
Impressions from recent visit to Stockholm and the ways in which the city is and is not changing in the 2020’s 🧵
This is not a complaining thread, more just to describe Stockholm as it is today and the extent to which Stockholm is or is not changing. ‘TLDR’ - Stockholm is a modern, pleasant, high human capital city which to a large extent lets it shrug off its large recent migrant influxes
For a city that spends nine long months in the dark Nordic winter Stockholm is probably about ‘as good as you can get’. Well-organised, developed. Actually the Nordic capitals are very grand, pleasant if cold. Not sort of slightly grotty like Berlin, Brussels, Eastern Europe etc
The year is 2050. Changing demographics have Latinamerica-fied your politics - like in Latin America western countries are now condemned to neverending lurching between two ideological extremes that then only further radicalise in reaction to each other. Which side do you choose?
America will fulfil its destiny and become the penultimate Latin American country in the Americas, before Canada which will first become a Subcontinental country and then a Latin American country after the Latinos move up into it from America. Trump is the first American Caudillo
This is the politics you get if you de-Basically Fine-ify your society with decades upon decades of Ideology-maxxing