Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Myths About Scandinavia

The NY Post had an amusing article about the myth of Scandinavian happiness. There are serious problems with the essay, as it collects together a mishmash of semi-related items, some backed up by evidence, some just blowing, uh, smoke out its nostrils.  There is an air of college BS term paper, where you have some general knowledge and a few anecdotes, trying to rope all that together into proving some point or another. I recognise this because of nostalgia.

Nonetheless, even applying a 50% discount on the facts here, I think there is something to it.  And it's fun.

10 comments:

terri said...

umm..so after reading the article, my first thought was is bestiality really legal in Denmark?

I mean, really?

That has to be a joke, right?

I went to type that in my search engine and thought, "I hope my search terms never see the light of day."

LOL

Texan99 said...

Soldiers in hairnets!

Sam L. said...

"... there are those who want to portray Islam as violent, root and branch, and would prefer that none of its adherents remain within our borders unless they specifically abjure violence. Many (though not all) of the other major immigrant groups to America couldn't have met that standard either."

I'm going with ALL, AVI

Texan99 said...

I don't expect people to give up all violence, particularly if they feel they need to protect themselves, and even more particularly if they're living in a time when they know pretty well that the authorities aren't going to do it.

I draw the line at people who claim the right to engage in violence to prevent anyone from expressing thoughts inconsistent with their orthodoxy.

The Mad Soprano said...

Where did this idea of rating a country by how happy its people come from? And why are people treating it as fact?

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Anything put forward in scientific language that you want to believe is a fact.

Sam L. said...

Scientific language? May be the words, but it's all bafflegab in structure.

Grim said...

Before you laugh too hard, check this piece from Straight Dope on American levels of bestiality.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2387/has-1-in-8-people-had-sex-with-an-animal

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I have seen these, and keep hoping there is something inaccurate about them. I'm not willing to think about it hard enough to criticise the science, myself.

Retriever said...
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