Nah, I wasn’t being a troll. Neither am I going to claim I’m completely innocent or anything, but the way some people there behaved was truly mind boggling – I’ve never seen anything like it before. Instantly resorting to personal insults and striving to make the absolute worst of people based on a hastily written forum post. You go and express a half baked opinion, prepare to get torn apart by people you’ve been buddies with for years. I can go and read the comments section of any online article dealing with immigration and find people saying way nastier things that what I had to say.

The forums I’m currently a member of are much more lax and I don’t have to worry about anything like this happening ever again, luckily.

The more I think about it, the more absurd the concept of even debating immigration online becomes. Why invest all that energy on something that will change absolutely nothing?

They’ll place me on a queue after the health check and I have no idea how long the queue will be. I’ll be sure to keep you updated, though.

We have a budget deficit because we still haven’t fully recovered from the 2008 crisis. Last year, a number of cuts were introduced to help reduce that deficit, but not only is cutting funds spent on education incredibly counterproductive, the refuge crisis is such a money sinkhole that we’re no better off than we were before because no actual money has been saved. I’m not sure what the consensus on that decision is. Obviously, you have people supporting taking in tons of refugees – typically people on benefits themselves and with little understanding of economics.
I did actually talk about this in my second post on that forum – really, it was a big mess where I tried to combine several topics into one post – and expressed my opposition toward taking in refugees, which led to people guilt tripping me and I ended up making donations to refugee funds to help me feel better. It was a stupid martyr move all around. Like I said, I had other forums with very like minded people where I could’ve discussed this stuff freely with no fear of my words backfiring on me.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Mete.
• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Mete.

I’m middle class. We have quite a large house, but aren’t affluent by any means. I currently live in a small student apartment. My parents are divorced and my dad has remarried. I have good family relations, luckily. For all intentions and purposes, I would describe myself as having a typical background. I’m not dealing with immediate money concerns for the time being, but I certainly hope I land a job for the summer and save up a bit. Our school system has no tuition fees and I hope to make it all the way through my Master’s studies without racking up debt. The state is quite supportive of students in general, although benefits will be cut soon in favor of incentivizing students to take up a loan, which many people object to.

About separating good beliefs from bad ones. When I made that first post, I remember saying something along the lines of “this country is entirely self built and I am going to do what it takes to protect it from threats, be they from the inside or outside.” That is a very powerful statement and something I’d like to say I still stand behind. I’m from Finland and I don’t know if you’re familiar with our history but there’s quite a bit of stuff there to be proud of. I wouldn’t necessarily desribe myself as being much more nationalistic than my average countryman and nationalism is certainly something that can be abused to divide people, but I had come to agree with some nationalist European parties. I also expressed my concern for preserving our culture, although that was closer to something I came up with on the spot, rather than a deep-rooted belief. The guy I first tried debating this stuff with was a communist so we were on a completely different page from the start and he instantly resorted to personal insults. It annoys me I still remember those. I did say later that I am all for positive cultural exhange, despite opposing multiculturalism, which I had come to view as being divisive and all around unnatural. For example, our food culture is quite bland and has most certainly benefited from globalization, but I couldn’t agree with others proposing areas disproportionaly inhabited by a single ethnicity as a positive. To me, that just sounds like segregation,no matter how many pretty words you cover it with. I also expressed strong pro-Europe views with my second post, which I’d like to say I still stand behind. However, I was definitely operating under a mindset back then where I had come to view many things as a threat, and you could argue that is not a healthy mindset to have. I suppose I enjoyed it to a degree, before it resulted in massive amounts of headache. I suppose I had also come to support assimilation over integration which doesn’t sit well with some people who view it as a method of suppressing minorities and denying them the right to keep their own culture. I find this really depends on the country – I very much support a ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ approach. Meanwhile, other countries are built on immigration and thus the merging of many different cultures. There’s really no ‘one size fits all’ solution here. Add to that the fact that people can’t even agree over what multiculturalism actually means and debating this stuff on an international forum is bound to be difficult.
Really, there was a lot of stuff there I still agree with – but I’d just like to be able to think of anything else after all this time.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Mete.

I also tried debating the refugee crisis on the side and that did obviously not go well and I will readily admit I don’t have the slightest clue what should be done about it. I also expressed my strong opposition toward multiculturalism – now I don’t particularly care. So I’m going back on my words there as well. All of this is way bigger than me and I bit off more than I could chew.

Hmm. That would be Jet Set Radio Future. It’s a skating platformer game with great music that came with the Xbox I got as a kid and played through countless times. I’m currently hoping the publisher gives it an HD rerelease on the PC because it definitely deserves that treatment. These days I’m more of a PC gamer (it’s only natural for an information technology student) and I’m currently replaying a game called Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines. It’s an excellent, immersive vampire role playing game. Kind of those vampire TV shows that teenage girls love, except for roleplaying nerds, haha.

Music wise, I’m mostly a metal and electronic music kind of guy. I really enjoy the kind of adrenaline boost metal music gives you – hop on the bike in the morning, put your buds on and listen to a very fast track and you won’t be tired anymore by the time you reach school.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Mete.

That is a very solid piece of advise, thanks. There was some stuff there that was not okay and was ill-thought out in general. You could interpret my second post as me saying I do not want a single muslim in Europe. Which I’m 100% sure I never fully believed for a second, but I said it anyway. There was a ‘it’s best for everyone because this will only get worse’ aspect to it but that was still incredibly hamfisted and I’m proud to say I’ve gone back on that. I will readily admit I had to come to have a negative view of the religion and muslims in general – which isn’t necessarily uncommon if polls are to believed. I’ve seen ones claiming a majority of people in some European countries share that view, while in others it’s only along the lines of one fourth. Still, that was not the way to handle it, and it’s what I’m apologizing for for the most part. I’ll get back to this eventually and figure out what I actually believe but for now I’ll be glad to focus my attention on completely different things.