That’s not why I posted this here, though:

The government will also probe the possibility of outlawing the political use of certain symbols, including the swastika as used by Nazi Germany as well as the hammer and sickle that appeared on the former Soviet Union flag.

🇫🇮 🔥 hitler-detector

  • As a Finn this whole thing feels like an unmasking of all the stuff that already started to become unmasked during the pandemic. And before that during the austerity years.

    This is a countryvthst had people who kidnapped communists in the 30s. Communists were put in camps during ww2. Our civil war was a class war. Interestingly everyone has forgotten our own history.

    The basic finns have spun things with the exact same playbook that the US fox news types have used. They keep moving goalposts, muddying waters and now we “both sides” this.

    There is a concept called the sameness myth here that explains a lot too. The idea of equality as it has been framed has always been about being “nice and civil”, about respecting “both sides”. It has always made inequality disappear. It has always been equality for the privileged.

    A proud academic just told me yesterday how happy they were that they were able to sit in the same table and compromise with these peoole who do this. How we can still “find common ground”. Then these same people act surprised when the Overton window keeps sliding to the right. It’s all about being nice, never kind. Never standing up for anything or saying no.

    Sorry, this really gets under my skin because this was absolutely always going to happen in this socdem hell. I mean we make our unemployed work for 9€/day and call it a social service.

  • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    the current government is doing some cuts to worker’s rights the likes of which didnt even happen in the 90s depression so naturally they would want to ban hammer and sickle. what if the people start to get ideas? they’ll even throw the swastika under the bus, considering the air force academy still uses that one in their logo after they “stopped” using it edgeworth-shrug

    • This is it isn’t it. They are proposing cutting the right to strike. What is happening to workers rights here is grounds for a general strike. But even our labour unions have been ran to the ground and are so closely tied to capitalism now that I doubt very much that will happen.

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    Banning the swastika will have zero effect on fascists who will just create new symbols out of whatever.

    Banning the hammer and sickle sets up for future anticommunism in a world that will increasingly see conditions that make people more and more susceptible to socialist theory, and is great (from their perspective) given they want to maintain conflict with Russia who despite not being communist maintains the use of the symbol in several things in their stitched together corpse of a frankenstate. Then there’s China of course.

    Holocaust denial banning is cool but will probably come with some holodomor brained bullshit.

    Anyway banning the hammer and sickle seems like a preposterously stupid diplomatic move to make when the most important country in world trade uses it, unless you’re essentially fully committed to vassalising yourself to other world powers.

    • Oh not to mention Karelian peoples and the Roma.

      The Karelian oppression for example dates back to when we tried to do some colonialism of our very own and our fascist leaders did “crusades” to the lands of the Karelian people. Displaced them, put them in camps. Then during the world wars put them in the front lines and left them poor, scarred and with ptsd after. Later a public health project started where a privileged academic eugenics motivated dude from the elite went to the poor rural areas to study why they have so much heart health issues, then stated it’s the lifestyle of these uneducated plebs. Of course the generational stress from oppression, war and poverty has nothing to do with anything. /s

      We got our intense fatmisia from that as a country. And the belief that if you get health issues, it’s probably your own fault for not cross country skiing enough like a proper finn (this mindset got intense with covid, the vibe here is very much that the “weak” die and this is fine).

      And the psychiatric hospitals we had here during the wars, oh boy how all minorities and communists were “rehabilitated” in those…

      The process of making this country into this fascist dreamzone has been very intentional.

      Most people here seem to genuinely think they aren’t racist as well. The entire concept isn’t understood and that is very much on purpose. We are all “equal”. It’s a version of the “I don’t see colour” but applied to absolutely everything, from poverty to race.

      Happiest country in the world (by capitalist standards).

      • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        The comment on fat shaming made something click for me in my experience since I moved here. One of my coworkers has this weird obsession with not being fat, or more specifically, not being construed to be unhealthy. When the group decides where to eat lunch, they will interject weird comments about how this or that food like a sandwich is inherently unhealthy … and then they will vote to eat at an Indian place instead. Never mind that it’s all the same macros, in different form… what is “unhealthy” is just whatever foods arbitrarily have negative associations.

        You are right about many Finns not understanding racism. That’s true of most places I guess. It does take a distinct flavor here though.

        • Yes, this discussion is also what we grow up with. Every single food choice is noted and people always feel like they need to justify it if they decide to eat a piece of cake in public. Especially in work settings. It is like an endless bargaining game to earn the status of “the best performer” within these very narrow social norms.

          Diet talk and pushing that to people who are for example unemployed is also common. I work with folks who like to remind the poors that if they just lost weight their life would get better. A lack of empathy and zero understanding of anything structural is a pretty common trait regardless of education level here.

          Individualism as it is framed in neoliberalism has fit into the mindset here perfectly. If something happens to a person, it’s always on them. People have also internalized this exceptionally well. Be it getting sick or losing a job, the fault is always on the individual. If someone tries to point out they got laid off just because capitalism, this is treated like “yea sure”. But at the end of the day everyone thinks they are themselves just expectional enough that it can’t happen to them, but it is ok and reasonable when it happens to others.

          The capitalist apologia here is next level, even landlords are commonly framed as fully good actors who get treated with a lot of sympathy.

          But I suppose this is pretty common in all the neoliberal hells of today.

          • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            10 months ago

            The food thing sticks out to me because growing up, my parents were strict about my eating habits and subtly negged me about it. I was afraid to be caught grabbing a snack and felt shameful if they saw me eating outside the primary meals. It is amazing that I don’t have an eating disorder today — I simply brute forced their acceptance of my eating habits with pure angst in my teenage years. I’ve always had a healthy bodyweight and my parents were both obese, so it was easy to decide they didn’t know shit about nutrition.

            Agree on the individualism stuff too, I’m definitely sensing that here. Still learning the culture though.

          • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
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            10 months ago

            But I suppose this is pretty common in all the neoliberal hells of today.

            Oh yes. I am not sure how prevalent this mentality among the “proper” blue collar workers in Russia, but it sure is amongst the labor aristocracy that is the IT

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          10 months ago

          When the group decides where to eat lunch, they will interject weird comments about how this or that food like a sandwich is inherently unhealthy … and then they will vote to eat at an Indian place instead.

          geordi-no Refusing to eat sandwiches because they’re unhealthy.

          geordi-yes Refusing to eat sandwiches because they’re English food.

  • Melonius [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    Give it a few years and they’ll flip it on its head. You can’t deny such a great achievement - the Holocaust. Why would you play down our numbers? It really happened once we can do it again!

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      More likely it’ll just metasticize into a full blown Red Scare, with any opposition to the government line flagging you as a criminal or terrorist.

      I’m surprised Holodomor Denial isn’t already treated with the same severity. Maybe they can lump in Islamic Extremism and start using French style burka bans to harass Muslim women for their own good.

  • Vncredleader [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    By linking the two and spreading outfight fascist “double genocide” shit they are going to make it so opposition to double genocide, any attempt to criticize Finland for its active role in the Holocaust and Lebensraum is “holocaust denial”

    Also how do we not have a “Finland_Cool” emote?