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FuehrerStoleMyBike t1_j7fsexs wrote

Reply to comment by Beavshak in [OC] European attitudes towards Muslims and Jews by Udzu

I think its part the stronghold of religion and part the lack of confrontation. Fear (and nothing else is having a negative view onto a whole group of people) is mostly not rational and comes from a lack of knowledge. The more you dont know the more you can potentially fear.

Also I think religion is a particular interesting subject since those 3 religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity) are siblings and much more simular than different when compared to other big religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism. It is well established that familiarity may lead to animosity. In most murder cases a family member is the culprit. Or look at Harry and William - the british princes etc.

So in the end I think its a mixture of closeness and strageness. Close enough to be involved with each other but too distant to be united.

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skywalker_g t1_j7fyl0a wrote

Yes. As Pole I can confirm, that in here people are very often afraid of what they don't know. It's just due to historical experience for last 250 years when politically and socially we have had unwanted superiors. Like after ww2 communists from russia who have done everything to society to be afraid of nearest neighbours, friends and family.

Poland is historically one of few countries that allowed since middle ages Jews Muslims and all various Christians live on it's lands and have equal or almost equal rights. Poland had elections for the king since XVI century so it was some kind of democracy.

We were very liberal I think, and that was something that our imperialistic neighbours used to conflict the nation in XVIII and take our lands.

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drquaithe t1_j7h8049 wrote

Calling a disfunctional nobles' oligarchy a "democracy" is a helluva take. It actually led to more and more inequality and there was literal slavery of the noble class over peasants ("pańszczyzna"). They OWNED them and had the right of life or death over them.

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