"I don't think the Scandinavian countries waste a lot of time blowing smoke about how great they are"

OMG you have to be kidding. Because you're wrong.

The Swedes boldly call themselves a 'humanitarian superpower'. This 12M person nation, basically irrelevant to most things, tells the world that *they* are the moral example.

It's insufferably smug and they are the Canadians of Europe in this regard.

They are also extremely nationalist - just not of the flag waving/war mongering kind. They brag, brag, brag about how great and ideal their system is, and they stubbornly do things 'their own way' just as much as Americans, probably more so.