I can reassure you, you aren’t racist regarding Sweden, but there’s a really nice cliché with a tiny grain of truth regarding you sure as hell are neglectful when it comes to European countries starting with S: “Where are you from?”, “Switzerland”, “Oh, I love Sweden, so many forests, nice people and stuff!”, “Well, yes, Sweden is indeed nice - I am from Switzerland”, “Yeah, it’s so awesome that you’re from Sweden. Isn’t that the place where they *insert whatever politically correct or not statement about Sweden that you like* (e.g. peace and equality, high taxes or the incorrect ones)”, me thinking “Fuck it, I won’t try to explain, they wont remember anyway, and merging Sweden and Switzerland would actually be awesome” saying “Right, that’s exactly how it is, and did you know, Sweden has also got the best cheese in the world, especially if molten”. #SwedenAndSwitzerlandFTW
EDIT: @afre is right, I probably shouldn’t have made a post that’s meant humorously after a word like race came up, not the least of all because my humour can be hard to get even in person, and as we all know, the internet is like a thick layer of opaque mud that makes anything gazillion times harder to interpet. And then I mixed it with real, slightly political stuff, which is hazardous even if there was no political intent whatsover. Well, what I mean to say is it’s Friday evening, I had a few beers in good company that weirdly already dispersed and I am now humouring myself with “The Meaning of Life” - I hope I could establish the relevant context.
Racism is a difficult subject to discuss properly. Often ends in shouting matches or mistaken identity. For the record, I love people of all walks of life. If someone is less easy to love, I try harder. As for the Swedish Chef, I wasn’t even aware he was supposed to be Swedish. I only thought of the Muppet as a funny character. I suppose one strike against the Muppet Show was that many of its characters were one noted; so they could be seen as something-ist.
I humbly beg your and everyone elses forgiveness for the use of this language and a hyperbole. I wanted to bring a humorous slightly exaggerated anecdote into conversation hopefully to someones amusement, and apparently failed at that. Please, please believe me that it was never my intention and I will let it be a lesson to me, to not engage in online discussions with statements I haven’t considered properly in advance. I hope the edits made that sufficiently clear without trying to cover up anything.
I thought your comments were fine, and I got the humor intended. (Or at least I think I did.) This coming from an American who also tends to quickly make attempts at humor without thinking about the audience. Ah, well. Let’s have some Swedish Raclette and talk it over.
Since I was good at geography in school I didn’t want to be included in such a demonic collective. But no offense taken, I understood your frustration in the post.
