Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9676979:


Baby Daddy 6 9, 4:17am

@simval

"That article is the canard that "patriotism means loving your country, nationalism means hating all other countries". That's just a lie."

Actually it's not. You just have to look it up in a dictionary to see that. For instance:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nationalism

Explaining the difference between patriotism and nationalism Merriam-Webster further writes that:

"Nationalism has a number of near-synonyms, each of which carries its own distinct meaning. Patriotism is similar insofar as it emphasizes strong feelings for one's country, but it does not necessarily imply an attitude of superiority."

That is - nationalism does imply an attitude of superiority.

"Nationalism is opposed to multiculturalism, which is a doctrine that says that not only many cultures can coexist in the same State, but that cultural diversity must be encouraged over the formation of a strong national identity and culture, and which denies nations the right to self-determination, favoring instead ever greater State entities that encompass large areas."

Complete nonsense.

First of all there's not some multiculturalist ideology or doctrine - that's just a bogeyman the far-right have created to define what they see as the enemy.
Multiculturalism is just a name for the natural result of different cultures blending.

It's happened all throughout history where several distinct cultures have shared a small geographical space - like in Europe. Nationalists don't like to admit that, instead pretending that a "pure" nation and culture can be defined (by them of course) - but that's just nonsense.
The Scots didn't invent either the bagpipe or the kilt for instance, but only nationalist sees those facts as some sort of a smear on their perceived notions of what the Scottish culture should be.
It's just a natural fact of history that people move around and cultures blend over time.

As I said it's always happened - it's just that now we have a name for it.

And this blending of cultures is not something anyone tries to force on anyone - there's not some dark conspiracy of evil "globalists" trying to deny anyone self-determination like you claim.

The EU is a neoliberal economical project that seeks to benefit trade and an economic agenda that suits big business. That certainly hurts ordinary workers in some ways, but the goal is to make money - not to destroy nations or mix races or deny anyone self-determination or anything else the far-right believes.

"Also, nationalist movements in the world often collaborate with one another, putting the lie that nationalism is about hating everybody else in the ground for good. Québec, Scottish and Catalan nationalist movements often collaborate with one another and support another, morally if not in more direct ways."

Once again no lie.

Yes - they happily cooperate as long as they have a common enemy, which today are these fabled "multiculturalists" that they claim anyone to be that doesn't see things the way they do.

But without that common enemy and put into a situation where their interests would conflict they'd be at each others throats in no time.

I said during the French elections that it was really lucky for Britain that Le Pen didn't win in France.
Ukip was of course hoping she would - believing she would be an ally to them.

But do you imagine she would be willing to negotiate a Brexit deal, favorable for Britain, at the expense of France?
Of course not!

And regarding Ukips demands that Britain must take back control over it's fishing waters - exactly how smooth do you think any fishing zone disputes between a British Ukip government and a French Le Pen-lead government would be?

They'd both end up sending in the navy before either of them gave away something they believe their nation was entitles to - and nationalist always believe their nation is entitled to anything it once had or now wants.