Whenever I see opinion poll maps on :reddit-logo: from Europe with questions like
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Would you be ok with your son/daughter dating a person of a different race?
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Would you be comfortable with your son/daughter dating a member of the same sex?
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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.
The Baltics have always been full of Nazis as far as I can tell. As for the rest of it - My understanding is that ever since the fall of the USSR, if not before, anti-Communist factions have been exploiting the social and economic chaos to push anti-Communist and pro-Fascist propaganda very, very aggressively. The campaigns are well funded and found strong footholds with post-Soviet youth who watched their entire lives, hopes, and futures go to shit within the course of like three years. So for the last thirty years people have been bombarded with nationalism and fascism and the result is increased social conservativism.