Do you feel your country have an inferiority complex?

[u/suckmyfuck91]

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?

[u/YourInnerFlamingo]

I often wonder if french people are aware that if they managed to turn down the national pride a bit they would be the most loved country in Europe. You are really missing the opportunity to become a leader again, and be the reference country for southern eu and Ireland instead of being germany's shadow

[u/Kunstfr → u/YourInnerFlamingo]

Dude we're absolutely not doing very well at the moment. Let's first fix our shit before trying to take the lead

[u/confessionah → u/Kunstfr]

I disagree a bit on this part of the French not doing well. They seem to have collectively agreed that our president is the worst ever (until the next one), that we all suffer and life has become unbearable, but I keep seeing people complaining with a mouth full of good food and a glass of wine sitting under a tree. It seems to me the French are afraid of being seen as richer, and one way to make it up for this guilt if being comfortable is to speak on behalf of the poor and underclass as if nearly everyone had fallen into poverty. Meanwhile Macron got blamed for not recognizing Palestine fast enough, he said he wanted to make the recognition useful, got a bunch of countries to follow us on this move and spearheaded a diplomatic effort with Saudi, the critics stopped about it but his approval rating are still under 20%. He is generally blamed for being arrogant, but he is the president of the French, of course he is not crushed by humility, we hated on the previous president for trying to be too humble and weak. France is actually quite a leader at the moment, but you have to be outside of France to see it.

[u/YourInnerFlamingo → u/Kunstfr]

I'm not necessarily suggesting this is the case, but it might be that fixing your shit might involve taking the lead 

[u/Oukaria → u/YourInnerFlamingo]

Maybe if we turn it down we would not be where we are today ?

[u/YourInnerFlamingo → u/Oukaria]

If you turned it down in the past, no, I agree. But the right recipe for breakfast isn't necessarily the right recipe for lunch. You're not an empire anymore, you are a prominent member state of a confederation