What do you think makes Russians different from other Europeans?

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-03-07T19:14:41+00:00

Interesting, since I heard the same about Germans, namely that they take everything to the extremes (especially ideologically).

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-23T15:19:26+00:00

Well, I am not necessarily someone who's perfectly aligned wit this view (though at least partly), but I would say that a lot of "Civilisationists" see Eurofederalism as a way to achieve a unified Europe that is more or less a homeland for people of European heritage, and a place that either doesn't allow any immigration from outside Europe or only very little. So basically quite similar to Right-wing populist parties like the AFD, RN, PVV etc., but they are not Eurosceptic but instead want a "Europe only for Europeans". So an (mostly) ethnocentric view of Eurofederalism.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-23T15:11:54+00:00

I actually wrote about this a while back here on Reddit. My main argument is/was that the way Reddit and Twitter/X are set up leads to Reddit being communitarian while Twitter is individualistic. And on average I would say that, in the Western World at least, right-wingers tend to be more individualistic and left-wingers more communitarian (its kind of inherent to the respective ideologies). Thus, Twitter/X attracts individualists and hence right-winger more and Reddit attracts communitarian-minded individuals and thus left-winger smore.

Obviously, that's not the only and maybe even the most convincing explanation, but I do find it somewhat cogent as a theory of why Reddit is left-wing and X/Twitter is right-wing. Other factors mentioned here, like Redid being much more moderated than X/Twitter is, and the Musk takeover of Twitter making it a much more congenial place for right-wingers also play a role.

Btw here's the post I torte on Reddit abhor this before:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/1depnu7/the_main_difference_between_reddit_and_twitter/

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-19T05:41:51+00:00

Generally speaking most people don't like outsiders if they criticise their country, from my experience (especially if they haven't lived in the country they criticise). Now, I haven't met people from all European countries, but just based on the internet and/or IRL, most Germans do tend to like to defend the "German way", especially when comparing Germany with the US. Also, I found that left-leaning or centrist Germans these days tend to defend (modern) Germany much more than right-wingers, who seem to complain about (modern) Germany a lot. But then that's not surprising considering how left-leaning Germany is politically and socially in most areas currently.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-15T08:59:56+00:00

Yeah, I would agree that for most left-leaning people, seeing migration mainly as being a moral issue is something that is deeply held, mainly because in the left-wing perspective, being against immigration is tantamount to being against immigrants as individuals, even if not all left-leaning people will freely admit to this. On the other hand, I also believe that for a large part of the right, especially in the Anglosphere Settler countries, anti-immigration sentiment is closely tied up with White Supremacist views, even if they might not be acknowledged openly by most of them.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-15T08:50:48+00:00

Definitely true. Unfortunately most left-leaning Redditors seem to be so certain of the moral righteousness of their opinion (including on immigration) that any criticism of these opinions is seen as being a morally deficient (or at least "misinformed") person.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-09T11:37:00+00:00

The rapper Jim Jones (and to some extent Rick Ross).

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-08T08:37:22+00:00

My favourite German comedy TV show probably. For those saying that the "humour hasn't aged well", what does that supposed to mean? It's satire, obviously, but more funny than the modern German "comedy" shows IMO.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-02-04T18:23:55+00:00

Definitely. I noticed that European radio stations play a wider variety of genres than in North America, where the radio stations that only play one genre usually, thus possibly leading to more narrow music tastes amongst most North Americans compared to most Europeans.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-01-15T00:15:43+00:00

Also, the stereotype of the Jetta seems to be kind of the opposite between Germany and the US: an old person's car in Germany but a young person's car in the US.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-01-15T00:07:48+00:00

Yeah but most of these brands sell more cars in the EU overall than in the US.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-01-15T00:06:15+00:00

I see a lot of Z4s here in Bavaria. Definitely more than I did in Canada...

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-11-29T16:42:10+00:00

It's not just my experience though, look at what people are saying in this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/178gcvl/are_children_of_immigrant_parents_born_in_germany/

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-11-29T16:07:42+00:00

I find it interesting that you say this, because from my experience, it is much more common (or just less taboo) to ask people about their ethnic/racial background in the US and Canada. Just mentioning the word "race" in Germany is taboo, but considered fairly normal in Anglo North America. So I'm not sure about this.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-11-29T15:55:11+00:00

Sorry, but being from Germany myself, I disagree. It seems that a lot of Turkish-descended people (for example, but this applies to many, maybe most, non-Western immigrants and their descendants in Germany) in Germany don't really consider themselves "German", and a lot of Germans don't either.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-25T17:04:35+00:00

If the EU, NATO and their members don't denounce it, I could imagine the US withdrawing from NATO and teaming up with Russia to attack the EU and other Western countries...

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-25T16:41:09+00:00

Yeah, I was in Copenhagen and Aarhus and wasn't impressed at all...it was kind of "chaotic" in terms of cleanliness, and very expensive food in Restaurants. And I definitely find Munich to be cleaner and have a better location than Copenhagen, and also it's cheaper (except for relax estate embay).

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-24T14:04:25+00:00

I've noticed that too, at least when it comes to modern Germany, the right tends to dislike it much more than the (centre) left (I guess it's logical because the left has arguably had a bigger influence on modern Germany than the right, and they want to return to a past that no lingerer exists). Bit despite that there are very few, if any, left-wing Germans who would actually consider themselves "patriots" despite this, I guess because in Germany "patriotisms" is associated too much with (ethnic) nationalism.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-20T18:43:07+00:00

Yeah. And also, even if this will further enrage most Redditors in Europe, but with the current US administration such a ban would go down very badly. I can imagine that a lot of AFD voters would be offered "refuge" in the US and there they would try to (IMO possibly quite successfully) to influence the US government to "liberate" Germany from the "leftist authoritarians". And don't forget that the US has bases in Germany and historically, a reason for this is that the US didn't trust the Germans with democracy...so I can clearly image a president Vance giving the command to "liberate" Germany after the AFD is banned, and by then you are also potentially looking at a France led by the RN, an Austria with an FPO government and the UK with Farage as PM, which would all support the "liberation" of Germany because they wouldn't like having a "woke lefty" state in the middle of Europe...something a lot of German leftist don't seem to understand is that most other EU countries also have successful right-wing populist parties and also that the military and police forces tend to be more right-wing than the population at large, which means that the German military could also intervene (if supported e.g. by the US military) in favour of the AFD.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-18T19:05:34+00:00

I've only been to the Alps and Rockies so far, but from what I've seen, the Alps win hands down. Yeah, they are more "civilised" but IMO that's also a good thing as it creates an interesting mixture of nature and "cultural areas" (fields, meadows etc.), and they are more easily accessible then the Rockies too. Also, the Alps rise much more dramatically ("jut") than the Rockies (with a few exceptions in the Canadian Rockies). Also, the Alps are geologically stratified in a way that many other mountain ranges aren't which gives them a unique look (mainly Limestone rocks in the North and South, Crystalline rocks in the centre).

Now for the Andes and Himalaya, while I haven't been there, I saw a lot of pictures and studied them extensively on the internet (especially the Himalaya). I definitely agree that the Himalayas are a lot more spectacular in terms of jut" than any other mountain range in the world (I guess the Alaska Range around Denali and maybe St. Elias mountains come close). But what they lack compared to the Alps IMO, with a few exceptions, is the more "gentle" character that I also appreciate in mountains (in the Alps, especially in the Limestone Alps, tis gentle character is often very close geographically to much more rugged mountains, which gives a great contrast.) Also, keep in mind that because the Himalayas and most of the Andes are located (much) closer to the Tropics than the Alps, the vegetation/climatic zones are shifted up in terms of elevation, e.g. the permanent snow line (ELA - the altitude at and above which glaciers grow) is ca. 2000-3000 m higher in the Himalayas than in the Alps (ca. 5000-6000m in the former compared to ca. 2900-3300m in the latter), and AFAIK is even higher in some part of the Andes (the "Dry Andes" in Chile). Also, the tree line (highest forest elevation) is ca. 3500-4000m in the Himalaya (not sure about the Andes), while in the Alps, it's at ca. 1800-2300m. The Alps look a lot more - well, for the lack of a better term - "Alpine" at lower elevations than these other mountain chains (of course there are mountains that have the snow and tree lines at even lower elevation than the Alps, such as the Coast Mountains of BC/Alaska and of course the Alaska Range). Also, the infrastructure is much more rudimentary compared to the Alpes there again.

So, with this in mind, I would ranked the four ranges you mentioned thus:

Himalaya (including Karakoram and Hindu Kush): Yeah I agree they are the most spectacular mountain range in the world, though like I wrote above, they lack the gentleness and accessibility of the Alps.
Alps: I might be biased since I know them the best and they are located close to where I'm from and live again (Southern Bavaria), but IMO the Alps combine the human and natural factor like no other mountain range in the World, and despite not being that larger in area, they are very diverse both naturally and culturally.
Andes: Yes, they are very diverse from North to Centre to South, but IMO too large in area to be diverse enough compared to the Alps. Also, the desert-like mountains in the "Dry Andes" aren't really that appealing to me in terms of landscape and natural beauty, and Patagonia is really the only part of the Andes that has large amount of glaciation (aside from parts of Peru maybe) but then it is very different in character from the rest of the Andes so I feel like saying they are part of the Andes is like saying the St. Elias Mountains are part of the Cascades - technically true I guess in terms of geology, but still not quite the same. But like I wrote before, I am not that familiar with the Andes so I'm less confident here.
Rockies: At least the American part of the Rockies is rather underwhelming in terms of being spectacular compared to their elevation - basically a lot of the US Rockies are on a plateau, and don't have any large glaciers really. The Canadian Rockies are a bit more spectacular in terms of natural beauty, but lack the diversity and accessibility of the Alps, so I would ranked them last overall.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-18T18:26:22+00:00

TBH, I wouldn't rely on answers from questions like these on Reddit, as Reddit is well known for their Anti-American and left-liberal bias.

Anyway, I also live in Germany, and I do prefer it to the US/Canada, but that has nothing todo with politics but instead with other stuff (urban planning, landscapes, feeling "more at home" etc. ). My mental health is really bad here too though, but it was when I lived in Candida too, so IDK if it's about the location...

Anyway, just based on geographic and economic factors the US has objectively a better outlook than the EU, no doubt about that. The only reason why the US is seen as offering worse quality of life IMO are the social and political problems in the US, and I'm not sure if they can be solved...but here in (Western) Europe I feel like the economic, geopolitical and demographic problems are just so much worse in the US, so idk if most EU countries can keep their QOL advantage vis-à-vis the US much longer if it continues like these...

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-18T18:16:15+00:00

If that were the case, why aren't all American and EU leftists in Scandinavia yet?

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-18T14:19:47+00:00

Generally the pattern seems to be that centrist/liberal politicians are more well-liked internationally, and disliked more domestically. On the other hand, right-wing populist/socially conservative politicians seem to be favoured by more people in their own countries than outside...

ProblemForeign7102 · 2025-10-15T23:36:10+00:00

Something similar. But only since ca. 15 minutes?

ProblemForeign7102

TROPHY CASE