Gregory's Server@adamgreenfield I would link it to what i see as the thickness of social buffers in the different cultures. In the UK banter, irony and grumbling form social buffers where unhappiness with diligence can be attenuated. In Sweden there is zero buffer and people either communicate or cooperate with total precision or not at all, because the consequences are totally unbuffered.
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 @Loukas And that, in turn, reminds me of a passage from “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/507105-he-meditated-resentfully-on-the-physical-texture-of-life-had  @adamgreenfield the classic explanation for pubs was they were a place for working class men to escape from the unhappiness of married life. So much so that women used to, and sometimes still do, face violence if they go to a pub, because jer like you say, it's a designated male grumble zone |
@Loukas I think that’s absolutely correct. It’s a stretch, but I wouldn’t be surprised either if some everyday solidaristic institutions here (and here I’m thinking primarily of pubs) derive some of their motive power from the fact that they offer a platform for commiseration and low-key mutual aid in the face of it.