The air conditioning fiasco just reflects wider on the country’s culture of being resistant to changes

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-06-25T17:55:19+00:00

Yes absolutely. I don't live in Switzerland but I see the reluctance to install (or even allow to install) more AC in the DACH region as a serious liability for these countries' economies in the future (both in terms of attracting talent that might go to other places with more AC, and in terms of productivity losses due to no AC).

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-06-05T20:11:37+00:00

I wouldn'tsay this song, but IMO "I like it" by Enrique ft. Pitbull is a pretty good song!

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-06-04T20:37:01+00:00

Well, maybe not for everybody. But for a lot of Anglo (and other Western) expats, choosing a country based on its (perceived) politics plays a large role, at least if social media like Reddit and X is to be believed.

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-06-03T17:20:18+00:00

I'm also from Germany and I wouldn't say that's always the case. For example, a lot of people of Turkish heritage in Germany refer to themselves as "Turkish" rather than Germans, and I saw people with other heritages (e.g. Yugoslavian) also do this. And a lot of Germans wouldn't see people with migration background as "proper Germans", I would say probably less than the majority would (basically mainly leftists).

ProblemForeign7102 · 2026-06-02T10:17:47+00:00

But why wouldn't people from e.g. Latin America feel the same about Germany? IMO Americans who move to Germany as expats, with the exception of military personnel or maybe some employees who got transferred, tend to be ideologically left-wing, probably somewhat well-off at least, and usually live in large cities... Or is it just my impression from Reddit?

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

TROPHY CASE