Intelligence is not a binary thing. There’s loads of people in academia that are very good at the specific thing they study but are absolute morons about near everything else. Just because someone has a degree in business or whatever that does not mean they know jack shit about geography.
The guy has a law degree. That means he knows how to form complicated sentences that seem absolutely coherent. And sounding coherent is a large part of his basic business as the VP.
I find it unhelpful to claim he’s “dumb” when in fact he’s an opportunistic, malevolent, populist weasel.
Not only do I think Vance never meant to call the EU “backwoods” (I still think he used it as a comparison), it also doesn’t matter whether he did. He pretty much has the upper hand:
- The most widely-used social networks in the EU are all based outside the EU, and they’re all adversary.
- EU conservatives and right-wingers are already wondering how to kill EU regulation like GDPR, AI act and DSA. They cut into their ability to propagandize. They could also make money kn rhe side getting them abolished.
Finally, no one in the EU would care about slights like this. We have all seen the first Trump presidency unfold. We expect Trumpists to be pompous nationalist douchebags.
