FlaglessPole: and if the country in question happened to be poorer than Poland then they'd have a field day...
Isn't it like that in every single country? Probably if you sincerely asked Danes what they think about Poles and Poland their perception would be the same - an attitude full of a patronizing and disregarding vein. "Poland? Oh, it's that poor post-communistic immigrant country full of alcoholics" - I believe that's the perception. If you ask Russians what they think of let's say Azerbaijan they probably would also look down on them. Hey, we're just humans and none of us is saint, so don't pretend you're anything better.
FlaglessPole: Rarely heard any Pole say anything nice about other nationality
They rarely say nice things about themselves too.
FlaglessPole: hey'd usually concentrate on negatives
Don't you know that nagging is our national sport? You can accuse Poles of being arrant malcontents but not that they do that deliberately! :)
FlaglessPole: given more openess, increased affluence and more exposure to other cultures
What exposure of other cultures? Most Poles don't experience other culture in Poland and rarely travels. Besides that experience of other cultures doesn't change the attitude. It's a simplification. It's also not about education, many educated people are prejudiced some way against other nations. I'm against racism and prejudice but one must see what's the real reason behind it, not resort to simplifications. It's convenient to say that only uneducated people are racist or prejudiced because it helps to cut off from such kind of people by downplaying them, pushing into margins, but in sad reality they are among us, not in the margin...
However I don't say that Poles are more prejudiced toward others, it's just in Poland political correctness doesn't exist in such broad way like in other countries so Poles feel more bold to say what they think. I believe that many people in so called Western countries are also prejudiced against other nations but they hide their real feeling because they afraid of being ostracised, so that they show their prejudice in more subtle forms or not openly.
As for Romanians I strongly believe that Poles in general are not prejudiced against them, simply because it's a country which is unknown for most of them. They are just prejudiced against Romas and sometimes take Romanians for Romas.
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