France isn't a counterpoint in my opinion. It's a very stratified country, on several dimensions. Racially with huge disparities and unemployment among minoriti

France isn't a counterpoint in my opinion. It's a very stratified country, on several dimensions. Racially with huge disparities and unemployment among minorities but also culturally with a largely privileged, academic and almost aristocratic political class. France resembles the US and Britain more than Germany or Scandinavia with its almost exclusive recruitment of elites out of the Grande école system and the accompanying social ills. The dominance and centrality of Paris, and so on. As for the homogeneity, I don't think it's a dogwhistle. You don't need to interpret it normatively, but it is worth accepting the reality that very diverse populations often have issues with social trust. And high social trust is a requirement for equality, because it is necessary if people are supposed to share resources and make sacrifices for strangers. Some very high trust and egalitarian countries like Israel or Finland are tight knit because they share an identity, or sometimes which is ugly to admit, an enemy. You don't need to turn this into a guideline for some racist political program, but it's important to not ignore it. That's a huge problem of Laïcité, it's intentionally blind.