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What? Italy is not "Western"? Well, your definition of Western Europe is very weird. Italy is one of the foundations of Western Europe. What you wrote about re
by wowoc 10y ago
What? Italy is not "Western"? Well, your definition of Western Europe is very weird. Italy is one of the foundations of Western Europe.
What you wrote about religious heritage is also weird... Protestant Austria? France?
What you're meaning is just Germanic countries (except France).
- Annatar 10y agoHis definition of Western Europe would also be my definition. Western European states have a high standard of living, low levels of corruption compared to Italy, well maintained and developed infrastructure, low levels of unemployment, and discipline. Compare and contrast with Italy, Spain, or Portugal.
- Oletros 10y agoThose comments sound a little stereotypical and xenophobic
- spyrosg 10y agoHe does, but I don't think name calling will change his mind. Besides, let's be honest, his ideas are already there in most people's minds. To the grandparent: Luxembourg's dirty secret is corruption. France has high unemployment. Standards of living are actually pretty nice under the sun, and outside of the high-pay but nerve-wracking shitty weather of "the north". I agree on the more discipline part, but only when it comes to public behaviour. Where in western Europe have you lived?
- Oletros 10y agoThanks, I will rephrase it to not sound so harsh
- Annatar 10y agoStereotypes exist for a reason, although people try to drown them out in public because they think that makes them look better. I'm just not being a hypochrite in this particular instance, that's all. Sorry to burst your bubble.
- Oletros 10y agoYap, and Southern European people is lazy, Jews are greedy and Arabs are terrorists. Because stereotypes exist for a reason.
- Annatar 10y agoOh, you are right and I am so wrong: for instance, people from the South of Europe are famous throughout the world for being as hardworking as the Japanese. If you ever meet anyone from Dalmatia, ask them what their word "fjaka" means, then ask them why they have it... And of course, terrorist is simply nothing more than a stereotype, because there is no pattern at all which could possibly correlate the string of terror acts. Those terrorists are actually Buddhists from Tibet, that's what those are! How could I have been so wrong??? Horrible, deplorable.
- em500 10y agoIt's not that weird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_geoscheme_for_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_geoscheme_for_E...
- roel_v 10y agoMost everybody does not include Italy in "Western" Europe. Italy is "South Europe", along with Spain, Portugal, Greece etc. Heck, even the European Commission divides Europe into West (fr, be, nl, uk, de), North (se, no, fi, baltics), South (es, it, pt, gr, cy) and East (the rest) in many of their policy studies. I have never been involved in any policy work where Italy was considered 'Western Europe' (part of 'the West', yes, but that's from a global perspective).
- register 10y agoWestern Europe as per Wikipedia definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Europe
- coldtea 10y agoThere are multiple definitions. Western is not merely a geographic term. DDR wasn't a part of Western Europe either, and it was located pretty west. Already we were discussing here the original article, which used a more restrictive definition -- and explained that.
- coldtea 10y ago>What? Italy is not "Western"? Well, your definition of Western Europe is very weird. Italy is one of the foundations of Western Europe. Being a foundation in 17th century doesn't mean it hasn't floundered since. But that's not the point either. To quote WIkipedia: "Western Europe is the region comprising the western part of the European continent. There may be differences between the geopolitical and purely geographic definitions of the term."