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Comment by switch007 | Hacker News Reader

Give me German/Dutch "this is awful and it should be fixed" any day over "It'll be grand" (we have a similar attitude here just across the Irish sea)

It can be a bit annoying listen to them moan about small things constantly but my impression of the Netherlands is shit just works and things get fixed. They seem to have a very low tolerance for bs and excuses, which is refreshing

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In my culture we say "Today is a good day to die… But tomorrow will be better!"

In my experience this is not how Germany works at all. "This is how we've always done it" is a lot closer to reality. Germans have an incredibly low standard for efficiency. At best they're just very thorough and methodical, but change aversion permeates every later of society.

I like to joke that Americans' responses to catastrophe is' "Thanks Obama!".

But it does get at how some folks here deal with adversity.

Are you my parents? The things Obama still get blamed at is insane. I'm not a huge fan of Obama, Trump, or Biden. There are certainly things to blame them on, but every little thing like gas prices is just ridiculous. The office of the President wields a lot of power, but they're not in charge of everything.

Exactly what I was getting at. Does not matter who is in office, they get blamed for everything bad that happens.

ETA: In lieu of acceptance and determination.

I hear it more than anything about Biden. I personally think that it's an easy way to be racist without being pinned down on it because of the out that he was also a President.

and I personally think that such an analysis is the real racism

"X is the real racism" is a talking point racists like to trot out. It is a pretty standard part of their playbook actually, to move the debate away from actual, obviously racist behavior.

What? “They” aren’t a coordinated team with a playbook. Just because you find yourself disagreeing with many people over a contentious topic doesn’t mean the other side is part of some hate-fueled organized conspiracy.

It doesn't have to be a conspiracy for folks of a certain stripe to think the same debate tactic is clever. (And for the record - it is not)

ETA: if you find yourself wanting to argue further on this, I would recommend searching Stormfront for this phrase and then decide if you want to die on this hill.

I’m familiar with Stormfront, and I don’t intend to die on any ideological hill today. I’ll just say that I don’t think these things are as cut and dry as you’re making them out to be.

Where there is smoke, there is usually fire.

If you are repeating talking points or rhetoric common on Stormfront...

Actual, obviously racist behavior like hiring people based on race? Or creating labels like “person of color” that imply being non-white is an important commonality between completely different groups?

I won’t go so far as to say “liberals are the real racists.” But I grew up as a brown kid in a 95% white Virginia town, where people were afraid to talk about or notice race. I never thought that 30 years later I’d be having attention drawn to my race in routine business settings in blue DC. I didn’t think Maryland liberals would be the reason my mixed kids see racial differences between me and my wife.

Urban liberals aren’t as bad as stormfront people, but they’re worse than “where are you really from” Iowa people. It’s not even close.

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