Mmhm..
Lets just say I think your comment said a lot about you and not a whole lot about the Dutch.
Lets just say that you have nothing of particular note to say. Tell you what. Go live in 10 countries, travel to 80+, and then live amongst one foreign population for 5+ years. Maybe you can put your excellent observational skills to use with societal observations.
Try living amongst the Dutch during covid. See how much their self interest and yours align.
See how your opinion of someone changes when they are covid positive, pre vaccine, and come and take off their mask to talk to you at 0.5m away because "their voice is muffled". Many times over.
See how your opinion of a country changes when you hear multiple people remark how the escalation of the Ukranian-Russian war and hosting of Ukraine refugees is a "good thing" because "Ukranians are good workers".
Tell me how you would feel when you see people commenting in public that the reason we have rats and seagulls in cities is because Muslims are feeding them food that cannot be eaten otherwise.
Tell me how you feel when a city instrumental to the slave trade and atrocities of the Dutch East India company refuses to issue an apology for slavery.
And how would you feel if more than 50% the population of a country that was built on the backs of coercion, violence, slavery, intimidation, and economic exploitation thinks they should not issue an apology for slavery in 2024? Why? "because, then, we might have to pay reparations if we admit fault"
Maybe you'd like to dress up in blackface and red lipstick for Christmas to mimic Santa's "helper" who "is now covered in soot because he came down the chimney"?
TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL when 30% of the Dutch population votes for a climate change denialist when 1/4 the country is below sea level because he is also anti-foreigner, and is going to "deal with the muslims".
Maybe you prefer to have your racism institutionalized at a federal level where algorithms go after those with Arabic last names for 'tax-fraud', uprooting tens of thousands of lives with 'tax fraud charges' that are ultimately proven to be baseless?
Maybe you think it's totally acceptable that a superior at work comments that an Asian colleague doesn't need sunglasses while working at sea on a sunny day because their eyes are almost closed already?
I like Dutch people. The ones I know/knew can be irritating but they don’t bullshit you and they have all been generally friendly and good natured. By the way, Sprong moved to Canada when he was 8. Oh and Amsterdam is a very cool city.
I liked every Dutch person I ever met, which was several hundred, before I moved to the Netherlands. Safe to say that impression presented by individual/small group of Dutch abroad vs behaviour of Dutch in the Netherlands is a vastly different story. My impression of Dutch society has been greatly downgraded since living in it.
Amsterdam is a cool city, but it's also not the entirety of the Netherlands, believe it or not.
I'm also well aware of when Sprong moved to Canada. You form a lot of life-long habits from your associations and nature/nurture in the first 8 years of your life.
I hope he succeeds, but I expect to see relatively constant offensive effort and decent progressing to lazy defensive effort every 10 games followed by a scratch or other 'message-sending' event.