[em-bee]

has this changed in the recent decades? when i was there austria's right wing party was way more open about their intentions than would have been acceptable in germany. but also i didn't feel that at least mild patriotism was considered right wing at all. i mean we all joke how we are glad not to be germans. :-)

and austria's reputation in the world is also quite different. people talk about austria being a country of music.

you do know austria's two greatest achievements? to make the world believe that beethoven is austrian and hitler is german

[wink]

I've never seen such a stark contrast between capital and rural areas than in Austria (maybe with a couple bigger cities being in the middle), so without looking at where the person you replied to is from you could have a real agree/disagree disconnect.

[em-bee]

well, that would only work if i was living in a rural area. i think the disconnect is rather that i have lived in both countries and experienced the different attitudes there. it probably goes like this: rural austria > rural germany > large cities in austria > large cities in germany. but i have only lived in the latter two, so i can't really talk about rural areas either way.