I’m Danish and when I was 11, I had a teacher who would sometimes tell us ‘funny facts’ about the US. Like, ‘they genuinely think they’re the best country in the world’ or ‘they think socialism is bad’ or ‘they pay to go to the hospital!’ and we would gasp and laugh. https://twitter.com/marawilson/status/1288387415833317382

We couldn’t believe it. Our teacher would explain that at the time, there was some study that showed that the US kids had the highest grades in the world. She then broke it down - and showed us how they also had the easiest tests.

In Denmark, there is a strange socially constructed unspoken rule called ‘The Law of Jante’ and it’s essentially ‘Don’t think you’re better than anyone else’. It’s the exact opposite of ‘the American dream’ and ‘anyone can be president’.

The downside to the Law of Jante is that individualism is crushed. Confidence is not always encouraged. And also, Danes are constantly being told that we ARE the best country in the world; something we just do humbly accept. (Despite laughing at the US.)

Because Oprah once did a segment on Denmark where she was like ‘wow’.

Anyways. There is no doubt that us 11-year olds laughing at the US was toxic, in that we failed to look at the flaws of our OWN country (of which there were many) but at the same time: The fact that ‘socialism’ is seen as controversial/bad in the US is really weird.

In the same way ‘feminism’ being seen as a controversial/bad thing in Denmark is really weird.

It’s all a lot less funny now.

Damnit, I thought I’d be safe posting this while the US was asleep but then a fucking earthquake had to go and ruin my day.