I gotta ask what the suicide rate did in that time though. I'm not saying it's all bad mind you. I was being hyperbolic in my previous post.
Hmm, Swede's suicide rate is lower than the OECD average, look it up. However, they're higher than some places, but things like lack of sunlight / dark winters are a factor close to the arctic. Look up season effects on suicide and depression. Any comparison of different nations needs to take those things into account, too.
However, you wouldn't be wrong to think they do, as they are often reported to have an extreme suicide rate, but it's a myth:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-secular-life/201712/no-sweden-does-not-have-the-highest-suicide-rate
sure, Sweden is higher on suicide than UK or USA, but it's about the same as France or Ireland, and lower than Belgium. All of which are definitely not Protestant nations. Sweden is therefore right in the middle of the pack of developed nations.
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Scandinavian-countries-have-high-suicide-rates
I think we can find an example of a higher-than-average-suicide nation which follows pretty much each and every religion on Earth, including atheism. China is pretty high, damn atheists killing themselves. So is Japan, damn shinto/buddhists, also lots of Atheists. So is India: being Hindu makes you suicidal. Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox and probably Muslims too.
You'd have to compare with the years during which the Protestant work ethic idea was more prominant, though, not modern Sweden, for Hanslanda's comment to be countered.
I mean the protestant work ethic is like 90% responsible for why the Nordic socialist model functioned and why Sweden could go from the poorest country in Europe to the most equal country in the world in less than 100 years, so I tend to be biased towards it.
Why give the credit to religious morals? By that same rule of thum I guess the reason for Ireland, going from being one of the poorest countries in the EU to one of the wealthiest by GDP per capita, is Catholic guilt?
You could say that, but Catholic guilt would be less relevant to the work ethic of a people than a religious geist specifically about work ethic. The protestant work ethic can pretty much be summed up in three pillars: 1, Always to your full ability (or just "never don't work"); 2, Never ask for help; 3, Always help those who ask for help. This is a mentality that works very well in conjunction with the socialist ideals.
TL,DR: I think they are bullshit concepts popularized by a religious elite who want to take credit for the hard work and struggle of the working class
While I certainly can't deny that that is also the case, I feel that there is often a very donkey-stubborn need for modern leftist to deny the accomplishments of the past that was pursued or impelled by religious ideas or organisations- particularly by people from the US, where I feel the current view of the Religious Right as an philosophical enemy also colours their perspective on religious stuff in the past.
Now, don't get me wrong, I still maintain that the secularization of Sweden is the single most beneficial thing to happen to the Swedish folk-mind, but I can still see that there was things we benefited from that were religiously related as well. The three big main ones that I usually bring up is, for example, how the free religious communities were very active and influential in the strife for civil liberty, particularly the right for all to vote; the singularly great part they took in the "soberisation" of Sweden and moving it from a place where 96% of the people were drinking hard liquor like it was beer (literally - with the advent of burning liquor during the early modern age liquor replaced soft beer/ale as the every day drink of choice, but they kept drinking in the same amount, meaning we went from having weak 0,5-2% proof stuff with every meal to having 20-40% drinks with every meal, breakfast, dinner, supper, meaning a majority of the population was basically going through the 18th and 19th century in a perpetual drunk), and the foundational idea that all people are equals. I'm not saying these wouldn't have happened without the activism and ideas of religious influence (the secularist and anti-religious sentiment that grew concurrently with the above convinces me that it probably would have (although, to be honest, part of the secularist movement were free-religious too, wanting to secure their ability to exist in spite of the state-church)), but as it happened, religion
did play a major part in them.
There really aren't any burritos anywhere near here. There's exactly one place I know of that even serves burritos, and prides itself on that fact, but it's this weird self-important art cafe and the one burrito I ate there was only just kinda so-so, in addition to being served lukewarm. And I was sitting on the floor, because raised chairs are too derivative.
The standard "coffee and hotdog" kiosks also experimented with taquitos, and even though they were standard kiosk-quality food the attempt at flavor was a nice change of pace. Apparently didn't work too well though, because two days later I went back and they'd scoured the shop of anything taquito-related.
Also, I was hoping that I'd feel better enough by now that I could get out of the house and relax with a beer down at the pub, now that it's not the weekend and completely fucking insane. But, no, of course I have to spend five days on a 24-hour cold.
In Sweden buying burritos would be unheard of. You buy the bread and ingredients/condiments and stuff it yourself, before you stuff yourself with it. Don't Norway have taco nights too?
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Topic: Things that made you mildly upset today thread (Read 859096 times)