Someone Blames Finland’s Success On Being ‘All White’ And Colonialist, Gets Shut Down With A History Lesson
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For a while now there has been a meme doing the rounds, extolling the virtues of the Finnish social model and asking: “Why Does Finland Have The Lowest Child Poverty In The World?” While some of the claims might be a little over-the-top (guaranteed jobs for under 25s, really?), and the upholding of Nordic countries as a kind of ‘utopia’ is a well-known political trope for certain people, there is a reason why Finland consistently scores at the very top of life quality indexes. And it’s not the weather!
When the meme appeared over on Tumblr, it ignited a heated but really interesting debate. Some Americans lamented the fact that even a minimum wage seems to be asking too much, and suggested that there is much to learn from countries like Finland, who look after the vulnerable in their society.
Someone else had a different take on things, however, and while the point about Finland being a monoculture holds some weight (some), others lacked historical knowledge and insight.
Enter a Finn, to come and correct a few erroneous points. Because while colonialism and oppression were tools of many European nations back in times past, a dark history that has helped to build much of the prosperity that they enjoy today, Finnish history is quite different.
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Can someone explain to me why is it so okay and acceptable and even encouraged to be racist against white people? No racism is okay. It doesn't matter who is it against. Racism is not cool. Period.
Because according to - mainly Americans - you can't be racist towards white people. They immediately shut down any conversation with that simple statement and ignore the huge amount of racism against white people.
@ Richard Murray Those are also the people that believe in the double standard of getting offended when white people use the "n" word towards a black person but yet still use the "n" word freely towards fellow black people. My mother-in-law (petite white woman) never allowed the use of the word in her presence in the predominantly black school where she taught math. She said it was degrading to the person it was directed to..no matter the color of the skin of the person speaking it.
Even BP is (slowly) waking up! Love it.
Exactly. If your judgement of a person's worth is in any way affected by skin color, ethnicity, religion, or gender, you're a bigot. Simple as that. The specific flavor of bigot is irrelevant.
damn, this comment almost makes me have hopes that common sense might be making a comeback.
It’s not. Being treated as equals feels racist to you.
My man is white and I adore him, he is my white chocolate , racism is stupid in every form.
Over hundred years ago, my family came from Eastern Europe. I am not "white enough" for my mother in law. BTW, I am a pale blonde. I'm so white I'm transparent.
If you want to know about a place that are dicks to white people, look for the albino discrimination in Tanzania.
It's not ok and I call it out whenever I see it.
excellent post, people are trying to put down white people everywhere. Most of all, white males. I notice all the ads in the malls, like in the Gap store, pics of women with black men not white
It might feel racist to you. Nobody ever told our white cheeks we can't play, we're just not the only ones playing anymore. Maybe we should up our game if we're so easily offended when someone else gets the starting spot sometimes.
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Only leftists accept and encourage racism. They think it's the cool, new thing to categorise everyone and to see race everywhere, instead of individuals. The rest of us abhor all racism.
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Of course racism is always and everywhere wrong. What makes racism against white people different is that white people are the ones with power and wealth.
I'm white. I have neither power or wealth. Please shut the hell up.
Oh these US centric views. Newsbreak: There are other countries with other racial/ethnic dynamics.
Did you read the post at all? Clearly not. We need to be conscious of our behaviour towards each other, and not discriminate based on skin colour, ethnicity, religion, etc. I really wish that North America could adopt some of the more citizen-friendly ideals of our European brethren. What we have now is focused on helping out rich people. They don't need any more help.
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I agree with Margaret. Sincerely - B. Obama
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You are not well versed and do not care to educate yourself. Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another and only oppresses minorities. White people were pushing for superiority all the time all the way to faking news that other races are genetically worse. Also white people are not minority (in North America at least). Black and other people of colour not pushing for superiority and oppression, they are fighting for equality! And ignorant priviledged people like you are trying to push back playing colorblind. I am a white straight male but with open mind and curiosity and would love to have no racism. But we are not even close to that
You need to open a dictionary and read the literal definition of racism and not some made up definition that allows non-whites to be as racist as they want to white people.
Correction: You're a self-loathing white straight male. Wake up!
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Your ignorance is quite ridiculous. Be a little embarrassed and delete such a comment. Incredible.
'Finnish him!' lol
Best reply! I didn't see it coming but never have I seen a better opportunity to say "fin(n)ish him"!
...I cracked up when I read that reply!
I like how Americans are always yapping on about racism. Years ago I decided to try out for an american university and had to take a SAT test. Imagine my surprise when next to my name and the date I had to choose my race from white, Latin, African American and mixed. Never before for 12 years of school had a test asked me for my race. As on the topic of Russia's crimes against humanity- let's look at the Holodomor- in the '30s the communists stole Ukraine's grain directly leading to a famine that killed off millions of Ukrainians. Ukrainians who were predominantly white and had a similar culture.
@Oathbreaker so, 1) those questions are for population metrics only and are not actually part of the test, and 2) you're legally not required to fill them out, it won't have any affect on you whatsoever. What it does affect is government funding for wherever you live in the USA. 3) most US Americans think it's stupid too and want it gone.
@Kolvanov: Why do you write "Nazi" in capital letters? It is only short for "national socalist" in german. And I know the name is wrong, cause the Nazis where national but never socalist.
The point of contention that I have gathered from some of my historian friends(several professors), concerns whether the Nazi party was left or right wing. "... not understand why you start now talking about communism.." - because in response to the original ccommenter ( Oathbraker)...in much of US education curriculum, they negate a lot of Communist history. I point out the two main ideologies within academia at that period, that did exert some influence in creating the political atmosphere. "...remember the failure of Nazi-Germany.." - obviously and the ideology being some Aryan philosophy couched in with the veneer of Christianity --promoting racial superiority-- certainly was a mistake.
Only extrem right and left people like fascism. Oh, and the Nazis where an extrem right wing party. I really do not understand why you start now talking about communism that is only one version of extrem left politics. Last but not least, it is important to remember the failure of Nazi-Germany, but the Nazi ideologiy is stupid and not important.
All caps give importance; not to be conflated with not knowing what the contraction (Nazi) means. It's interesting how Progressive Left (in US), seem to be in step with Gentile's fascist philosophy, esp with their conflation of nationalism with fascism. Regarding the socialist charge of Nazis, it's grounded on a logical basis of the defacto government ownership of means of production of companies, not the private owners (superficial mask, with corporatism). The former exercised the substantive actions of ownership. This is compounded by the socialist 'for the common good,...before the individual good.' The private owner, is a tool and property of the state. The price and wage controls in 1936 bought in chaos to the economic environment and hence more government controls, culminating to create defacto socialisation of the economic system. Interesting too, the Intellectual Left at the time in Germany, liked fascism and communism to be used to reshape society.
Don't you hate that you have to fill out a bubble for race for everything? Hell for the longest time you couldn't pick "other" or "more than one race". Real confusing for a hybrid such as myself. "I'm all of these, why can't I pick them all? Why does it even matter?"
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"it's 2019 y'aaaal !" We must use the affirmative action, inclusivity/diversity.(EDIT - Harvard increases the requirements for Asians to get in, but lowers it for blacks in a measure to equalize outcomes).They don't like teaching Communism's toll on humanity because many lecturers are marxist inclined. Only NAZI history permitted, as it aids in self flagellation, ethnomasochism and other pathologies like the racist 'white privilege' rubbish.
As an Estonian, who have been through similar events in our history, can confirm this is true. We just want to live in peace on our land without neighbor-aggro
Estonians are our little sis/bros! Your family history is though a bit rougher and country younger. But so cool, both of our rare languages have survived through the oppressions. To be honest, Finns like that quite a lot, honesty that is, we have oppressed also our minority in the past. Called saamelaiset, the approx. 90 000 Sámi people, reindeer herders, that live across the north of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russian. Just the past decades have we changed our laws and policies to protect them in Finland and built them their own court of justice. Peace out.
Ah yes, those dastardly colonial exploiters, the Finns. Of course, being a small country doesn't guarantee you won't become one *cough* Belgium *cough*, but it's clear racism in Europe has nothing to do with skin colour and everything to do with language, ethnicity, religion, etc. Let's not forget that some of the worst wars in Europe were over wherever you like the Pope or not, if yes which Pope (out of a possible of three at one point) and if not which version of non-pope you prefer... or is imposed on you from above, because, remember, whoevere's running the country at the moment has a right to impose a state religion, so you might go to bed a Catholic, wake up a Lutheran and then your neighbour who is suddenly a Calvinist runs you through with a sword for being the wrong thing.... Also, grudges keep forever. Oh, did your neighbour stole your cow that one time? Well your great-grandchildren and his will fight bitter wars over who did what to whom for hundreds of years...
Guaranteed job for everyone under 25? I am from Finland and I can confirm that this is a false information.
It's most likely a trial thing and not about actual jobs with paychecks, but more about getting people out everyday you know "sysselsättning" (there really isn't a good english word for that, but you understand it right?). We have something similar in Sweden but here it's called "sysselsättning".
Katri, considering that YLE has shows in swedish (Stömsö for example, excellent show by the way), then Noez didn't ask a stupid question. So your attitude is uncalled for.
Di you as a Swedish person understand "mä en osaa puhua ruotsia"? Cause being a Finnish person - it doesnt mean i can speak Swedish and Im assuming you cant speak Finnish ?
Well, it is officially "guaranteed" now but it mostly means those couple month periods of work that you don't get paid for, not real jobs.
Katri: I didn't assume. I asked.
Finland is NOT Scandinavia. It's a nordic country, but finnish isn't a scandinavian language. And I "love" how people that haven't opened a book, think that everyone with similar skin tones are te same. The nordic countries have several differnt minorities like the sami, the romani etc.
For all it matters: Finland is geographically a part of Fennoscandia. And Finland was for 600 years a part of Sweden, not an occupied ditto.
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It’s geographically Scandinavia though.
No. Finland is not geographically a part of the Scandinavian Peninsula.
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usa people and their racism...
I know HAAAAALP USSSS! We are really tired of hearing how "Everything is racist" when it's really not.
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So You Want to Talk About Race https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073P53DVL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_taa_m9LFCbNPTGAA9
Fin. *drops mic*
Puns like that go on Trevor Noah. Nails like this would get hammered by non left. That's what BP leans to. Leftwing Puns suitable for Latenight 'comedy' shows like Colbert, Noah and leftwing ideology, where the feels go before the logic.
Another unfunny Withnail pun in a series of 10 billion.
That's what BP leans to. Leftwing Puns suitable for Latenight 'comedy' shows like Colbert, Noah and leftwing ideology, where the feels go before the logic.
Dip into your own bag of humor and let us feast on ours.
Another GREAT pun. Keep'em coming!
Reminds me th great colonial history of my country! We were first the colony of turks, than the habsburgs, than the russians....
So, you are from the Balkans? Sorry if I can't guess the exact country based on this information :)
He has a Hungarian user name...
Finland is really admirable. You can’t rationalize that. Finland have no benefits that other western countries don’t have. I’m from Sweden and I think that Finland usually make important decisions wisely.
Yeah don't talk shit about my neighbouring nation... Finland is excellent! 😘 Way cooler and better than Norway...
Nothing wrong with Norway. I love both my neighbouring nation. But I admire Finland more.
Och vi älskar Sverige men också Norge, Danmark och vårt favoritland Ísland! // And we love Sweden, but also Norway, Denmark and our favourite country Iceland! // Ja me rakastamme Ruotsia, mutta myös Norjaa, Tanskaa ja suosikkimaatamme Islantia! https://www.boredpanda.com/illustrated-linguistic-tree-languages-minna-sundberg/
The comment about racism not about skin color is so true. I'm Filipino and we have racism here against fellow Filipinos. It's not just about the skin color it's the superiority mentality that people have.
As an American ( of Italian and Texan desent) , I think it's safe to say that Finland figured out what works, and ran with it. Racism is not just about color. Finland understood this. Instead of racking Finland, take a page from their book and make things better. I'm pretty sure they won't mind.
Free studies at university in Finland are probably more important than skin colour?
I think Finland definitely has an advantage that the United States doesn't. It's a smaller country with less land and less people. Doing anything on a small scale is easier than doing anything on a scale that would work for the US.
I found it quite disturbing how many people chose to throw the misfortune of one ethnic, racial or cultural group in the faces of everyone, expecting them to feel guilty about it, while choosing to ignore the historical facts that oppresion, slavery and genocide has been wooven into every country or nation’s past. I know, that what’s close to your heart has the biggest impact on our believes, but choosing to ignore the history and life experiences of every other group of people, doesn’t correct the wrong. It just simply reverses the roles. The one who has been ignored, dismised and neglected at one time are the one who are doing it now. Lets just stop ponting fingers, stating who’s done what and increasing the bitternes about things that are irreversible. Lets start learning the world history and consider what is happening around us nowadays, so we can figure out, what we can make better.
Americans equate racism with systemic oppression and marginalization of PoC because that is what it is here. Yeah, slavery was a worldwide phenomenon for a substantive portion of human history (and still exists today). But America did something new and horrendous by institutionalizing hereditary enslavement defined by skin color. American slavers bred enslaved people like livestock (except they also raped the women in order to impregnate them, which I doubt they did to sheep or pigs). Free PoC had to keep papers proving they were not enslaved, but were still in constant risk of being grabbed and enslaved by people who didn't care. After we fought a war to abolish enslavement, we spent another hundred years fine-tuning laws specific to PoC that assured enslavement in all but name. There are still states in the USA that permit enslavement, provided the enslaved person is a convicted felon. I could go on, but I think I am at my character limit.
Thanks for the history. We could all benifit from learning more and speaking less.
that's why I always laugh at ppl in the US saying "oooooh white privilege" ya, if it's like mine that you can take it back.
You shouldn’t apply the politics of your country to USA. Didn’t you read the article?
Fun Fact: Finland has over 400 different languages. Also, the only time Finland invaded another country was they took a small part of Russia in WWII, only having sided with Germany to try and keep themselves from Russian invasion, but they refused any Nazi ideology and refused to eradicate Finnish Jews and Jewish refugees.
There you go: Finnish government just resigned this morning. They were bound to build up a new social and health care reform, but couldn't make it. Everyone says it's been the worst government ever.
Just a reminder: I wasn't given an option as to 1) where I was born 2) who my parents were and 3) what race I would be. I am a person. That's really all you need to know in order to show me respect and decency.
Isn't saying "you have it good because you're all white" incredibly racist in itself? It's like implying that only whites are capable of building a succesful society, and if there were bigger minority of blacks (or everyone was black to begin with), things would go downhill.
I'm from sister-country and usually when I talk with people (usually from USA) who knows nofting about European history - I don't even bother to talk about my country. All they see is benefits and rassism but they never will understand how much we have fought for our freedom and how not long ago our family's were teared apart because we had too strong enemy. It is so "fun" to research about your family history and all you can read out from their last names is which country ruled them and who's slave they were.. White privilege my ass.
i mean the youth parliament still sounds pretty cool
This is what Anerican " Liberal Arts" colleges produce
Bigotry against humanities faculties is just about as tiring as actual racism.
The observation of empirical data, that you label as 'bigotry' is certainly tiring.
Study up on the rise of Communism
I like the history of Russian invasion, cause most of the time Finns were on the side of Swedes and most of the attacks on Russia were from there. Finland just happened to be in the middle, so their land was taken over by both. And the slavery in Russia - when was it? Very interesting to know. Sorry, I f**** leaving to do my research...
Peter the great tried to eradicate slavery in Russia during the 1700s but it came back. A second attempt was made in 1861, but it still persisted in a reduced form for a few decades. Stalin briefly reintroduced it during the 20th century.
There are shades of grey in slavery. Serfdom transformed into slavery over time in Russia as serfs were traded by their masters without right of objection (whereas in most of Europe, serfs were tied to plots of lands rather than people and could apply to be released from them). But it was not slavery in the sense of iron shackles and auction blocks. Beyond these small details, my knowledge of slavery in Russia becomes shaky.
this was my best guess that many people see no difference between serfdom and slavery. What is your definition of slavery?
I think it is partly coming from a different cultural background. Americans see the world differently than most Europeans do it and vice versa. I am not judging here, it's just a fact. All those things mentioned in the "meme" for a lot of Americans are labeled as "socialism" and there are a lot of people which are afraid of that (with younger people in the US it’s changing slowly). Again, not judging. You have to understand that for Americans the freedom of choice is having a high value, while most European countries went a different path. They chose to give a way some of that freedom and have the state taking care of a few things. In the US that would never (not now) work. Remember Obamacare? It was such a big deal for a lot of Americans. Not because of the health care, but because of the state messing with people's life. It is the same with a lot of other things.
"You have to understand that for Americans the freedom of choice is having a high value, while most European countries went a different path. They chose to give a way some of that freedom and have the state taking care of a few things". Uh, no. No loss of freedom in Europe thanks. It's deluded to think that people in Europe gave up anything when they chose to set up systems to look after people. It isn't freedom to live in poverty and to die without healthcare.
You have been listening far to much on american propaganda. Americans are not free, I've actually worked in third world countries where the inhabitants have had more freedom than the average american...and universal health care to for that matter.
NSFW but Jim Jeffries comedy skit "land of the free" is worth a listen.
What sort of freedoms have European countries given away that Americans have retained? When you talk of European countries which ones are you referring to, my GF for example is from Poland while I'm from England our cultures are starkly different? I'm not arguing just looking for clarity.
Wish people would explain why they are downvoting us. Oh well. I mean, the right to die thing is a big issue. As far as I know, there's no legal mean for it in the UK either? I'd say free healthcare and education (at least until uni) should be considered a basic human right. In my home country, you cannot legally attend school unless you are fully vaccinated. What's it like in the UK?
I recently heard of a politician in the US argue that state-mandated vaccination is un-democratic and takes away the freedom of the people to dissent. *shrugs* I mean... if they want to die from diseases that have been successfully eradicated in allegedly third-world countries, all the more power to them. But I hope they take their passports away because my nearly inexistent immune system is pretty reliant of other people not being dicks.
@Nomadus You also had Sarah Palin calling free health care evil. Maybe this freedom that we have given away in Europe is just about the right to die.
Saying that all of this exists in Europe, because they're all white (or at least the Finnish people) is nothing but dumb. But I can understand why a lot of Americans don't understand where this is coming from, while many Europeans don’t understand why Americans act the way they do. To understand, you have to check on how the countries got there and what lead to it - History. It’s always easy to judge one another, but it’s much harder to understand and accept that countries, and their cultures, and societies are different. Coming from someone who grew up in a country with free health care, free schools, free universities and basic income for unemployed and married to a wife from the US. I lived on both sides of the ocean and again, it’s always easy to judge from the distance.
This guy is not just some American. This is what he says about himself on his website: "I am John Skylar, recipient of a PhD in biomedical sciences from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a professional medical writer, professionally published science fiction author, and a freelance journalist. I got my undergrad at Caltech, where I was taught far too many things about science. I tell recruiters that my training gave me expertise in advanced mathematics, chemistry, and physics, with a special focus on biology. I also happen to have picked up a double major in history, with a focus on Medieval Europe." This guy is an idiot, pure and simple.
Who... who's downvoting a shout out to kindness??
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Marc, are you - an internet stranger, who is not a stranger at all but a human with complex thoughts and feelings - are you trying to use humane understanding through kind and reasoning language to promote like compassion in others, especially in those from different cultures? So that even if we don't agree in the end, we at least have an improved understanding of each other and, dare I add, a *civil* interaction to continue living peacefully? ...You have no place in social media comments sections! Get outta here, ya dying breed! ~_^
Excuse me, what is the Swedish-Finnish timber and paper multinational Stora-Enso doing in the Amazons when you cannot see the ground from the trees in Finland? Are the CEOs brown?
ITT: White people having a good old circlejerk.
Where the heck were these claims pulled out of?? First of all, parental leave for the mother is max. 105 "work days" (mon-sat, holidays excluded) of which 72 are paid leave. This starts 30 days before calculated delivery date. After the mother's leave she can apply for general parental leave, which is 158 work days. These two combined makes 44 weeks. Parental leave for the father is 54 work days. Secondly, we have no job guarantee for anyone! In fact, the number of young unemployed people is increasing and the government's efforts to "help" include forced unpaid internships that are made very easy for employers to abuse. Thirdly, the youth parliament is only for kids on 8th and 9th grade, aka 14-16 year old.
I'm Russian. I must confess Finland has become much better without Russia. We visit this beautiful country regularly and I show my children what a happy country should look like. Their attitude to nature must be adopted all over the world.
There never has been , or will ever be a positive reason for racism, there is a tremendous amount of suffering in the world, that's enough, no need for racism !!!
Racism is stupid. People who think skin color affects worth are stupid and shallow. That being said, Finland isn't America. We have different histories and experiences and people forget that. Educate yourself before you say anything like this. The Finnish deserve a lot of praise for what they've built for themselves after what they've endured. They have a lot to teach the rest of us.
Real reason is that Finns don't have many children, but rather a negative population growth rate. Their programs, especially health care, won't function when there aren't enough workers in another generation or two, unless they up migration significantly.
bravo!!!
bravo
All these things cost money in one way or another. We're already paying for an increasing number of illegal aliens, and large numbers of criminals in our jails and prisons. Where will we get the money for the nice things that kids have in Finland?
butbutbut I heard Finnland does not, statistically, exist...;D
I mean, they practically erased Scotland in the clearances and nobody is claiming "cultural appropriation" when people over sexualize different tartans or wear the Royal Stewart tartan for fun so...
They erased the Highland clans, who were always a minority in Scotland. The whole clan tartan thing was started much later by savvy Scottish cloth makers trying to sell their patterns to English aristocrats. (Of course tartan patterns existed before commercial cloth mills, but specific patterns did not represent specific groups, the most you could tell was that a particular pattern belong to a particular island)
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I like the comment "Finnish Him!!!"
"Finnish him" ... love that!
Preach!
*cough* *cough* What about the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade in which Swedes & Finns took part? Sweden sold tree material and tar from Finland which major powers used to build ships transporting slaves, Sweden had slave colonies in Caribbean Sea and Golden Coast of Africa, Swedish metals were used to build chattels and Finns were working in Swedish colonies. At least once there were even a Finnish governor ruling a Swedish slave colony in Caribbean sea. Finnish factories bought cotton, collected by slaves, from America and certain chocolate factory bought cocoa which for sure were collected by slaves too. And what about the treatment of Saami people who are indigenous people of Finland and Scandinavia? Saami people used to live everywhere on Finland, but they were forced to move north and they were forcibly sterilized in Finland from 1935 to 1970 because of eugenics. Finland also had kind of slavery for poor and homeless people which were dismantled as late as in 1940s.
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So You Want to Talk About Race https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073P53DVL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_taa_m9LFCbNPTGAA9
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I love racism due to the fact that it helps expose the myths from the past about how certain breeds were mistreated.
How is your therapy going, TJ?
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HAHA!
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Savage!
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if you are so cultured and sophisticated, why do you and your bloggers in finland & europe use coarse speech, mostly the F word...this is how low rate white trash talk in the USA...you must be white trash with all the F words you have put up...why not REALLY class up your act and start talking with civilized speech? Huh? Got ya, you arrogant jerk...
1. Might lack the language skills to convey emotion in English which is not their native language. 2. Finns have fought hard and been discriminated, of course this makes some emotional; which will use the "low US trash language". See first point. 3. F-word overseas is not equal to the use in the US. This is obviously bait, but I hate seeing insults towards Finnish people.
An idiot with an posh accent, is still an idiot. Why don't you americans clean up your act and stop writing idiotic things online? Like "Do you have phones in sweden?", "Sweden is really a dangerous place!" (linking to a article about a town in Ukraine), "Those nordic people can stand the snow and cold, because they don't know anything else". That is three out of the thousands of stupid thing americans have written to me online.
Can someone explain to me why is it so okay and acceptable and even encouraged to be racist against white people? No racism is okay. It doesn't matter who is it against. Racism is not cool. Period.
Because according to - mainly Americans - you can't be racist towards white people. They immediately shut down any conversation with that simple statement and ignore the huge amount of racism against white people.
@ Richard Murray Those are also the people that believe in the double standard of getting offended when white people use the "n" word towards a black person but yet still use the "n" word freely towards fellow black people. My mother-in-law (petite white woman) never allowed the use of the word in her presence in the predominantly black school where she taught math. She said it was degrading to the person it was directed to..no matter the color of the skin of the person speaking it.
Even BP is (slowly) waking up! Love it.
Exactly. If your judgement of a person's worth is in any way affected by skin color, ethnicity, religion, or gender, you're a bigot. Simple as that. The specific flavor of bigot is irrelevant.
damn, this comment almost makes me have hopes that common sense might be making a comeback.
It’s not. Being treated as equals feels racist to you.
My man is white and I adore him, he is my white chocolate , racism is stupid in every form.
Over hundred years ago, my family came from Eastern Europe. I am not "white enough" for my mother in law. BTW, I am a pale blonde. I'm so white I'm transparent.
If you want to know about a place that are dicks to white people, look for the albino discrimination in Tanzania.
It's not ok and I call it out whenever I see it.
excellent post, people are trying to put down white people everywhere. Most of all, white males. I notice all the ads in the malls, like in the Gap store, pics of women with black men not white
It might feel racist to you. Nobody ever told our white cheeks we can't play, we're just not the only ones playing anymore. Maybe we should up our game if we're so easily offended when someone else gets the starting spot sometimes.
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Only leftists accept and encourage racism. They think it's the cool, new thing to categorise everyone and to see race everywhere, instead of individuals. The rest of us abhor all racism.
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Of course racism is always and everywhere wrong. What makes racism against white people different is that white people are the ones with power and wealth.
I'm white. I have neither power or wealth. Please shut the hell up.
Oh these US centric views. Newsbreak: There are other countries with other racial/ethnic dynamics.
Did you read the post at all? Clearly not. We need to be conscious of our behaviour towards each other, and not discriminate based on skin colour, ethnicity, religion, etc. I really wish that North America could adopt some of the more citizen-friendly ideals of our European brethren. What we have now is focused on helping out rich people. They don't need any more help.
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I agree with Margaret. Sincerely - B. Obama
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You are not well versed and do not care to educate yourself. Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another and only oppresses minorities. White people were pushing for superiority all the time all the way to faking news that other races are genetically worse. Also white people are not minority (in North America at least). Black and other people of colour not pushing for superiority and oppression, they are fighting for equality! And ignorant priviledged people like you are trying to push back playing colorblind. I am a white straight male but with open mind and curiosity and would love to have no racism. But we are not even close to that
You need to open a dictionary and read the literal definition of racism and not some made up definition that allows non-whites to be as racist as they want to white people.
Correction: You're a self-loathing white straight male. Wake up!
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Your ignorance is quite ridiculous. Be a little embarrassed and delete such a comment. Incredible.
'Finnish him!' lol
Best reply! I didn't see it coming but never have I seen a better opportunity to say "fin(n)ish him"!
...I cracked up when I read that reply!
I like how Americans are always yapping on about racism. Years ago I decided to try out for an american university and had to take a SAT test. Imagine my surprise when next to my name and the date I had to choose my race from white, Latin, African American and mixed. Never before for 12 years of school had a test asked me for my race. As on the topic of Russia's crimes against humanity- let's look at the Holodomor- in the '30s the communists stole Ukraine's grain directly leading to a famine that killed off millions of Ukrainians. Ukrainians who were predominantly white and had a similar culture.
@Oathbreaker so, 1) those questions are for population metrics only and are not actually part of the test, and 2) you're legally not required to fill them out, it won't have any affect on you whatsoever. What it does affect is government funding for wherever you live in the USA. 3) most US Americans think it's stupid too and want it gone.
@Kolvanov: Why do you write "Nazi" in capital letters? It is only short for "national socalist" in german. And I know the name is wrong, cause the Nazis where national but never socalist.
The point of contention that I have gathered from some of my historian friends(several professors), concerns whether the Nazi party was left or right wing. "... not understand why you start now talking about communism.." - because in response to the original ccommenter ( Oathbraker)...in much of US education curriculum, they negate a lot of Communist history. I point out the two main ideologies within academia at that period, that did exert some influence in creating the political atmosphere. "...remember the failure of Nazi-Germany.." - obviously and the ideology being some Aryan philosophy couched in with the veneer of Christianity --promoting racial superiority-- certainly was a mistake.
Only extrem right and left people like fascism. Oh, and the Nazis where an extrem right wing party. I really do not understand why you start now talking about communism that is only one version of extrem left politics. Last but not least, it is important to remember the failure of Nazi-Germany, but the Nazi ideologiy is stupid and not important.
All caps give importance; not to be conflated with not knowing what the contraction (Nazi) means. It's interesting how Progressive Left (in US), seem to be in step with Gentile's fascist philosophy, esp with their conflation of nationalism with fascism. Regarding the socialist charge of Nazis, it's grounded on a logical basis of the defacto government ownership of means of production of companies, not the private owners (superficial mask, with corporatism). The former exercised the substantive actions of ownership. This is compounded by the socialist 'for the common good,...before the individual good.' The private owner, is a tool and property of the state. The price and wage controls in 1936 bought in chaos to the economic environment and hence more government controls, culminating to create defacto socialisation of the economic system. Interesting too, the Intellectual Left at the time in Germany, liked fascism and communism to be used to reshape society.
Don't you hate that you have to fill out a bubble for race for everything? Hell for the longest time you couldn't pick "other" or "more than one race". Real confusing for a hybrid such as myself. "I'm all of these, why can't I pick them all? Why does it even matter?"
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"it's 2019 y'aaaal !" We must use the affirmative action, inclusivity/diversity.(EDIT - Harvard increases the requirements for Asians to get in, but lowers it for blacks in a measure to equalize outcomes).They don't like teaching Communism's toll on humanity because many lecturers are marxist inclined. Only NAZI history permitted, as it aids in self flagellation, ethnomasochism and other pathologies like the racist 'white privilege' rubbish.
As an Estonian, who have been through similar events in our history, can confirm this is true. We just want to live in peace on our land without neighbor-aggro
Estonians are our little sis/bros! Your family history is though a bit rougher and country younger. But so cool, both of our rare languages have survived through the oppressions. To be honest, Finns like that quite a lot, honesty that is, we have oppressed also our minority in the past. Called saamelaiset, the approx. 90 000 Sámi people, reindeer herders, that live across the north of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russian. Just the past decades have we changed our laws and policies to protect them in Finland and built them their own court of justice. Peace out.
Ah yes, those dastardly colonial exploiters, the Finns. Of course, being a small country doesn't guarantee you won't become one *cough* Belgium *cough*, but it's clear racism in Europe has nothing to do with skin colour and everything to do with language, ethnicity, religion, etc. Let's not forget that some of the worst wars in Europe were over wherever you like the Pope or not, if yes which Pope (out of a possible of three at one point) and if not which version of non-pope you prefer... or is imposed on you from above, because, remember, whoevere's running the country at the moment has a right to impose a state religion, so you might go to bed a Catholic, wake up a Lutheran and then your neighbour who is suddenly a Calvinist runs you through with a sword for being the wrong thing.... Also, grudges keep forever. Oh, did your neighbour stole your cow that one time? Well your great-grandchildren and his will fight bitter wars over who did what to whom for hundreds of years...
Guaranteed job for everyone under 25? I am from Finland and I can confirm that this is a false information.
It's most likely a trial thing and not about actual jobs with paychecks, but more about getting people out everyday you know "sysselsättning" (there really isn't a good english word for that, but you understand it right?). We have something similar in Sweden but here it's called "sysselsättning".
Katri, considering that YLE has shows in swedish (Stömsö for example, excellent show by the way), then Noez didn't ask a stupid question. So your attitude is uncalled for.
Di you as a Swedish person understand "mä en osaa puhua ruotsia"? Cause being a Finnish person - it doesnt mean i can speak Swedish and Im assuming you cant speak Finnish ?
Well, it is officially "guaranteed" now but it mostly means those couple month periods of work that you don't get paid for, not real jobs.
Katri: I didn't assume. I asked.
Finland is NOT Scandinavia. It's a nordic country, but finnish isn't a scandinavian language. And I "love" how people that haven't opened a book, think that everyone with similar skin tones are te same. The nordic countries have several differnt minorities like the sami, the romani etc.
For all it matters: Finland is geographically a part of Fennoscandia. And Finland was for 600 years a part of Sweden, not an occupied ditto.
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It’s geographically Scandinavia though.
No. Finland is not geographically a part of the Scandinavian Peninsula.
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usa people and their racism...
I know HAAAAALP USSSS! We are really tired of hearing how "Everything is racist" when it's really not.
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So You Want to Talk About Race https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073P53DVL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_taa_m9LFCbNPTGAA9
Fin. *drops mic*
Puns like that go on Trevor Noah. Nails like this would get hammered by non left. That's what BP leans to. Leftwing Puns suitable for Latenight 'comedy' shows like Colbert, Noah and leftwing ideology, where the feels go before the logic.
Another unfunny Withnail pun in a series of 10 billion.
That's what BP leans to. Leftwing Puns suitable for Latenight 'comedy' shows like Colbert, Noah and leftwing ideology, where the feels go before the logic.
Dip into your own bag of humor and let us feast on ours.
Another GREAT pun. Keep'em coming!
Reminds me th great colonial history of my country! We were first the colony of turks, than the habsburgs, than the russians....
So, you are from the Balkans? Sorry if I can't guess the exact country based on this information :)
He has a Hungarian user name...
Finland is really admirable. You can’t rationalize that. Finland have no benefits that other western countries don’t have. I’m from Sweden and I think that Finland usually make important decisions wisely.
Yeah don't talk shit about my neighbouring nation... Finland is excellent! 😘 Way cooler and better than Norway...
Nothing wrong with Norway. I love both my neighbouring nation. But I admire Finland more.
Och vi älskar Sverige men också Norge, Danmark och vårt favoritland Ísland! // And we love Sweden, but also Norway, Denmark and our favourite country Iceland! // Ja me rakastamme Ruotsia, mutta myös Norjaa, Tanskaa ja suosikkimaatamme Islantia! https://www.boredpanda.com/illustrated-linguistic-tree-languages-minna-sundberg/
The comment about racism not about skin color is so true. I'm Filipino and we have racism here against fellow Filipinos. It's not just about the skin color it's the superiority mentality that people have.
As an American ( of Italian and Texan desent) , I think it's safe to say that Finland figured out what works, and ran with it. Racism is not just about color. Finland understood this. Instead of racking Finland, take a page from their book and make things better. I'm pretty sure they won't mind.
Free studies at university in Finland are probably more important than skin colour?
I think Finland definitely has an advantage that the United States doesn't. It's a smaller country with less land and less people. Doing anything on a small scale is easier than doing anything on a scale that would work for the US.
I found it quite disturbing how many people chose to throw the misfortune of one ethnic, racial or cultural group in the faces of everyone, expecting them to feel guilty about it, while choosing to ignore the historical facts that oppresion, slavery and genocide has been wooven into every country or nation’s past. I know, that what’s close to your heart has the biggest impact on our believes, but choosing to ignore the history and life experiences of every other group of people, doesn’t correct the wrong. It just simply reverses the roles. The one who has been ignored, dismised and neglected at one time are the one who are doing it now. Lets just stop ponting fingers, stating who’s done what and increasing the bitternes about things that are irreversible. Lets start learning the world history and consider what is happening around us nowadays, so we can figure out, what we can make better.
Americans equate racism with systemic oppression and marginalization of PoC because that is what it is here. Yeah, slavery was a worldwide phenomenon for a substantive portion of human history (and still exists today). But America did something new and horrendous by institutionalizing hereditary enslavement defined by skin color. American slavers bred enslaved people like livestock (except they also raped the women in order to impregnate them, which I doubt they did to sheep or pigs). Free PoC had to keep papers proving they were not enslaved, but were still in constant risk of being grabbed and enslaved by people who didn't care. After we fought a war to abolish enslavement, we spent another hundred years fine-tuning laws specific to PoC that assured enslavement in all but name. There are still states in the USA that permit enslavement, provided the enslaved person is a convicted felon. I could go on, but I think I am at my character limit.
Thanks for the history. We could all benifit from learning more and speaking less.
that's why I always laugh at ppl in the US saying "oooooh white privilege" ya, if it's like mine that you can take it back.
You shouldn’t apply the politics of your country to USA. Didn’t you read the article?
Fun Fact: Finland has over 400 different languages. Also, the only time Finland invaded another country was they took a small part of Russia in WWII, only having sided with Germany to try and keep themselves from Russian invasion, but they refused any Nazi ideology and refused to eradicate Finnish Jews and Jewish refugees.
There you go: Finnish government just resigned this morning. They were bound to build up a new social and health care reform, but couldn't make it. Everyone says it's been the worst government ever.
Just a reminder: I wasn't given an option as to 1) where I was born 2) who my parents were and 3) what race I would be. I am a person. That's really all you need to know in order to show me respect and decency.
Isn't saying "you have it good because you're all white" incredibly racist in itself? It's like implying that only whites are capable of building a succesful society, and if there were bigger minority of blacks (or everyone was black to begin with), things would go downhill.
I'm from sister-country and usually when I talk with people (usually from USA) who knows nofting about European history - I don't even bother to talk about my country. All they see is benefits and rassism but they never will understand how much we have fought for our freedom and how not long ago our family's were teared apart because we had too strong enemy. It is so "fun" to research about your family history and all you can read out from their last names is which country ruled them and who's slave they were.. White privilege my ass.
i mean the youth parliament still sounds pretty cool
This is what Anerican " Liberal Arts" colleges produce
Bigotry against humanities faculties is just about as tiring as actual racism.
The observation of empirical data, that you label as 'bigotry' is certainly tiring.
Study up on the rise of Communism
I like the history of Russian invasion, cause most of the time Finns were on the side of Swedes and most of the attacks on Russia were from there. Finland just happened to be in the middle, so their land was taken over by both. And the slavery in Russia - when was it? Very interesting to know. Sorry, I f**** leaving to do my research...
Peter the great tried to eradicate slavery in Russia during the 1700s but it came back. A second attempt was made in 1861, but it still persisted in a reduced form for a few decades. Stalin briefly reintroduced it during the 20th century.
There are shades of grey in slavery. Serfdom transformed into slavery over time in Russia as serfs were traded by their masters without right of objection (whereas in most of Europe, serfs were tied to plots of lands rather than people and could apply to be released from them). But it was not slavery in the sense of iron shackles and auction blocks. Beyond these small details, my knowledge of slavery in Russia becomes shaky.
this was my best guess that many people see no difference between serfdom and slavery. What is your definition of slavery?
I think it is partly coming from a different cultural background. Americans see the world differently than most Europeans do it and vice versa. I am not judging here, it's just a fact. All those things mentioned in the "meme" for a lot of Americans are labeled as "socialism" and there are a lot of people which are afraid of that (with younger people in the US it’s changing slowly). Again, not judging. You have to understand that for Americans the freedom of choice is having a high value, while most European countries went a different path. They chose to give a way some of that freedom and have the state taking care of a few things. In the US that would never (not now) work. Remember Obamacare? It was such a big deal for a lot of Americans. Not because of the health care, but because of the state messing with people's life. It is the same with a lot of other things.
"You have to understand that for Americans the freedom of choice is having a high value, while most European countries went a different path. They chose to give a way some of that freedom and have the state taking care of a few things". Uh, no. No loss of freedom in Europe thanks. It's deluded to think that people in Europe gave up anything when they chose to set up systems to look after people. It isn't freedom to live in poverty and to die without healthcare.
You have been listening far to much on american propaganda. Americans are not free, I've actually worked in third world countries where the inhabitants have had more freedom than the average american...and universal health care to for that matter.
NSFW but Jim Jeffries comedy skit "land of the free" is worth a listen.
What sort of freedoms have European countries given away that Americans have retained? When you talk of European countries which ones are you referring to, my GF for example is from Poland while I'm from England our cultures are starkly different? I'm not arguing just looking for clarity.
Wish people would explain why they are downvoting us. Oh well. I mean, the right to die thing is a big issue. As far as I know, there's no legal mean for it in the UK either? I'd say free healthcare and education (at least until uni) should be considered a basic human right. In my home country, you cannot legally attend school unless you are fully vaccinated. What's it like in the UK?
I recently heard of a politician in the US argue that state-mandated vaccination is un-democratic and takes away the freedom of the people to dissent. *shrugs* I mean... if they want to die from diseases that have been successfully eradicated in allegedly third-world countries, all the more power to them. But I hope they take their passports away because my nearly inexistent immune system is pretty reliant of other people not being dicks.
@Nomadus You also had Sarah Palin calling free health care evil. Maybe this freedom that we have given away in Europe is just about the right to die.
Saying that all of this exists in Europe, because they're all white (or at least the Finnish people) is nothing but dumb. But I can understand why a lot of Americans don't understand where this is coming from, while many Europeans don’t understand why Americans act the way they do. To understand, you have to check on how the countries got there and what lead to it - History. It’s always easy to judge one another, but it’s much harder to understand and accept that countries, and their cultures, and societies are different. Coming from someone who grew up in a country with free health care, free schools, free universities and basic income for unemployed and married to a wife from the US. I lived on both sides of the ocean and again, it’s always easy to judge from the distance.
This guy is not just some American. This is what he says about himself on his website: "I am John Skylar, recipient of a PhD in biomedical sciences from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a professional medical writer, professionally published science fiction author, and a freelance journalist. I got my undergrad at Caltech, where I was taught far too many things about science. I tell recruiters that my training gave me expertise in advanced mathematics, chemistry, and physics, with a special focus on biology. I also happen to have picked up a double major in history, with a focus on Medieval Europe." This guy is an idiot, pure and simple.
Who... who's downvoting a shout out to kindness??
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Marc, are you - an internet stranger, who is not a stranger at all but a human with complex thoughts and feelings - are you trying to use humane understanding through kind and reasoning language to promote like compassion in others, especially in those from different cultures? So that even if we don't agree in the end, we at least have an improved understanding of each other and, dare I add, a *civil* interaction to continue living peacefully? ...You have no place in social media comments sections! Get outta here, ya dying breed! ~_^
Excuse me, what is the Swedish-Finnish timber and paper multinational Stora-Enso doing in the Amazons when you cannot see the ground from the trees in Finland? Are the CEOs brown?
ITT: White people having a good old circlejerk.
Where the heck were these claims pulled out of?? First of all, parental leave for the mother is max. 105 "work days" (mon-sat, holidays excluded) of which 72 are paid leave. This starts 30 days before calculated delivery date. After the mother's leave she can apply for general parental leave, which is 158 work days. These two combined makes 44 weeks. Parental leave for the father is 54 work days. Secondly, we have no job guarantee for anyone! In fact, the number of young unemployed people is increasing and the government's efforts to "help" include forced unpaid internships that are made very easy for employers to abuse. Thirdly, the youth parliament is only for kids on 8th and 9th grade, aka 14-16 year old.
I'm Russian. I must confess Finland has become much better without Russia. We visit this beautiful country regularly and I show my children what a happy country should look like. Their attitude to nature must be adopted all over the world.
There never has been , or will ever be a positive reason for racism, there is a tremendous amount of suffering in the world, that's enough, no need for racism !!!
Racism is stupid. People who think skin color affects worth are stupid and shallow. That being said, Finland isn't America. We have different histories and experiences and people forget that. Educate yourself before you say anything like this. The Finnish deserve a lot of praise for what they've built for themselves after what they've endured. They have a lot to teach the rest of us.
Real reason is that Finns don't have many children, but rather a negative population growth rate. Their programs, especially health care, won't function when there aren't enough workers in another generation or two, unless they up migration significantly.
bravo!!!
bravo
All these things cost money in one way or another. We're already paying for an increasing number of illegal aliens, and large numbers of criminals in our jails and prisons. Where will we get the money for the nice things that kids have in Finland?
butbutbut I heard Finnland does not, statistically, exist...;D
I mean, they practically erased Scotland in the clearances and nobody is claiming "cultural appropriation" when people over sexualize different tartans or wear the Royal Stewart tartan for fun so...
They erased the Highland clans, who were always a minority in Scotland. The whole clan tartan thing was started much later by savvy Scottish cloth makers trying to sell their patterns to English aristocrats. (Of course tartan patterns existed before commercial cloth mills, but specific patterns did not represent specific groups, the most you could tell was that a particular pattern belong to a particular island)
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