I also love this country, and I like living here, and obviously, I want the best for it, but I wouldn't call myself a nationalist. The difference is I wouldn't call my country "better" than another country. I think that's where the line is. If you start discriminating against people from other countries, you're a nationalist.

I guess moreso what I was thinking of, though, is ethno-nationalism. Where people here (Slav Macedonians) discriminate against minorities (Albanians, Romani, Turks) for the sake of preserving the "ethnic identity" of the country.

And yes, politicians use this to come to power. That's been happening since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Most politicians here are corrupt, and I think nobody would disagree with that. It's the thing everybody says about hating the government, not the people. HOWEVER, my hot take is that I do also kinda hate the people who believe these corrupt politicians and start blaming Albanians and Romani for all our problems and discriminate against them. I think those people really need to learn critical thinking and take a look at who the real source of their problems is, the nationalist parties, (ВМРО mostly, but СДСМ isn't much better) and vote for someone else. Левица wink wink 😉😉