The head moderator, u/rex-ac, told Bored Panda about the community and its goals. "2westerneurope4u started about a year ago as a place to share ironic ultranationalistic memes. Before someone can participate in our subreddit, we require that the user chooses a 'country flair' and thereby aligns himself to a certain country or region within a country. Once a user chooses a flair, we encourage him to defend his country/region and talk smack about others."

According to the mod, the subreddit is "a place for European fun," even if it can sometimes seem like the opposite to an outside visitor. "Even if our users are 'insulting' each other, they are all in on the fun. We encourage insults to be clever/witty and not too hurtful," they explained.

The head mod was candid that r/2westerneurope4u has had a rough past. They revealed that the subreddit was started up by redditor u/prinsgezinde who "suddenly disappeared from the platform." That was when Reddit decided to close the community down for having no moderator.

"I was a user of the subreddit and missed the fun I was having here, so in November 2022, I requested to become a moderator for this subreddit to get it reopened again. My idea was to make 2westerneurope4u a 'European oasis' inside the American platform that is Reddit. I wanted to have a place where we could be edgy, talk about each other's positives and negatives, and generally have fun. A place where our European norms and values would come first," u/rex-ac shared their vision for the subreddit with Bored Panda.

"I think this 'European oasis' idea is one of the reasons why the sub is so successful. We now have a place within Reddit where all Europeans come together to make fun of each other, but where we will also band together if an outsider makes fun of us," the head mod explained what the dynamics of the group look like. What stands out as well is that r/2westerneurope4u has a sense of community that you'd be hard-pressed to find in many other subreddits.

"We are a community where we have our own inside jokes and VIP users. We also have moderators that unlike in the rest of Reddit are approachable and part of the community. Anyone can hit us up with suggestions or concerns, and we actually care about and answer our users," u/rex-ac pointed out that the moderator team is very actively engaged with what's going on.

"I think there is a sense of belonging here. It's that 'x-factor' that you will only find in a handful of subs on Reddit. That is why we are growing so hard and why I believe that within the next 3 months, we will be the second-largest European subreddit."

Meanwhile, Bored Panda was incredibly interested to get to grips with how the subreddit itself defines what is and isn't a Western European country, keeping in mind that there are many different ways to classify the region.

"We are going by the list of countries that u/prinsgezinde [the original founder] made when he started the sub. The original list included the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Switzerland, and Austria. Over time, we have made some adjustments to add some nations that we feel belong on the list. The list now includes, for example, Gibraltar, Malta, Greenland, and other micronations that weren't in the original list," u/rex-ac explained that the list isn't set in stone.

"We have regular discussions about whether countries should be added to the list or not. Many Czechs, Croats, and Estonians have argued that their countries should be part of the sub, because they share the same Western European values that we all have. As of today, the Czechs and Croats haven't been able to convince the rest of the community to be added to our definition of Western Europe, but we do give them special treatment by giving them their own flairs so they can join in on the fun."

The ‘2 Western Europe 4 U’ community is actually pretty new to the internet. It was founded just under a year ago, and will be celebrating its first birthday on April 9.

Over the past year, the subreddit has drawn in quite a big following. At the time of writing, the online group has just over 100k members, which the sub calls ‘trolls.’ Meanwhile, the members who are currently online are referred to as ‘Fr*nch users.’ (Yes, with the asterisk, joking that being French is something so shameful that the word ought to be censored).

The subreddit describes itself as a place for “ironic ultranationalistic memes about Western European countries.” The moderator team running the whole project points out that, “You will learn more about European culture here than anywhere else on Reddit.”

And they're not wrong about that. Humor helps us remember information far better because it activates our brain's reward system.

“Be proud of your country! Defend it with all your heart and play/fight along with all our battles. Please don’t be a hater though,” they encourage people to have fun on the sub while still remembering that any bickering about whose country is better is all done for show. It’s ironic play-acting for the sake of giggles, so don’t forget that while you’re enjoying the memes.

The r/2westerneurope4u subreddit defines Western Europe in their sidebar as comprising the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the UK, Ireland, Denmark (including Greenland), Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Switzerland, Austria, Flanders, and Wallonia.

However, this isn’t the only way to look at the region. How you define Western Europe will depend on a range of factors, like geography and cultural values. There are slight differences in classification depending on what organization or political body you listen to.

So, for instance, the United Nations classifies Western Europe as being made up of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. This isn’t how other organizations describe the region.

The CIA, for example, classifies the region of Western Europe as comprising Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Andorra, Portugal, and Spain make up the Southwestern European region, according to the CIA.

The multilingual thesaurus EuroVoc, maintained by the Publications Office of the EU, identifies the Western Europe subgroup which includes Andorra, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, The Western European and Others Group, an unofficial Regional Group in the UN, is far more inclusive and identifies these countries as part of the region: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Australia, Canada, Israel, and New Zealand are also members of WEGO while the United States acts as an observer.

The beauty of travel is that you broaden your horizons, expand your knowledge about the world and different cultures, and understand your own identity better as a result. And that’s the entire point—being open to new experiences. If you’re traveling abroad and expect everything to be the exact same as in your hometown, you’re essentially setting yourself up for failure.

Before you start booking your tickets and packing your suitcase, do some background research about the country’s history and culture. If you can, take the time to learn a few basic phrases that you could use to communicate with the locals. It’s easy to make friends when someone sees that you’re putting in the effort to respect their language and customs.