Post #3218364
2026-01-21 20:43 UTC
@hhardy01@mastodon.social Every time I say "Europeans, and the northern European countries in particular, seem to be doing a great job taking care of their citizens, maybe there's something we could learn from them" immediately people bring up racism exactly like this. The complaint comes from left, right, and political center, and instantly.
But we have that problem too! We have hundreds of years of racism and genocide, still mostly unresolved.
I don't understand how so many of my fellow citizens won't even consider the possibility that there might be a better way to do things, and why the argument against looking outwards is always the darkest part of our history.
@janeishly@beige.party
Replies (1)
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@hhardy01@mastodon.social 2026-01-22 16:57
I lived in Sweden for a year in the '90's. I am pretty sure I am not just ignorantly and flippantly rejecting Sweden out of hand. I am certainly not defending Trump and Trumpism as a whataboutism. What I am talking about is the old rotten core of Imperial Sweden before the Great Northern War. Like the statues at the palace in Stockholm. Like in "The Folk Devil" by Ibsen. Like in, "The Man Who Hated Women." I am talking about the Swedish version of "janteloven." @aaron@chirp.zadzmo.org @janeishly@beige.party