Mastodawn

It's funny how some people say they joined because our instance is Finnish. It's true that I'm Finnish and our servers are located in Finland, but we don't promote ourselves as a Finnish instance, nor are we otherwise tied to Finland.

English is my second and quite dominant language, and half of my family tree is Australian. In short, all cultures and languages are welcome here.

Languages currently used on mementomori.social:

1. Finnish
2. English
3. French
4. Swedish
5. German
6. Korean
7. Dutch
8. Catalan
9. Japanese

#MementoMoriSocial #Mastodon #MastoAdmin

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Kerry Mitchell 🍁Mar 28

@rolle I’d consider joining for some insights into why Finns are the happiest people in the world, or on the off chance someone else has watched Crime On Your Mind and has some thoughts.

There are people who like to make the trite observation that “people are the same everywhere” but when I watch Finnish TV, I think, “They must be really different over there.”

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David Weir Mar 29

@KerryMitchell I’m afraid I don’t watch Finnish TV and I’ve spent so long here I’ve gone native in many ways, but I think the “happiness” thing boils down to:

1. public services (mostly) work
2. you can trust other people and feel safe (mostly)
3. the state is (mostly) competent when it comes to worrying about, and dealing with, the big things

There are lots of caveats to all of these, but then there are in every country. And the whole Finnish happiness thing is I think, really overanalysed. Including by me, just now… 😅

It’s not about being happier so much as it is about feeling like there are no bad surprises lurking around the corner, literal or metaphorical.

@rolle

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Jussi Toivonen Mar 29

@davidjamesweir @KerryMitchell @rolle
4. The mainstream press "conveniently forgets" how Finland is causing problems like war, colonialism, and environmental collapse.
If more Finnish people remembered this, many of them wouldn't say they're so "happy", because they would feel more open guilt. And I really think so, because people in most other countries are much less guilty of these crimes. The guilt logically follows from voting preferences, so it's a real thing, just not widely recognized.

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Kerry Mitchell 🍁Mar 29

@jupito @davidjamesweir @rolle I’ve heard of the Sámi, but never thought of Finnish colonialism as reaching the genocidal level of the North American kind.

Where I live, in Treaty 6 territory, the Cree were starved into submission to advance European settlement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bear The repercussions of this original sin arise repeatedly and have tainted our institutions. People are aware of it but very reluctant to redress it in any way.

Big Bear - Wikipedia

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Jussi Toivonen

@KerryMitchell @davidjamesweir @rolle
I was referring to modern-day neocolonialism. And e.g. colonization of Palestine. Finland supports these processes in many concrete ways, even providing military protection. And because it's the choice of all parties in the parliament, the majority of voters are responsible. Finnish people tend to say they're happy, but it takes a lot of medication.²

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocolonialism
² https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/lifestyle/health-a-wellbeing/27056-more-young-adults-in-finland-taking-antidepressants.html

Neocolonialism - Wikipedia

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Kerry Mitchell 🍁Mar 29

@jupito @davidjamesweir @rolle Finland’s policies on Palestine don’t look too bad if this is right: https://um.fi/development-cooperation-palestinian-territory

By neocolonialism, do you mean this kind of corporate bad behaviour? https://environmentalpaper.org/forests-profits-and-displacement-the-brazil-land-disputes-shadowing-stora-enso/. We’ve had many such stories about Canadian mining companies, but my perception is that this is improving since a 2020 lawsuit in Canada set a precedent for penalties at home for crimes abroad.

Finland’s relations and development cooperation in Palestine - Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Ulkoministeriön verkkopalvelu

Ministry for Foreign Affairs

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Jussi Toivonen Mar 29

@KerryMitchell @davidjamesweir @rolle
Finlands _says_ they support two-state solution, but they don't. They recognize Israel, and only Israel. "Development coordination" just supports the status quo of apartheid.
Israel, on the other hand, they support in very different ways, cooperating in weapons development, officers meeting, EU trade & visa agreements, political support in UN, media practices based on propagandistic viewpoints (e.g. SDP: "Israel has right to self-defence" (not Palestine)).

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Jussi Toivonen Mar 30

@KerryMitchell @davidjamesweir @rolle
By colonialism I mean the whole global capitalist hegemony, mostly US-driven. Finland provides military protection & support to USA, while it engages in colonialist direct action like exploitation, wars, coups, and other political meddling.

EDIT: And Finland does it without public debate or due criticism from politicians nor mainstream press, blaming the victims, etc. It signals submissiveness, and distracts from sense of agency, and thus, guilt.

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Jussi Toivonen Mar 30

@KerryMitchell @davidjamesweir @rolle
Hell, I can even "prove" that "Finns Happiest" is nonsense (I find survey methods & epistemics problematic):

Polls say, most Finns support Nato. I tell some personally: "Nato is racist; attacs blacks and protects white power."
They get offended: "I don't support racism. You're mistaken."
I say: "Pls tell me how I've mistaken, I give you 100e."
They don't respond.

So, supports massive racism but self-identifies as non-racist => impossible to be happy. QED.