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Comment by 2143 | Hacker News Reader

I've heard about this before.

And I'm puzzled.

Are the Scandinavians so bored that they find the dashcam of a train amusing?

When people are given good social security, food, healthcare, education and everything else, do they start to find life boring?

Update: I don't mean any offense to Scandinavians or anybody else.

Update 2: I'm not American, so please don't use the comment section to crap on Americans with the assumption that I'll be offended (and also think about what that reveals about you). This is hilarious.

Update 3: I now realise it's just one person who's doing all the aforementioned crapping (at the time of this update). Maybe that person is having a bad day.

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You may want to test it yourself;

* Along the coast: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/hurtigruten-minutt-for-minutt and https://tv.nrk.no/serie/svalbard-minutt-for-minutt and https://tv.nrk.no/serie/sommerskuta-minutt-for-minutt

* Train: https://tv.nrk.no/program/PRHO63004009

* Hiking: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/monsen-minutt-for-minutt and https://tv.nrk.no/serie/besseggen-minutt-for-minutt

* Driving: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/sommerbilen-minutt-for-minutt

* Singing: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/salmeboka-minutt-for-minutt

* The opera: https://tv.nrk.no/program/MKDE21000318

* Moving reindeers: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/reinflytting-minutt-for-minutt

A sidenote: NRK has made many of these series available as torrents [1]; for example, you can find various resolutions or the same train route filmed at each season. It attracted some attention at the time: https://torrentfreak.com/norwegian-tv-launches-bittorrent-tr...

[1] https://nrkbeta.no/bittorrent/

I think you're puzzled because you imagine people watching this actively for hours.

I think it's more of a nice background, that you keep on while doing something else (working, cooking, living in general), and sometimes check.

Same as a cozy fireplace, or a beautiful view from your window, or even a TV / radio left on whether someone listens to it or not

This has nothing to do with Scandinavians, it's just a form of entertainment you apparently do not seem to enjoy.

There's plenty of this stuff. Go on Twitch and you'll find people playing very uneventful video games for hours, and people will hang around to watch it. There has even been sessions of watching grass grow or paint dry, and people watched it.

> When people are given good social security, food, healthcare, education and everything else, do they start to find life boring?

Given??

We work 40h a week and pay taxes.

Social security is not to live on forever, its temporary until you find a job. If you are too sick, then yes you CAN get it forever.

Food? You think we are given food? We have supermarkets. Yes it is good quality as we have GOVERNMENTAL OVERSIGHT, unlike the USA where corporations are free to put raw pesticides in your Mcdonalds borgir.

Healthcare? - Yes paid for by taxes. Not given to us.

Education - Yes paid for by taxes. So that we can work, and pay taxes to fund it.

We BUILT this society. You had your chance and choose to build a hellhole made of roads, cars and 70h workweeks.

"oooh but we do so much inovation!!!" Sweden does too SAAB, Ericsson, Spotify, Minecraft. A nation of 10mil and we built our own jets and subs. Suck it.

> hellhole made of roads, cars and 70h workweeks

We're (so far) free of the 70h workweeks, at least, but if you're trying to portray Sweden as somehow a car-free haven of environmentally-friendly cycling and walking along the lines of Denmark or The Netherlands, then you're really taking the blind nationalism too far...

> Sweden does too SAAB, Ericsson, Spotify, Minecraft. A nation of 10mil and we built our own jets and subs. Suck it.

...and here was me thinking this was a mild discussion about 'slow TV'...

If you don't like America don't go there. Nobody's forcing you to move to that — to quote your own words — "hellhole", are they?

In your culture do people typically crap on others and spread hate like you're doing here? Or is it just you?

I mean, seriously, what are you, 12?

I'm tired of people online like you calling us lazy for building a humane society.

Nice strawman argument, and ageism.

Did I call you lazy?

If you felt that I said your lot is lazy, that was a misunderstanding. A miscommunication.

For the record, I'll state it explicitly: I do not think people of Sweden (and the Scandinavians in general) are lazy.

There. I said it.

I have been as explicit as I possibly could, even though there's no reason for me to explain myself to a random rude person on the internet.

In my native language there's a saying that roughly translates to: don't climb up a ladder to get in the way of a bullet going across the sky.

I've committed this mistake.

Let's end this discussion.

On a technicality, if you start calling people 12, bored and possibly even lazy you shouldn't be asking to 'end the discussion' as if you suddenly have been granted the moral high ground.

GPs comment has plenty wrong with it but yours (multiple) does too.

> 70h workweeks.

Which country? "The average American works 34.4 hours per week, as of May 2019. For people between 25-54, the national average work week comes in at 40.5 hours."

Agreed but chill dude, no one needs to suck anything.

That's an odd take. A lot of people just like having the TV or radio on in the background and this is a cheap and relaxing kind of content to fill that niche.

Hmm. I see.

Actually, I never put on TV in the background. Either there's something I want to watch or there isn't, in which case I turn off the TV.

I sometimes keep music on in the background. But this is only if I actually feel like listening to music. For instance, I can drive for hours with no music on (and no, my car exhaust note isn't very exciting).

I don't put on TV in the background either, but the other typical use case of slow TV, watching for 15 or 30 minutes or even an hour to relax and decompress very much resonates with me. Just like I could spend an hour in front of a fireplace, just watching the flames. Nothing "boring" about that.

So you jumped to that its because our society is too good?

Dont all americans have like 5 TVs on showing Fox News 24/7?

> Are the Scandinavians so bored that they find the dashcam of a train amusing?

Or so at peace with life (knowing that we can get free healthcare and education if or when we need it) that we can find beauty in simple things, like moose migrating. ;-)

Fellow swede here.

I enjoy picking mushrooms and bow making.

You must be bored. ;-)

Here in Czech Republic some of the most popular YouTube videos are tram dashcam compilations. Featuring exciting moments like "car is parked too far into the road and obstructs the tram, owner has to move it" and "tram rings bell at tourist unknowingly standing on the track".

Looking at the state of the world, I'm happy that that's often as much excitement as we need here.

Train dashcam videos are an absolutely awesome way to chill and relax, it's almost meditative. Great way to spend a break at work, for example, and probably much better for one's mental health than almost all the crap that's on normal TV.

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