Quote:
Originally Posted by wind_magic
People in the U.S. have a really weird idea of what Holland is like, that's for sure. I have heard people saying, hey, let's go to Holland so we can do this-and-that, all kinds of naughty stuff they can't do at home. But what they don't seem to understand is that Holland is _NOT_ filled with a bunch of stoners, or prostitutes, or anything like that. If you go to Holland looking for a laid back bunch of folks who are going to kick back and party with you then you had better find some Americans there to hang around with or you are going to be sadly disappointed. The reason Holland allows smoking MJ and prostitution and things of that nature is _NOT_ because they approve, it's because they are such a devoted serious CONSERVATIVE people that they are even willing to put up with prostitution and drugs in order to protect their rigid philosophy of protecting individual freedom. Your average person in Holland is about as fun and easy going as a death in the family.
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Where Windy got the notion that Holland is a hot-bed of conservatism is beyond me. While the good Dutch burghers are indeed a dour lot they are also very liberal. They seem to be willing to protect the liberal idea of individual freedom right up to their very own extermination; witness the recent difficulties in reconciling Islamism with Holland's liberalism. There are rumours of small pockets of conservatism within Friesland!