And yet the illegal alcohol market boomed and it gave massive rise to organized crime and government corruption to allow it. It doesn’t “work” in any practical sense, it just concentrates the problem and makes it even harder to control.

They probably think the US prohibition didn’t work because they just didn’t try hard enough

Definitely not when it comes to the root causes. Trump was created by the past ~100 years of US society and government, he didn’t just pop in out of nowhere. He’s very much a “mask off” type of politician, and the rot runs far, far deeper than what he reveals.

https://www.startpage.com/ is based in the Netherlands, works really well too in my opinion. I’ve been using it ever since I started actively avoiding Google.

Edit: One caveat is that it’s majorly owned by an American parent company.