Whenever I see opinion poll maps on :reddit-logo: from Europe with questions like

  • Would you be ok with your son/daughter dating a person of a different race?

  • Would you be comfortable with your son/daughter dating a member of the same sex?

  • My country has too many immigrants, yes or no?

There is always a very noticeable difference between Western and Eastern Europe, with the West (and Scandanavia) being WAY more progressive, and Eastern European / former Soviet states being exceedingly conservative, particularly countries like Czech.

Why is this?

Maybe I'm just naive but I would think that the legacy of the USSR would cause the exact opposite tendency.

I also have no real context as I have never stepped foot in The Old World.

  • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I honestly think it has more to do with how polling is being conducted than any perceived progressiveness of Western Europeans relative to their eastern counterparts. There's a very clear motive for these pollings to portray Westerners as civilized and progressive and their mongrel half-civilized half-Asiatic siblings as merely half-civilized, midway between the civilized European West and the barbaric Asiatic East.