Europe Is Tiring of 'Anglocondescension'

Just a few years ago, fatigue from "Anglo-Saxon lecturing" was a hallmark of authoritarian regimes like Vladimir Putin's in Russia or Xi Jinping's in China. Now it's surfacing in mainstream European media -- a sign that, after Brexit and Donald Trump's victory, the English-speaking world is losing intellectual legitimacy.

On Thursday, El Pais, Spain's newspaper of record, published an article in English by its editorial director Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, entitled "Anglocondescension." Dripping with sarcasm, the column tells off English-speaking pundits for their criticism of Madrid's harsh, unyielding treatment of the Catalan secession bid: "They are crying in their editorials and opinion columns about the huge disappointment they feel because we have not been able to buckle in the face of the national-populist blackmail of Carles Puigdemont and company, and because we want to defend our Constitution as they defend theirs (ferociously, in many cases, and if necessary invading other countries to do so)."