I knew a (great) artist who spent almost her whole life in Norway and Sweeden. Shes in her nineties, speaks a half dozen languages, worked for Norwegian public TV. That is to say she's walked in the highest echelons on Nordic society.
Talking to her, she'd often bemoan that the prejudice that Nordic societies are very conformist is true.
Which is in line with what Ive experienced with Nordics
If I were to look for it, I don't think there's a single country on Earth where I couldn't find a smorgasbord of social conformism that I strongly dislike.
It's a social glue that holds every culture together, and it never has to make much sense.
But there are different amounts and different quality of conformism. The Nordic (as in Germany northward) one is particularly insistent on crushing deviations from the zeitgeist (German word).
Disagree. There is just nonsense conformism that you like, and nonsense conformism that you dislike. Every culture, including various subsets of American/Canadian/British/French has enough sacred cows that you will be in a world of crap for transgressing over.
What differs between them is not how much crap you'll be in, but the shape of the cow. You like it, I dislike it, and you'll feel like you aren't pressured to conform, while I'll feel like the world around me is utterly insane.
Having lived in the UK, US, Sweden, and worked extensively in the Netherlands and India, I can comfortably say that conformism exists everywhere. It doesn’t take the same shape everywhere, but it certainly colours the place and the culture. Scandinavia is not a bad place to live by any measure. I can list a host of reasons why either place would be uncomfortable to live in. But one of my key takeaways from my experience is that different places are culturally different, but different isn’t necessarily bad, just different. Don’t dismiss a place until you have been there.
Of course there is some degree of conformity everywhere, but having lived in many different places myself, there are stark differences.
The woman I mentioned speaks six languages because shes lived in as many countries, including the African and the European Mediterranean coast. Her's was a comparison.
Also, all of the countries you listed are Nordic except for India. India, of course, is an extremely rich country, three times the size of Europe with lots different sub-groups. Who were you with in India? The ruling class Brahmins? The English educated children and grandchildren of the mandarin class? Or amongst the day to day laborer?
Talking to her, she'd often bemoan that the prejudice that Nordic societies are very conformist is true.
Which is in line with what Ive experienced with Nordics