Great video, but I have a few "buts": 1. We do greet each other. Like a lot. Sure, we're gonna ignore a random stranger that just walked by, but if we know a person, there's no way we won't say hello (if it's our neighbour it's 1000 times more important to do greet them if you don't want to be a gossip topic of the week for all of the elderly living nearby 😉). Also, but I'm pretty sure it's more of a small town thing; we greet strangers on a bus stop when we walk up to it 2. Weird situation with the police you had there, but about us not giving money- it's because it's either not for them, they simply are comfortable in their situation and simply chose not to work since begging is easier or the money they get isn't spent on food but rather on a clear liquid with a characteristic smell 🙃 3. Women and men do have equal rights. Church says the same, just mentions different responsibilities for each gender, but it's just a tradition nowadays, noone expects a woman to become a housewife or a man to be the only breadwinner in the family. They're equal on every ground 4. As for us not wanting to be called an east nor west country; you got the east part right. For the west it's just west is more focused on being modern and leaving tradition behind. We have a west worldview with east care for traditions and mentality in-between
Many points in the video are still just perceptions from western ideological lense. But at least it's in good faith trying to understand, not like Germans ;)
I think that Polish mentality have something to do with lack of historical knowledge of others. They dont get any credit and often are thought of as weak because many people dont know about Solidarność dont know much about Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (except it existing and then getting split), they just dont know any polish victories. Poland helped a lot in both WW but they almost never get any credit, so they want to prove those people otherwise. The problem with proving it is that whenever they achieve something amazing its quickly forgotten.
You poles are a great nation and shouldn't care what others know or do not know. As a Ukrainian, I used to live in a shadow. And when foreigners meet me they often say: "Wow! You speak English! Wow! You're well-educated! Wow, you've been to so many countries around the world!". They often look like disrespectful idiots at that moment. And that's kinda funny. I often see that people from other countries not only do not know the history of my or your countries but also do not know their own history. They are being taught as only their country matters and nothing is existing around them. That's a kind of modern norm, so pls don't be annoyed regarding it.
Poland was under Zydcommunist Soviet Zydviet ruling system from 1945. It was not Polish at all. The Zydeducation system was Marxist and was a Marxist psy op. Comparing West European Frankfurt Schul brainwashed with Bolshevik brainwashed will not produce facts just interesting personal opinions which are close to willful ignorance.
Hello Friend. Cant agree with Your explanations. I'm Pole whole my life, spend nearly 20 Years abroad ( That gives me perspective), so I feel competent on that matter. Nationalism ? Nope. Patriotism ? Yes. There is a significant difference. I'm sorry to see spread of such damaging opinions. All The best! Cheers.
Thanks for your constructive criticism and politeness. I agree that most people are patriotic here. But that fact is that the nationalistic movement is quite higher in Poland compared to other countries.
@@PolishDane that couldn't be more far from the truth, mate. I would even argue that, for other countries have far bigger problem with nationalism than Poland to the point that you can't even demonstrate different nationality without expecting violence. If you check out statistics of racial crimes it will be evident. I even heard Jewish rabbi saying that when they are holding some festivals in France they need tons of police whereas in Poland they just do it with minimal security and nothing bad happens. I'm not gonna defend burning flags of other countries - that's disrespectful at least, but you need to understand - politics is complicated and if someone is trying to impose rules on Polish people then through their history they are naturally against it. You mentioned Germany investing in Poland through EU and many people in Poland being against EU, the thing is those people know that kind of money is almost never given for free, I'll give you one example: there was huge debate in Poland where to locate first nuclear power plant in Poland and you know what happened? Germany thought it's ok to chime in and said they are against building nuclear power plant in Poland at all having multiple power plants on their territory not to mention other neighbours. Would you call it nationalistic? I'm not sure, I'd rather say that people want to just decide what their own country should look like, so I'd call it independence. Another point I would like to make is the whole part at 17:51, because I'm not going to hide I believe individual freedom is most valuable thing for me and thus, I can't agree that capitalism concentrate power - if anything the government regulations are concentrating power through all concessions and detailed laws (I also believe this is the reason your dad experienced so much bureaucracy when moving to Poland) and although you would think that older people would have strong capitalistic mindset through experience of communism in the past I would rather say they have mild love-hate relationship with it, because maybe they were poor at the time, but they were also young and they remember how hard transformation was (as it always is), whereas young people are more polarized - you can see extreme leftists, even communists among them as well as people who believe in free market and capitalism or (you mentioned it) nationalists (but I'd still say it is not mainstream). To prove that point you can just check how many old people voted for PiS in last election and how strongly this party is pushing social help. And, yeah, the polarization is a problem, unfortunately, politics leech on that and aren't helping to resolve it. I didn't anticipated it will be so long, but I hope it will help you understand a bit better some aspect of Polish mentality.
@@PolishDane Absurd, who told you such nonsense. true nationalists in poland have 2% of society. So much so that the nationalists had to unite with the anarcho-capitalists to get together 5% of the vote in the elections. Compare that to every other country in the EU, where the extreme parties can score in the double digits.
I think main problem is, the term 'nationalism' is viewed negatively in central and eastern European nations (in contrast with western Europe, where it's rather neutral), probably because nationalists were killing each other a lot, especially in the formative years of newly emerging, young states - in the interwar period. Look at the post-Austria-Hungary nations or closest to us, complicated Ukrainian-Polish relations. No one wants to be 'nationalist'. Everyone wants to be 'patriotic'. But come on! We all know under all this 'patriotic' disguise we find layers of insecurities, varied from toxic state-society-church relations, through antisemitism to the much celebrated victim-complex. The healthy patriotism of being truly proud, trauma-free Polish person is rare and valuable, tho becoming more common these days I think.
Czeçz. Yes, we are quite oppressed and unacknowledged people whom have saved the world countless times. We don't brag, we play things down, and whom saved all Jewish people and saved Bisons (the first endangered species that was successfully saved), we have done it all, and yet no country ever will accept us for what we did and continue to do. Poland safest place in the world and helped Ukraine (or will in future). We just want happy loving people and we are fighters.
The part about social relations with neighbours and strangers speaks so much to me and it's so relatable. I'm a 20 year old Pole and whenever one of my neighbours says to me "Cześć" ("Hi"), I am ALWAYS confused af and reply awkwardly with "Dzień dobry" ("Good morning"). Also, when I was in Italy, after about 5 days maybe, my mother and I noticed that Italians were kind of confused when we were greeting them with their equivalent of "Good morning", so we switched it to "Ciao". It was kind of an interesting experience, because in some way I felt liberated from the coldness of my Polish mentality. And then I return to it about a week after the trip, because I feel awkward around people behaving like that...
In Germany it's exactly the same. I think it's pretty much the same in all central and northern European countries. I only learned the name of my new neighbor 6 months after he moved in. I only realized this once there came a package for him which was delivered to me while he was on vacation.
I think men and women in Poland are one of the most equal in the world. Their salaries are very similar to men, most women are treated well if not better because they are women and their femininity is appreciated. They can do whatever men do, go where men go etc. Unlike in Anglo countries like Australia.
Several points: . In Poland, the symbolic language of Catholicism is almost indistinguishable from the symbolic language of nationalism. This is mostly due to the fact that nationalism was the "in thing" in Europe when Poland didn't exist, so the development of distinct Polish nationalistic symbols was stifled, so the country's artists/elites coopeted religious symbols to serve as proxy nationalistic ones, so as to avoid censorship by foreign powers. There is no Britannia or Marianne equivalent in Poland. Instead the meaning of the Virgin Mary, as a symbol, has been enriched by a semantic essence equivalent to that of said characters. Whenever you see a Catholic religious display in Poland, it's not certain the people participating in it are actually really interested in religion. They may be performatively religious or identify with Catholicism, but there is a significant chance that the part of what they perceive as "Polish Catholicism", that they are actually interested in, is the Polishness of it. It's just that, as a result of the last ~200 years, the symbolic language of expressing Polishness is currently inseparable from the language of expressing Catholicism. The Communist de facto occupation only further entrenched that state of affairs. There is nothing particularly nationalistic about Catholicism and there is nothing particularly Catholic about nationalism. Be it in Poland or in general. I mean, "Catholic" literally means "universal", and a big thing about Christianity in general, and it's derivatives, is that it seeks to convert everyone, regardless of race, nationality etc. It's just that, in Poland, the two cultural institutions' symbols happen to be intertwined with one another because of history. . Societies with more immediate history of prosperity tend to be more trusting. Societies with less of that, tend to be less trusting. Generally trusting societies work better for everyone. Within living memory Poland was very poor (relative to its neighbors) and subjected to a loss of ~1/5 of its population, facing potentially far worse. Trust is gonna be low for a generation or two still. War and genocide have lasting ill effects - shocking, right? . The bit about hierarchy is very confused. Communism was very hierarchical in everything but its advertising of itself to the West. But Poland wasn't in the West. The (unreasonably) rigid hierarchy of modern Polish institutions is not a reaction to Communism, it's a continuation of it. It's an example of how the political system has had a lasting (largely negative) impact on the society. As for "women's rights"TM being seen as suspect, that IS in fact a reaction to communism which did champion such causes "for real", at least partially as an extension of its ambition to supplant preexisting, religiously enshrined norms. . A big part of Poland's national myth is the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland sees itself, to no small degree, as the heir to that state. Poland-Lithuania was very different from what Poland is today and that, I think, explains quite a bit of what you describe as confusion in the Polish mindset. It's the dissonance between the religious/cultural diversity of the 1st "Rzeczpospolita" and the extreme homogeneity of the 3rd (note the naming convention itself was chosen on purpose to emphasize continuity between the states). After WWI, by adopting the name of "Druga Rzeczpospolita" (Second Commonwealth), Poland chose itself an ideal that demands of it to be one of Europe's leading powers. The People's Republic broke with that tradition, and independent Poland reverted back to it pretty much immediately by calling itself the 3rd Commonwealth. And don't get me wrong, it's not really a matter of some kind of militarist, expansionist ambition (though in some fringe milieus it manifests itself like that as well). Poland's national myth demands of it to unite the region, yes. But it also demands it does it through political union, not conquest.
Communism is not something that is advertising itself to the west as anti hierarchical. It is antihierarchical in the west or at least used to be during and before marx. The problem is that communism was introduced in practice by russia, a state that we all know is renowned for "not being a authoritarian, corruption fueled dystopia that creates most totalitarian form of any system it uses, while trying to solve problems by throwing people at it". Thats why many famous socialists like george orwell(animal folwark and 1984 author) hated soviet union as it was being antythesis for what they stood for at the time. replacing what many socialists wanted aka democratisation of a workplace with centralised economy of a defacto fascist state. If you asks yourself what are requirements of a fascist state, soviet union fullfills all of them. Im not a socialist by the way but i think it needs to be pointed out becouse of a spiral of missconceptions.
@@madtechnocrat9234 #NotRelCommunism. Sure... That's why everywhere it was tried it gave more or less the same shitty result. It's because of the corrupting Russian influence. In China it's because of that. In South America. In Indochina. In Africa. They were all irredeemably corrupted by *Russian* cultural assumptions, deeply ingrained in their cultures. . Communism sucks balls. Get over it.
Claiming that Poland is nationalist is simply repeating articles from the western media. As usual, the information presented by the other side is missing. It seems to me that the word nationalism could be replaced, for example, with the word patriotism. it is unnecessary to equate nationalism with racism and hatred of foreigners.
Zajebisty film. Nie ze wszystkim się zgadzam w 100% ale bardzo ciekawa perspektywa. W sumie może nawet kiedyś sam spróbuję zrobić film w tym stylu. Nawet bym wspomniał o twoim xd
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars Your answer is absolutely senseless in some parts. First of all for some reason you think he is Poland's enemy when he isn't. He lives in Poland and he said many things as compliments that you somehow took as an insult. Like he literally showed an artwork of a genius Polish artist and you call it some "crawling creature". Who is insulting Poland here? How... seriously how did you take every single thing (even the good ones) as if he said something bad about Poles. Also a lot of things you said aren't true imo. like Polish government is tied to church a bit. noone says they are THE SAME EXACT thing but just look at "trwam" to see how they praise "pis". And Poland is more christian than other countries. you misunderstood most of this video...
19:38 woman and man have equal rights in Poland as well. What society thinks may be a different thing but if we're talking about the law the genders are equal. 20:48 wow... Sadly that's kinda true
20:40 This is the first time I hear about the uniqueness and great influence of Russian culture. After all, Russian culture was born through parodying Polish, French and Dutch nobility, in that order, by Russian boyars. Similarly, Russian culture is stolen Ukrainian folklore. In Russia, everything that has appeared is secondary to Europe.
Well, this is obviously not true. Russians have an amazing, truly independent and very alive culture, kept hostage by the endless internal political oppression. Boyars maybe yes, since the Russian state always delivers the worst, but Russian folklore couldn't be parodying Ukrainian folklore, since this simple fact, every peasant culture was really, really closeted and localised in all of the feudal countries. Peasants couldn't move from their village, how they could exchange information, parody anything that was completely unknown to them? All the Slavic peasants' have something in common, yet every village had distinct way of being and traditions back in the day.
As a Turk who will move to Poland for University this October, I'm shocked by the similarities. Especially the neither west nor east part. Turks see themselves closer to west but see themselves attached to none. We are also pessimistic and always say being a turk sucks then proceed to dislike the same ideas from the people of different origin. I could choose other places for my education and settlement for long-term, however I thought that polish culture is more fit for me. After seeing the comments too, combined with my love of the language I'm now certain.
Yes, that is a similarity, well observed. Not west and not east, a hybrid like Turkey, not west and not middle east. The Poles and the Ottomans fought in the past, but when Poland did not exist, the Turks stood by Poland and believed in the resurrection. There is even a polish village Polonezköy near Istanbul. Poland will never forget that. Besides, there was a lot of trade between the people of Poland and Turkey in the 80s. Polish people can be a bit suspicious but once you make friends, you are family. Hospitality is also very similar, in Poland you wish others a lot of visitors and guests. They love politeness and respect, especially to the elderly and women, too. When they realize that you are interested in their culture and language, you have their hearts xD wish you a good time in poland
13:55 we don't see resting as something bad, we see working hard when you're supposed to work as something good. We value free time but not above other things
Poles are like onions, you just have to peel off few layers and you'll see them in a different light. After watching whole video I have one question: In which part of Poland do you live? (You don't have to answer). It's because your experience with Poland sounds terrible. There are parts I don't agree with you entirely, some I'm fine with and there are also statements when I'm 50/50. I hope you'll have more pleasant encounters in life. I believe the best word to describe Poland is hospitality.
@@PolishDane There is indeed a huge difference between different parts of Poland. West and east is totally different and Warsaw is a whole another thing. I think that people in the east (mostly small cties or villages) are in fact a lot more hospitable and generous
@@nikro7239 bo w małych miasteczkach i na wsi w małych społeczeństwach ludzie bardziej współpracują i współżyją ponieważ jest mało ludzi w małej wsi i wszyscy mają mocne przyjaźnie a w dużych miastach jest dużo ludzi i nie ma tych przyjaźni jak na wsi
watching your video was a waste of time propagading your ideology is ok but speaking on a particularly historical topic you first need to learn otherwise to study
I have not lived in or been to poland in a very long time (25 yrs) but when i was a teen, i visited grandma in the 90s. I kept saying hello to people because everyone looked familiar and I didn't wanna be rude. Youre right, theyd confusedly reply hello. Till one day my otherwise very extroverted very social grandma told me off for constantly talking to strangers lol. I didnt know they were strangers because of how familiar everyone looked. I couldve been kidnapped and still been like "hello there!" 👋 😅 now its not cause im an extrovert (im intro) or because im from a friendly culture (im not, evrryone keeps to themselves here) but perhaps its from just different ideas on what constitutes as rude, and the fact that all the poles had that vaguely familiar polish face.
Loved watching your video, as a half Polish half Danish person too, it's interesting to hear how someone similar living in Poland see things, vs how I experience life in Denmark. I could never fully experience it all, during my vacations there. While there are differences, I still think that Poland and Denmark have a lot of things in common, more so than typical western European countries, like Germany any everything south of there. Thanks for sharing :)
12:50 that's preety much the shittiest thing about living here, like seriously... I've been working in Norway for a couple of months and ammount of thrustworthines was hudge whereas paperwork in public institutions was at minimum.
"Unite against EU" ~ i never heard something more dumb, some people is against, by most of poles are Pro-EU. and e.g. last time 51% of poles want euro in poland.
16:28 it's western europe that is facing a crisis due to not thinking about long term consequences of their decisions. We don't have an established plan but we have a way we want to go. Plans tend to not work out and relying on them is often not the best options, if you want to efficiently achieve your goals you need to adapt
I 100% Polish blood, here in Australia. You can't understand the frustration. And I know Dutch mentality very well, you sir are a Dutch blooded one. Jeziyme I agree with this video big time.
Third generation US citizen, my family was from from Poland. This is all true from my perspective. My elders and my familial peers are exactly this. They knew communism was an atheist scam and thought the free market was based. I hate to always bring it back to America like an American would, but this video really highlights why the Poles made such incredible Americans. Poland was kinda sorta maybe the original western Great Experiment, it just happened to be in the middle of Europe in the 1700s. They act with the same haste to be the best, the same Christian value for tolerance and self-agency, the same love of democracy and the free market, and the same focus on the family which America is honestly losing.
I kind disagree with most of material. Maybe a lot, if not all, of observations about poles r good, but ur way of explanation why they r like that, is kind of wrong mostly. Greetings.
@@sorenjensen7472 It is too much to explain for me, coz like i said I "disagree with most of material explanation". I am polish and also huge fan of history and culture. I read and learn much about this stuff, so i think i have enough references to tell that. In sum, i agree with observetions, but causes of it, imo r mostlly wrong.
Overall a good video. A lot of your points were on target. A couple weren't. The last one really caught me. Every year I have to do a self evaluation for work. Just can't talk myself up. Not in my makeup. I'll compliment my team, our process and the improvements, but never about me. Jo je Ślůnzok
Catholicism - You are missing a bigger picture here. From the first polish ruler who broth it here in 966 up until 1989 Catholicism was always more than just religion. It was always some kind of CIVILIZATIONAL CHOICE that we Poles collectively made. Then in the middle ages it meant Poland was part of western Europe - not east like our Neighbors. Later the same choice made by Ukrainian nobles who wanted to fully participate in Commonwealth's political and social main circles - to become Christians instead of Orthodox majority was a big part why series of cossacks insurgences broke out (greed was another part and also some others). Ukraine had made a choice that in consequences shifted them for a 300 years to the eastern side. During partitions religion made us different to our occupant. Later during communist era going to church was a part of big national show off for Russiams: "you can keep our state but you can't have our souls". If you would look a little bit closely at current Poland you might see that in young generation percentage of active Catholics is very low. So Poland in future might actually abandon their religiousness - we'll see - but it will be for sure a cultural choice like it always was for us. Also for the most part of 1000 years of polish history we were in constant state of war. And again in most of those wars our enemies just wasn't Christians. So countless generations of soldiers associated Catholicism as something that differentiate them form their enemies.
As a Polish person I think you lack some knowledge about history and culture context and you didn't capture the Polish/Slavic soul at all. But you are close. AND BELARUS IS LEGIT COUNTRY CHECK OUT HISTORY OF RUTHENIA/RUS! (It made me angry, you talk like westerner and you don't understand eastern Europe *sigh*)
History is no excuse for being rude. Serbian people endured far worse history but they are always kind to foreigners, always going out of their way to make you feel welcome. I visited Poland last week. I encountered so many rude and arrogant people, they would rather let you get lost than explain the way to you…
I watched whole video and as an adult Polish person with experience of living in Poland among Poles my whole life I disagree. You missed a point so many times and you repeated western/german propaganda. And for example you said that Poland are individualistic society and later you described us as collective society, this made no sense (and we are very collective society (family is the whole world) and we don't trust the government (and we don't like socialism) it's two different things (collective mentality =/= socialism)) Mistakes like this was very common in this video.
Not here to bash OP... these are talking points being discussed. But find it wild how some people talk about supposed short term mindsets or rigid family structures as if it's solely a matter of preference. Not trying to accuse OP, it's just... Do we not all understand that beyond the values we have, that this is very much about survival? Rigorous and extensive contracts, are due to the extremity of robbing its people faced? Which is thankfully noted here. And yea, why should Poland trust EU or western influence? Poland, like many others, is a country used as human shields by them just as much as other powers. Poland gets aid? The countries giving aid are more than happy for our people to bear the human cost, if it spares the other's privilege, power, & comfort. Look at how many times there's been invasion, its lands/borders divied up & ran thru at great cost- but the benefit is kept to the 'controller' states, & not Polish benefit? Much less Polish credit. This is the case for so many countries that deserve better overall. Not uncommonly, what would afford said 'better', is simply to not be used as a means.
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars Your response is quite lengthy to write. I adore the country of Poland and have visited there before and I plan to go back. I found the video interesting but I will check out your links and think about your comments. Agreed that generalizations about a nations ‘s people can be wrong in many ways but those are his perceptions, right or wrong. Not mine.
Wikipedia - Germanisation of Poles during Partitions. - See German statistics - the land was Polish - West and North. Even the skewed pro German numbers could not be "officially" too far from reality. See - Russification of Poles
11:54 the corruption problem was actually very low after the fall of communism compared to other affected countries, it's just the thing with reforming the economy from communist that most of previously state owned companies are sold to the richest individuals, usually being people that cooperated with the communist government or even parts of it, in Poland it was largely avoided. The "uncertainity avoidence" is also not nessesarily true, we just think twice before making a decision. That led to Poland being one of the safest countries to live in and it's the reason for fast and largely uninterrupted growth of the economy. Being intollerant is a complete lie, of course there are people that are intollerant, as everywhere but as everywhere they are a minority, mostly old people. there is probably more of them than in some countries due to soviets teaching people to be as intollerant as can be but it's still a small minority of the population. the lack of trust is not really a thing too, we can trust you but we want to make sure. We had a lot of problems in the history due to trusting others and we learn on our mistakes, now we don't leave the space for manipulation even for our friends
"polish Catholicism dictates rules, governments and pretty much everything" - nah bro it's too much. I is important for some people but it is rather stereotype.
It's a little bit negative overview. Let me explain : 1. The catholic church surely is important for the older generation or rural areas. That said, saying that it has some enormous influence on our everyday life is a massive exaggeration. Most of the young people don't care for the church too much 2. I wouldn't say that we ignore each other. We just ignore people we don't know or have any relation with. I think it's pragmatic and having experienced living in other countries it's not so uncommon. Why would you say hello to everyone on the street just to look positive? 3. I'm not sure why you say that we are individualistic, of course everyone minds their own interest. But we work together when needed. I think it's some sort of stereotype, while western countries label themselves as inclusive, work-together mentality I think it's not entirely true, but gives a reason to look down on countries that have a negative stereotype 4. "Try your best" is a weird one, but in some aspects true. We are a bit of an envious nation if someone else does better or has more success, we can be bitter about it, true. But I don't think it's really uncommon, just a human trait. 5. The policemen example looks like a total unique case. I've never in my entire life had a situation like this. No one cares that you give some money to some homeless guy 6. The nationalist movements is a big lie and a common stereotype that the western countries use to piss on us. Only a micropercent of far right are burning flags and lighting torches. It's as if I gave an example of some arab immigrants burning a german flag to prove that Germany is already an islamic state 7. Being pesimistic about our own country but forbidding anyone else complaining about us - this is true. I mean we have our own family problems but in the end it's the family and you try to protect it from someone from the outside taking a shit on it. We do complain a lot, but I think it's slowly changing since people start noticing that there're a lot of places that they've it worse and things are slowly changing for the good here. :) I do agree that we have some flaws. More in the department of being too emotional and jumping to black or white conclusions. There is some complex mentality that we want to be important and respected geopolitically. I think that stems from the historical events. The same goes for not liking being called Eastern Europe. For us Eastern Europe gives us some bad vibes after suffering the russian influence and being linked to a post ussr communist state. Anyway thanks for this analysis and good luck
the whole not greeting neighbours is totally inaccrurate in my opinion. like I don't know where did you get that impression, the minimal "good morning" to your neighbours is totally common and normal. But all the other stuff pretty ~accurate and similar to other post-communist countries with strong religeous tendency i Poland. I would also point out that u missed the mark on the hierarchy and somehow that communism convinced Poles that lack of hierarchy is wrong? the communist system was the high point of autocratic hierarchy, where the high situated party-officials were the "more equals" than others as the Orwell wrote it and had much more available to them than the population. It still carries on to this day, there is some amount of contempt for people who are on top of the companies/hierachy but don't deserve to be there because they didn't do much to be there, or just inherited wealth. At the same time we have strong conviction that, if you want something - you have to work for it. And if it's visible that an entreprenour worked hard for years for his success it is well respected.
15:10 we don't give money to these people because 90% if them will just buy alcohol for it. If you want to help them you can buy them smething to eat, maybe give them something to wear but don't give them money, they aren't usually very responsible
12:38 what is this supposed to mean? What is the connection to 500+, I am not sure what you try to say here. It is an effective social program that reduces child poverty etc.; it was 'sold' using other language since neoliberal discourse means u cant talk like aht often 13:25 not really
7:15 you got the problem but you missed the reason. German occupation was a tragedy but the main reason of mentality changes on some parts of the population is the russian occupation after that. Germans killed a lot of people but after russians got to you you'd wish they'd just kill you. Germans had rules, this led to people being more careful. Russians could send you to syberia for 20 years because they had a bad day and they met you not someone else in that moment, that lead to paranoia and other problems. And people that came back from russian camps or "police investigations", they weren't the same people, just shadows of themselves. And even people that never got that treatment were affected, changes in mentality were strong and much more people were scared to fight back as they knew being caught is a fate worse than death, this lead to more people playing along and children of these people not being told that what they are learning is propaganda, because if they slip up just once it's over for the entire family. And children raised with the spirit of communism, indoctrinated so much they don't want to believe that something can be different than what they know create the modern patology. This subiect is huge and this is long enough so I won't get deeper, there is a lot of sources. People seem to not realise how bad was the communist occupation of eastern europe, russia was fighting along the allies in ww2 and their crimes are largely forgotten and the eastern bloc countries are just countries that were on the other side of the wall. Most of the western world doesn't realise how much russians were worse than germans, and this is a statement repeated by people that lived through both occupations, many od which I spoke with myself. That's why many of us still blames western powers for leaving us to them
Did every socialist country allow religious worship to the extent that Poland did? If so, was it understood that there was no way ppl would accept life under socialism without being allowed to keep their right to worship?
it can be said that the network and infrastructure of the katholic church in poland and the identity as a catholic has made a great contribution to the survival/ revival of poland
I wonder who is your target group. If you create such psychoanalyses of Polish citizens you should consult your opinion with somebody with the deeper knowledge of Polish nation. First of all you should understand Polish aversion to Germany. Both Germany and Denmark are the strongest nationalistic sociesties in Europe. They have never treated Poles as human beings. I'm sorry but as a Polish woman I almost completely don't agree with your content.
yes, but during the so-called communism, Poland developed a lot. we had all sectors of the economy, infrastructure. It was bad because someone was constantly imposing economic sanctions on Poland and you
Yes, it was an improvement. Considering the whole age of non-existence, brutal war no 1, the painful attempt at state-forming interrupted by brutal war no 2... having an actual, semi-working state was an improvement. You know, communism in Eastern and Central Europe might be a real game-changer for all the millions of people who had been living in inhumane conditions for ages, working their ass off in master's fields. The bar was so, so low. I have PRL-nostalgia syndrom as well, but at least I could admit it's because my ancestors were finally having running water and electricity at home. This economic independency is such a myth. Huta Katowice build for USSR needs. Stocznia Gdańska build for USSR needs. The black market and diy as a necessity or just 'radzenie sobie', because people had to somehow 'poradzić se' while state was unable to fulfill society's economic needs. Sometimes I think people actually forgot how hard they had back in the day, how badly they were treated and how little they had. Not because they choose too, but because there was no other option.
15:00 giving an alcoholic money doesn't help either. There are many almshouses but they don't tolerate any alcohol. Unfortunately there are people that can't be helped - they could cheat and rob you. That's why many people don't want to help them.
Yeaa subscribe 🙂 but being best especially in work it is positive ting this is why Poland developing so much which you said in the video. But I admired your work. But remember today and especially with EU everything being politicized ( and opinions like LG*BT should never to be) by media to become it is war for power.
Great video, but I have a few "buts":
1. We do greet each other. Like a lot. Sure, we're gonna ignore a random stranger that just walked by, but if we know a person, there's no way we won't say hello (if it's our neighbour it's 1000 times more important to do greet them if you don't want to be a gossip topic of the week for all of the elderly living nearby 😉).
Also, but I'm pretty sure it's more of a small town thing; we greet strangers on a bus stop when we walk up to it
2. Weird situation with the police you had there, but about us not giving money- it's because it's either not for them, they simply are comfortable in their situation and simply chose not to work since begging is easier or the money they get isn't spent on food but rather on a clear liquid with a characteristic smell 🙃
3. Women and men do have equal rights. Church says the same, just mentions different responsibilities for each gender, but it's just a tradition nowadays, noone expects a woman to become a housewife or a man to be the only breadwinner in the family. They're equal on every ground
4. As for us not wanting to be called an east nor west country; you got the east part right. For the west it's just west is more focused on being modern and leaving tradition behind. We have a west worldview with east care for traditions and mentality in-between
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars amen
Many points in the video are still just perceptions from western ideological lense. But at least it's in good faith trying to understand, not like Germans ;)
In English and Polish there's a difference between "understand" and "submit to". Good luck in language studies : )@AK.102
I think that Polish mentality have something to do with lack of historical knowledge of others. They dont get any credit and often are thought of as weak because many people dont know about Solidarność dont know much about Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (except it existing and then getting split), they just dont know any polish victories. Poland helped a lot in both WW but they almost never get any credit, so they want to prove those people otherwise. The problem with proving it is that whenever they achieve something amazing its quickly forgotten.
You poles are a great nation and shouldn't care what others know or do not know. As a Ukrainian, I used to live in a shadow. And when foreigners meet me they often say: "Wow! You speak English! Wow! You're well-educated! Wow, you've been to so many countries around the world!". They often look like disrespectful idiots at that moment. And that's kinda funny.
I often see that people from other countries not only do not know the history of my or your countries but also do not know their own history. They are being taught as only their country matters and nothing is existing around them. That's a kind of modern norm, so pls don't be annoyed regarding it.
Poland was under Zydcommunist Soviet Zydviet ruling system from 1945.
It was not Polish at all.
The Zydeducation system was Marxist and was a Marxist psy op.
Comparing West European Frankfurt Schul brainwashed with Bolshevik brainwashed will not produce facts just interesting personal opinions which are close to willful ignorance.
Yes. We are the forgotten race. Here is Australia some people do not even know where Poland is. Suka.
@@scifi85 Go Usyk in his upcoming fight! And Polish and Ukraine are best friends
Hello Friend. Cant agree with Your explanations. I'm Pole whole my life, spend nearly 20 Years abroad ( That gives me perspective), so I feel competent on that matter. Nationalism ? Nope. Patriotism ? Yes. There is a significant difference. I'm sorry to see spread of such damaging opinions. All The best! Cheers.
Thanks for your constructive criticism and politeness. I agree that most people are patriotic here. But that fact is that the nationalistic movement is quite higher in Poland compared to other countries.
@@PolishDane that couldn't be more far from the truth, mate. I would even argue that, for other countries have far bigger problem with nationalism than Poland to the point that you can't even demonstrate different nationality without expecting violence. If you check out statistics of racial crimes it will be evident. I even heard Jewish rabbi saying that when they are holding some festivals in France they need tons of police whereas in Poland they just do it with minimal security and nothing bad happens.
I'm not gonna defend burning flags of other countries - that's disrespectful at least, but you need to understand - politics is complicated and if someone is trying to impose rules on Polish people then through their history they are naturally against it. You mentioned Germany investing in Poland through EU and many people in Poland being against EU, the thing is those people know that kind of money is almost never given for free, I'll give you one example: there was huge debate in Poland where to locate first nuclear power plant in Poland and you know what happened? Germany thought it's ok to chime in and said they are against building nuclear power plant in Poland at all having multiple power plants on their territory not to mention other neighbours. Would you call it nationalistic? I'm not sure, I'd rather say that people want to just decide what their own country should look like, so I'd call it independence.
Another point I would like to make is the whole part at 17:51, because I'm not going to hide I believe individual freedom is most valuable thing for me and thus, I can't agree that capitalism concentrate power - if anything the government regulations are concentrating power through all concessions and detailed laws (I also believe this is the reason your dad experienced so much bureaucracy when moving to Poland) and although you would think that older people would have strong capitalistic mindset through experience of communism in the past I would rather say they have mild love-hate relationship with it, because maybe they were poor at the time, but they were also young and they remember how hard transformation was (as it always is), whereas young people are more polarized - you can see extreme leftists, even communists among them as well as people who believe in free market and capitalism or (you mentioned it) nationalists (but I'd still say it is not mainstream). To prove that point you can just check how many old people voted for PiS in last election and how strongly this party is pushing social help. And, yeah, the polarization is a problem, unfortunately, politics leech on that and aren't helping to resolve it.
I didn't anticipated it will be so long, but I hope it will help you understand a bit better some aspect of Polish mentality.
@@PolishDane Absurd, who told you such nonsense. true nationalists in poland have 2% of society. So much so that the nationalists had to unite with the anarcho-capitalists to get together 5% of the vote in the elections. Compare that to every other country in the EU, where the extreme parties can score in the double digits.
I think main problem is, the term 'nationalism' is viewed negatively in central and eastern European nations (in contrast with western Europe, where it's rather neutral), probably because nationalists were killing each other a lot, especially in the formative years of newly emerging, young states - in the interwar period. Look at the post-Austria-Hungary nations or closest to us, complicated Ukrainian-Polish relations. No one wants to be 'nationalist'. Everyone wants to be 'patriotic'. But come on! We all know under all this 'patriotic' disguise we find layers of insecurities, varied from toxic state-society-church relations, through antisemitism to the much celebrated victim-complex. The healthy patriotism of being truly proud, trauma-free Polish person is rare and valuable, tho becoming more common these days I think.
Czeçz. Yes, we are quite oppressed and unacknowledged people whom have saved the world countless times. We don't brag, we play things down, and whom saved all Jewish people and saved Bisons (the first endangered species that was successfully saved), we have done it all, and yet no country ever will accept us for what we did and continue to do. Poland safest place in the world and helped Ukraine (or will in future). We just want happy loving people and we are fighters.
"Poland is not a country, Poland is a state of mind" - Poland
We say that 'bout Russia.
This film says verry little about Poles and Poland. It start with a tendency to overcome stereotypes but instead is creating other.
The part about social relations with neighbours and strangers speaks so much to me and it's so relatable. I'm a 20 year old Pole and whenever one of my neighbours says to me "Cześć" ("Hi"), I am ALWAYS confused af and reply awkwardly with "Dzień dobry" ("Good morning").
Also, when I was in Italy, after about 5 days maybe, my mother and I noticed that Italians were kind of confused when we were greeting them with their equivalent of "Good morning", so we switched it to "Ciao". It was kind of an interesting experience, because in some way I felt liberated from the coldness of my Polish mentality.
And then I return to it about a week after the trip, because I feel awkward around people behaving like that...
Interesting
In Germany it's exactly the same. I think it's pretty much the same in all central and northern European countries.
I only learned the name of my new neighbor 6 months after he moved in. I only realized this once there came a package for him which was delivered to me while he was on vacation.
The family sticking together is a good thing. Something America is lacking. Everyone is too self-centered.
I think men and women in Poland are one of the most equal in the world. Their salaries are very similar to men, most women are treated well if not better because they are women and their femininity is appreciated. They can do whatever men do, go where men go etc. Unlike in Anglo countries like Australia.
Thanx for showing my home town’s cathedral. It’s the most important building in my life because Catholicism :)
wow, what a coincidence
Several points:
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In Poland, the symbolic language of Catholicism is almost indistinguishable from the symbolic language of nationalism. This is mostly due to the fact that nationalism was the "in thing" in Europe when Poland didn't exist, so the development of distinct Polish nationalistic symbols was stifled, so the country's artists/elites coopeted religious symbols to serve as proxy nationalistic ones, so as to avoid censorship by foreign powers. There is no Britannia or Marianne equivalent in Poland. Instead the meaning of the Virgin Mary, as a symbol, has been enriched by a semantic essence equivalent to that of said characters. Whenever you see a Catholic religious display in Poland, it's not certain the people participating in it are actually really interested in religion. They may be performatively religious or identify with Catholicism, but there is a significant chance that the part of what they perceive as "Polish Catholicism", that they are actually interested in, is the Polishness of it. It's just that, as a result of the last ~200 years, the symbolic language of expressing Polishness is currently inseparable from the language of expressing Catholicism. The Communist de facto occupation only further entrenched that state of affairs. There is nothing particularly nationalistic about Catholicism and there is nothing particularly Catholic about nationalism. Be it in Poland or in general. I mean, "Catholic" literally means "universal", and a big thing about Christianity in general, and it's derivatives, is that it seeks to convert everyone, regardless of race, nationality etc. It's just that, in Poland, the two cultural institutions' symbols happen to be intertwined with one another because of history.
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Societies with more immediate history of prosperity tend to be more trusting. Societies with less of that, tend to be less trusting. Generally trusting societies work better for everyone. Within living memory Poland was very poor (relative to its neighbors) and subjected to a loss of ~1/5 of its population, facing potentially far worse. Trust is gonna be low for a generation or two still. War and genocide have lasting ill effects - shocking, right?
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The bit about hierarchy is very confused. Communism was very hierarchical in everything but its advertising of itself to the West. But Poland wasn't in the West. The (unreasonably) rigid hierarchy of modern Polish institutions is not a reaction to Communism, it's a continuation of it. It's an example of how the political system has had a lasting (largely negative) impact on the society. As for "women's rights"TM being seen as suspect, that IS in fact a reaction to communism which did champion such causes "for real", at least partially as an extension of its ambition to supplant preexisting, religiously enshrined norms.
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A big part of Poland's national myth is the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland sees itself, to no small degree, as the heir to that state. Poland-Lithuania was very different from what Poland is today and that, I think, explains quite a bit of what you describe as confusion in the Polish mindset. It's the dissonance between the religious/cultural diversity of the 1st "Rzeczpospolita" and the extreme homogeneity of the 3rd (note the naming convention itself was chosen on purpose to emphasize continuity between the states). After WWI, by adopting the name of "Druga Rzeczpospolita" (Second Commonwealth), Poland chose itself an ideal that demands of it to be one of Europe's leading powers. The People's Republic broke with that tradition, and independent Poland reverted back to it pretty much immediately by calling itself the 3rd Commonwealth. And don't get me wrong, it's not really a matter of some kind of militarist, expansionist ambition (though in some fringe milieus it manifests itself like that as well). Poland's national myth demands of it to unite the region, yes. But it also demands it does it through political union, not conquest.
Communism is not something that is advertising itself to the west as anti hierarchical. It is antihierarchical in the west or at least used to be during and before marx. The problem is that communism was introduced in practice by russia, a state that we all know is renowned for "not being a authoritarian, corruption fueled dystopia that creates most totalitarian form of any system it uses, while trying to solve problems by throwing people at it".
Thats why many famous socialists like george orwell(animal folwark and 1984 author) hated soviet union as it was being antythesis for what they stood for at the time. replacing what many socialists wanted aka democratisation of a workplace with centralised economy of a defacto fascist state. If you asks yourself what are requirements of a fascist state, soviet union fullfills all of them. Im not a socialist by the way but i think it needs to be pointed out becouse of a spiral of missconceptions.
@@madtechnocrat9234 #NotRelCommunism. Sure... That's why everywhere it was tried it gave more or less the same shitty result. It's because of the corrupting Russian influence. In China it's because of that. In South America. In Indochina. In Africa. They were all irredeemably corrupted by *Russian* cultural assumptions, deeply ingrained in their cultures.
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Communism sucks balls. Get over it.
14:56 bro wasnt homeless he was an "żul"
Youre a chad for making northern ireland irish! Greetings from germany.
I like your analysis ❤ please do more videos so I can understand my stubborn Polish husband 😅
Claiming that Poland is nationalist is simply repeating articles from the western media. As usual, the information presented by the other side is missing. It seems to me that the word nationalism could be replaced, for example, with the word patriotism. it is unnecessary to equate nationalism with racism and hatred of foreigners.
Zajebisty film. Nie ze wszystkim się zgadzam w 100% ale bardzo ciekawa perspektywa. W sumie może nawet kiedyś sam spróbuję zrobić film w tym stylu. Nawet bym wspomniał o twoim xd
dzieki
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars Your answer is absolutely senseless in some parts. First of all for some reason you think he is Poland's enemy when he isn't. He lives in Poland and he said many things as compliments that you somehow took as an insult. Like he literally showed an artwork of a genius Polish artist and you call it some "crawling creature". Who is insulting Poland here? How... seriously how did you take every single thing (even the good ones) as if he said something bad about Poles. Also a lot of things you said aren't true imo. like Polish government is tied to church a bit. noone says they are THE SAME EXACT thing but just look at "trwam" to see how they praise "pis". And Poland is more christian than other countries. you misunderstood most of this video...
Shut up.
19:38 woman and man have equal rights in Poland as well. What society thinks may be a different thing but if we're talking about the law the genders are equal.
20:48 wow... Sadly that's kinda true
Only Polish will understand Polish mentality ❤😂
I live in norway and im polish, and i feel that people say hello a lot in polen. You could be on a staircase and see someone, you always say hello
Hey thanks to you friendo nicely done 😃
In Scandinavia family relations are that cold that you are expected to leave once reaching legal adulthood :D. Parents are pointing you exit doors.
20:40 This is the first time I hear about the uniqueness and great influence of Russian culture. After all, Russian culture was born through parodying Polish, French and Dutch nobility, in that order, by Russian boyars. Similarly, Russian culture is stolen Ukrainian folklore. In Russia, everything that has appeared is secondary to Europe.
Well, this is obviously not true. Russians have an amazing, truly independent and very alive culture, kept hostage by the endless internal political oppression. Boyars maybe yes, since the Russian state always delivers the worst, but Russian folklore couldn't be parodying Ukrainian folklore, since this simple fact, every peasant culture was really, really closeted and localised in all of the feudal countries. Peasants couldn't move from their village, how they could exchange information, parody anything that was completely unknown to them? All the Slavic peasants' have something in common, yet every village had distinct way of being and traditions back in the day.
@@Lipinki.luzyckie Ah, found a c*mmie
As a Turk who will move to Poland for University this October, I'm shocked by the similarities. Especially the neither west nor east part. Turks see themselves closer to west but see themselves attached to none. We are also pessimistic and always say being a turk sucks then proceed to dislike the same ideas from the people of different origin. I could choose other places for my education and settlement for long-term, however I thought that polish culture is more fit for me. After seeing the comments too, combined with my love of the language I'm now certain.
Yes, that is a similarity, well observed. Not west and not east, a hybrid like Turkey, not west and not middle east.
The Poles and the Ottomans fought in the past, but when Poland did not exist, the Turks stood by Poland and believed in the resurrection. There is even a polish village Polonezköy near Istanbul. Poland will never forget that.
Besides, there was a lot of trade between the people of Poland and Turkey in the 80s.
Polish people can be a bit suspicious but once you make friends, you are family.
Hospitality is also very similar, in Poland you wish others a lot of visitors and guests. They love politeness and respect, especially to the elderly and women, too.
When they realize that you are interested in their culture and language, you have their hearts xD
wish you a good time in poland
13:55 we don't see resting as something bad, we see working hard when you're supposed to work as something good. We value free time but not above other things
Poles are like onions, you just have to peel off few layers and you'll see them in a different light. After watching whole video I have one question: In which part of Poland do you live? (You don't have to answer). It's because your experience with Poland sounds terrible. There are parts I don't agree with you entirely, some I'm fine with and there are also statements when I'm 50/50. I hope you'll have more pleasant encounters in life. I believe the best word to describe Poland is hospitality.
I live in Warsaw. Don't get me wrong, I love Polish people and culture. I didn't mean for this video to be negative.
@@PolishDane There is indeed a huge difference between different parts of Poland. West and east is totally different and Warsaw is a whole another thing. I think that people in the east (mostly small cties or villages) are in fact a lot more hospitable and generous
@@nikro7239 bo w małych miasteczkach i na wsi w małych społeczeństwach ludzie bardziej współpracują i współżyją ponieważ jest mało ludzi w małej wsi i wszyscy mają mocne przyjaźnie a w dużych miastach jest dużo ludzi i nie ma tych przyjaźni jak na wsi
watching your video was a waste of time propagading your ideology is ok but speaking on a particularly historical topic you first need to learn otherwise to study
20:25 we are fulfilled with our identity. We are ourselves, we don't need to be a part of a group, it's not an elementary school
Now I can finally get on that polish grindset 💪💪💪
I have not lived in or been to poland in a very long time (25 yrs) but when i was a teen, i visited grandma in the 90s. I kept saying hello to people because everyone looked familiar and I didn't wanna be rude. Youre right, theyd confusedly reply hello. Till one day my otherwise very extroverted very social grandma told me off for constantly talking to strangers lol. I didnt know they were strangers because of how familiar everyone looked. I couldve been kidnapped and still been like "hello there!" 👋 😅 now its not cause im an extrovert (im intro) or because im from a friendly culture (im not, evrryone keeps to themselves here) but perhaps its from just different ideas on what constitutes as rude, and the fact that all the poles had that vaguely familiar polish face.
Subscribed! Without a bell ;)
100% agree , living in poland a couple of years already.
I as a Polish person, I agree with everything here. My entire life has been explained.
Loved watching your video, as a half Polish half Danish person too, it's interesting to hear how someone similar living in Poland see things, vs how I experience life in Denmark.
I could never fully experience it all, during my vacations there.
While there are differences, I still think that Poland and Denmark have a lot of things in common, more so than typical western European countries, like Germany any everything south of there.
Thanks for sharing :)
12:50 that's preety much the shittiest thing about living here, like seriously... I've been working in Norway for a couple of months and ammount of thrustworthines was hudge whereas paperwork in public institutions was at minimum.
"Unite against EU" ~ i never heard something more dumb, some people is against, by most of poles are Pro-EU. and e.g. last time 51% of poles want euro in poland.
But the government is trying to unite the country against EU
Very interesting video
16:28 it's western europe that is facing a crisis due to not thinking about long term consequences of their decisions. We don't have an established plan but we have a way we want to go. Plans tend to not work out and relying on them is often not the best options, if you want to efficiently achieve your goals you need to adapt
I 100% Polish blood, here in Australia. You can't understand the frustration. And I know Dutch mentality very well, you sir are a Dutch blooded one. Jeziyme
I agree with this video big time.
Third generation US citizen, my family was from from Poland. This is all true from my perspective. My elders and my familial peers are exactly this. They knew communism was an atheist scam and thought the free market was based.
I hate to always bring it back to America like an American would, but this video really highlights why the Poles made such incredible Americans. Poland was kinda sorta maybe the original western Great Experiment, it just happened to be in the middle of Europe in the 1700s.
They act with the same haste to be the best, the same Christian value for tolerance and self-agency, the same love of democracy and the free market, and the same focus on the family which America is honestly losing.
One teenager didn't say hello to your dad. OK. But we usually say hello to our neighbours. Come on!
This someone wants to control the whole world, under various pretexts. And this is democracy, peace missions, etc.
what?
@@PolishDane też nie rozumiem
I kind disagree with most of material. Maybe a lot, if not all, of observations about poles r good, but ur way of explanation why they r like that, is kind of wrong mostly. Greetings.
I am curious to hear from you. Why is the explanations wrong?
@@sorenjensen7472 It is too much to explain for me, coz like i said I "disagree with most of material explanation". I am polish and also huge fan of history and culture. I read and learn much about this stuff, so i think i have enough references to tell that. In sum, i agree with observetions, but causes of it, imo r mostlly wrong.
Nie dajemy pieniędzy pijanym, gdyż wiemy, że te pieniądze zostaną wydane na alkohol.
Btw it seem that ,,men earn, woman stay at home" is Slovak mentality, not only Polish 19:09
Overall a good video. A lot of your points were on target. A couple weren't. The last one really caught me. Every year I have to do a self evaluation for work. Just can't talk myself up. Not in my makeup. I'll compliment my team, our process and the improvements, but never about me. Jo je Ślůnzok
Which song is played at 07:29?
I forgor
@@PolishDaneThanks!!
Catholicism - You are missing a bigger picture here. From the first polish ruler who broth it here in 966 up until 1989 Catholicism was always more than just religion. It was always some kind of CIVILIZATIONAL CHOICE that we Poles collectively made. Then in the middle ages it meant Poland was part of western Europe - not east like our Neighbors. Later the same choice made by Ukrainian nobles who wanted to fully participate in Commonwealth's political and social main circles - to become Christians instead of Orthodox majority was a big part why series of cossacks insurgences broke out (greed was another part and also some others). Ukraine had made a choice that in consequences shifted them for a 300 years to the eastern side. During partitions religion made us different to our occupant. Later during communist era going to church was a part of big national show off for Russiams: "you can keep our state but you can't have our souls". If you would look a little bit closely at current Poland you might see that in young generation percentage of active Catholics is very low. So Poland in future might actually abandon their religiousness - we'll see - but it will be for sure a cultural choice like it always was for us.
Also for the most part of 1000 years of polish history we were in constant state of war. And again in most of those wars our enemies just wasn't Christians. So countless generations of soldiers associated Catholicism as something that differentiate them form their enemies.
As a Polish person I think you lack some knowledge about history and culture context and you didn't capture the Polish/Slavic soul at all. But you are close.
AND BELARUS IS LEGIT COUNTRY CHECK OUT HISTORY OF RUTHENIA/RUS! (It made me angry, you talk like westerner and you don't understand eastern Europe *sigh*)
I don't think it's very accurate. Maybe it says more about you than about Poland.
History is no excuse for being rude. Serbian people endured far worse history but they are always kind to foreigners, always going out of their way to make you feel welcome. I visited Poland last week. I encountered so many rude and arrogant people, they would rather let you get lost than explain the way to you…
Politeness is like that in Poland, it is not arrogance. If you don't like it, move on!
@@virgilius7036 this is exactly what I was talking about.
I watched whole video and as an adult Polish person with experience of living in Poland among Poles my whole life I disagree. You missed a point so many times and you repeated western/german propaganda.
And for example you said that Poland are individualistic society and later you described us as collective society, this made no sense (and we are very collective society (family is the whole world) and we don't trust the government (and we don't like socialism) it's two different things (collective mentality =/= socialism))
Mistakes like this was very common in this video.
Jak mały Peter sobie Polskę wyobraża... A teraz popatrz na statystyki rozwoju społecznego wg eurostatu.
No bezkitu mordo z Warszawy słabo trochę wyjaśnił Polskę, i to bardzo słabo
Not here to bash OP...
these are talking points being discussed.
But find it wild how some people talk about supposed short term mindsets or rigid family structures as if it's solely a matter of preference.
Not trying to accuse OP, it's just... Do we not all understand that beyond the values we have, that this is very much about survival?
Rigorous and extensive contracts, are due to the extremity of robbing its people faced? Which is thankfully noted here.
And yea, why should Poland trust EU or western influence?
Poland, like many others, is a country used as human shields by them just as much as other powers.
Poland gets aid? The countries giving aid are more than happy for our people to bear the human cost, if it spares the other's privilege, power, & comfort.
Look at how many times there's been invasion, its lands/borders divied up & ran thru at great cost- but the benefit is kept to the 'controller' states, & not Polish benefit? Much less Polish credit.
This is the case for so many countries that deserve better overall. Not uncommonly, what would afford said 'better', is simply to not be used as a means.
The Catholic Church was and is very important for Polish people
8:20 it's because we're too poor to move out
Question for Slovak neighbours: would you be happy to earn for family and see your wife raise your kid and doesn't have to work?
Great video from a new subscriber.
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars Your response is quite lengthy to write. I adore the country of Poland and have visited there before and I plan to go back. I found the video interesting but I will check out your links and think about your comments. Agreed that generalizations about a nations ‘s people can be wrong in many ways but those are his perceptions, right or wrong. Not mine.
I wonder how the intolerance you mentioned relates to how LGBT people are treated in Poland
we dont care about lgbt in poland lol
@@cokurde based.
O, per piacere!
Wikipedia - Germanisation of Poles during Partitions.
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See German statistics - the land was Polish - West and North.
Even the skewed pro German numbers could not be "officially" too far from reality.
See - Russification of Poles
Awesome video!
Could you please compare polish with mainland chinese mentality
maybe
20:52 Why did you use a flag of Monaco or Indonesia as a Polish one?
LOL, how it is possible that one don't know the polandball meme in 2023?
11:54 the corruption problem was actually very low after the fall of communism compared to other affected countries, it's just the thing with reforming the economy from communist that most of previously state owned companies are sold to the richest individuals, usually being people that cooperated with the communist government or even parts of it, in Poland it was largely avoided.
The "uncertainity avoidence" is also not nessesarily true, we just think twice before making a decision. That led to Poland being one of the safest countries to live in and it's the reason for fast and largely uninterrupted growth of the economy.
Being intollerant is a complete lie, of course there are people that are intollerant, as everywhere but as everywhere they are a minority, mostly old people. there is probably more of them than in some countries due to soviets teaching people to be as intollerant as can be but it's still a small minority of the population.
the lack of trust is not really a thing too, we can trust you but we want to make sure. We had a lot of problems in the history due to trusting others and we learn on our mistakes, now we don't leave the space for manipulation even for our friends
"polish Catholicism dictates rules, governments and pretty much everything" - nah bro it's too much. I is important for some people but it is rather stereotype.
It's a little bit negative overview. Let me explain :
1. The catholic church surely is important for the older generation or rural areas. That said, saying that it has some enormous influence on our everyday life is a massive exaggeration. Most of the young people don't care for the church too much
2. I wouldn't say that we ignore each other. We just ignore people we don't know or have any relation with. I think it's pragmatic and having experienced living in other countries it's not so uncommon. Why would you say hello to everyone on the street just to look positive?
3. I'm not sure why you say that we are individualistic, of course everyone minds their own interest. But we work together when needed. I think it's some sort of stereotype, while western countries label themselves as inclusive, work-together mentality I think it's not entirely true, but gives a reason to look down on countries that have a negative stereotype
4. "Try your best" is a weird one, but in some aspects true. We are a bit of an envious nation if someone else does better or has more success, we can be bitter about it, true. But I don't think it's really uncommon, just a human trait.
5. The policemen example looks like a total unique case. I've never in my entire life had a situation like this. No one cares that you give some money to some homeless guy
6. The nationalist movements is a big lie and a common stereotype that the western countries use to piss on us. Only a micropercent of far right are burning flags and lighting torches. It's as if I gave an example of some arab immigrants burning a german flag to prove that Germany is already an islamic state
7. Being pesimistic about our own country but forbidding anyone else complaining about us - this is true. I mean we have our own family problems but in the end it's the family and you try to protect it from someone from the outside taking a shit on it. We do complain a lot, but I think it's slowly changing since people start noticing that there're a lot of places that they've it worse and things are slowly changing for the good here. :)
I do agree that we have some flaws. More in the department of being too emotional and jumping to black or white conclusions. There is some complex mentality that we want to be important and respected geopolitically. I think that stems from the historical events. The same goes for not liking being called Eastern Europe. For us Eastern Europe gives us some bad vibes after suffering the russian influence and being linked to a post ussr communist state.
Anyway thanks for this analysis and good luck
the whole not greeting neighbours is totally inaccrurate in my opinion. like I don't know where did you get that impression, the minimal "good morning" to your neighbours is totally common and normal. But all the other stuff pretty ~accurate and similar to other post-communist countries with strong religeous tendency i Poland. I would also point out that u missed the mark on the hierarchy and somehow that communism convinced Poles that lack of hierarchy is wrong? the communist system was the high point of autocratic hierarchy, where the high situated party-officials were the "more equals" than others as the Orwell wrote it and had much more available to them than the population. It still carries on to this day, there is some amount of contempt for people who are on top of the companies/hierachy but don't deserve to be there because they didn't do much to be there, or just inherited wealth. At the same time we have strong conviction that, if you want something - you have to work for it. And if it's visible that an entreprenour worked hard for years for his success it is well respected.
Stereotypes, stereotypes
...
8:50 Could you put photosensitive epilepsy warnings for parts like these in future videos?
I guess I should have thought about that.
15:10 we don't give money to these people because 90% if them will just buy alcohol for it. If you want to help them you can buy them smething to eat, maybe give them something to wear but don't give them money, they aren't usually very responsible
nice video
Dzięki Krzyrdak
nieźle nieźle :) podoba mi jak również jak mówisz i piszesz po polsku :)
12:38 what is this supposed to mean? What is the connection to 500+, I am not sure what you try to say here.
It is an effective social program that reduces child poverty etc.; it was 'sold' using other language since neoliberal discourse means u cant talk like aht often
13:25 not really
Wrong on so meny levels...
This film is total misinformation due to lack of information, topics are more complicated, eveything is not even a half of truth
Dziękuję Ci za ten film. Zgadzam się z Tobą absolutnie. Masz mojego suba
Świetna praca. Jest tak wiele propagandy na nasz temat, która jest bardzo krzywdząca.
7:15 you got the problem but you missed the reason. German occupation was a tragedy but the main reason of mentality changes on some parts of the population is the russian occupation after that. Germans killed a lot of people but after russians got to you you'd wish they'd just kill you. Germans had rules, this led to people being more careful. Russians could send you to syberia for 20 years because they had a bad day and they met you not someone else in that moment, that lead to paranoia and other problems. And people that came back from russian camps or "police investigations", they weren't the same people, just shadows of themselves.
And even people that never got that treatment were affected, changes in mentality were strong and much more people were scared to fight back as they knew being caught is a fate worse than death, this lead to more people playing along and children of these people not being told that what they are learning is propaganda, because if they slip up just once it's over for the entire family. And children raised with the spirit of communism, indoctrinated so much they don't want to believe that something can be different than what they know create the modern patology. This subiect is huge and this is long enough so I won't get deeper, there is a lot of sources.
People seem to not realise how bad was the communist occupation of eastern europe, russia was fighting along the allies in ww2 and their crimes are largely forgotten and the eastern bloc countries are just countries that were on the other side of the wall. Most of the western world doesn't realise how much russians were worse than germans, and this is a statement repeated by people that lived through both occupations, many od which I spoke with myself. That's why many of us still blames western powers for leaving us to them
kurwa a ja jestem polakiem co w dani mieszka, w chuj raszistuw tutaj, ale w polsce tesz.
dosłownie robie film teraz o polonophobii, bo też doświadczyłem w Dani
19:17 no.
p.s dziwne bo masz straszny polski akcent
Did every socialist country allow religious worship to the extent that Poland did? If so, was it understood that there was no way ppl would accept life under socialism without being allowed to keep their right to worship?
it can be said that the network and infrastructure of the katholic church in poland and the identity as a catholic has made a great contribution to the survival/ revival of poland
What you talking about neighbors .
All neighbors we talk you totally wrong
Sto lat!
Too personal opinions such that it's not relevant to make RUclips video.
18:20 I don't even know where you got that from, just no
I wonder who is your target group. If you create such psychoanalyses of Polish citizens you should consult your opinion with somebody with the deeper knowledge of Polish nation. First of all you should understand Polish aversion to Germany. Both Germany and Denmark are the strongest nationalistic sociesties in Europe. They have never treated Poles as human beings. I'm sorry but as a Polish woman I almost completely don't agree with your content.
You are talking out of your arse mate. Denmark sounds like a very muserable boring place.
yes, but during the so-called communism, Poland developed a lot. we had all sectors of the economy, infrastructure. It was bad because someone was constantly imposing economic sanctions on Poland and you
Yes, it was an improvement. Considering the whole age of non-existence, brutal war no 1, the painful attempt at state-forming interrupted by brutal war no 2... having an actual, semi-working state was an improvement. You know, communism in Eastern and Central Europe might be a real game-changer for all the millions of people who had been living in inhumane conditions for ages, working their ass off in master's fields. The bar was so, so low. I have PRL-nostalgia syndrom as well, but at least I could admit it's because my ancestors were finally having running water and electricity at home. This economic independency is such a myth. Huta Katowice build for USSR needs. Stocznia Gdańska build for USSR needs. The black market and diy as a necessity or just 'radzenie sobie', because people had to somehow 'poradzić se' while state was unable to fulfill society's economic needs. Sometimes I think people actually forgot how hard they had back in the day, how badly they were treated and how little they had. Not because they choose too, but because there was no other option.
chlopie to slabe jest
15:00 giving an alcoholic money doesn't help either. There are many almshouses but they don't tolerate any alcohol. Unfortunately there are people that can't be helped - they could cheat and rob you. That's why many people don't want to help them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanisation_of_Poles_during_the_Partitions
Yeaa subscribe 🙂 but being best especially in work it is positive ting this is why Poland developing so much which you said in the video. But I admired your work. But remember today and especially with EU everything being politicized ( and opinions like LG*BT should never to be) by media to become it is war for power.