I’ve seen videos of various flash mob versions there, FWIW.
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But why do you hate freedumbs, Veronica! WHY!?! Is there anything LESS free than free school and great healthcare! /s
To be fair, not all Americans… and I’d bet that when you define things for them, most Americans would agree about health care and education, and in fact when asked in polls they seem to support those things. Unfortunately, part of the problem is that there is a minority of voters seeking to dismantle the systems we do have, under the guise of the culture wars, which have animated enough voters into supporting views of a minority of people… I think the problems are much more complicated than that Americans define freedom weirdly, as it’s more about manipulation by the far right.
I do think that’s a common feeling, though, for all of us, who love the ideals our countries supposedly stand for, but hate all the ways in which it often falls short of that. And all modern nation-states fall short of their ideals… Maybe not New Zealand? But probably even New Zealand…
Now I’m gonna spend the next hour looking for the cat and girl comic which references Tom’s of Finland…
I found it!
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For those who don’t know, Stockholm Syndrome was thought up by a police psychiatrist who had failed to end a hostage situation peacefully.
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I get it now. Finns are Canadians!
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Expect we are good at ice hockey.
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[hangs head in shame]
And there’s the opposite trait we share—bragging about hockey. Hey, we just won gold at the World Juniors. 
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Making actual efforts to end homelessness is still efforts to end homelessness, something completely absent where I live, despite homelessness being considered a top issue. (Locally we have more overdose deaths than the entire country of Finland, too, and it’s much worse in other parts of the country.)
In the US, our “left-wing party,” by European standards, ranges between center-right and far-right. The other party is further right than most of the actual fascist parties in Europe. It’s a horror show all the time.
I think you may be wildly underestimating the gap between the two standards. When normal medical care potentially cost the patient tens of thousands of dollars (e.g. $20,000 for routine childbirth, an order of magnitude more with complications), you’ll be closer. When your politicians start saying that it’s quite right that if patients can’t pay those costs, they should just die (and their party literally cheers them), then you’ll be closer. When large parts of the country simply don’t have medical care at all because all the local hospitals and clinics closed, you’ll be closer.
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And if you need to see a specialist on an ongoing basis…holy hell.
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WHAT DID YOU SAY???
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Maybe having a good-looking prime minister makes up for the long winter nights. Oh also too: don’t bankrupt people because they get sick.
My apologies. I should not have generalized like that. I should have said “the loudest Americans”.
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Oh god that GIF is the greatest. 
That tiny little guy droppin’ the gloves. 
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dude
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Closer! I’d say that when you actually listen, they are concerned about the same things that the rest of us are - which is that they are in debt because of healthcare. They just believe what they are being told about the causes of that. Our biggest problem in all of this (getting to where we need to be to have a decent country to live in) goes back to the mass media problem. Reagan did so much shitty stuff, but ending the Fairness Doctrine has had tons of major consequences, including allowing a pathway for the platforming of white supremacists ideology and right wing libertarianism (which at this point have become one and the same) via the mass media.
Well aren’t women, even Prime Ministers, only there to be eye candy! /s
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Future enforcer, once he learns not to go after his teammates.
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Best part is they’re one the same team.
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They deal with their differences better than most countries, but Ardern is now behind in the polls.
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The fact that she lost support for accurately describing a right wing asshole is depressing.
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It keeps going to that direction. Right-wing + center-right cabinet makes things worse. Then the center-left* has cabinet with center-right and few other parties and they do little good as center-right stop them.
*I kinda doubt that Social Democratic Party of Finland is even center-left anymore as they seem to be just a another neoliberal party.
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