It's a new year, but we've still got the same old Dutch tropes

New year, new you. Axios, the American news website founded by a group of Politico journalists, ran a story called Gezellig: How to be cozy like the Dutch. The piece defines gezellig as “a word that describes feeling cozy, usually with friends or loved ones.” The Dutch love to claim gezellig is untranslatable but in reality, English just affords itself multiple words – cosy, homey, cheerful – to cover the singular option offered in the Netherlands. A 2019 story in the New York Times detailed dropping, which it described as the practice of Dutch parents abandoning their children in the woods to find their own way home like some sorta reverse Hansel and Gretel situation. Later the story gets to the wellness bros, a gym owner who wrote a book about 10,000 steps and my personal nemesis Wim Hof, who is described as a Dutch health expert.