There's literally nothing funny to laugh about here... No wonder you're depressed ;)
In finding it difficult to figure out what I can do as a European... Staying away from American products and saying that I'm never going to the states seems kinda lackluster... I've considered learning French or German though :D
I honestly snickered at that... To be fair, chances are that she did have some document issue a decade ago which they could hold her on: D
I'm not sure I understand the question. As an European buying from small startups in the US hardly ever occur... I buy from local stores, and would expect Americans to do the same.
When it comes to software, indeed I could potentially choose to buy services from American startups, but the US government has vastly different rules on privacy which results in me preferring to keep it in EU.
And then there's the whole tariff question. The point in tariffs is to minimize import from the countries affected. Which means there will be European companies which lacks sales. Buying more stuff from Europe will (hopefully) cushion that blow.
Which is also why it's buy European and not necessarily boycott USA... Though there's also some movement in that direction.
And finally there's also the part of dependency, many Europeans have found themselves dependant on American products(Microsoft, Google, apple, Facebook etc.) and with the current administration we've realised that we probably need to sever those dependencies asap.
So why do we not buy from small US startups? Because in the current political landscape, it simply doesn't make sense to send money to the USA and make ourselves more dependant and exposed to US surveillance.
That's what I'm thinking... I need a fanfic version of this that I can read!
Not really using either these days, but suspect they might get more prevalent in the future. German seems more likely as it is closer to where I live, but as I understand there's more synergy between French and other european languages. On the other hand English might just remain as the primary International language...