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This struck me as I was visiting Munich, momentarily agog at the guy in front of me walking down the street drinking beer like it was no thing. Meanwhile Americ
by JabavuAdams 5y ago
This struck me as I was visiting Munich, momentarily agog at the guy in front of me walking down the street drinking beer like it was no thing. Meanwhile Americans were protesting that mask mandates were an infringement on their freedom (Germans too).
Many, many things are an infringement on our individual freedom, but it's revealing what people actually choose to rally around, and when. It points to how certain issues have become politicized and have organized, well-funded opposition.
To all the people up in arms about masks -- why now? Why this easy thing? Why weren't you protesting restrictions on voting age, driving age, drinking age, restrictions on gay marriage rights? Those are all very consequential restrictions, as opposed to wearing a bit of fabric on your face. Something that snow-sports enthusiasts routinely do without complaint or consequence.
- montblanc 5y agoI got comments from neighbors for going into the street with a cup of coffee in the Netherlands. My Dutch wasn't that great but I picked up they were busting my balls in a friendly way - guess it looked funny to some. I also sometimes would get uncomfortable stares whenever I came down to throw something in the garbage room - the old guy looking was making sure I'm not gonna put garbage A in a B dumpster. Now every society has some kind of norms police citizens, but I feel it's quite worse in places like Germany/NL/Switzerland etc. Not really much substance to my argument, just sharing. Also I'm not criticizing these countries, their culture is just different than what I was brought up with. Where I live if you start correcting everyone around you you will be the one corrected eventually. That's why where I live looks much worse than Germany I guess.