Despite its decades-long decline into not only irrelevance but cultural suicide, Europe still seems to be suffering from an incurable case of elitist arrogance that holds the United States — you know, that nation that saved all Europe in World War II from both Nazi Germany and some of Europe after World War II from the Soviet Union — as nothing but a childish, foolish and ignorant upstart that is there to pay the bills, provide the security, but otherwise … shut up.

The Americans are so garish and uncultured, the French scoff, ignoring that the Americans are to thank for French culture not being German culture.

Enter Vice President J.D. Vance, who is the first American in my lifetime to do what so many of his predecessors have failed (or refused) to do: put Europe in its place.

During a speech at the 61st Munich Security Conference, Vance dared to suggest that European democracy was being undermined, that European nations should allocate more to their own defense contributions and — worst of all, apparently — that freedom of speech is under assault in a Europe that is too busy losing its very identity under the weight of an entirely voluntary migration onslaught.

And, of course, he’s absolutely right.

But this gets to the heart of the actual problem: Just because we have some shared history and (at times) a shared language, we don’t have a shared set of values.

Sure, the United States and Europe used to share a handful of values, including freedom of speech. But those days are long gone, and the sooner we acknowledge that, the sooner we can build meaningful and advantageous relationships with the few European countries that are even worth dealing with at this stage.

European countries — including the United Kingdom — love to talk about freedom of speech as if it’s a constitutionally protected freedom guaranteed above all other rights. But in reality, it’s not. Unfortunately for European citizens, their freedom of speech is built on nothing other than the Orwellian government’s definition of what constitutes good speech and bad speech.

Where does that leave them? Being arrested for speech that the government deems unlawful.

And no, I’m not just talking about Germany getting back to its roots and arresting people for wrongthink. The same thing is going on in the United Kingdom, the nation that provided the ideological foundation for its cousin across the Atlantic Ocean.

But here’s where one key difference between the United States and the rest of the Western World comes to the forefront. Other countries may talk about freedom of speech when it’s convenient, but the United States is the only nation on the planet that understands what freedom of speech is, understands why it is so important and is willing to protect it as the ultimate unalienable right that doesn’t depend on the whims of some faceless bureaucrat.

The United States is not like Europe, that is true, because the United States is better than Europe.

The sooner our European “friends” realize that, the better.

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