This Country Keeps Going Farther And Farther Right...

[@nachofast6144]

I am a student in Finland and the Coalition and Finns party getting the support they have is terrifying to me on a personal level as well. If they start working together and drive forward right wing ideas like tuition payments I will have to stop studying and don't know what I will do with my life after that. I fucking despise those two parties in particular

[@soneasterzombie502]

Seeing "right wing ideas like tuition payments" as a university student in america really puts europe into perspective for me

[@Invalourrr-vb3xo]

Shit sucks yea, hope they don't win

[@nepolana1407]

I wouldn’t worry that much because chances are it’s not going to affect you since you’re already enrolled. It’s like raising tuition fees in the UK. Plus Finland is generally pretty strict about public funded education like most of Europe. Anyways yeah those two parties still suck

[@xBINARYGODx]

@@soneasterzombie502 why? that is right wing - you just forgot that D's are not left AT ALL.

[@NiklasHansen-pf3ry]

Yeahh.. its terrifying they dont want their w m n graped n k* lled by f r ign people and revert back to what worked before - almost like tolerating bad behavior is not progression, who woulda thought..

[@AK-jm1sc]

Vaush you have to keep in mind that there aren't really as many supporters of the far-right as it seems compared to the general population. The thing is that they are essentially one of the only socially far right parties in Finland compared to multiple center-left and left-wing parties on social issues. Meaning the votes get easily split between center and left-wing voters, while those who buy into the right-wing fear-mongering end up all voting for just this one party. That pushes their numbers up, because the vote doesn't get split between like 4-5 parties.

[@SagaciousNJ]

That should concern you. The gop hasn't won the majority of a national election in 50 years. But they still win as minority party due to the fact that they've modified our institutions to favor them. Which makes them unafraid to impose wildly unpopular policies.

[@Bisquick]

Holy shit, not to be a dick but I'm genuinely concerned at the constant doubling down on these kind of rationalizations for US empire's "full spectrum domination. You're not gonna understand any of this shit without at least _some_ grasp of that macro understanding of tidal _material_ forces as a continuity of class society and its evolution. There is no contradiction when one has a grasp of historical materialism ie grounding history to a _materialist_ description of class society and its trajectory. Ain't no war but the class war. The US has positioned itself as the "consumer of last resort" at the end of the global supply chain to absorb inevitable overproduction of capitalism through cheap consumption or of course through our favorite activity of war/arms sales (military Keynesianism, the only button we can push at this point clearly), launching itself to hegemony post-WWII via imposing the Bretton-Woods international financial system with the US dollar as the "global reserve currency" using the leverage of being the only industrialized nation-state _not_ bombed to shit (US made sure of this with Dresden/Tokyo fire-bombings and of course the entirely unnecessary atomic bombings which were solely to draw radioactive lines in the sand toward the USSR) and taking the imperial baton from the British and their pound sterling. NATO is an arms distribution network for the military industrial complex and essentially the public face of a European sphere of US domination, covertly enforced by a "strategy of tension" template seen in things like Operation Gladio in Italy (see: "years of lead", Aldo Moro assassination, Bologna bombings, etc.) with parallel operations in every NATO country (and even the ostensibly "neutral" countries like Belgium, Sweden *_and including Finland_* , what a surprise such cultivated ultranationalism and its corresponding ideological tunnel-vision persists - Austria in fact having done an extensive internal investigation after discovering this if I recall) where the CIA directed fascist paramilitary insurgencies to stoke public fear toward particular goals favorable to US corporate/finance capital and continued US hegemony. Its internally recognized geopolitical functionality as succinctly put by its first sec.gen Lord Ismay was to, _"keep the Americans in, the Germans down, and the Russians out"_ and what a "coincidence", it continues to enforce this state of affairs, especially obvious when one notes the obvious destruction of Nord Stream II by the US as corroborated by Seymour Hersh's reporting, aptly described by an associate as "deconstructing the obvious." Even more generally when viewed through a historical materialist lens, I would say keeping industrial Germany from uniting with the resources of Russia has been a geopolitical imperative for maintaining regional spheres of bourgeoisie influence since...well, since Westphalia I guess (~1648?) lol, but more recently since the massively consequential and conveniently never discussed early 20th century and interwar period in Europe, beginning in 1914 with the split within the international socialist movement over providing war credits to fund WWI, rhetorically bludgeoned with calls to "unity" around the German empire (might sound familiar...). Prior to the 1918 German "revolution" that formalized the Weimar republic (capitulating slightly more democratic rights/kicking out the Kaiser, etc.), post-WWI the momentum for a wholly socialist revolution (worker ownership/control of means of production to be clear), the very event Marx had predicted and the one the bolsheviks were _explicitly_ counting on to cohere and cement an industrial production base for a socialist-aligned project (else be doomed from the start and forced toward an "authoritarian" state capitalism in the geopolitical context of competitive nation-states to force industrialization of the largely feudal Tsarist Russia and consequently relegated to the dust bin of history), was kicked off by sailor revolts and various other domestic uprisings but was put down by various duplicitous forces within the SPD/USPD _"social democratic"_ party with folks like Freidrich Ebert who were presumably too comfortable in their bourgeois lives atop the commanding heights of society to risk such upheaval, supporting and directing the freikorps paramilitary (analogous to the American Legion, etc. - not a coincidence either as their raison d'être is as an extralegal enforcement of class society, comprised of veterans/"morally injured" people with essentially a usefully narrow ideological tunnel-vision usually to some nationalist ideal, many integrated into the brownshirts and likewise similar to Mussolini's street thug paramilitary the blackshirts; Italian parallel illuminated by the infamous March on Rome) to put down the revolts. All of this is to say... does _any_ of this shit sound familiar?! lol... _"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."_ As it turns out, the nazis didn't really lose WWII...I mean my god, the CIA's raison d'être is essentially as the SS 2.0 for transnational corporate/finance capital. The only distinction between the US neoliberal corporate empire and the third Reich fascist project seems more aesthetic/ideological than anything else, chopping off the viscerally ultranationalist id (fascist political theorists like literal nazi Carl Schmitt noting this distinction of authentic ultranationalism as the essence of "the political" itself; basically a tribal friend/enemy distinction at its core, check out his self-described "political theology" The Concept of the Political for more here) in favor of a generic "cost-effective" corporate sheen (serving "the market" gods essentially; an unconscious ideological drive to maximize "efficiency" aka capital accumulation in neoclassical/neoliberal econ), trading an explicitly racist ideological lens for one guided by that drive toward technocratic "efficiency". Sheldon Wolin's conception of "inverted totalitarianism" elaborates this well. Hell, far from hyperbole, post-WWII and beyond the more well-known/acquiesced Operation Paperclip, the CIA not only protected non-science-related high-level nazi leadership in the ratlines to South America (useful for things like Operation Condor aka the Monroe Doctrine 2: no sovereignty for you - also see: banana wars, a deep historical continuity of US empire if anyone's circumstantially unfamiliar) but put _literal SS_ on the payroll for their anticommunist "counterinsurgency" bona fides aka terrorism guided by that useful ultranationalist (which is to say, inherently racist, necessarily defined by a negation of an "other") ideological tunnel-vision utilized a la that "strategy of tension"; Klaus "butcher of Lyon" Barbie in France/Bolivia, Reinhard Gehlen of the Gehlen Organization (who literally helms the West German BND), Otto Skorzeny of the Paladin Group who is basically nazi james bond, just to name a few...if I recall Hans Speidal was literally NATO supreme commander or whatever the fuck the stupid title is, aaaand yeah, literal nazi, shocker. In regards to Ukraine specifically, there's a leaked call of Victoria Nuland from 2014 ( youtu [dot] be/WV9J6sxCs5k ), kicking off the war in the Donbass (unsurprisingly entirely unmentioned by corporate press), that anyone can listen to where she says "fuck the EU" and "magically" picks the next Ukraine president, which gives you an idea of the "freedom" and "sovereignty" constantly appealed to to manufacture consent (also see: Chomsky/Herman's book of the same title regarding corporate media propaganda filters, Ukraine being a perfect example of a "worthy victim" also described in that text). She says, _“I don’t think Klitsch_ [Vitaly Klitschko] _should go into government… I think Yats_ [Arseniy Yatseniuk] _is the guy…“_ The immediate issue was whether to accept a loan from the International Monetary Fund which was going to require a 40% increase in natural gas bills or to accept a loan from Russia with the inclusion of cheap oil and gas. The opposition wanted the Yanukovych government to take the EU/IMF loan. The opposition was comprised of different factions, undeniably including the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party and Right Sector. And there is where it all connects to financial empire of the US, as usual, it's not "pro-Russia", it's merely an objectively better deal on energy, similar to the absolute clusterfuck amounting to imposed deindustrialization we are _demanding_ of Germany. Point being, there's your notions of "freedom" and "sovereignty" under the global financial order run at the behest of US corporate/finance capital. Which is all to say, to think this overarching historical continuity of tidal material forces is...irrelevant, or "whataboutism" is naïve contrarianism for its own sake at best, this is a descriptive explanation of geopolitical functionality (ie US hegemony/financial empire) not a normative defense of grotesque violence (I would think this would go without saying, but many like this Vaush dipshit seem quite eager to conflate these instead of, god forbid, _learn_ about the reality that slaps us all across the face at every waking moment rather than shrug eternally at the exponentially compounding contradictions, god knows why). Unclear what this type of moralizing bullshit is supposed to actually achieve in peoples' minds, but all it ends up actually doing is dividing people and fracturing/alienating people through abrasive performative piety, a preference for perpetual reaction and permanent farce. _"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."_ - William Casey, -demonic arcon- CIA Director under Reagan

[@Bisquick]

Also! (lol) Reminded of Michael Parenti, an excerpt from his piece Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty, which highlights this lacuna cultivated under the auspices of global US empire ("imperialism" btw has a specific definition which is the passive extraction of wealth/resources/labor through structural means, not like..."being mean" to a neighbor, or as the US nebulously - ie _usefully_ - defined it at Nuremburg, a "war of aggression" (lol like...no shit...meaningless category that prima facie obscures any historical context/continuity by de facto appealing to an authority which of course happens to be the nation-state with global military omnipresence...oh what a surprise, it's the US), correctly called out by many at the time as an institutional charade to construct the global chessboard of the "cold" war for the benefit of US corporate/finance capital; a "cold" war which wasn't very "cold" for most of the world, e.g. under the metric tonnage of napalm bombs dropped on Vietnam or the totalized leveling of the Korean peninsula, to name but two explicit military actions with no USSR analogue whatsoever); anyway, here's Parenti who highlights the basic logic and asks what is really the _only_ political question - cui bono? (Who benefits?): _"In their perpetual confusion, some liberal critics conclude that foreign aid and IMF and World Bank structural adjustments “do not work”; the end result is less self-sufficiency and more poverty for the recipient nations, they point out. Why then do the rich member states continue to fund the IMF and World Bank? Are their leaders just less intelligent than the critics who keep pointing out to them that their policies are having the opposite effect?_ _No, it is the critics who are stupid not the western leaders and investors who own so much of the world and enjoy such immense wealth and success. They pursue their aid and foreign loan programs because such programs do work. The question is, work for whom? Cui bono?_ _The purpose behind their investments, loans, and aid programs is not to uplift the masses in other countries. That is certainly not the business they are in. The purpose is to serve the interests of global capital accumulation, to take over the lands and local economies of Third World peoples, monopolize their markets, depress their wages, indenture their labor with enormous debts, privatize their public service sector, and prevent these nations from emerging as trade competitors by not allowing them a normal development._ _In these respects, investments, foreign loans, and structural adjustments work very well indeed._ _The real mystery is: why do some people find such an analysis to be so improbable, a “conspiratorial” imagining? Why are they skeptical that U.S. rulers knowingly and deliberately pursue such ruthless policies (suppress wages, rollback environmental protections, eliminate the public sector, cut human services) in the Third World? These rulers are pursuing much the same policies right here in our own country!_ _Isn’t it time that liberal critics stop thinking that the people who own so much of the world---and want to own it all---are “incompetent” or “misguided” or “failing to see the unintended consequences of their policies”? You are not being very smart when you think your enemies are not as smart as you. They know where their interests lie, and so should we."_ To echo Rosa Luxemburg from 1918 Germany, before of course being executed by the freikorps paramilitary mentioned in my last rant (later becoming the SS btw, shocker) at the behest of Ebert's, again, ostensibly _social democratic_ SPD party, almost immediately resonating the truth of such a succinct political dichotomy to this day: *_socialism or_* [continued] *_barbarism._* Some books coming to mind: The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins, Killing Hope by William Blum, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, The Devil's Chessboard by David Talbot, American Exception by Aaron Good, anything by Michael Parenti, etc.

[@kapelski104]

Well there are a few even crazier nazi parties in Finland such as Sinimustaliike, Valta kuuluu kansalle, Vapauden liitto and Korjausliike. Those are all super small though. I myself voted for Vasemmistoliitto which is a medium sized leftist party.

[@TheEclecticDyslexic]

​@@Bisquick nice copy pasta manifesto that isn't related at all to OP's comment. Very cool. OP: Finland has lots of left wing choices and only one real right wing party, so right wing votes coalless behind one part while left votes disperse. You: Here is my 10,000 word essay on the history of US hegemony to explain why your comment defending it is bad. Also here is a reading list. Me: wait... When the fuck did anyone mention the US and NATO here? He just made a comment about how the math of broad vs narrow classifications affect voting patterns... Also, at least wait for 3 people to like your comment before you like it yourself my dude. 😆

[@kisikisikisi]

The anti-beggar thing is less about poverty and more about racism and xenophobia. Homelessness is very uncommon here, so most of the beggars come from other places. It's a braindead policy too, since there are very few beggars here. I live in one of the largest cities and there is one (1) beggar I see somewhat regularly.

[@pogo8050]

It’s like Romani people from the former warzaw pact countries. They were everywhere in every city in Denmark some years ago, but with covid they basically all disappeared.

[@dantecaputo2629]

I bet it’s that one Romanian lady at Helsinki station. She’s actually kind of nice once you get to know her, though I’m 70% sure the calendars she sells are stolen

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

Don't know about Suomi but here in Sweden many "beggars" are victims/volunteers in scam rings, usually ran by people from the balkans or gypsies. This combined with the fact that any EU citizen can literally go and get a place to live for free makes people skeptical and look down upom them.

[@jacksmith-vs4ct]

@@TitaniusAnglesmith yeah saying its all people from the balkans or Romani sounds pretty racist

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

@@jacksmith-vs4ct The majority of these rings are carried out by Romanians. I'm not saying all beggars are scammers or that all Romanians are scammers.

[@Idarak1]

I love Vaush getting stunlocked and researching foreign countries. that Google Maps stream was one of my faves

[@slevinchannel7589]

'Some More News' just uploadeeed

[@thomasfromdenmark6894]

He apparently needs to research quite a lot more…

[@AD-gl2wi]

@@thomasfromdenmark6894 Yeah, so does everyone. The pursuit of knowledge never really ends, does it

[@IdiotBoxProductionsTV]

Yup same

[@sandollor]

Haha same!

[@livo3203]

Nobody tell them about our air force insignia...

[@lvrbad5588]

they've changed it a while ago thank god

[@JonDundas10]

Why what was it? (Canadian here)

[@soppa9871]

@@lvrbad5588Don’t tell him about the presidential flag

[@dancing5005]

@@JonDundas10 It was an insignia from WW2 back when we were allied to The Axis, and featured a swastica with airplane properrels around it

[@diegokorhonen]

The swastika is from 1918 nothing to do with nazis.

[@hollyrowlands6943]

A lot of Europe is relatively warm for its latitude as it receives warm water from the Gulf Stream, driven by "thermohaline circulation"/oceanic conveyer belt of currents. Canada is also a huge country so most of its climate is continental and not really influenced by oceans/seas, which often increase temperatures as water has a greater heat capacity than land (maritime climates tend to experiences mild winters and cool summers).

[@luxborealis]

Yeah, it’s why in Norway you can have snow free winters on the coasts, but drive three hours inland and you’re looking at winter temperatures easily fifteen degrees below freezing, often colder.

[@trustyvault13canteen32]

At least for today, thanks climate change

[@Lambda_Ovine]

I s that why Massachusetts gets significantly colder during winter than, say, Spain, even though they are basically around the same latitude?

[@Lotan_]

@@Lambda_Ovine Yup.

[@Lotan_]

The reason the UK doesn't have a harsher climate despite being level with most of Canada is due to the Caribbean winds that carry over the Atlantic. Pretty cool to read how unique the environment here is due to factors like that.

[@MPostma72]

No, it's not. It's due to the Gulf Stream, the current warming the Northern Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Finland doesn't get this benefit, because it's on the Baltic Sea.

[@Lotan_]

@@MPostma72 ....And where do you think that stream comes from?

[@images650]

The left party was 300 votes away from getting a representative from my constituency :(

[@Sashitoge]

Take the energy you've gotten from how Vaush rallies his yankee viewerbase to help with their elections and see how you can help our guys in Finland. Depending on your age, the membership for the Left party is literally just 8€ a year if you have little or no income, and the youth wing is literally free iirc. You can progress from there.

[@eriksvensson6054]

Leftie L

[@BobbaLove]

Thank you for this segment, as a Finn I literally cried the election results day. We have been known around the world for our robust welfare system and education and I can’t believe people are just willing to throw that away for empty promises and racism. However the work on the left shall continue even harder 💪

[@dupli5414]

U are such babies. This was a standard result that is unlikely to cause dramatic shifts. Finland has been on this road for at least since the 90s

[@BobbaLove]

@@dupli5414 yes i’m such a baby for having feelings about things

[@dupli5414]

@@BobbaLove Inability to differentiate between having emotions and crying over normal things doesnt really make you look any less of a one.

[@lempaalandiktaattori2163]

I'd recommend getting into economics and that way you could maybe understand why expense cuts are needed to save Finland from the insanely high dept rates.

[@dupli5414]

@biibiib buubuubNah I was emotionally quite positively affected by Green Alliance's loss

[@jiffyalt4259]

God we're gonna lose so many good femboys if these people take power

[@franz643]

UwU

[@BlueTyphoon2017]

How? Wait, why would we loose femboys in Finland?

[@ZachRULES96]

Felix is banned from Finland

[@franz643]

@@ZachRULES96 OwO who theres a lot of people named Felix

[@rudeboyjohn3483]

Hands off the femboys!!!!

[@bumblebeeatbreadloaf1286]

The conservative far right True Finns party isn't even very left wing economically. Sure they talk like that sometimes but when they must stand by their words (which is rarely because they're mostly in the opposition) they come off as right wing. They oppose taxes and just few days ago they did a full 180 on a topic and betrayed the workers and attacked the unions for defending the workers. The True Finns have been able to gain an audience because they've barely held any positions of power. Talk is cheap and their talk is full of inconsistencies. If they get into government with the moderate right their support will eventually fall for sure.

[@EE-gv9wt]

I hope they have some good democratic safeguards, wouldn't want the orban scenario again. I hope this uptick in far right politics in finland and sweden goes the afd way and not the national front way.

[@otto_jk]

@@EE-gv9wt in Finland because of the electorial system it's basically impossible for a party to gain over 30% of the vote forcing all parties to form coalition governments

[@pietukiiskinen2403]

Our electoral system is designed in a way that basically doesn't let any party gain a majority. All the other (major) parties range from socialism (everything from communists to demsocs), to more moderate socdems and to neolib types (american dems). Combined those other parties get about 80% of votes in each election so I'm not really worried about our democracy. The welfare state on the other hand is in grave danger as it's being eroded by far more parties.

[@nepolana1407]

@@EE-gv9wt I think they actually were in the government some time ago. Also all European populist like to talk big and try and dismantle some aspects of democracy but usually the EU steps in and stops the funding. Most EU funds (like the Covid recovery fund) are approved with the condition that the member state must adhere to the rule of law. Of course each country reacts differently. You have Hungary with Fidesz hell bent on their own thing, then you have PiS in Poland which is basically held hostage by its even more far right collation partner Solidarna Polska. With Poland the government is actually trying meet the EU’s conditions on judiciary reforms but you have this tiny party with like 10 MPs holding the country hostage. At the end of the day those parties don’t want to lose EU funds because it would be a political suicide since the EU is so popular and its funds go to agricultural sectors which usually vote conservative.

[@avinashreji60]

@@pietukiiskinen2403 Well, the erosion of the Post-War Consensus is what is leading to the backsliding of democracy

[@Alias_Anybody]

So guys, who'll tell Vaush about the Gulf Stream and the difference between mountain ranges going east-west and north-south?

[@Azdroc96]

Listening to Vaush struggle to say Finnish words and names feels both offensive and hilarious at the same time.

[@jennoscura2381]

I do my best to try and pronounce things correctly. But I am a native speaker of English and Spanish. I have Finnish ancestry on my dad's side and my mom is a Mexican immigrant. I am a Mexifin. Or as I gather you would say in Suomi Suomeksikolainen. LOL

[@Azdroc96]

@@jennoscura2381 I appreciate the effort and the joke. Personally I would just say suomenmeksikolainen or meksikonsuomalainen. If you live in the US that would make you American first.

[@crewd00d]

Attempting earnestly to pronounce something correctly is not and can not be offensive.

[@Azdroc96]

@@crewd00d Vaush isn't trying that hard.

[@crewd00d]

@@Azdroc96 well hopefully the marginalized group known as the Fins are not deeply hurt by Vaush's unfamiliarity with their language. That would be tragic 💔

[@DannyDeee]

Scary how people constantly keep falling for the idea that far right politics will actuelly make the world a better place.

[@spugelo359]

Even scarier that people think that left wing ideas are the only right ideas. Personally, fuck both right and left. But fuck you specifically.

[@Caldera01]

Leftist Finn here, I'm concerned, but not scared whatsoever. The Finns party is not a radical nazi party, it's a joke of a right wing populist party that historically has been willing to turncoat on all of its policies to jump into forming a government and then being surprised how people didn't take their turncoating kindly. The thing I'm concerned about is how regular people fail to see this pattern. The Finns Party is a complete clown world political party that will never amount to anything substantial because the moment they actually get to government, they have to drop one, or several of their fundamental policies, which fractures them again. Now, if Sinimusta Liike had this kind of popularity, THEN I'd be scared. Right now I'm more disappointed and concerned at my fellow citizen's stupidity in voting for this utter clown party.

[@TheseBitchesWantNikes]

​@@spugelo359Seconded

[@kisikisikisi]

This coverage of Finland and the finns' party was actually decent. Not great, but surprisingly accurate. As someone said, the gulf stream is the reason why europe is habitable. Without it, there would be no agriculture in the Nordics. And yeah if you don't want to off yourself, don't move here.

[@Sashitoge]

The biggest issue, imo, is the framing of the whole thing; the right-wing populist party didn't rise up to become the second largest party, they _remained_ they second largest party. But yeah, concluding that they have no consistent beliefs beyond immigrants and woke bad is probably the best way to sum it op without going into details. It's a shame there isn't much reason to go into this in more detail like when Adamsomething came to explain the situation in Germany. This Finnish election had basically zero effect on our foreign politics, and as Vaush kind of rudely noted, there are not so many of us that our internal politics would be of consequence to much of his audience.

[@AK-jm1sc]

Suicide rate in Finland is actually pretty much on the same level as the European average. There was a time in history when it was higher, but I believe that was due to the trauma and after-effects of the war.

[@Juhz0r]

For sure. It's kinda frustrating to see all these comments of people saying "Vaush got it so wrong" and "I lost brain cells", when the coverage seemed mostly fine. Maybe people just have a thin skin and are offended by the "I don't care about your stupid country" bit? Some Canadians and Europeans take is so personally. Credit to where credit is due, Britbongers take the derision on the chin.

[@thelouster5815]

@@Juhz0r I mean in the face of the US’s power and influence pretty much all countries are inconsequential and irrelevant, the only two exceptions being Russia and China.

[@alewis514]

Isn't Finland basically 5 parties with circa 20 percent of vote each? Where it doesn't really matter who "wins" because the differences are measured in tenths of percentage points? It's mainly about who makes up coalition with whom to form the government. And no single political party is nowhere near being strong enough to form a solitary government. Those far-right Finns are known to be rather terrible coalition partners. They're way too far from dominant ideology in the country.

[@lardilordi666]

Currently it's three major parties (20% votes) then the votes drop off to around 10% and below, these elections were particularly centered around those major parties. Your point about forming the government is correct though. The winner gets to give it a try first so they still have a lot of control over the political landscape, but every party needs to make some compromises to fit together as a government. That government will also need to keep at least half of the parliament on their side throughout the election cycle or they will most likely be voted out. Because of this, the winning party will try to make a government with at least a hundred mp:s. Which parties they include to form this majority is up to them. Overall Finnish politics is much more about the balance of mp:s than any singular winner of an election.

[@renessanssimies384]

There are so many parties I can not even remember all of them. But there are couple relevant parties. Biggest three taked about 60-70% of all votes in this election. So there is much room to "things".

[@renessanssimies384]

@@Diego-og7nk With this result there are not anything smooth anywhere. Kokoomus wants True Finns (1) they can destroy taxbase and force poor people with them unlike wiyh any other option (2) True Finns actually cant negotiate anything. Their "gentleman in the Base Program" Luukkanen just joked about the coup the grace when there was not a single vote more to gain... with the party that actually could have something to give to True Finns.

[@renessanssimies384]

@@Diego-og7nk Yes. That is what I am trying to say with my Kermit voice. PS: Is True Finns far right? "Depends. How you define racism, nazism and woman." They are alt-right. Which is postmodern way to say "wrong".

[@Whatshisname346]

Like everyone on the far-right eventually they fall out and eat each other alive. There are too many personalities to be satisfied, egos to be massaged and too many clicks to be got.

[@harrihalonen9031]

Results of this election wasnt so drastic in big picture. Right wing parties have had 50-60 percent of the votes for a long time. It just that the "Basic Finns" have taken most of the votes from traditional center right party called "keskusta". This is of conserning due to the populist idelogy of the true finns. But last time the we had a right wing government True Finns lost majority of their support and had a internal coup. That lead to the more radical elements taking control of the party. True finns will avoid taking responsibility as long as possible.

[@andreastyle4338]

I'm Norwegian. Only ever lived in Norway. And yeah the seasonal depression is insane. Only thing that makes me wanna move away tbh lol.

[@tiberiuscodius5828]

Europe has warmer temperatures at the same latitude as North America due to the Gulf Stream bringing warm waters from the Caribbean northeast across the Atlantic. Finland may be at the same latitude as Northern Canada, but climatewise, it's closer to southern Canada

[@Odinsday]

Spain is on a similar latitude as New York, but it’s climate is more like California than anything.

[@--julian_]

no it's not due to the Jetstream, it is due to the gulf stream

[@pi172]

And the Hudson Bay has pretty much the opposite effect on North America. Weird how Vaush didnt seem to know about the Gulf Stream. PS: Yeah, you mixed up Streams here. Jet Stream is air stuff and has nothing to do with it.

[@19Szabolcs91]

This is all true, but if Vaush's main concern is the amount of sunlight in the winter, the gulf stream has no effect on that.

[@mikelmontoya2965]

@@Odinsday A lot of Spain is also on a similar latitude as California. My city for example is pretty much on the exact same latitude as San Francisco. But to be fair our climate is much more similar to LA or San Diego's than to San Francisco's.

[@juliphile6700]

Thing is the finnish far right is very different from the American far-right. Then again they aren't the best, but defintly not as open or aggressive as the 2 parties that gained were the Kokoomus (Center-Right/Conservative) and the Perus-Suomalaiset (National Populists) Also it has gained a lot of support lately from good use of social media and selling themselves as the "were strong, finland for finns" party.

[@khalidpatterson1422]

how are trans ppl treated over there ?

[@kajtekii4666]

fascism is fascism

[@netsong2239]

​​@@khalidpatterson1422 Most people have no problem. Even the large majority of the generic right wing Kokoomus party voted in favor of the new pro-trans law this year. The far right party is obviously very negative about trans stuff and uses populism to spread that negativity. It's not on a very high level though, "I heard in school that men can have periods" kind of stuff. Legislatively there are steps to be taken in the field of trans rights and funnily enough it's propably because just recently there was no large anti trans crowd. It's quite pathetic how the far right guys are literally just importing American bigotry to Finland and calling it nationalism. 100 years ago sexual (and maybe even gender) minorities faced like no discrimination in Finland. Seriously, you could just be gay, no problem. That's true tradition, my culture!

[@moustachio05]

​@@khalidpatterson1422 racism and xenophobia are the bigger problem here today but historically trans people have been treated badly

[@otto_jk]

@@netsong2239 the generations old tradition of "Don't ask, Don't tell" when it comes to anything personal had been strong

[@davitdavid7165]

I think the high happiness has to do with Finland being unirpnicaly a vanguard of socialism. Remember how the litteraly eliminated homelessness by building houses while saying it was cheaper for the government to do so? How based is that!

[@Stonecoldfrank]

Finland also has the highest overdose rate in Europe. Guess what, you put addicts in a house, all they do is overdose on a confortable bed. If you don't see them dying, then the Left thinks the problem has been solved. Same thing in LA and San Francisco, highest homeless overdose rates even if they're housed thanks to Newsom. Housing first is Finland's Potemkin.

[@Juhz0r]

Yeah, we have some good things going for us. However, there has been a trend of cutting from social programs and privatization of functions of the public sector. American social democrats have this romanticized view of the Nordic countries, but the same forces of capitalism that are active in America are also alive and well here.

[@Whatshisname346]

It’s not uncommon for politics to swing like this in Finland. People are impatient with governments and want it all as soon as possible. The problem with the (true) Finns is that they ran on nothing other than reducing non-EU migration and cutting the deficit. They knew (like any good populists) that everything else that was in their policy platform is very unpopular when it’s written down. Even the migration policy is nonsense because Finland isn’t producing enough high skilled graduates to fill jobs at the moment and because most European companies have similar issues the only choice is to import staff from outside the EU or set up shop outside the EU and lose tax revenue. The Finnish electorate also get off on fiscal conservatism right up until the point that they’re 5 years with zero growth because of it. By EU standards their debt to GDP ratio isn’t too bad considering COVID and the war. I can guarantee you the next government will be completely different again.

[@MrOtokka]

Se on kuulkaas niin poijjaat, että torille!

[@AvaruusArt]

Kyllä, torilla tavataan!

[@Juhz0r]

Näin on, näin on. Minä tuon juomat!

[@Lollero200q]

Vuush paha Vuush paha

[@OldemarFIN]

@@Lollero200q r/selvähommakaverivuush osio tai maahisvaihe alkaa

[@saltking2715]

even though finland ranks amongst the highest in happiness and wealth, they still vote for parties that want to slash the wellfare system. I think a big factor is the "keep mine", that wants to exclude less fortunate (imigrants etc) to maintain their status. Right wing parties will prey on that fear and enable liberal voters to vote against their own interest. Its quite depressing how easy it is to gain popularity as a right wing party. Social Democrats in finland have a great track record but apparently thats not enough to keep them in power

[@HerraTohtori]

As a Finn here's a summary of some things: The Finns Party is indeed a conglomeration of populists without a clear policy they adhere to. Individual members campaign on wildly varying agendas, but the party itself has some deep commitment issues, probably because that way they think they can have their cake and eat it, too. The leadership and other prominent figures in the party tend towards unnerving - Soini was just a populist loudmouth, but Halla-aho is an opportunistic creep that I could only describe as making my spidey senses tingle in a not good way. He feels like a guy yo do not want to give any power to in any circumstances. And their current chairperson, Purra, is superficially more agreeable, but gives off some handmaid's tale vibes. So there are some strong parallels to the Republican party, including a well developed ability to use brinkmanship to focus on certain key issues in order to convince their supporters to vote against their best interests. However, the Finns Party wasn't really the biggest winner in the recent elections. The National Coalition Party was the biggest winner and the largest party. They are pretty neutral in terms of social policies, but tend towards more capitalist side on the economic scale, at least for a Finnish party. The different Overton window here means that they're actually quite similar to the US Democratic Party, and probably woyld ve considered a left-wing party in the US. The largest of the left-wing parties, the Social Democratic Party, also gained seats but was left third in the elections. It's speculated that many voters of Left Party and Greens voted for SDP, which meant that although the SDP increased their seats, the left-green block as a whole lost seats mostly to the NCP but also to the Finns Party. We do not yet know which parties will be represented in the government, which will be a coalition government by several parties. The new government will almost certainly be headed by the leader of the largest party, NCP (Petteri Orpo). But whetger the Finns Party or SDP will be included, remains to be seen. It's basically either or, and a lot depends on the minor parties that will be needed to form a majority government.

[@keemokaamo559]

7:20 Finland has a very good safety net for the homeless so you very rarely see anyone begging on the streets and when you do, they are never white. So it's not anti poor. It's anti non-white.

[@falconeshield]

Funny how no one blinks when the homeless are used as puntive hate. God I hate the big three religions

[@dr_birb]

still anti poor

[@ghastlyghandi4301]

The untied states has always been far right, we can pretend all we want but don’t forget we’re the country that ethnically cleansed a third of an entire continent with full support of our official population. Partially today even.

[@aye2zee485]

lmao didn't watch before commenting.

[@ghastlyghandi4301]

@@aye2zee485 I did watch actually, I’m just saying the title is redundant.

[@aye2zee485]

@@ghastlyghandi4301 You clearly did not. You're bringing up the US when the video is about Finland.

[@ghastlyghandi4301]

@@aye2zee485 yeah my point is that no matter how bad Finland is the United States is worse, why the hell are we focusing on that when the United States is by all means 1000x worse? Or any other country for that matter, It’s also I why I brought up that the United States has always been this bad, because it is and no one talks about it.

[@aye2zee485]

@@ghastlyghandi4301 None of that has anything to do with my point that you commented without watching the video, I agree with it though lmao.

[@NerdyGuyRanting]

The reason Scandinavia is livable despite being far north and northern Canada isn't is because of the gulf stream. One of the worries about climate change is that if the sea levels rise it might change how the gulf stream flows and render Scandinavia unlivable.

[@jagged5078]

I am finnish and I don't believe there is much hatred against russians in Finland, but I think there actually might be hatred against Russia and its ruling class. Also some older people might hate Russia because they lost family members (both soldiers and civilians) during world war 2. On my fathers sides my great-grandfather died (and family lost their lands and property in Karelia) and on my mothers side my grandfather was wounded. Despite this I haven't ever heard any hatred against Russia on either side of my family. There has been some criticism against communism, but I don´t think that counts as hatred towards russians as a people.

[@storyspren]

Europe is way further north than a lot of Americans realize but also the Gulf Stream warms it up significantly (for now at least) so it's not as cold here as you'd expect from that comparison with Canada

[@agilagilsen8714]

This is one of those things that americans will always struggle with. Now obviously the problem is greater some places than other in europe. But, from voting historically in all of northern europe shows that 20% of the population roughly every year, and as much as 30/35% of people in some years depending on what happened in the last 4/8 years of government, simply lack the mental capacity to understand that a party promising to do absolutely everything is lying to you. There is always a party promising more welfare, more roads, more healthcare and so on, but also promising no taxes, etc. And a lot of people just blindly believe it. And there is a sad truth that these people are very often racist. In norway the stereotype of them are people on welfare, (which studies show is often true) vote against their own interest. Its just the same as in the US in many ways. Europe isn't really better, at least not in all ways. But it seems that often a multi party system is a benefit. Sadly, it takes a lot of years to build a good society. It only takes a year or two to tear it apart...

[@petterbirgersson4489]

1:55 - 2:55 Correct take.

[@schtreg9140]

That was pretty spot on for an American talking about European politics. Same shit everywhere.

[@falconeshield]

It really is "I'm trans rights, women are women, get back in the kitchen!" quoting a comedian. It doesn't happen.

[@Ougagagoubou]

There was no surge. Finns party is the shit party of Finland yes, but they've had around the same popularity for past 4 elections. This time the "leftists are careless with economy" worked in favor of right, though Finns party is still too freaky that it's more likely that the government will be made between the center-right (Kokoomus), social democratic party and few smaller ones. Just nobody agrees on anything with Finns party so they are sort of stuck being opposition party. It's not so much about Kokoomus (winning party) not being able to get together with them, but they need 1-2 other parties with them. Almost all the other parties have more or less inconceivable disagreements with Finns party. There's basically only one way to get Finns party in. If they do complete 180 on dimishing Swedish language, they could create Kok (center-right), Finns (far right), Christian democrats (right) and "Swedes" (fairly center). The first 3 could fix their disagreements, the "swedes" party is furthest away from Finns due to Finns being only party that says it's fine to ignore existence of our 2nd official language. There's tendency that every major party says hell yeah to Swedish party as they're considered valuable partner for government every time. You need 100+/200 seats and their steady ~9 seat presence as centerish party just makes them always popular when forming government. Finland is not going farther right. There's around 20% of population that votes for them, that has been steady for a while. Kokoomus isn't that bad, really only bad thing about them is that they want to make more services privatized. But this is nowhere near the nonsense US has going. All parties in Finland, except Finns, would fit within US democratic party. Most of us towards your "far left" more than whatever the center-left you have is.

[@Lollero200q]

Bullshit

[@RIPdixiecarter]

There is a reason why the most harsh Black Metal bands come from Nordic countries.

[@Dreigonix]

“AT SATAN’S BECK AND CAAAAAAAALL! I AM YOUR SLAVE, DADDYYYYYYYYYY!”

[@laurivalola1463]

The other parties in Finland are so similar in so many perspectives that many people vote for true Finn's just to shake it up a little. And Finn's party had a vast dominance in social media and short videos. This has greatly been proven off to be effective to the younger generation and as they age they're starting to see the votes coming in

[@Westlander857]

Despite their political differences they’ll still hang out in the sauna together and rub the long leafy thing on each other, I don’t know what it’s called ❤

[@RuSosan]

The leaf thing is a vihta.

[@markusa5293]

Also you don't rub it, you whip yourself with it haha

[@otto_jk]

@@RuSosan or vasta

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

"rub" is nice word for beat lol

[@AlluBB]

Not rubbing, hitting.

[@madsceptictrooper6803]

I can't believe how I used to support True Finns back in 2014-18. Actually I can because I used to be a fascist back in 2012-14 and libertarian back in 2015-19 and the party's political views are vague and self-contradicting. I'm glad I became a leftist in the late 2019. In fact, I voted for Social Democrats during the recent election. I know Hakim, Viki1999 and other leftists are angry with me for it but I had to vote for Social Democrats in the name of the left-wing alliance against the rise of fascism in Finland. I'm 100% sure Vaush can understand me. But I'm glad Finland is now finally a member of NATO. Maybe I should identify as a NATO leftist. It should be kept in mind that Republicans the American fascists hate NATO.

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

S is the only reasonable party in the north anymore, despite their splinelessness.

[@falconeshield]

Goodbye hawt left PM 😢

[@MazrixFi]

I still stuck in for the Left Alliance, since most of my area's LA candidates were pro-NATO. I anticipated TF gaining some traction but not nearly this much. Gonna have to start voting SDP aren't I? Christ...

[@TealJosh]

​@@MazrixFi no, please don't switch over to SDP. They don't need the help and gobble up a lot of potential seats from left and greens. Tactical voting is not a thing in our parliamentary elections. It completely useless.

[@GalacticNovaOverlord]

A NATO leftist? That's self contradictory...

[@taikamiya8214]

There's a guy on KZbin called "Some Leftist in Finland" who's covering this stuff. Vaush should try to talk to him.

[@falconeshield]

Are there catgirls?

[@jaeum1971]

hello, vowsh... the way to remember latitude vs longitude is by imagining the word latitude as laddertude. it goes up and down and you could climb it like a ladder. hope this helped. xd

[@AVspectre]

This… this will be immensely helpful. Thank you!

[@curve_stomped1508]

It helped me thx kind stranger

[@jerQCote]

Nationalist movements are often defined by its opponents and context. That's why Ukraine's is driven in a more progressive direction because the nation needs 1. to oppose the fascist regime invading and 2. unity so as to rally the population in that common cause. when nationalism doesn't need unity, it seeks division.

[@LordZeebee]

People always point to the lack of sunlight in winter but i feel like they don't fully realize what massive amounts of sunlight we get in summer. Went to Florida once and was struck by how depressively early y'alls nights are, even in the middle of summer. Meanwhile right now there is literally no time of day where we have true night, the most it ever gets is twilight. The sun sets at 10pm and then rises again at 4pm, always lighting up at least some part of the horizon. The winters ARE horribly dark don't get me wrong but they're only ever as dark and dreary as the summers are vibrant and delightful.

[@pogo8050]

Vaush if you ever come to the Netherlands every coffee shop visit is on me !

[@bobbysmith9298]

Cringe

[@tahustvedt]

I'm at 69°N. Manipulated photos of northern lights show pretty well what they look like almost daily in winter if the skies are clear. They are very visibly strong to the naked eye but regular photography don't capture them well.

[@aliisa9823]

One important thing to point out about the Finns Party is that a lot of current key members (such as former chairman Jussi Halla-aho) have associated with an organization called ”Suomen Sisu” in the past, which has been known for sprouting neo-nazi arguments in the 2000s and have also recommended books from prominent neo-nazi figures and holocaust deniers on their actual website. Most people in Finland have no clue about this connection and recently I’ve been shocked to hear how many seem to genuinely not know anything about their policies and why they have this reputation as a racist group. One of my friends’ who is very knowledgable about politics in general didn’t even know how big of a role anti-EU sentiment plays in their party because how well they’ve managed to sweep all their more controversial takes under the rug recently. Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to the next 4 four years in this country

[@danalinchristania5163]

As a Finnish i just as afraid as anyone else. Far right movement has become more severe in resent years. The Finns party is not centrist, it's a fascist party as far as i can see.

[@rishabhanand4973]

10:24 it's the short sunlight time during the winters. And honestly, once i started working and experienced days during the winter where when I wake up to get ready for work, it's dark and then when I leave work, it's dark again, I get it.

[@AVspectre]

Same here in Canada. The dark-to-dark winter work days really stink…

[@renardleblanc5556]

Why isn't anyone talking about *real* issues, like dihydrogen monoxide? This "chemical" is in found in *all* cancerous tumors, it's deadly if inhaled, in a gaseous state it can cause 2rd degree burns, it's used in numerous industrial processes (including nuclear power), it's a major factor in automobile rust and unsafe road conditions, it's a major component of acid rain. @12:18 Actually, one of the big reasons why northern Canada is so sparsely populated is that the whole territory is basically a frozen bog. Even in the dead of summer, the earth below 5 ft underground is solid ice (permafrost). Which makes major construction difficult if not impossible. If you *do* build anything, the heat of the buildings melts the permafrost, and the building sinks (have fun just building a foundation, it's like going through solid rock, and you can't use it for natural support structure). So, you have to put everything up on stilts, about 10 ft above the ground... which is problematic for, say, skyscrapers, and factories. That also includes plumbing and ground lines (utilidors). The cold, is the least of your problems. You just dress for it.

[@Simon-tl6hz]

In response to Vaush saying depression rates are high in northern countries: Finland is literally the happiest country in the world according to several studies

[@Redu3]

yeah, he pulled that one right out of his arse

[@otto_jk]

Finnish people are very much passively happy

[@setunne]

Yea, because all the sad people keep offing themselves....

[@juho-mattikoivisto3054]

The whole happiness thing is very misleading here. It doesn't measure actual contentness or lack of to one's life. What it is about is the existence and readiness of all the services, policies and support networks there are to help people in need.

[@Lotan_]

Yeah I think he got "Northern" mixed up with Greenland.

[@tokatkc]

If you try to get F64.0(paper you need for legal change of gender marker in documets) in Ukraine(in most cities) you'll be diagnosed with anything but F64, best case - depression, worst case - schizophrenia. And it's very easy to get diagnosed for depression + it's being pushed by society as something you should check for just in case and obviously the war.

[@TheResidentification]

As a Finn, it's incredibly frustrating that a lot of the Finns' party's votes, especially amongst young people, are coming in because they have by far the biggest social media presence. Finland's usually praised for its supposedly high media literacy but especially for young people the Finns' party has become by far the largest just due to being big on Tiktok and KZbin. Either their criticism needs to be more clear and prominent or the other parties need to get their shit together in regards to their presence on social media.

[@h0moglobin]

i just wanna mention that due to the way the atlantic ocean moves, the warm water from africa gets moved up to europe, turns around at the north pole and moves cold water back to canada. comparatively europe isn't all that cold compared to canada & US standards, even though we're at similar heights on the map, it's not really comparable i don't think

[@MPostma72]

Caribbeans, not Africa.

[@Hydronisa]

it's warmer in Europe due to the Gulf Stream

[@dupli5414]

Its not "now" the Finlands second largest party. Theyve been on that spot for 3 elections.

[@reaverfang377]

So people saying their stuck and bad coalition partners is true?

[@dupli5414]

@@reaverfang377 They were great partner to Kokoomus last time and probably still are if the two can agree on enviromental policies. Problem is that half of the other parties are hesitant to work with them, which isnt insurmountable.

[@reaverfang377]

@@dupli5414 Dunno if they could pull it off, Far Right parties are normally russian backed and supported. Their policies normally align too closely, I kinda see those sort of parties going to the wayside.

[@dupli5414]

@@reaverfang377 They arent publicly linked with Russia and its either them or uncomfortable coalition between center right and center left. Im not hopeful.

[@cadenlorenzo3345]

Krystal and Saagar should run in this party's ticket. They would get all the votes!

[@EnderProGaming]

Exact same shit happened in the Swedish elections half a year ago. The parties are the exact fkn same too.

[@dupli5414]

Sweden Democrats oppose mandatory Swedish lessons? Based.

[@CaptainBuggyTheClown]

The reason these countries have high depression isn't just due to environment or lack of vitamin D, it's because they get medical care and preventive care. Like chat said US has higher depression and suicide but that's due to unchecked illnesses.

[@MPostma72]

Also guns. Having a gun increases your risk of suicide by 3-5 times.

[@ozzell]

Election winner National Coalition Party is roughly equivalent to Democrats. Finns Party is a populist right-wing party (not exactly, but closing in on Republicans on culture issues).

[@magnanimus9692]

"FINLAND!" - Patrick Star

[@tenebra4183]

What makes the party so popular is the fact Finnish people are not very politically savvy in general and they abhor change. Immigrants are "scary" and if they don't get jobs, the taxes will be raised in order to provide for them, and no one wants that. Another reason is that most left leaning parties are too invested in fighting climate change. They're not rallying for any humanitarian causes. While fighting climate change is great, Finland is too small a country for the effort to truly matter when compared to the US or China. These parties also advocate for higher taxes, which dwindles their support. There's no good party to vote for if you're a progressive, so the youth have no preferences or strong advocacy regarding elections. My disappointment in my country is immense, and the only silver lining I can still glean joy from is that non-Finnish speakers trying to pronounce Finnish words will always sound funny as hell.

[@Whatshisname346]

Surely leftwing parties advocating for maintaining or raising taxes to keep the standard of living high is being realistic and honest. It costs a lot of money to run a state the way Finland is run. Take it from me, I moved here from a ‘low tax’ country where the cost of basic items such as childcare, education and housing is crippling. And the response my my home country’s government is ‘hey but you pay very little tax! You should be delighted.’ Finnish people don’t know how good they have it.

[@tenebra4183]

@@Whatshisname346 Oh no, I know how good we have it, and that's exactly the thing. People want to keep things how they are. If the taxes are raised, that will obviously make a lot of people unhappy. People abhor change in general, like I said, and any changes that negatively affect the working class, like higher taxes, are an immediate red flag to voters. Plus all the leftwing parties are so focused on climate change everything else seems to be a non-issue for them. There's no party to rally behind for social change, so the voters are divided between multiple parties, and as a result none of them gain more power. I'm sure the parties advocate for progressive social values, but they should make that their main focus next time around. I'm sure it would help quite a bit. Climate change talk just isn't that important for a country so small. I'm firmly leftwing, I'm just describing the situation how I see it

[@invisiblespeedrc]

Right wing parties in Finland shouldn’t be a thing, but they are. It’s the same story as always, right wing populist parties simplify problems and provide simple solutions, perfect for short form social media content. Reality is complex, but who cares about that?

[@keithhatlak4325]

I live in Michigan, where the average monthly temperature is lower than the temperatures in Norway. I looked it up a while back.

[@gremn5443]

He missed the controvery stuff on the wikipedia btw. Nazi salutes and thoughts of shooting homosexuals. Wild stuff

[@lempaalandiktaattori2163]

Who in the part did this? I've never heard of that. Isn't their party deputy leader gay anyways?

[@MegaBanne]

It is all that coffee. But seriously, Finland is not that bad. The gulf stream heads up the entirety of Scandinavium. Mainly Sweden and Norway, but also Finland. Finland has a bit warmer summers and colder/dryer winters, but nowhere near the climate of Russia Like Stockholm, a city with more than 2 million people, is almost about as high up as Greenland. You can farm almost all trough out Sweden and Finland. The only limitations are terrain.

[@RIPdixiecarter]

It seems the National Coalition party who won the most votes is not much different from the DNC (center right with some socially liberal/left stances) and besides the far right Finns it seems the majority of seats are occupied by parties who are Liberal centrists or Leftists. I'm not well versed into Finnish politics but it doesn't seem the Groyper party will have much corporation or coalition with anyone in Parliament to be effective but I could be wrong.

[@reaverfang377]

Lots of Finn's seem to think so

[@RIPdixiecarter]

​@@reaverfang377 I just hope the Lib Centrists in Finland aren't like ours and they don't wind up making less extreme but still harmful concessions to the far right tho.

[@Caldera01]

@@RIPdixiecarter Not really a concern. What you need to understand is that The Finns party is a clown fiesta party. It's big, but it cannot be taken very seriously. They have historically dropped many of their "fundamental" policies for the opportunity to partake in forming a government and thus fracturing the party only to then slunk back into opposition to slowly gain popularity again. Rinse and repeat. The National Coalition Party is the furthest right wing party that can be taken seriously and which also has a sizeable presence and socially, environmentally and in terms of general values they're more centrist than rightwing. The NCP cares more for looking after small and medium businesses and the availability to the job market and the global economy more than they care about restricting anyone's rights.

[@digaddog6099]

The studies on happiness by country are flawed. The problem is that our answers to the question "how are you doing" is incredibly culturally dependent. So if a countries culture is biased against "bragging about wellbeing" they do worse, and if they "dont want to inconvenience people" theyll score higher.

[@Whatshisname346]

It’s also that the things they measure are related to stability and security. The difference between Finland and other states is that you can depend on the government to organize things pretty well and maintain a decent level of financial and personal security. Neither of these things are perfect in Finland but they are a lot more dependable than in other countries with comparable income levels.

[@hermitcrack9091]

I like Vaush but every time an American covers European politics, hell anything about Europe in general, I can feel my braincells committing mass retirement

[@iam-geoffreytheelite5275]

True, even listening to them talk about uk politics is cancer

[@MrOtokka]

I'm Finnish so this is extra painful

[@GeneralDMadness]

can u explain

[@juliphile6700]

I just like how he goes isn't really that worried but the moment the right sadly makes gain. "WHOOO CARES ABOUT FINLAND, YOU ARE SMALL"

[@iam-geoffreytheelite5275]

@@juliphile6700 it’s rly weird that he always devolves into “lol America is better and more important than you” when he talks about other countries. I still can’t get over he fact he’s said he’s happy Corbyn lost to Boris Johnson in the UK because he doesn’t like his Ukraine takes… meanwhile we here in the uk are suffering economic austerity, awful inflation, and choosing between heating and eating. But hey vaush doesn’t like ONE take from Corbyn so fuck the rest of us

[@stonywings5888]

The Netherlands is the furthest north he would ever go, while it is the furthest south I have ever been😅

[@TheseAreMyHooves]

Latitude isnt the only indicator of climate :) for instance, i live in the north of iceland, which is much farther north than most inhabited areas of finland, but our winters are waaay milder due to the gulf stream and possibly volcanic activity... microclimates have many factors at play

[@felixdargent942]

Non-socialist workers party... That sounds a lot like the Romanian legionaries from interwar period. Funnily enough, the workers that were part of that, for the most part after 1946, got into the comunist party.

[@protoman2260]

“It’s not possible to be socially right leaning and economically left leaning” … my dude, you know that there’s FAR more people identified in that camp than there are in the libertarian camp right?

[@Lambda_Ovine]

When I see Europeans comment on modern American politics, they are often in shock at how bad things happened to turn out here, and ultimately they are relived that they live within the safety of the European Union (this is specially true for Nordic nations). I'm actually not that surprised about this development, even when it happens in the seemingly most stable and progressive liberal democracies with strong welfare states around the world and even without knowing much about Finnish politics. The Nordic countries, all of Europe for that matter, are still very much capitalist, and capitalism is a good breeding ground for fascism to develop, because no matter what, there will always be internal class tensions and contradictions that fascists can effectively exploit as long as they know how to not affect business (and if they are shown to be more cost effective forget about it). Relax for a bit, take the status quo for granted, believe "it can't happen here, we're too civilizad/different" and then finally be surprised when it starts happening there too. Fascism is a constant threat against any democracy that needs to be watched and accounted for perpetually, specially under any form of capitalism. Never take your democracy for granted, less so your country's strong welfare state.

[@Caldera01]

Chill dude, the True Finns are right wing, but not fascists. They're incompetent clowns. Sinimusta Liike is the actual fascist party, but they have 0 seats in the parliament, so they literally do not matter. As for the Coalition Party, they're centre-right, fiscally right, but socially more centrist, if not even left leaning. The Coalition party cares about the environment, wants to remain in EU and take more people into the country from outside for work. These are the major differences between the Coalition Party and The Finns party that makes me think that the Coalition party will *NOT* invite The Finns party to form the government. Instead I believe government will be formed by the Coalition Party and the Social Democrat Party. While they disagree on fiscal matters, they agree on values and environment. This of course would mean that once again The Finns Party would be left out, which will undoubtedly make many right wingers cry.

[@lazerbatt]

this was the first news notifcation i got the moment i woke up on monday. needless to say i wasnt very happy

[@DrHotWarLove]

Man, why don’t we have an Operation Condor plan for countries that go fash? Reverse Pinochetism. The people’s helicopter.

[@big_guy_of_leiden5688]

Because that would be good

[@derpeth2101]

It's almost like the US loves fascism

[@rockmycd1319]

You did, it was called Operation Cyclone.

[@vsrr83]

The FInns Party stance on beggars is mainly about Romanian beggars, who used to be extremely common in large cities.

[@williamjohansson5236]

When people say 'center-left' economics i the Nordic countries, what they basically mean is that they are fine with taxes for some welfare purposes.

[@MannnisEi]

"Look at this fucking mess" is the best way to describe PS

[@nomorepikachu]

You should care, because many European countries view Finland as their idol and like to follow in their footsteps when it comes to various policies, especially education. „We‘re gonna do it like Finland“ is not that rare to hear from politicians. Sadly we adapt only the bad policies in the worst possible ways.

[@kratti9147]

Also funny because our education system (finland) has been in a downturn since the 1990s recession, even though results weren't dropping much until very recently.

[@osheridan]

I like learning about other countries, Finland has been one of my favourites to learn about. But if I'm being honest the politics there makes me sad, because it seems so progressive, but then you can find so many holes. And while it's great they're doing it, the fact we live in a world where not leaving people on the streets to die is the golden standard is insanely depressing to me

[@doubaoa6428]

2:32 Guess I don't exist then

[@LustWaffel]

My biggest hope is that National Coalition forms government with SDP. It isn't unusual to have left-right government.

[@Caldera01]

I think they'll have to fit The Green Party and RKP there as well making it more of a left-left-left-right government.

[@a.m.7438]

As resources around the globe become more strained thanks to humanity's relentless and reckless wasteful habits for the sake of "productivity" and climate change worsens, we will see more attempts to blame these problems on groups as certain people wrestle for power. Scapegoating others will be the go-to method to direct people toward a simpler strawman problem. This will absolutely increase fascism on a global scale. Climate change will increase fascism.

[@kapelski104]

The Finns party mostly talks about their anti-immigration and anti-environmentalism positions. I hate how many young people are on board for them.

[@hobog]

12:45 goes to show global terrain's and ocean layouts' effects on regional climates

[@gyderian9435]

Vaush: "why tf should I care about Finland when it is so small compared to states?" If Finland was a US state it would rank as 5th in area and 23rd in population

[@noyourewrong599]

you should look into our new largest party in Sweden "Sverigedemokraterna / Sweden Democrats". same shit as Finland but probably worse

[@MechanicWolf85]

Ok vaush getting the "Northern countries sad" wrong is shocking considering why they are so happy in the first place: They're wealthy Healthy More communal Public transportation Strong culture Identity More economic opportunities more connected to their government More connected to its neighbors Compare that to the US and you realize why people here are more suicidal than in Europe,

[@Whatshisname346]

As a parent the opportunity thing is a big issue to me. In my home country, no matter how hard we worked were were going to get screwed on costs by the time our kids hit college age. I’ve family who are loaded and still can’t afford accommodation and living for their kids. And this is in a country with comparatively low tuition fees. In Finland, it’s all taken care of. Sure we pay marginally more tax now but knowing I have to worry less about my kids having a chance at whatever career they want and to study wherever they want makes it so much easier to be more supportive now.

[@TealJosh]

@@Whatshisname346 The education system has taken huge falls lately. The whole thing of economic freedom is being chipped away and the next government will be monstrous in that regard, if it's a right wing lineup. It'd be a huge struggle even with blue red cabinet.

[@kennyschaufler3739]

The reason is largely the same in all european countries and the current rise of right wing support. Prices go up, right wing support goes up. The reason for that is that usually right wingers currently blame us helping ukraine on the current economic situation. When asked wheater they want us to just let russia win they will ofc lie and say no, but thats effectivly what they want and promote. Dont give foreign aid and our economy will do magically better and just dont help people who arent nationals. That has been the selling point of the right since ww2, and whenever prices go up or percieved crime or actual crimes go up, their support goes up. Much like the 2016 migration crisis their support will only last as long in all likelyhood as the crisis itself. So if when the economy does better till next election cycle the far right does worse in all likelyhood.

[@anuraglakshminarayan4559]

Anybody who knows anything about Finnish NSBM is least surprised by this

[@anuraglakshminarayan4559]

In Finland? I thought most of the RABM scene has been in US/Canada

[@vargsvansify]

13:40 I thought most modern windows filtered out UVB rays from the sun, meaning you don’t get any Vitamin D through sunlight that way.

[@terra1748]

10:16 not just bikes gang pog 🎉

[@Chaydex]

Straight up, if you're ever interested in coming to visit Finland, come during the Pride event in Helsinki, if I see you there in the summer I'll deadass buy you a beer

[@shrub8644]

Finland is not as cold as it could be because of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift Current

[@David_Bower]

On average it's colder in Canada than Finland.

[@GalaxyAngeltai]

North Europe is warmer than Greenland thanks to the Golf Stream. High suicide rates of Greenland are not really because of the sun, but high rates of alcoholism and CSA. Man I know creators don't read these comments, but I hope someone would.

[@darkmatter345]

What gives me hope is that 4 years in the future the ones who won the vote will probs be voted out....

[@TheCalkan]

Yeah I think your assessment is pretty off there. Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world for 5 years running and all the Nordic countries have been in the top 10 for at least the past 10 years. It should also be noted that the ban on begging very likely has more to do with their xenophobia than it does the poor. I'm assuming it is a similar situation as the one we have here in Sweden. Marginalized people from other European countries, most of them being Romani from Romania, travel to more affluent EU countries to try to get by. It was after a rise in this that the swedish far right national party especially started to push for bans on begging. Edit: doesn't make it any better, but just trying to give some context.

[@FeebleAntelope]

I went to school with someone from Finland and I was surprised: there is apparently a fair amount of fundamentalist Christianity over there.

[@Lollero200q]

Yes this is true

[@lempaalandiktaattori2163]

Not true at all lol, Christianity has been decreasing insanely fast here and there are pretty much almost 0 christian "laws". Like you guys have abort laws and stuff in the US. Focus on your own stuff dumb americans, you are 50 years behind. Our "far right" parties are more left than your "democratic" party. Bribing politicians is quite literally still legal there too hahaha.

[@Patralgan]

The latter half of this video is deeply amusing to me as a Finn. Yeah, it can get cold up here, but summers often are hot af, especially in recent years and winters have been very mild, except this year. It has felt very arctic for more than 6 months already. Not fun. Finns are recommended to take vitamin D daily during winter.

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

2:35 It is actually not possible because it is impossible to quantitatively define political parties on a ideological scale.

[@TheKitsuneCavalier]

In all for this party's support for social programs, but I don't like their talk about these,"boncentration bamps."--Monty Python