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Comment by ksimukka | Hacker News Reader

(Apologies for the bad grammar, my son was born a little over 24 hours ago. I’m choosing not to use a LLM, so you are getting the real me)

Even sovereign funds (example Norway) are invested in American tech, funds, and indexes.

It is interesting to think about (from the perspective of an immigrant to Norway) how I moved my life’s savings from the US to Norway.

I’m now fully invested into Norway (real estate, savings, and retirement).

My understand is that Norwegians (and the nordics) have historically looked up to the US as a world leader.

I think that is no longer true and maybe this decision by Denmark is a data point of how the Nordics are changing?

It kind of feels like we all have been caught holding the bag (US reserve currency) and now we have to carefully unwind our position.

I’ve lost my point. Maybe my goal here is to just contribute to this discussion to distract from the exhaustion.

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As a Nordic (Finland), I think this is true. In the history, US has been always admired and we've loved to travel there and cherish the culture. Damn, I was there when Conan O'Brien traveled to Helsinki, and greeting him with this massive crowd of people who really love him. I married an American, I've traveled through the country multiple times with my partner. Love the food, people, the nature, the cities.

But this has definitely changed for me now. The idea of crossing the border and having to flip a coin is the border control guy a nice guy or not is not appealing as a diabetic who needs his phone to be with him untampered and who doesn't want to sit in a cell somewhere for days/weeks because they posted a funny meme of a person you can't joke about. Or who just witnesses this absolute inequality happening, and who witnesses the leaders of this country coming to my country and giving their support for parties who want me to not marry and who doesn't want to see me existing.

I am just tired. And sad. I wish I could get our relationship back with the US but I don't know... Even if we backtrack from here, get back to the "olden times", it will take a moment until I can enjoy US again.

P.S. Conan is still a treasure!

Conan is great!

> The idea of crossing the border and having to flip a coin is the border control guy a nice guy or not

That is nothing new. It's how it's been forever. And not only arriving in the USA, but also Canada, Germany and other places.

Well... Strip searching and jailing young German girls in the border is not something I hear happening very often in countries like Canada, Germany, Denmark, Finland... Actually I have not heard that happening even once! My American partner has crossed the German border countless of times from US. Before they got an EU passport, even then the border queue was prompt and the guard sometimes asked a joke in German and a minute later let them pass.

I waited hours in Newark even before the current joke of a government. The risk of being in a jail without my phone which has a life-saving app to manage my diabetes is a risk I am not going to take.

> Actually I have not heard that happening even once!

Have you heard that happening more than once?

Having your luggage searched, long interrogations, dog sniffing, and then more interrogations - that has been common on international borders. All for no other reason than the border guard didn't like your face. That's my real life experience as a person who used to travel a lot. And many others I've met told similar stories, including being denied entry. So it's been a coin flip for a long time.

> jailing young German girls in the border

Last time I read that story they were given the option to immediately fly back to Germany for free after their tourist visa was declined but the girls declined the flight because they wanted to fly somewhere else on another flight which wasn’t available yet, which means they had to be detained. So they stayed overnight in an immigration detention facility which included a search.

They also flew to Hawaii without a hotel booked which is something the guards always look for (that was basically 101 common knowledge when I first crossed 15yrs ago). Just like how having a flight out prebooked is important.

Realistically, as World War 2 demonstrated, Finland’s independence rests on America’s will to protect it. And after it, Norway and Sweden as well.

Strategically modifying one’s pension fund choices to prevent having sub-prime companies bundled into a possible success is not a sign of anything. The Nordic nations will attempt to stay allied to the US because survival depends on it. They are much closer to the frontier and Western Europe’s ability and desire to protect them is substantially weaker.

In the event of a fall of NATO far western countries like Spain or Portugal will likely free-ride by virtue of their geography. The Finns get no such benefit.

Get off your phone and enjoy the time lol - journal instead if you must write something

Gatekeeping is never a good look.

Congratulations :)

As a Dane, I would say yes. Especially among boomers there was always a genuine appreciation of the US and its role as guardian of a rules-based international order and western civilization more generally.

I think that sentiment has gone, even as younger generations have increasingly incorporated English words, music, TV and more into their own, but you seldom hear the same genuine trust in the US as a force for good.

I'd say in Norway there's more inherent trust in America. People may appear a bit more critical, but by now it's part of the culture. Even though you have some regresion of that trust due to Trump and polarization, I'd say most people see the US as a core part of Western society, cultural and critical to defense.

>I think that is no longer true and maybe this decision by Denmark is a data point of how the Nordics are changing?

No, this is just standard pension fund governance.

Right, that makes sense. I assume it happens often as part of the governance process. my original statement could have be better phrased as a question.

What are your thoughts on the general consensus of Nordics views and opinions about the US?

Congratulations, and enjoy your time :)

Congratulations on your newborn son! You must be on cloud nine (no pun intended).

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