Less than a quarter of schoolboys in the Netherlands have a positive view of homosexuality, almost half the proportion of four years ago, according to a Europe-wide survey. The HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children) poll found that just 22% of boys aged 12 to 16 had a positive view of homosexuality, compared to 40% the last time the survey was carried out in 2021. Gonneke Stevens, professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Utrecht University, said there was a...
Of course the Netherlands needs to fight this, but that doesn’t mean American exceptionalism suddenly stopped. Now that more people realize that it’s not “especially good”, but a different kind of “special” entirely, some don’t want to identify with that anymore - but that’s doesn’t mean it’s gone.
“What’s wrong with you people” to these Dutchmen, sure. But don’t pretend that’s not absolutely DWARFED by the same statement aimed at the country lead by an openly stupid, official pedophile rapist, which has gone back to lynching black people and has the secret police shoot people for protesting.
You WISH you had the “bad” were talking about here, because of how much of an improvement it would be.
I think he’s just saying it only started in the us first. Fifteen years ago us seemed on the precipice of an era of social progress and in fifteen years the same reversal can easily happen in Europe too.
What I’m talking about is that we shouldn’t be pointing fingers and saying “at least I’m not THAT bad” because that’s how we all fail. People that are saying “voting isn’t going to matter” and “america is a lost cause” are just trying to demoralize the ones that are fighting. Protests help. Voting helps. Volunteering helps. Posting on forums helps. Brainstorming ideas in a public way helps. All of these things take small bites out of the problem, and when they add up, they make change.
We should all be trying to make everyone better. We should be sticking together and trying to improve everything for everyone. We should be holding our politicians accountable for capitulating to the US, to Russia, to Israel. We should be pushing back on billionaires, racists, right wingers, religious zealots. We, as a species, are not doing enough to stop climate change.
None of those things are unique to one country, and pointing fingers just divides us.
Good intentions maybe, but from the outside it looks like you jumped on a post about bad things happening elsewhere, that had nothing to do with America, and tried to use it to make yourself feel better about your decidedly worse situation.
Pointing fingers at America with a “look what it gets you” was/is actually a nice damper on right wing sentiment, probably everywhere. It didn’t solve it (evidently), but it’s a prime example, happening in real time.
That finger is deserved. Take that finger, and let it hurt you. Because going for the “see, America isn’t special, it’s just as bad as other places” is how YOU fail.
A lot of the European news I’ve noticed echoes some of the points we were at 10-20 years ago. It’s a lot easier to fight back against at the point you’re at, but it’s also a bit harder to convince people that it is problematic.
When we’re ready to start making our country better again, it’ll be good to have role models. And if we don’t make our country better, I don’t want to drag Europe down with us.
We Americans may be a special kind of stupid, but if you love your country, you should recognize that it can still happen anywhere.
What are you even talking about.
Of course the Netherlands needs to fight this, but that doesn’t mean American exceptionalism suddenly stopped. Now that more people realize that it’s not “especially good”, but a different kind of “special” entirely, some don’t want to identify with that anymore - but that’s doesn’t mean it’s gone.
“What’s wrong with you people” to these Dutchmen, sure. But don’t pretend that’s not absolutely DWARFED by the same statement aimed at the country lead by an openly stupid, official pedophile rapist, which has gone back to lynching black people and has the secret police shoot people for protesting.
You WISH you had the “bad” were talking about here, because of how much of an improvement it would be.
I think he’s just saying it only started in the us first. Fifteen years ago us seemed on the precipice of an era of social progress and in fifteen years the same reversal can easily happen in Europe too.
What I’m talking about is that we shouldn’t be pointing fingers and saying “at least I’m not THAT bad” because that’s how we all fail. People that are saying “voting isn’t going to matter” and “america is a lost cause” are just trying to demoralize the ones that are fighting. Protests help. Voting helps. Volunteering helps. Posting on forums helps. Brainstorming ideas in a public way helps. All of these things take small bites out of the problem, and when they add up, they make change.
We should all be trying to make everyone better. We should be sticking together and trying to improve everything for everyone. We should be holding our politicians accountable for capitulating to the US, to Russia, to Israel. We should be pushing back on billionaires, racists, right wingers, religious zealots. We, as a species, are not doing enough to stop climate change.
None of those things are unique to one country, and pointing fingers just divides us.
Good intentions maybe, but from the outside it looks like you jumped on a post about bad things happening elsewhere, that had nothing to do with America, and tried to use it to make yourself feel better about your decidedly worse situation.
Pointing fingers at America with a “look what it gets you” was/is actually a nice damper on right wing sentiment, probably everywhere. It didn’t solve it (evidently), but it’s a prime example, happening in real time.
That finger is deserved. Take that finger, and let it hurt you. Because going for the “see, America isn’t special, it’s just as bad as other places” is how YOU fail.
I do wish we were back at the point you are at.
A lot of the European news I’ve noticed echoes some of the points we were at 10-20 years ago. It’s a lot easier to fight back against at the point you’re at, but it’s also a bit harder to convince people that it is problematic.
When we’re ready to start making our country better again, it’ll be good to have role models. And if we don’t make our country better, I don’t want to drag Europe down with us.
We Americans may be a special kind of stupid, but if you love your country, you should recognize that it can still happen anywhere.