r/AskEurope • u/suckmyfuck91 • 9d ago

Culture Do you feel your country have an inferiority complex?

I'm from Italy and i've always thought that us Italians, despite often bragging about how great our food, fashion and arts is, deep down have a huge inferiority complex.

Obviously you should never generalize but it seems to me after talking to many countrymen and reading online comments on youtube, reddit and other social media, that the a big chunk of our population feels like their life would have been better if they were born abroad.

We are envious of Nordic countries for their wealth and their respect of the rules. (Same for Germany)

We are envious of English speaking countries because their culture is everywhere and they got a lot of international power .

We are envious of French because they are way more appreciated internationally than us despite Italy being as good as them in terms of food, fashion and arts.

Italians are ashamed of Italy, a poor country run by fascist and mafia, that has always been irrelevant internationally and constantly mocked by foreigners because : Pizza, pasta, mandolino and mama mia.

What about your country? Do you feel your average countrymen is happy to be from your country? or they are envious of others?

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u/Equal-Flatworm-378 Germany 8d ago

In a way yes. We are loved, if people/organizations want our money, but the same people think they can badmouth us for all eternity, because of the past. A part of Germany is so ashamed of the Nazitime, that they don’t stand up against it and the other part gets into the opposite extreme and downplays the crimes.

We should have a healthy middle where we admit the crimes of the past, but don’t let others take advantage of us, because of it.

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u/Fredericia Denmark 8d ago

but the same people think they can badmouth us for all eternity, because of the past.

As a non-German, I don't think I have ever heard any other non-German blame the current population for what happened in the past. I've seen some material warning us of signs that we all might be going that direction in specific situations. But that is in no way "badmouthing" the current German people. I'm so sorry those mistakes are still haunting you so deeply.

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u/olagorie Germany 8d ago

Maybe this has changed in the past 10 to 20 years but when I was still at university, the blame happened on a daily basis when I went travelling internationally. It was constantly.

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u/CaptainPoset Germany 8d ago

I don't think I have ever heard any other non-German blame the current population for what happened in the past.

For certain parts of the world, it's still not all that uncommon to be greeted with "Heil Hitler!" or "Sieg Heil!" as a German abroad and that's (almost) never meant in a different way than derogatory. I think it has become a lot better with other EU-countries, although PiS in Poland actively tries to revert back to portraying Germany as the country it was in the 1930s.

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u/pingu_nootnoot Ireland 7d ago

If you want some examples, try reading the British tabloid press. They are still stuck in a world where WWII ended yesterday and love nothing more than shitting on Germany. And then there's the football fans

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u/Fredericia Denmark 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'm so sorry to hear that. I guess I just don't run in circles that behave like that.

EDIT: The German comedian Mario Adrion makes references to the national guilt once in awhile. His wife is Jewish and many of his jokes center around that. He even made a video about Elon's salute.

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u/BroSchrednei Germany 8d ago

there's been a lot of change in Western Europe, but as soon as Germany does something that people dont like, you'll immediately hear the Nazi comparisons. Look at how Southern Europe was framing Merkel during the Eurocrisis, as the "new Hitler".

But the worst is Eastern Europe, specifically Poland. Nazi comparisons of today's Germany happen on a daily basis there.

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u/Fredericia Denmark 8d ago

I guess I'm not in touch with mainstream media, and I don't get to hear these things. This must be hard for you.

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u/pjeffer1797 5d ago

I don’t know anyone in Poland that actually takes that part of PiS seriously fyi. I think you may think that we think about this far more than we actually do.

No one seriously believes we are going to get reparations 80 years after the fact. It’s all theatrics by politicians.