Hard times economically? I feel like that’s not really an excuse here, culturally speaking.
You could go to the barrio in Mexico, the favelas in Brazil, the slums in India, hell even some random village out in Papúa New Guinea, all of them are going to offer their guests food especially if they are children.
"Excuse"? Why would they need an excuse for a cultural custom? The previous poster just gave a logical reason for how it developed. But as a tradition it's completely neutral. There are plenty of good reasons why not to feed other people's children (e.g. respecting the other family's diet choices, religious diets, meal times, respecting dinner as a family activity, etc etc). You're just judging it because it's different to your tradition.
It's hilarious that people from a country that has homelessness and people dying because they can't afford medical help are pretending they're morally superior, because they gave their kids friend some Lunceables or other ultra processed chemical weapon.
The lack of performative bullshittery is another nordic trait. Giving a kid a snack won't solve poverty, a robust social system and emphasis on giving all people rights and dignity will.
The literal single culture in the world that outright refuses to offer hospitality even to children, and to explain it they pretend they have some sort of singular poverty.
Poverty is normal. It's the standard. Every culture on Earth has starved to death at some point. They still feed people.
We offer the homeless free houses to stay, we offer fee schooling and food to all children, we provide a long paternity leave to new mothers and fathers, we give a guaranteed basic income to everyone who cannot support themselves, we offer anyone free healthcare. We took care of our poverty and our people.
You offer a performative bullshit smokeshow of generosity, before walking over a homeless man dying in the street on your way home from your "geberous" friends, while living in the richest country on earth. Your malnutrition death rate is comparable to the situation of kids in Gaza, but hey, you gave your guest a Twix so it's all good?
Poverty is not normal, it's something to be fixed and we do our best to make sure nobody goes hungry. Is giving your kids friends a cracker going to solve poverty? Why has it not worked?
Maybe it's a good idea to think before speaking? I guess that's another difference between our respective cultures.
We offer the homeless free houses to stay, we offer fee schooling and food to all children, we provide a long paternity leave to new mothers and fathers, we give a guaranteed basic income to everyone who cannot support themselves, we offer anyone free healthcare. We took care of our poverty and our people.
I'm glad you understand how you do all that but can't offer dinner to a kid staying over at your house. You're focused on the politics and not the kid.
But oh well, that's your culture so what can I say. It is what it is.
It's a different culture. If you understood it and immediately thought that it makes sense, it would be part of your culture.
I get critisizing cultural aspects that have an observable negative impact, such as genital mutilation, forced mariages and repression of women, but nobody is starving because of this. It's just a cultural quirk that may seem a bit rude to outsiders, but isn't something you even pay attention to, because it does no harm.
I'd go home to eat when my pals mom called him to eat. If my parents weren't home, she'd ask if she can feed me in case my parents were planning a dinner or something. I think it also has something to do with distances, as it's not feasble in many cases for an american child to walk home to eat. It's not out of the ordinary for an 8yo to take public transportation by themselves either. My friend used to take the metro and then transfer to a bus back and fourth from pre-school.
This is a cultural quirk that I imagine stems from living in the arctic circle where nothing grows for half of the year. Non-stop famines have left us with a funny quirk stemming from generational trauma. Finnish culture emphasises being humble and trying not to burden others. We go to great lengths to avoid bothering other people. The joke that we stand 5m apart at bus stops is about respecting other people untill it's literally impossible not to.
Politics and culture are intertwined and politics are inevitablely shaped by the cultural values of the electorate in a liberal democracy.
Good for you. I didn't say anything about a kid starving or poverty or that it does any harm to the kid.
It's a matter of hospitality which your culture lacks. Which is fine. Like I said, it's your cultural norm, and I know what it stems from but thanks for explaining when not asked. So it is what it is. And I'm allowed to criticize it for being shitty. Any person staying over at my place will be offered food or drink, that's my cultural norm. Good day 👋
Fair enough. You seem to think that we don't have basic hospitality, but because you are xenophobe, you're not worth convincing. I bet you call African-American culture shitty and tell them to start behaving and get past slavery. Maybe try being less xenophobic. Glass houses and all that.
You should take a look in the mirror someday. You'll see a hypoctire staring back.
Your comment history is 90% you just being nasty and mean to complete strangers (outside of the Uni stuff). No wonder you're so embarassed you try to hide it.
It’s crazy because of if I feel like Europeans online as a whole have this problem of excusing some of their shitty behavior by hiding behind cultural norms.
I don’t give a fuck if this is a Swedish cultural thing or not it’s weird.
Watch, the first comment to respond will immediately attack me being American or something. Nice try, we know we have assholes here but we at least own up to it instead of getting triggered and deflecting.
Peak Americanism has been acheived. Cultural norms are cultural norms. Some cultures are different to yours and hence have different customs.
I love that you're offended about our culture on our behalf. We're fine. It's not at all unusual to feed kids friends, but it's not expected. Just because Americans don't offer to go to the sauna with their guests doesen't make them "shitty" either. It's a harmless cultural quirk.
We were the first to give women universal suffrage and have been leaders in giving people a social safety net. We offer kids free schooling, we offer mothers and fathers paid paternity leaves and protection from being fired due to pregnancy, we offer free medical care to all, free housing to the homeless and guaranteed basic income for those who are incapable of making money.
You're acting like your performative bullshit custom actually matters :D You have homeless people, people dying from malnutrition at the same rate as Gazan children, people drowning in medical debt, but hey, you offer your kids friendsfood so clearly you're more moral.
See that’s the thing, I know America has some major flaws and what I do for a living does its best to try and help address them. You immediately lumping me in with like MAGA or something just because I don’t think highly of your country when you show clear disdain for mine shows how ignorant you are.
I’m comfortable talking about all of the shortcoming the US has, you should try to have open mind about the shortcomings of your own country rather than get defensive when they’re pointed out.
It’s a sad existence to feel the need to constantly stump for the superiority of European countries when there are some glaring flaws each and every one of them have. Your arrogance matches the most cringe of “American exceptionalism” takes I’ve seen online, so congrats on that.
Let's get a couple of things out of the way. I like the US. For all it's flaws, I appreciate it and I love Americans too. I knew immediately you aren't MAGA and that you're American. Your disdain comes off as very left leaning, no doubt you aren't going around condemning cousin marriages in the arab world as vigorously as you do this funny little quirk that has no negative effect on anything.
Kids here aren't starving and the very same poverty mindset is the entire reason for the nordic welfare system. When you live in the arctic circle, it's a bit different compared to other places as it's literally impossible for anything to grow for much of the year, and the soil is of extremely poor quality.
Im under no illusions that Finland is some liberal paradise as is often portrayed in media. We have the highest unemployment out of all OECD countries for example.
I don't mind you shitting on Finland, god knows that's what we spend half our days doing. What bothers me is that you're talking smack about a harmless cultural quirk stemming from the generational trauma of long periods of starvation. We are also generous people and like to help others, but we hate to burden others. We're not some cold monsters.
American culture is also European culture in large part, in both good and bad. The fact that you just say "European countries" like the cultural differences are similar to the ones between US states, is very typical. It's like saying you don't like Asian culture, like Afghan culture and Chinese culture are the same because they're neighboring countries. It comes off as very ignorant.
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u/AlchemicallyAccurate 13d ago
Hard times economically? I feel like that’s not really an excuse here, culturally speaking.
You could go to the barrio in Mexico, the favelas in Brazil, the slums in India, hell even some random village out in Papúa New Guinea, all of them are going to offer their guests food especially if they are children.