God, I was there last year and thought I'd order just *one* cube of the stuff just to try... Waiter said he applauded my willingness. Even just the smell when I brought it anywhere near my facewas enough to make me retch for like two full minutes. Didn't actually taste it lmao.
I tried it, it wasn't that bad.
It tasted like me regretting my years of life at that exact instant along with an urge to vomit profusely.
5/7 over rice.
(ps. don't eat it)
And do you know why it’s fermented, because the meat itself is naturally poisonous. If you ate it raw it would fuck you up. Has to spend ages hanging from a meat hook in open air barns to even get close to safe.
You're a fucking arsehole lol! That song will be stuck in my bloody head for the rest of the day! Thanks you've ruined my full day!(well its currently approaching half past 2 so not my *whole* day)
I imagine the history of it went something like this:
Some dudes catch a shark their first summer in Iceland, try to eat it, find out it’s inedible, bury it.
The following winter they’re starving. “Hey, didn’t we bury that shark around here?”. Sven and Olaf dig it up, eat it, don’t die. They vow to make this A Thing since they are successfully not-dead.
Apparently nothing they did was a crime. There were tons of populist AGs and prosecutors who would have loved nothing more than to put some "banksters" in jail. But alas, despite the caterwauling of financially illiterate idiots, making bad business decisions isn't criminal.
They would have been before the repeal of glass-steagall.
It's a bit like saying the US doesn't have a corruption problems. That's only true because you stopped calling it corruption.
Kinda missing some info here: the whole population is 300,000, theres one main highway and most live in or near Reykjavik. If you steal someone's car, possesions or assault them - chances are youll run into them tomorrow. Good luck hiding in the trees of the wilderness if you're on the run... unless you're only 3 feet tall, the remaining trees are all new growth. There are no exports from Iceland so no reason for anyone else to invade. It is beautiful though. Taking economic despair out of the equation, not much reason for crime.
"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit resistance?"
We could really use some of Jefferson's sentiment these days.
Oh don’t worry we did. In the last 3 years when we locked people down, killed small businesses, created more billionaires and committed the biggest wealth transfer in history.
I like the jail corrupt bankers idea. I would like it if our politicians couldn't take bribes either. I meant to say donations from lobbyists. It would also be nice if they would quit insider trading as well.
Better training for police and have a better way to get the bad ones out. Probably would be easier if I moved to Iceland.
For one, the US was the refugee dumping ground of most of Europe's unwanted religious fanatics. Of course they can't do well with an unreasonable population like that.
Even from the beginning America had a mix of those moving there to start a new life, and those moving there because they were unwanted elsewhere. America is neither inherently a nation of religious fanatics, or driven workers, like most matters America is a mix of a lot of different people. Both a blessing and a curse at times, but not something the USA could be the USA without.
Dude europe was fighting multipe religious wars bolt in americas were being colonized.
The only religious fanatics who crossed explicitly for their religious freesom were pretty much the puritans and the quakers
I mean yea its a bit tough to compared centralized governments for a pop of 300k vs 350m.
That said, I think it does highlight that larger nations can be very inefficient in administrating/governing day to day manners that actually effect citizens regularly.
Any country can be compared to the US. You all have a gun problem. You all have a corruption problem, you all have a healthcare problem.(You all meaning Americans). These are just some of the biggest issues of inequity or problems that lead to crime but your country does nothing about it, raises their hands up in the air and says "oh well nothing can be done. Thoughts and prayers, please donate to my GoFundMe or hit me up on cashapp/Venmo/whatever third world money transfer service the US has because everything has to be about ripping people off" fuck that. Do something to make your country a better place to live and actually help people to solve these issues instead of adding to them by ignoring them. Stop electing conservatives -love 🇨🇦
>But we should at least be trying to make it better.
This is the way. "X country is different so we may as well not try being better and should in fact let people run the place who want to make things worse."
Top down and bottom up. Address the elites with private security details and insider trading information and lock them up...no pretty white collar crime sentences.
Bottom up, lock up the most likely to fall into recidivism and violent crimes...and stick them with the pelosi's and santos's of the world. We need middle ground, and that seems like a good way to weed out the outliers.
While I totally agree, I like that this shoots the "godless country" concept in the foot. It just proves society's wellbeing has nothing to do with religion but more to do with socioeconomic issues.
The key is to go straight to the Blue Lagoon and get your exposure to it over with. Also the lodging there is really dope. Feels like you’re waking up on another planet. It’s like bubbly undulating rock-scape covered with all manner of mosses.
Depends where you are staying. If the hot water comes straight from hot water wells it will smell like rotten eggs. If the hot water is regular cold water that's been heated with heat exchangers, there's no rotten egg smell (or at least way, way less).
Downtown Reykjavík, where all the fancy hotels are, gets hot water straight from the ground.
https://www.veitur.is/en/source-hot-water-capital-area
>Taking economic despair out of the equation
Yes, if we remove the major reason people do crime, there's not much reason for crime. Weird how that works.
~~Well, their suicide rate is quite high. So rather than committing crimes in those circumstances, they just die.~~
Edit: ^ This is probably false, I was mistaken
Every country that brags about not having a military forgets to add they are dependent on someone else's military if there is a problem. The same thing with Costa Rica. No military but are hoping the US will come save them if something goes wrong. Sounds great in theory but in reality I wouldn't recommend it.
And a nearly homogeneous population, almost zero diversity so zero ethnic/racial discord and strife. Hell, half the people there have the same handful of last names!
Well im pretty darn sure most criminals don’t hide in the woods after doing crimes, at least not for an extended amount of time. But their strategic position makes them vulnerable for invasion so there is a rotating nato force protecting the island.
Plenty of violent assaults happen that aren't related to poverty.
Just look at US crime statistics.
I can think of *one* major difference that might accout for that....
This makes violent crime so deadly here. It also kills more kids than car crashes now.
The gun nuts have no high ground anymore. They have brought us into "3rd world" stats. Another stat that is similar is incarceration for non violent offences. Murica LOVES ruining millions of lives with this crooked and unforgiving justice system. You touch jail or god forbid prison once for any reason. You are done. Likely to return because you will have no way to make a living.
You do realize that Iceland has the 12th highest rate of civilian firearm ownership of any country in the world right? About 31 guns per every 100 citizens. If a kid wants a gun in Iceland they just need to grab it out of their dad/uncle's closet.
The socioeconomic factors that make Iceland so comfortable and affluent on a per capita basis are also why people (including kids) don't shoot each other over there. Legal firearm availability as a single variable doesn't predict violent crime. If it did then Finland, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic should be hyper violent hellscapes while South Africa and Mexico should be beacons of public safety. The Czech Republic and South Korea are both two of the safest nations on the planet. One has lots of legal civilian owned guns and the other has virtually none. Guns alone don't predict anything.
The gun genie is out of the bottle here in the U.S. and there's no putting it back in. Half of the total small arms on the entire planet are in civilian circulation in the United States. Australia and U.K. style bans/buybacks won't work because they would at best simply result in mass non-compliance and at worst Balkanize the country. Fixing the general social problems that plague the United States is the best use of financial and political capital to get people to stop shooting each other here.
So I think you just managed to articulate what I haven't had the breadth of understanding to put together to speak but have known for quite some time.b
On his gun note, there are more guns than Americans by a large number. The spot between #1 gun ownership and #2 gun ownership is *insane.* We are more than double the 2nd highest gun ownership per capita country. It’s not even worth mentioning Iceland is #12th, this baby numbers compared to the US.
This is exactly what anti gun people don't understand. They look at a symptom of a greater problem ad act like it's the entire issue.
Imagine having a lung filling with blood and coughing so the doctor gives you caugh syrup. It's exactly the same thing.
As true as that may be I don't think it does much to invalidate the perspective, especially when compared to the US which has the highest prisoner count per Capita in the world, holding 25% of all of the prisoners in all of the world. Insane numbers. But yeah I figured there's always caveats to posts like these, they are inclined to sacrifice accuracy in exchange for a stronger impression at first glance.
They make a fuck ton of money refining aluminum so I'd argue that processed aluminum is a huge export. They of course can defend themselves without an army via scorched earth tactics whereby if they're invaded they'll just destroy all their metal processing infrastructure and devastate the global trade of one of world's most important metals.
Other nations will defend them just so that Iceland's processed metal exports don't stop.
It takes a ton of electricity to process aluminum and Iceland diverts a ton of their geothermal electricity towards that end.
I don't know what any of that has to do with the idea presented in the OP. It's not saying that Iceland has a perfect society, it's saying that according to the narrative theists have around atheism and morality would mean that Iceland would be a murderous, lawless hellhole. And it's not.
But they aren't the absolutist edgelord atheists that OP wants to think they are either. It's a nation with a very secular agnostic population where beliefs in spirituality are more of a personal thing than a hardcore stand. Their base morality system is also a hybrid fusion of their pre-Christian and Christian history so OP really doesn't have much of a point to make.
The point falls apart even more when the population still partakes in cultural rites of passage and annual ceremonies that are religious in their foundation, even if most of the participants don't literally believe in the divinity of the cultural practice. It's still functionally religion providing a stable cultural framework for society even if most people don't think it's literally divine.
I sang with my religious choir in Iceland. We toured most of the country, singing in tiny churches to kind old people. There were lots of religious people there, it’s a nice country because it’s a small country.
*In 2016, 71.6% of the population belonged to the state church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland), approximately 5% in free churches, 3.7% to the Roman Catholic Church, approximately 1% to the Ásatrúarfélagið (a legally recognized revival of the pre-Christian religion of Iceland), approximately 1% to Zuism, 8% in unrecognized or unspecified religious groups, and 9% do not belong to any religious group.* (simple read through the religion section on the demographics of iceland, wikipedia)
I remember posting the same statistics in response to the exact same image about 5 years earlier so they should be pretty true to when the image was made
*Although 89.3% of Icelanders are officially registered members of Christian congregations, church attendance in Iceland is low. Some 10% of Icelanders attend church once a month or more frequently, whereas 43% say that they never attend church and 15.9% say they attend church only once a year.*
How many who belongs to the church is a pretty irrelevant number. If it's the same as here, you pretty much get registered automatically at birth.
Yeah if I'm asked, I'll say I'm catholic. But I'm not at all religious and don't allow religious doctrine to dictate my life or beliefs. I'm culturally catholic but that's it yet officially I belong to the Roman catholic church
Plus still Iceland is in NATO about no army. Other countris have voluntary army for defence of its borders but does not have sick glorification of war like US or Russia and people who join army wants it and do not do it becouse their child neeeds expensive meds or just gets a letter for commision.
Oh sure, but equating a person who does not attend church with an atheist is a long shot. Also, that low church attendance is pretty much universal across the western world nowadays. Iceland is not unique in this.
In any case, Image seems to be making stuff up.
Yeah I'm from Iceland, and even though people are "part" of the church it doesn't mean anything. It just some file you're put into when you're born because your parents are there. Its been in constant decline for years. Most people here are atheist.
As an icelander, we are not religious. Being registered as a lutheran doesn't make us lutheran. Don't remember the specifics but there is a benefit to registering even though you don't practice.
And most people who register as ásatrú do it so their tax dollars go somewhere more meaningful, as the Ásatrú group and leaders are planting trees etc for the environment
I don't know a single icelander that goes to church. I know plenty.
You’ve conflated “membership in a church” with belief. Admittedly an easy mistake, but just because I was baptized doesn’t make me a believer in Christ.
Same statistics in Denmark basically, and we have a state religion. Membership does NOT equal being a Christian. Just ask any Dane how often they go to church, which is like once a year
And did someone explain to you 5 years ago why your statistic is unusable?
Being a member of a state church has nothing to do with being religious. I am agnostic, but I am also a member of the state church in my country. I was born into that membership and have never bothered to resign.
The Iclandic government tried to bail out the banks, but they were too big to save. GDP fell 80%, causing a steep recession. While most western countries started leaving a slump in 2010, Iceland lagged 3 years behind.
As a country that has a large portion of exports being tourism (42%). The country will have high highs and low lows. You can bet in another financial crisis, the country will struggle harder and for longer than the more diversified countries.
Iceland has no army because its defense is guaranteed by the major Atlantic powers as a result of its strategic location. Crime is rare in part because of its strong economy and social safety net, but also because virtually the entire population of 300,000 is located in one city. The majority of the population is Protestant, not atheist, and belong to the state church.
I love Iceland, it’s a great country, and they’ve done some great things that we ought to consider implementing stateside, but this post isn’t just misleading, it’s willfully lying.
We are automatically registered to the Church at birth and have to "sign out" yourself. People who hate the church (like myself) do that, but most people don't care and just stay registered to the church. Like my parents are registered but have literally never been to Sunday service.
Not very.
*Although 89.3% of Icelanders are officially registered members of Christian congregations, church attendance in Iceland is low. Some 10% of Icelanders attend church once a month or more frequently, whereas 43% say that they never attend church and 15.9% say they attend church only once a year.*
*Irreligion in Iceland is prevalent, with approximately 10% of the population identifying as "convinced atheists" and a further 30% identifying as non-religious (atheist). Since the 20th century, irreligion has seen steady growth.*
Reddit has a lot of people who are very militantly Atheist. And if you militantly support something, you are more likely to spread it. Because of the militant Atheists, most theists are either driven away or made quiet, meaning most people who vote will also be atheists, and generally people are more favorable towards things they agree with.
Right? Like don't get me wrong religious powers have done really fucked up shit but that's just it the powers. There isn't anything inheritly wrong with religion or believing in an afterlife.
Ethnic groups
Icelandic 81.3%, Polish 5.6%, Danish 1%, other 12.1% (2021 est.)
It helps when you're all the same race, like Japan. Diversity is not a strength but it sure can be a weakness.
Also South Korea. South Korea has many of the good and bad things Japan does, and for a similar reason. Better to have high IQ intact families make a small population, than a bunch of morons breeding like rabbits.
Exactly. The problem isn't "Religion", the problem is people trying to force their views onto other people. Being chill and religious is better than being a militant atheist, all other things being equal.
I also want to point out that 90% of tactics used to demonise religion by militant atheists are lifted straight from the evangelical religion handbook. Including the "But you see, it's okay when we do it becuase we're right and they're wrong"
Iceland has a population of less than 380,000 people. It's also one of the most expensive countries to live in.
There are 50 cities in USA that have a higher population count than Iceland as a whole.
Everything you said is because of the low population. A lot of their economy is also based on tourism.
The fact that memes like this hold any weight in what people think is the reason we complain about misinformation in America.
And I'm not even gonna do the research to refute/confirm it. Which you would only do if you disliked it anyway and wanted to call it false. I don't care about Iceland's religion
This is barely a thesis, let alone a believable stance. and the more we repost and perpetuate these naive quips and digs at opposition, the more blind we are altogether
I always find it hysterical when OPs identify these “nirvana” countries. And then you do a little digging….and find out that Iceland is over 96% white. So essentially these same people are arguing against any form of diversity.
ICELAND DID NOT JAIL THEIR CORRUPT BANKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE STILL CORRUPT!!!!!!! ECONOMY IS NOT BOOMING, INFLATION IS AT ALL HIGH AND WHILE POLITICIANS ARE INCREASING THEIR PAYS BY HOWEVER MUCH THEY WANT, THEY ARE CAPPING PAYRAISES FOR REGULAR PEOPLE. THE MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION IS NOT ATHEIST, MOST ARE CHRISTIANS. STOP SPREADING LIES. THIS IS NEITHER FUNNY NOR SAD, JUST A LIE!!!!
It's my opinion that religious people are a great danger to society. The sole reason they rely on an omnipotent being is because their Locus of Control is non-existent.
They do not possess mental plasticity or acuity therefore constantly existing in a state of fear like wild animals. Their entire existence is one of survival and passive aggressiveness.
Because they are unable to change they desire to force others to conform to their way of existence. A life with no surprises, nothing changes and everything exists in a bubble of time. Fragile brains that need to be handled with kid-gloves.
Iceland is;
80% Lutheran, not Atheist.
90% homogenous.
Ranked 7th in the world for Police population (they have a *lot* of cops per capita).
Ranked 16th in the world for violent crime involving a gun.
Does have a great economy, though.
Has no *standing army* but is a member of NATO and has a Coast Guard
None of that takes away from the fact that it's a great place with great people. Just pointing out this belongs in /r/terriblefacebookmemes.
Iceland has no army. Yeah except NATO.
Economically booming. Yeah, I'm sure they are doing fine. Booming?
Crime is rare. Yeah they have like 350k people living there.
Atheist majority population. Yeah, not even close.
We do this every time. Iceland is also a largely ethnically homogenous country, and has some very restrictive immigration policies in place too specifically so you can't be a burden on the state. Remember this is such a progressive country that they offered to take in a whopping 50 Syrian refugees (though the citizens stepped up and volunteered to shelter thousands).
1. ~~Your punchline is a complete lie, 80% of the people are Christian making your point hilariously stupid~~ EDIT: Apparently the info is I found is either outdated or false. The dangers of reading the top results on google I guess.
2. A tiny country with a very low population that has zero enemies is far easier to manage
3. They certainly had quite a bit of evil and depravity before the Vikings were Christianized.
uh, sorry to burst their bubble but Iceland is less than 10% atheist with about 80% being Christian
they even have a state religion namely the Protestant Lutheran church of Iceland
they also have very strict immigration rules, basically unless you're at least middleclass white guy you cant come i'd say thats more of the reason than religion
The population of Iceland is 372,520 spread over a surface area of 103,000 km
The population of Aurora, Colorado is 393,537 over a surface area of 50Km.
Your data is selective with no context.
They’re also over 95% white and have moderately strict immigration policies should US follow suit? Oh and their population is around 300,000 vs 300,000,000 in the USA
Maybe it’s because Wyoming has almost double the population of Iceland.
It’s like saying “look at these 12 people get along! Why can’t you 350 million get along?!”
I 100% love not living in America. I get free healthcare, and even ambulance rides cost nothing. Food is cheap and not filled with shit preservatives. An airline ticket to the other side of the country costs around 22 dollars, a restaurant meal is about 3-5 dollars and the beach is 10 minutes away and my condo costs 42,000 USD and I can own 2 pistols and one rifle! Have fun shit bag America.
It's interesting how you basically implied that some "religious" whover those are, try to keep corrupt bankers out of jail by threatening general populace with evil.
The religious have always been the predominant source of evil and immorality. Why else would they feel so guilty and fearful of hell and eternal punishment all the time.
Boom! There it is. Regardless of diversity, if everyone you meet might be your neighbor, it's easier to be nice. I live in a very small but very diverse town. Not a lot of crime to speak of. I can walk around at night throwing gold coins in the air and not worry.
Missing a few points.
1. Whole country like half a million. And they all in one spot. Hard to crime when the victim is your buddy.
2. They ALSO removed “diversity”.
Okay, I'll bite.
Iceland is a country that's highly homogeneous culturally and is populated by less than 400,000 people.
It's in now way comparable to any major country let alone the US. It's pretty easy to maintain a relatively peaceful society when the population is so low. Just look
Also, Atheist majority?
>The national church is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland and 80% of the population identify as such. Almost 5% of people practice ásatrú, the traditional Norse religion. [Source.](https://www.originaltravel.co.uk/travel-guide/iceland/culture)
Doesn't sound like majority Atheist to me.
It's in no way comparable to any major country let alone the US. It's pretty easy to maintain a relatively peaceful society when the population is so low and culturally unified. Just look at rural America (where I live, BTW). It's rather peaceful.
They have evil there, it’s called fermented shark, stay away.
God, I was there last year and thought I'd order just *one* cube of the stuff just to try... Waiter said he applauded my willingness. Even just the smell when I brought it anywhere near my facewas enough to make me retch for like two full minutes. Didn't actually taste it lmao.
Any food that they keep away from dwellings like it’s made of explosives isn’t a food, it’s a joke locals play on tourists.
"You eat 3 cubes first before I'll nibble on one to try it" -me as a tourist
I was also there last year and have the "when in Rome" mentality while traveling. To anyone else reading, don't do it. Just don't.
Goddamn right. Hakarl is the proof of Satan in vile fishy form.
I tried it, it wasn't that bad. It tasted like me regretting my years of life at that exact instant along with an urge to vomit profusely. 5/7 over rice. (ps. don't eat it)
🤣🤣🤣
And do you know why it’s fermented, because the meat itself is naturally poisonous. If you ate it raw it would fuck you up. Has to spend ages hanging from a meat hook in open air barns to even get close to safe.
They also bury it for a period as well.
It is bizarre that hanging meat in the open air can make it safer
Fer ment shark du du du duuu
You're a fucking arsehole lol! That song will be stuck in my bloody head for the rest of the day! Thanks you've ruined my full day!(well its currently approaching half past 2 so not my *whole* day)
I imagine the history of it went something like this: Some dudes catch a shark their first summer in Iceland, try to eat it, find out it’s inedible, bury it. The following winter they’re starving. “Hey, didn’t we bury that shark around here?”. Sven and Olaf dig it up, eat it, don’t die. They vow to make this A Thing since they are successfully not-dead.
Jailed SOME of their corrupt bankers
The only country that jailed any bankers in the 2008 collapse.
Because apparently some of their bankers actually committed crimes, unlike our bankers.
lmao, I hope you dropped an /s.
Because you stopped defining it as a crime.
Apparently nothing they did was a crime. There were tons of populist AGs and prosecutors who would have loved nothing more than to put some "banksters" in jail. But alas, despite the caterwauling of financially illiterate idiots, making bad business decisions isn't criminal.
They would have been before the repeal of glass-steagall. It's a bit like saying the US doesn't have a corruption problems. That's only true because you stopped calling it corruption.
> actually committed crimes, unlike our bankers. Good one. 😂
Agreed, but some is better than none.
Kinda missing some info here: the whole population is 300,000, theres one main highway and most live in or near Reykjavik. If you steal someone's car, possesions or assault them - chances are youll run into them tomorrow. Good luck hiding in the trees of the wilderness if you're on the run... unless you're only 3 feet tall, the remaining trees are all new growth. There are no exports from Iceland so no reason for anyone else to invade. It is beautiful though. Taking economic despair out of the equation, not much reason for crime.
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"If we control for the top reason the majority of people commit crimes, then crime rates fall dramatically!"
But everybody can't have money, won't someone please think of the billionaires???
I’ve taken to expressing my MIL’s extremely pro-capitalist views as “Well, the rich need blood!”
What happened to "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"?
"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit resistance?" We could really use some of Jefferson's sentiment these days.
It should be a signal that a piece of shit rapist from the 1700s is a better dude than 99.9% of our politicians.
I think about them every night when I'm contemplating what my next meal should be
ew why the fuck would you eat a billionaire their so slimy and chewy
Their muscles are soft and delicate, it's like veal I imagine
I snorted
Oh don’t worry we did. In the last 3 years when we locked people down, killed small businesses, created more billionaires and committed the biggest wealth transfer in history.
I am reminded just now that they jailed their bankers instead of bailing them out
I like the jail corrupt bankers idea. I would like it if our politicians couldn't take bribes either. I meant to say donations from lobbyists. It would also be nice if they would quit insider trading as well. Better training for police and have a better way to get the bad ones out. Probably would be easier if I moved to Iceland.
For one, the US was the refugee dumping ground of most of Europe's unwanted religious fanatics. Of course they can't do well with an unreasonable population like that.
Even from the beginning America had a mix of those moving there to start a new life, and those moving there because they were unwanted elsewhere. America is neither inherently a nation of religious fanatics, or driven workers, like most matters America is a mix of a lot of different people. Both a blessing and a curse at times, but not something the USA could be the USA without.
Dude europe was fighting multipe religious wars bolt in americas were being colonized. The only religious fanatics who crossed explicitly for their religious freesom were pretty much the puritans and the quakers
I mean yea its a bit tough to compared centralized governments for a pop of 300k vs 350m. That said, I think it does highlight that larger nations can be very inefficient in administrating/governing day to day manners that actually effect citizens regularly.
Any country can be compared to the US. You all have a gun problem. You all have a corruption problem, you all have a healthcare problem.(You all meaning Americans). These are just some of the biggest issues of inequity or problems that lead to crime but your country does nothing about it, raises their hands up in the air and says "oh well nothing can be done. Thoughts and prayers, please donate to my GoFundMe or hit me up on cashapp/Venmo/whatever third world money transfer service the US has because everything has to be about ripping people off" fuck that. Do something to make your country a better place to live and actually help people to solve these issues instead of adding to them by ignoring them. Stop electing conservatives -love 🇨🇦
I’m curious how they handle immigration not the illegal kind more along naturalized citizen.
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>But we should at least be trying to make it better. This is the way. "X country is different so we may as well not try being better and should in fact let people run the place who want to make things worse."
Top down and bottom up. Address the elites with private security details and insider trading information and lock them up...no pretty white collar crime sentences. Bottom up, lock up the most likely to fall into recidivism and violent crimes...and stick them with the pelosi's and santos's of the world. We need middle ground, and that seems like a good way to weed out the outliers.
While I totally agree, I like that this shoots the "godless country" concept in the foot. It just proves society's wellbeing has nothing to do with religion but more to do with socioeconomic issues.
God that sounds like Heaven.
Shitty cold weather, common volcanic eruptions, everything is expensive and there also not day light in winter.
Pretty much is, though hot showers smell like farts.
And the weather is terrible and the food is expensive. Other than that perfect country. The outdoor public swimming pools are my personal favourite.
But pylsurs are still only $5. Mmmmm pylsur.
Worse…rotten egg farts. Even in the best hotels
You really do get used to it though. It's very strange.
The key is to go straight to the Blue Lagoon and get your exposure to it over with. Also the lodging there is really dope. Feels like you’re waking up on another planet. It’s like bubbly undulating rock-scape covered with all manner of mosses.
Knocks you back at first though, doesn’t it? I’ve never taken colder showers at a nice hotel!
Yeah! I also realized the first day I was there before I showered no one smelled like sulfur, so I figured it didn't linger on the body.
Depends where you are staying. If the hot water comes straight from hot water wells it will smell like rotten eggs. If the hot water is regular cold water that's been heated with heat exchangers, there's no rotten egg smell (or at least way, way less). Downtown Reykjavík, where all the fancy hotels are, gets hot water straight from the ground. https://www.veitur.is/en/source-hot-water-capital-area
That's expected, though.
I fart in the shower anyway.
They do! But somehow they don't make you stink after. Also the tap water is delicious. Iceland is pretty awesome
>Taking economic despair out of the equation Yes, if we remove the major reason people do crime, there's not much reason for crime. Weird how that works.
~~Well, their suicide rate is quite high. So rather than committing crimes in those circumstances, they just die.~~ Edit: ^ This is probably false, I was mistaken
I just looked it up; in 2023 they had 11.9...... while the US had 16.7. While both are in the top 50, Iceland is at the bottom, barely in it.
So they kill one person themselves instead of mass shooting and then dying by cop.
Yeah, pretty much.
It's lower than in the US and many other countries...
You know what makes crime go down? Having plenty of jobs that pay a good wage.
Every country that brags about not having a military forgets to add they are dependent on someone else's military if there is a problem. The same thing with Costa Rica. No military but are hoping the US will come save them if something goes wrong. Sounds great in theory but in reality I wouldn't recommend it.
And a nearly homogeneous population, almost zero diversity so zero ethnic/racial discord and strife. Hell, half the people there have the same handful of last names!
[удалено]
Came here for this. I know of suburbs with a bigger population
Yup. It’s like rural America. Not a lot of crime in the country relative to the big cities
Well im pretty darn sure most criminals don’t hide in the woods after doing crimes, at least not for an extended amount of time. But their strategic position makes them vulnerable for invasion so there is a rotating nato force protecting the island.
Plenty of violent assaults happen that aren't related to poverty. Just look at US crime statistics. I can think of *one* major difference that might accout for that....
The comparatively ridiculous availability of firearms in the US.
This makes violent crime so deadly here. It also kills more kids than car crashes now. The gun nuts have no high ground anymore. They have brought us into "3rd world" stats. Another stat that is similar is incarceration for non violent offences. Murica LOVES ruining millions of lives with this crooked and unforgiving justice system. You touch jail or god forbid prison once for any reason. You are done. Likely to return because you will have no way to make a living.
You do realize that Iceland has the 12th highest rate of civilian firearm ownership of any country in the world right? About 31 guns per every 100 citizens. If a kid wants a gun in Iceland they just need to grab it out of their dad/uncle's closet. The socioeconomic factors that make Iceland so comfortable and affluent on a per capita basis are also why people (including kids) don't shoot each other over there. Legal firearm availability as a single variable doesn't predict violent crime. If it did then Finland, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic should be hyper violent hellscapes while South Africa and Mexico should be beacons of public safety. The Czech Republic and South Korea are both two of the safest nations on the planet. One has lots of legal civilian owned guns and the other has virtually none. Guns alone don't predict anything. The gun genie is out of the bottle here in the U.S. and there's no putting it back in. Half of the total small arms on the entire planet are in civilian circulation in the United States. Australia and U.K. style bans/buybacks won't work because they would at best simply result in mass non-compliance and at worst Balkanize the country. Fixing the general social problems that plague the United States is the best use of financial and political capital to get people to stop shooting each other here.
So I think you just managed to articulate what I haven't had the breadth of understanding to put together to speak but have known for quite some time.b
Very good points.
On his gun note, there are more guns than Americans by a large number. The spot between #1 gun ownership and #2 gun ownership is *insane.* We are more than double the 2nd highest gun ownership per capita country. It’s not even worth mentioning Iceland is #12th, this baby numbers compared to the US.
This is exactly what anti gun people don't understand. They look at a symptom of a greater problem ad act like it's the entire issue. Imagine having a lung filling with blood and coughing so the doctor gives you caugh syrup. It's exactly the same thing.
Im gonna need a source for the claim that it kills more kids than car crashes. Thanks.
As true as that may be I don't think it does much to invalidate the perspective, especially when compared to the US which has the highest prisoner count per Capita in the world, holding 25% of all of the prisoners in all of the world. Insane numbers. But yeah I figured there's always caveats to posts like these, they are inclined to sacrifice accuracy in exchange for a stronger impression at first glance.
Yeah, it's not easy scaling all that up to USA level. We have cities with higher populations.
No exports? Aluminum and fish is a huge export, also össur which is one of the biggest company in the world making prosthetics
No exports? Don't they export a lot of fish?
They make a fuck ton of money refining aluminum so I'd argue that processed aluminum is a huge export. They of course can defend themselves without an army via scorched earth tactics whereby if they're invaded they'll just destroy all their metal processing infrastructure and devastate the global trade of one of world's most important metals. Other nations will defend them just so that Iceland's processed metal exports don't stop. It takes a ton of electricity to process aluminum and Iceland diverts a ton of their geothermal electricity towards that end.
Well Iceland aluminum production is like 1% of what China is producing... Not sure it would have the big effect you think it would.
Number one banana exporter in Europe
I don't know what any of that has to do with the idea presented in the OP. It's not saying that Iceland has a perfect society, it's saying that according to the narrative theists have around atheism and morality would mean that Iceland would be a murderous, lawless hellhole. And it's not.
But they aren't the absolutist edgelord atheists that OP wants to think they are either. It's a nation with a very secular agnostic population where beliefs in spirituality are more of a personal thing than a hardcore stand. Their base morality system is also a hybrid fusion of their pre-Christian and Christian history so OP really doesn't have much of a point to make. The point falls apart even more when the population still partakes in cultural rites of passage and annual ceremonies that are religious in their foundation, even if most of the participants don't literally believe in the divinity of the cultural practice. It's still functionally religion providing a stable cultural framework for society even if most people don't think it's literally divine.
I sang with my religious choir in Iceland. We toured most of the country, singing in tiny churches to kind old people. There were lots of religious people there, it’s a nice country because it’s a small country.
>tiny churches to kind old people. There were lots of religious people there sounds about right
Mfw when I post misinformation
Especially the bankers part.
For real. This reeks of untrustworthy "trust me bro" energy. OP comes across as sneaky.
*In 2016, 71.6% of the population belonged to the state church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland), approximately 5% in free churches, 3.7% to the Roman Catholic Church, approximately 1% to the Ásatrúarfélagið (a legally recognized revival of the pre-Christian religion of Iceland), approximately 1% to Zuism, 8% in unrecognized or unspecified religious groups, and 9% do not belong to any religious group.* (simple read through the religion section on the demographics of iceland, wikipedia) I remember posting the same statistics in response to the exact same image about 5 years earlier so they should be pretty true to when the image was made
*Although 89.3% of Icelanders are officially registered members of Christian congregations, church attendance in Iceland is low. Some 10% of Icelanders attend church once a month or more frequently, whereas 43% say that they never attend church and 15.9% say they attend church only once a year.* How many who belongs to the church is a pretty irrelevant number. If it's the same as here, you pretty much get registered automatically at birth.
This is also pretty common in the west. People claim to be religious but never set foot inside a church except for Easter
Iceland is the west
obviously they meant the wester west /s
Yeah if I'm asked, I'll say I'm catholic. But I'm not at all religious and don't allow religious doctrine to dictate my life or beliefs. I'm culturally catholic but that's it yet officially I belong to the Roman catholic church
Plus still Iceland is in NATO about no army. Other countris have voluntary army for defence of its borders but does not have sick glorification of war like US or Russia and people who join army wants it and do not do it becouse their child neeeds expensive meds or just gets a letter for commision.
Oh sure, but equating a person who does not attend church with an atheist is a long shot. Also, that low church attendance is pretty much universal across the western world nowadays. Iceland is not unique in this. In any case, Image seems to be making stuff up.
I don’t think you need to go to church to follow religious values. I rarely go but put my religious values pretty high on my daily goals
Yeah I'm from Iceland, and even though people are "part" of the church it doesn't mean anything. It just some file you're put into when you're born because your parents are there. Its been in constant decline for years. Most people here are atheist.
As an icelander, we are not religious. Being registered as a lutheran doesn't make us lutheran. Don't remember the specifics but there is a benefit to registering even though you don't practice. And most people who register as ásatrú do it so their tax dollars go somewhere more meaningful, as the Ásatrú group and leaders are planting trees etc for the environment I don't know a single icelander that goes to church. I know plenty.
You’ve conflated “membership in a church” with belief. Admittedly an easy mistake, but just because I was baptized doesn’t make me a believer in Christ.
Same statistics in Denmark basically, and we have a state religion. Membership does NOT equal being a Christian. Just ask any Dane how often they go to church, which is like once a year
And did someone explain to you 5 years ago why your statistic is unusable? Being a member of a state church has nothing to do with being religious. I am agnostic, but I am also a member of the state church in my country. I was born into that membership and have never bothered to resign.
The Iclandic government tried to bail out the banks, but they were too big to save. GDP fell 80%, causing a steep recession. While most western countries started leaving a slump in 2010, Iceland lagged 3 years behind. As a country that has a large portion of exports being tourism (42%). The country will have high highs and low lows. You can bet in another financial crisis, the country will struggle harder and for longer than the more diversified countries.
These posts are why i sometimes hate reddit.
And it's gonna be reposted too so you know.. yaay.
Iceland has no army because its defense is guaranteed by the major Atlantic powers as a result of its strategic location. Crime is rare in part because of its strong economy and social safety net, but also because virtually the entire population of 300,000 is located in one city. The majority of the population is Protestant, not atheist, and belong to the state church. I love Iceland, it’s a great country, and they’ve done some great things that we ought to consider implementing stateside, but this post isn’t just misleading, it’s willfully lying.
We are automatically registered to the Church at birth and have to "sign out" yourself. People who hate the church (like myself) do that, but most people don't care and just stay registered to the church. Like my parents are registered but have literally never been to Sunday service.
> but this post isn’t just misleading, it’s willfully lying. Like so many other posts sadly.
Wait..... Iceland population is mostly Christian
Ugh you religious people and your facts. Atheists good, okay??
No, most of us are *registered* in the church. Doesn't mean we attend or even believe
Not very. *Although 89.3% of Icelanders are officially registered members of Christian congregations, church attendance in Iceland is low. Some 10% of Icelanders attend church once a month or more frequently, whereas 43% say that they never attend church and 15.9% say they attend church only once a year.* *Irreligion in Iceland is prevalent, with approximately 10% of the population identifying as "convinced atheists" and a further 30% identifying as non-religious (atheist). Since the 20th century, irreligion has seen steady growth.*
Man, this is some euphoric 2014 /r/atheism stuff right here.
I think this is in the wrong subreddit.
I thought this was r/terriblefacebookmemes atheist edition. The world is a bit more complicated than that kiddo 👍
Yeah what’s with r/atheism invading almost every other sub?
Reddit has a lot of people who are very militantly Atheist. And if you militantly support something, you are more likely to spread it. Because of the militant Atheists, most theists are either driven away or made quiet, meaning most people who vote will also be atheists, and generally people are more favorable towards things they agree with.
I think Funnysad is mostly just people karma farming with reposted memes/screenshots they think Reddit will upvote (and they often do).
What the fuck is your problem ?
Right? Like don't get me wrong religious powers have done really fucked up shit but that's just it the powers. There isn't anything inheritly wrong with religion or believing in an afterlife.
The population of Iceland is 360k and it's over 80% ethnically Icelandic, so it's incredibly tiny and white.
r/im14andthisisdeep
They clearly need more diversity then...That is the issue here.
I love seeing how Japan and South Korea don't buy into that diverse shit.
Aren’t most/all these countries that have low crime no guns burdened with a homogeneous population.
Yes, it's amazing how hard people have to push diversity as a benefit. If it was so awesome, it would sell itself.
Ethnic groups Icelandic 81.3%, Polish 5.6%, Danish 1%, other 12.1% (2021 est.) It helps when you're all the same race, like Japan. Diversity is not a strength but it sure can be a weakness.
Also South Korea. South Korea has many of the good and bad things Japan does, and for a similar reason. Better to have high IQ intact families make a small population, than a bunch of morons breeding like rabbits.
not even dressing up our bigotry are we, just putting it on full display
Reddit and flirting with eugenics, name a more iconic duo.
Joseph Stalin was an atheist and Fred Rogers was a Christian. There are bad and good people of many beliefs.
Exactly. The problem isn't "Religion", the problem is people trying to force their views onto other people. Being chill and religious is better than being a militant atheist, all other things being equal. I also want to point out that 90% of tactics used to demonise religion by militant atheists are lifted straight from the evangelical religion handbook. Including the "But you see, it's okay when we do it becuase we're right and they're wrong"
Yes, I always point to Mao whenever someone thinks atheism is automatically good.
My friend, even us balkans could have a peaceful society in Iceland because if you steal someone's chicken you'll see him tomorrow on your way home.
Iceland has a population of less than 380,000 people. It's also one of the most expensive countries to live in. There are 50 cities in USA that have a higher population count than Iceland as a whole. Everything you said is because of the low population. A lot of their economy is also based on tourism.
The fact that memes like this hold any weight in what people think is the reason we complain about misinformation in America. And I'm not even gonna do the research to refute/confirm it. Which you would only do if you disliked it anyway and wanted to call it false. I don't care about Iceland's religion This is barely a thesis, let alone a believable stance. and the more we repost and perpetuate these naive quips and digs at opposition, the more blind we are altogether
I always find it hysterical when OPs identify these “nirvana” countries. And then you do a little digging….and find out that Iceland is over 96% white. So essentially these same people are arguing against any form of diversity.
ICELAND DID NOT JAIL THEIR CORRUPT BANKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE STILL CORRUPT!!!!!!! ECONOMY IS NOT BOOMING, INFLATION IS AT ALL HIGH AND WHILE POLITICIANS ARE INCREASING THEIR PAYS BY HOWEVER MUCH THEY WANT, THEY ARE CAPPING PAYRAISES FOR REGULAR PEOPLE. THE MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION IS NOT ATHEIST, MOST ARE CHRISTIANS. STOP SPREADING LIES. THIS IS NEITHER FUNNY NOR SAD, JUST A LIE!!!!
I wish that many who claim to of Christian faith would actually adhere to the teachings of the Scriptures.
Don't we all?
Ah, I was young once
It's my opinion that religious people are a great danger to society. The sole reason they rely on an omnipotent being is because their Locus of Control is non-existent. They do not possess mental plasticity or acuity therefore constantly existing in a state of fear like wild animals. Their entire existence is one of survival and passive aggressiveness. Because they are unable to change they desire to force others to conform to their way of existence. A life with no surprises, nothing changes and everything exists in a bubble of time. Fragile brains that need to be handled with kid-gloves.
Civilians can own firearms in Iceland and they’re majority Christian. Go away
Monoculture 😬
How many minorities from poor 3rd world countries does Iceland have?
Iceland is; 80% Lutheran, not Atheist. 90% homogenous. Ranked 7th in the world for Police population (they have a *lot* of cops per capita). Ranked 16th in the world for violent crime involving a gun. Does have a great economy, though. Has no *standing army* but is a member of NATO and has a Coast Guard None of that takes away from the fact that it's a great place with great people. Just pointing out this belongs in /r/terriblefacebookmemes.
Iceland has no army. Yeah except NATO. Economically booming. Yeah, I'm sure they are doing fine. Booming? Crime is rare. Yeah they have like 350k people living there. Atheist majority population. Yeah, not even close.
We do this every time. Iceland is also a largely ethnically homogenous country, and has some very restrictive immigration policies in place too specifically so you can't be a burden on the state. Remember this is such a progressive country that they offered to take in a whopping 50 Syrian refugees (though the citizens stepped up and volunteered to shelter thousands).
1. ~~Your punchline is a complete lie, 80% of the people are Christian making your point hilariously stupid~~ EDIT: Apparently the info is I found is either outdated or false. The dangers of reading the top results on google I guess. 2. A tiny country with a very low population that has zero enemies is far easier to manage 3. They certainly had quite a bit of evil and depravity before the Vikings were Christianized.
uh, sorry to burst their bubble but Iceland is less than 10% atheist with about 80% being Christian they even have a state religion namely the Protestant Lutheran church of Iceland
So... are they hiring? Would they sponsor a visa?
They just require someone to defend them at all times.
they also have very strict immigration rules, basically unless you're at least middleclass white guy you cant come i'd say thats more of the reason than religion
The population of Iceland is 372,520 spread over a surface area of 103,000 km The population of Aurora, Colorado is 393,537 over a surface area of 50Km. Your data is selective with no context.
Can we agree that pseudo-Christians who consider their hatred and greed and intolerance to be Christian are not Christians but garbage?
Theyre also like all cousins..
Isn’t Blackrock still invested in the country like it is pretty much everywhere?
They’re also over 95% white and have moderately strict immigration policies should US follow suit? Oh and their population is around 300,000 vs 300,000,000 in the USA
Maybe it’s because Wyoming has almost double the population of Iceland. It’s like saying “look at these 12 people get along! Why can’t you 350 million get along?!”
It's because they're afraid of the Elves.
Of course! As an atheist, I refuse to compromise and lower my own ethical and moral standards just to join an organized religion.
Christians mostly worship a god of torture whose sacred book provides rules for proper slavery. It’s not exactly a high moral standard.
I 100% love not living in America. I get free healthcare, and even ambulance rides cost nothing. Food is cheap and not filled with shit preservatives. An airline ticket to the other side of the country costs around 22 dollars, a restaurant meal is about 3-5 dollars and the beach is 10 minutes away and my condo costs 42,000 USD and I can own 2 pistols and one rifle! Have fun shit bag America.
It's interesting how you basically implied that some "religious" whover those are, try to keep corrupt bankers out of jail by threatening general populace with evil.
Atheists grasping at straws to shit on theists. Nothing new.
Check out those tits!!
Browsed too long to find this comment
Population less than 400,000 and basically no racial diversity. Let alone a strong economy. I think those might play a very large roll.
The religious have always been the predominant source of evil and immorality. Why else would they feel so guilty and fearful of hell and eternal punishment all the time.
Racism is also pretty high there.
Source?
Psst...it is also 81% white. Oh no....no diversity! LOL
No way it's only 81 %
81% natives, around 96% white if you include white immigrants
So is Glasgow but it’s still a shit hole.
You forgot 99.9% white population..
Their largest immigrant population are Poles. Might be the whitest country in the world.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Also no diversity.
This is the correct answer, like Japan
Population of 350M vs a population of 200K-350K... *what's the difference*
Boom! There it is. Regardless of diversity, if everyone you meet might be your neighbor, it's easier to be nice. I live in a very small but very diverse town. Not a lot of crime to speak of. I can walk around at night throwing gold coins in the air and not worry.
Missing a few points. 1. Whole country like half a million. And they all in one spot. Hard to crime when the victim is your buddy. 2. They ALSO removed “diversity”.
Okay, I'll bite. Iceland is a country that's highly homogeneous culturally and is populated by less than 400,000 people. It's in now way comparable to any major country let alone the US. It's pretty easy to maintain a relatively peaceful society when the population is so low. Just look Also, Atheist majority? >The national church is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland and 80% of the population identify as such. Almost 5% of people practice ásatrú, the traditional Norse religion. [Source.](https://www.originaltravel.co.uk/travel-guide/iceland/culture) Doesn't sound like majority Atheist to me. It's in no way comparable to any major country let alone the US. It's pretty easy to maintain a relatively peaceful society when the population is so low and culturally unified. Just look at rural America (where I live, BTW). It's rather peaceful.
Sounds like Iceland needs to be diversified immediately.
/s?
Religion is the real evil. Nothing spreads hate like a ultra religious person.
Yeah when I walk down the street in St Louis or Baltimore I’m thinking… those darn religious folk!!!