Finland Does Not Exist
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About
Finland Does Not Exist refers to a joke conspiracy theory that the European nation Finland is a hoax created by the Japanese and the Russians to give the Japanese free reign to fish in the Baltic sea.
Origin
The origin of the hoax is a response to an AskReddit thread titled "What did your parents show you to do that you assumed was completely normal, only to later discover that it was not normal at all?" On December 27th, 2014, user Raregan replied, "My parents never believed in Finland, I grew up to never believe in Finland until I researched it further. It's a pretty heated topic in my family."[1] When pressed as to why, he provided the full details of the conspiracy (shown below). His comments gained 5,586 and 6,718 points, respectively.
Oh God here goes.
Well firstly they say that the actual 'place of Finland' is just Eastern Sweden. Helsinki is in Eastern Sweden and when people fly there it's not like they would notice.
World maps are altered as it's a U.N conspiracy to keep people believing in Finland. And the idea that an entire country is made up seems so bizarre that nobody would ever believe it, making it easy to do.
Finland's main company, Nokia, is apparently owned by the Japanese and they're a main player in this.
Now as for 'why' people would want to invent Finland as a country that's a bit more in depth and there's a few reasons as to why Sweden and Russia go along with it but it's mostly to do with Japanese fishing rights.
You see the Japanese love their sushi but tight fishing regulations and public outcry mean they can't fish as much as they want. So after the Cold War they agreed with Russia to create a 'landmass' called Finland where they could fish. After all, if people thought there was a country there nobody would expect the Japanese to be harpooning whales would they?
The fish is then transported through Russia where a small percentage of the food is given to the population, (they were of course starving at the time of Finland being invented), and then is shipped to Japan under the disguise of 'Nokia' products. Japan is apparently one of the worlds largest importers of Nokia products despite the fact that 'nobody there owns a Nokia phone' apparently.
The crux of all this however, and my favourite part, is the homage that the Japanese gave to this entire conspiracy theory.
What do fish have? Fins. Therefore they named their imaginary country Finland.
There are loads more that they go on about but I can't remember it all at the moment.
EDIT: Thanks for the Gold! I'm amazed how big this has gotten, I told my parents and although they don't really understand Reddit they're glad that the 'truths' being put out there for people to make their own decision.
Spread
Shortly after the comment was posted, Redditor PM_ME_NICE_MESSAGES created /r/FinlandConspiracy,[2] a subreddit devoted to talking about the conspiracy, that has over 7,000 readers as of May 23rd, 2017. On December 8th, 2016, Vice[3] covered the conspiracy. A Wikipedia[4] page for the conspiracy was created as well. On April 28th, 2017, PM_ME_NICE_MESSAGES uploaded a Spotify Playlist Message joke about the conspiracy to /r/MemeEconomy,[5] gaining over 100 points (shown below).
A month later, several jokes about Finland's nonexistence were posted on /r/dankmemes, which prompted Redditor 2dank4stank to post an inquiry about the memes to /r/OutOftheLoop on May 23rd, 2017.[6]
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Reddit – Raregan commentary
[2] Reddit – /r/FinlandConspiracy
[3] Vice – This Dude Accidentally Convinced the Internet That Finland Doesn't Exist
[4] Wikipedia – Finland Does Not Exist (page unavailable)
[5] /r/MemeEconomy:Where are we on "Finland Doesn't Exist" memes?
[6] /r/OutOfTheLoop – Why Doesn't Finland Exist?
![↑ [-] StabbyPants 317pistettǎ6kuukautta sitten But all countries are imaginary and somewhat arbitrary. If you believe in finland, and enough other people do so, then there is a finland. pysyväislinkki embed isäntä 个[-] Ranam 294pistetta 6kuukautta sitten ↓ But they dont believe in a landmass being there. Thats the weird part. pysyväislinkki embed isäntä [-]TA-knight Er, you just said they do (forests and all that). Except its apparently owned by the Japanese? ↑ 79pistettǎ6kuukautta sitten pysyväislinkki embed isäntä [-] Raregan 240pistett 6kuukautta sitten Let me try and explain. They don't believe that there is any land mass between Sweden and Russia. The whole 'Finland is mostly forests' myth was created so whenever someone would start questioning Finnish countryside and towns they could just say 'Well most of it's just forests so I don't know what you expect' Any towns that are sold as Finnish are just Russian or Swedish and the locations are unimportant because 'Nobody actually visits anywhere in Finland other than Helsinki pysyväislinkki embed isäntä](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/001/258/132/7cb.jpg "finland doesn't exist")
![↑ [-] Raregan 5583pistetta 6kuukautta sitten @ My parents never believed in Finland, I grew up to never believe in Finland until I researched it further. It's a pretty heated topic in my family pysyväislinkki embed [-] kittymeowmixi 1981pistetta 6kuukautta sitten But why? pysyvais 个[-] Rare gan 6714pistetta 6kuukautta sitten® ()x2 ↓ Oh God here goes väislinkki embed isäntä Well firstly they say that the actual 'place of Finland' is just Eastern Sweden. Helsinki is in Eastern Sweden and when people fly there it's not like they would notice country is made up seems so bizarre that nobody would ever believe it, making it easy to do Now as for 'why' people would want to invent Finland as a country that's a bit more in depth and there's a few reasons You see the Japanese love their sushi but tight fishing regulations and public outcry mean they can't fish as much as After all, if people thought there was a country there nobody would expect the Japanese to be harpooning whales The fish is then transported through Russia where a small percentage of the food is given to the population, (they 'Nokia' products. Japan is apparently one of the worlds largest importers of Nokia products despite the fact that World maps are altered as it's a U.N conspiracy to keep people believing in Finland. And the idea that an entire Finland's main company, Nokia, is apparently owned by the Japanese and they're a main player in this as to why Sweden and Russia go along with it but it's mostly to do with Japanese fishing rights they want. So after the Cold War they agreed with Russia to create a 'landmass' called Finland where they could fish would they? were of course starving at the time of Finland being invented), and then is shipped to Japan under the disguise of nobody there owns a Nokia phone' apparently The crux of all this however, and my favourite part, is the homage that the Japanese gave to this entire conspiracy theory What do fish have? Fins. Therefore they named their imaginary country Finland There are loads more that they go on about but I can't remember it all at the moment EDIT: Thanks for the Gold! I'm amazed how big this has gotten, I told my parents and although they don't really understand Reddit they're glad that the 'truths' being put out there for people to make their own decision pysyvais väislinkki embed isäntä 个[-] rainyfort1 1840pistetta 6kuukautta sitten Now I question Finland pysyväislinkki embed isäntä](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/001/258/131/7fc.jpg "finland doesn't exist")
![Hel_crunz 1141pistettǎ6kuukautta sitten For real?! Wow that is elaborate. pysyväislinkki embed isäntä [-] Raregan 1883pistetta 6kuukautta sitten There is much much more to it. Such as Finland being covered in forests is just Japan being 'too lazy' to fully finish off the country. And the fact that Finland is always top of the leaderboards in education and healthcare is due to the fact that People can't be stupid or get ill if there's nobody living there pysyväislinkki embed isäntä 會[-] charina91 55lpistettǎ6kuukautta sitten Holy hell, that's one hell of a conspiracy story! Do your parents believe in chemtrails too? pysyväislinkki embed isäntä ↑ [-] Raregan 1265pistetta 6kuukautta sitten Nope, they're not really that big on their conspiracy theories, don't believe in the Illuminati or Global Warming being a myth or any of that. They even make fun of Christians for believing in a God. It's just the Finland thing. pysyväislinkki embed isäntä](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/001/258/130/a91.jpg "Finland doesn't exist")
Top Comments
Mewegu
May 23, 2017 at 11:38AM EDT
Samekichi Kiseki Moderator
May 23, 2017 at 11:23AM EDT