Eurovision 2022

It's funny, you know. Sure I was aware of the poll which found that Finns trust Swedes the most and vice versa, and yeah, we've 800 years of history together, and Swedes sent A LOT of equipment and volunteers to Finland during the Winter War.
Yet, when asked what they know about Finland, Swedes tend to stare into the distance, and mutter something about the cold (like Sweden's in the tropics), knives (thank the Slussen idiots for that), or that Finland's technologically, culturally, socially, and economically stuck in the 50s (thank Aki Kaurismäki's movies for that image). Finns say Swedes are pussies, naïve, tree-hugging hippies etc.

But now I know something for sure. Yes, there's the Kavli prawn cheese which I love, and Atria's lördagskorv which Swedes love... but we're a team. We stick together, and we've got each other's back.
Of all the neighbors in the world, ain't a goddamn better one than Sweden.
Or New Zealand.

@DarkMage7280
If I may contribute something as a non-participant: from the outside, it looks to me as if the Nordic states are like brothers in any normal family: you hang out together forever, now and then you fight, but when the going gets tough, you stand together.

@DerDings

Exactly. It's precisely like that. <3

@DerDings

Very true, except possibly with Denmark and Sweden where part of the dynamic for both of them seems to be "Hey, you can't threaten/trash talk him like that. That's my job!!" ;)

@stevep59 That's exactly what having siblings is like though

@Wuzzle2 True.

@DarkMage7280
Not to draw parallels, but 15 years ago I could say the same about Ukraine and Russia =(

'@molotovinpeikko' Strong disagree. Ukraine's national identity as anything but a slave-territory has traditionally been something Russia denies and disregards. It's actual ethno-national identity is quite interesting (and colorful) but does not lend itself toward empire-building.

It does lend itself to being hardcore as f*&% though.

@boring7

> Strong disagree

Please tell me what you know about Russian-Ukrainian relationships in 1990–2010.

> Ukraine's national identity as anything but a slave-territory has traditionally been something Russia denies and disregards

"Slave-territory"? Are you out of your mind or what? Russo-Ukrainian history is way too complicated to be oversimplified like that. Next thing you'll be telling me Poland had always been nice and friendly towards Ukraine and Ukrainians (and vice versa).

The problem now is that Ukraine is seen (by some) as a part of Russia: not a colony as in "British colonies", but yet another region. Like Austria was seen by Hitler and his Reich.

@molotovinpeikko
*Please tell me what you know about Russian-Ukrainian relationships in 1990–2010.*
I do. You'll hate to hear. The most mild depiction would be "tense".
*Slave-territory"? Are you out of your mind or what? Russo-Ukrainian history is way too complicated to be oversimplified like that. *
Actually this description is half-accurate. We were constantly rebelling slave territory.
* Next thing you'll be telling me Poland had always been nice and friendly towards Ukraine and Ukrainians (and vice versa).*
Well, Poland didn't engaged us with trade wars, pro-Russian agents and other neat stuff like that since independence.

@DarkMage7280 Sweden is especially a good neighbor considering who your OTHER neighbor is.

@Bottas_Heimfe Awww, now, Norwegians are super nice, too.

"No, I meant the other neighbor."

...But Estonians are good neighbors, too.

"No, I meant R--"

Oh, you mean Those We Do Not Speak Of.

@DarkMage7280

Technologically backwards? Have the Swedes never heard of Nokia?! Like, I get that the phone companies managed to crush Nokia in the US because it offered so many features that the providers wanted to charge for and they were so durable the companies couldn't make money selling you new crap every couple of years, but I thought Nokia would still be big in the Nordics.

@CorruptUser Yeah, it baffles me, too. They tend to think Nokia's Japanese.
But things are improving now, with both of us going to NATO, and having something of a shared destiny. Turkey's stonewalling things, of course, but even Erdogan can't do it indefinitely.

@DarkMage7280 > Of all the neighbors in the world, ain't a goddamn better one than Sweden

Of course, being Finns, y'all don't really care for neighbors anyway, so this all makes sense :P

@txag70 True, that. But if we're to have neighbors, it's good to have Sweden, and not Rus--- Oh, right...

@DarkMage7280 You're Finns. We know how good y'all are at being badass snipers. Y'all will be just fine.

Heh, I'd love to visit someday, but then I see how even your summers are cold and my southern soul is like "aw hell no". It's gonna be perfect here today: about 35C and humid.

Russia is sitting alone in the cold while Sweeden and Finland tells him the "bad news" is prieceless.

Finland's little thumbs up gesture just kills me, I don't know why it's so funny.

The extreme irony being that it was Russias leadership that pushed both Sweden and Finland into joining Nato. I know that at least the swedes are pretty upset over loosing 200 years of alliance freedom and neutrality, but all the threats and intrusions into swedish airspace made it more or less impossible to stay out of it.

Basically, Putins threats about us joining made us join.

'@Deviant' I hope it works out. Treaties are usually a good thing.

Wouldn't mind a tripartite treaty where the "neutral" countries are guaranteed protection from either side by the other side (i.e. "If Russia attacks you NATO protects, if NATO attacks you Russia also promises to protect"). This war might not have happened if Ukraine had been given more "solid" guarantees against aggression.

Russia alone. I can say only one thing, Putin is red flag person, russian people sometimes normal, sometimes bad

@Koska Like everywhere. It's just a shame that bad people seem to have a lower density than good and normal people, so it's much easier for them to float to the top.

@Kemm Well, it's more that they are supported by all the densest people at the bottom, really.

@OneTruePing Nope, it's more that somebody CAN murder an opponent to get to the top, and somebody can't. Those that cannot make for pretty decent governors. Those that can just eliminate every opponent, to be sure. Ever heard of Nemtsov? Right. Next. To Kremlin.

@Ninian Russian and western ideas of democracy are historically different. Marx and Lenin had a very different version where you vote once and then everyone has to obey (democratic centralism) which was originally necessary to organize the communist revolution between a bunch of separate in-fighting communist cells and factions. This means the elected leaders are judged absolutely right because you voted for them, and disagreement after the vote is sabotage. You can only say the voted action was wrong only after it is completed - which is why the Soviet Union had five year plans to limit the scope of any ruling. This mechanism allows keeping a dictatorship by forcing people to vote certain ways, and by faking votes, because the only point where the peoples' opinion matters at all is at the voting booth, at the end of a gun.

The west is a more continuous process with criticism and dissidence allowed at every point. Governments can be thrown over by a vote of non-confidence. Russia is still missing this; you do not understand the point of democracy.

@Eikka Of course we don't, not like we had Kronstadt sailors rebel against Lenin, not like we had entire Civil War because of disagreements, not like we had massive protests in 1991 and 1993, not like we had massive protests in 2012 and 2018. Not like we *do* criticize government actively, after all. It's all just fifth column propaganda, in fact even I am a fifth column propaganda, I do not exist, and never have attended over a dozen protests since 2018, never volunteered to Navalniy's electoral campaign before it was shut down, never trespassed on government property to take discriminating photos of illegal trash dump at my city, we never doubt our government, never criticise it, never distrust it past the election day, we absolutely do not understand that to make a corrupted piece of shit work you need to constantly bash him with a club because otherwise he'll take a seat at your neck and strangle you to death while simultaneously robbing away your money and raping your daughter just for the kick of it.

@Ninian
Of course do not misunderstand me. Russia as a country does not understand democracy. Despite efforts, you do not have it. If you have 150 million people and 50 million still don't get it, you do not have it. This is a problem that is only solved by time, because you cannot force people to think differently.

In western multi-faction democracies, 20% is enough to win elections sometimes. It's even possible to form a government with minority support (<50%) because the rest of the parties do not agree to join in opposition. Nobody likes this happening, but they can trust it because they can challenge it. If the people did not believe in the values of democracy and there were no mechanisms to challenge the elected state, we would have Putin as well.

I'm surprised Finland isn't giving Russia the finger.

@FrankHarr I do have to wonder if Humon hasn't softened just a touch :P

@FrankHarr TBF, the thumbs up radiates so much passive-aggressive energy that it might as well be the finger

@Lord_Skata My thought exactly

@FrankHarr I'm surprised it isn't a knife or a broken beer bottle.

@OdinVex #9873662-9876205

He still has to pass the membership committee. That'll come after it's too late.

Do a comic on swedengate!! (For the uninitiated there’s a viral post going around that originated as a Reddit thread talking about weird cultural norms, where someone mentioned Scandinavians not automatically feeding dinner guests or friends sleeping over lol)

@InDeia I don't think Sweden is the only country not to do that it may be a nordic thing https://www.instagram.com/p/CeHAOEQsFAA/

it is the whole having dinner while a guest is still there just boggles me or not offering any food to those who spend the night, I understand if just a little playdate and send the kid home before you eat dinner but this just I dunno

in the US if a kid's friend not staying for dinner they send the kid home because having dinner at a friend's place is usually scheduled in advance or the guest kid calls their parents if they can eat at their friend's place or the host parents might offer a little snack to the guest if they're not planning on having dinner

I wonder if it's against Swedish culture to ask for food or to join in dinner when visiting a guest like their parents taught them not to

@AmericanButterfly You misunderstand. There is no "Nordic thing" where guest don't get food, at least not in general.

@bananaforscale I was just talking about this picture from the linked
though I guess you're right

@AmericanButterfly I think it's that "someone" is just a random person not like your relative; you don't usually stay that long at someone's house; coffee doesn't count as food and... often the guest brings something to eat with the coffee.

@Suominoita that seems reasonable I don't know if Humon will do a comic about the whole Sweden guest thing but it could make a funny comic,

honestly, it's the whole making guests wait while they eat dinner that I think weirds people out

@AmericanButterfly Anyway it'd be more common to refuse than not being offered. Just because.

@Suominoita makes sense maybe that's how it is in Finland

hey, do Finnish families make guests wait in the other room while they have dinner? or that Swede thing?

@AmericanButterfly It would be exceptional for any guests to be around at dinnertime unless also staying for the night. Mostly family or wanna-be-family so they would be invited to join.

@Suominoita true that's the same in the US

Why isn't Finland the one holding the drink?

@CaptainGreybeard2 Well... it's a fancy cocktail and Finland is more into beer and booze. Also, Finland holding a cocktail might bring bad memories to Russia about Molotov cocktails... A very visible balloon gives entirely different idea.

'@Suominoita' As long as there aren't 99 of them.

@CaptainGreybeard2 Looks like they forgot to put the knife in his hand...

All i know:
Germany deserved the last place in ESC and Putin forced Sweden and Finnland into Nato.
Glad we have you guys!

I like Ukraine's pants, very.... Yellow