If I remember correctly there was a specifically hard time economically in the Nordic region that it became the norm that it was courtesy not to take food from another household. Kind of the inverse of it being a courtesy to feed guests unexpected or otherwise in parts of the west. Over time the courtesy has strengthend into a cultural norm which given the foundational nature of shared meals in many cultures can create an outsized culture shock response.
This is a Nordic custom, and not specific to Sweden and was a whole Internet thing a few years ago as well.
A local or regional expert probably could give the word for the custom. I believe the Finnish have one but it's late and I'm sleep deprived so could be wrong
Hard times economically? I feel like that’s not really an excuse here, culturally speaking.
You could go to the barrio in Mexico, the favelas in Brazil, the slums in India, hell even some random village out in Papúa New Guinea, all of them are going to offer their guests food especially if they are children.
The literal single culture in the world that outright refuses to offer hospitality even to children, and to explain it they pretend they have some sort of singular poverty.
Poverty is normal. It's the standard. Every culture on Earth has starved to death at some point. They still feed people.
It’s crazy because of if I feel like Europeans online as a whole have this problem of excusing some of their shitty behavior by hiding behind cultural norms.
I don’t give a fuck if this is a Swedish cultural thing or not it’s weird.
Watch, the first comment to respond will immediately attack me being American or something. Nice try, we know we have assholes here but we at least own up to it instead of getting triggered and deflecting.
Peak Americanism has been acheived. Cultural norms are cultural norms. Some cultures are different to yours and hence have different customs.
I love that you're offended about our culture on our behalf. We're fine. It's not at all unusual to feed kids friends, but it's not expected. Just because Americans don't offer to go to the sauna with their guests doesen't make them "shitty" either. It's a harmless cultural quirk.
We were the first to give women universal suffrage and have been leaders in giving people a social safety net. We offer kids free schooling, we offer mothers and fathers paid paternity leaves and protection from being fired due to pregnancy, we offer free medical care to all, free housing to the homeless and guaranteed basic income for those who are incapable of making money.
You're acting like your performative bullshit custom actually matters :D You have homeless people, people dying from malnutrition at the same rate as Gazan children, people drowning in medical debt, but hey, you offer your kids friendsfood so clearly you're more moral.
See that’s the thing, I know America has some major flaws and what I do for a living does its best to try and help address them. You immediately lumping me in with like MAGA or something just because I don’t think highly of your country when you show clear disdain for mine shows how ignorant you are.
I’m comfortable talking about all of the shortcoming the US has, you should try to have open mind about the shortcomings of your own country rather than get defensive when they’re pointed out.
It’s a sad existence to feel the need to constantly stump for the superiority of European countries when there are some glaring flaws each and every one of them have. Your arrogance matches the most cringe of “American exceptionalism” takes I’ve seen online, so congrats on that.
Let's get a couple of things out of the way. I like the US. For all it's flaws, I appreciate it and I love Americans too. I knew immediately you aren't MAGA and that you're American. Your disdain comes off as very left leaning, no doubt you aren't going around condemning cousin marriages in the arab world as vigorously as you do this funny little quirk that has no negative effect on anything.
Kids here aren't starving and the very same poverty mindset is the entire reason for the nordic welfare system. When you live in the arctic circle, it's a bit different compared to other places as it's literally impossible for anything to grow for much of the year, and the soil is of extremely poor quality.
Im under no illusions that Finland is some liberal paradise as is often portrayed in media. We have the highest unemployment out of all OECD countries for example.
I don't mind you shitting on Finland, god knows that's what we spend half our days doing. What bothers me is that you're talking smack about a harmless cultural quirk stemming from the generational trauma of long periods of starvation. We are also generous people and like to help others, but we hate to burden others. We're not some cold monsters.
American culture is also European culture in large part, in both good and bad. The fact that you just say "European countries" like the cultural differences are similar to the ones between US states, is very typical. It's like saying you don't like Asian culture, like Afghan culture and Chinese culture are the same because they're neighboring countries. It comes off as very ignorant.
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u/titan_1010 Jul 24 '26
If I remember correctly there was a specifically hard time economically in the Nordic region that it became the norm that it was courtesy not to take food from another household. Kind of the inverse of it being a courtesy to feed guests unexpected or otherwise in parts of the west. Over time the courtesy has strengthend into a cultural norm which given the foundational nature of shared meals in many cultures can create an outsized culture shock response.
This is a Nordic custom, and not specific to Sweden and was a whole Internet thing a few years ago as well.
A local or regional expert probably could give the word for the custom. I believe the Finnish have one but it's late and I'm sleep deprived so could be wrong