The Scandinavian countries have certainly done a much better job in creating policies that foster more equality amongst their citizens.
Something interesting I’ve experienced while traveling has been coming across many Scandinavians, particularly Danes and seeing how US foreign policy and its culture is subverting these societies.
From the influx of refugees from US led wars to US media propaganda from the likes of Alex Jones to Fox News I’ve heard a lot of complaints from Scandinavians about their society.
Their concerns range from immigration to political corruption, fearing a lack of personal incentive for self care, and too little initiative amongst the population to make big changes. They’ll say “we’re too comfortable.”
The latter actually speaks to your piece about the current outrage being one of inequality.
Another large concern that I can understand is the integration of refugees.
The woman who talked about that concern was a second generation immigrant from the Middle East and is concerned that due to the cultural segregation immigrants aren’t really able to integrate and thus are kept more or less dependent on social welfare.
Meanwhile the Scandinavian countries are experiencing new waves of political conservatism as a backlash against the waves of refugees.
These conservatives often look to American media and parrot anti socialist propaganda from Fox News and in the more extreme cases incredibly elaborate conspiracy theories.
My friends from other countries such as Britain and Italy say the same thing is happening there and link it back to the response to immigration which is linked back to US involvement in the Middle East.
It has been eyeopening to travel and meet citizens from these countries I see as bastions of equality only to hear the same propaganda.
At the end of the day, however, when I ask them about their vacation time, work days, healthcare, and poverty levels all of them have said they wouldn’t want to live anywhere else as they feel they have the best system.
Still processing this perspective as it speaks to the wars we’ve waged and the larger implications of US policy, media, and culture and how it is affecting new waves of nationalism and conservatism across the globe.
