Sweden's soft totalitarianism
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Bono
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« on: December 14, 2006, 11:03:53 AM »

www.nysun.com/article/44831

While Sweden Slept

The approach of the New Year and departure of the old inevitably brings a flurry of "year's best" lists. This even applies to nations, which some organizations make it their business annually to rank in order of wealth, quality of life, and what-have-you.

Surprisingly often, the Nordic countries come out on top. This placement is usually a reflection less of objective reality, however, than of the list-makers' enthusiasm for the Nordic welfare-state model. The criteria, in other words, are formulated in such a way that the Nordic countries will inevitably end up on top. Hence Norway, for example, is repeatedly named by the United Nations as the world's richest country — forget that prices and taxes are so high that even business executives lunch on dry sandwiches brought from home in aluminum foil.

Now it's Sweden's turn. The Economist Intelligence Unit, associated with the Economist magazine, has awarded the title of world's most democratic country to Sweden. For many observers, this is not only wrong — it's staggeringly, outrageously misinformed.

Sweden is, after all, a country in which the people are fed by their political, press, and intellectual establishment an unvarying diet of propaganda promoting the socialist welfare state, demonizing Israel, and whitewashing Islam. As for America, the official view was neatly captured in a post-September 11 editorial in the nation's largest newspaper, Aftonbladet, which assured readers that the terrorists who attacked New York and Washington weren't Sweden's enemies but simply hated " U.S. imperialism," a reasonable position given that "the U.S. is the greatest mass murderer of our time." Such views, taught in Sweden's classrooms and enshrined in Sweden's state-approved schoolbooks, are reiterated daily by Sweden's mainstream press organizations, all of which are either government-owned or government-subsidized.

Dissent is powerfully discouraged. In Sweden, whose murder rate is currently twice that of America and where Muslims now constitute over 10% of the population and are disproportionately unemployed and prone to violence, the Swedish press routinely depicts America as crime-ridden. Polls show that the majority of Swedes are deeply disturbed by their country's dramatic social changes and highly critical of the policies that brought them about. Yet the crime and violence generally go unreported, so only rarely does any of the criticism seep into the press. Though two-thirds of Swedes question whether Islam is compatible with Western society, this issue is simply not open for public discussion.

To quote Jonathan Friedman, a New Yorker who teaches social anthropology at the University of Lund, "no debate about immigration policies is possible" because Sweden's "political class," which controls public debate, simply avoids the topic. Recently, the city of Stockholm carried out a survey of ninth-grade boys in the predominantly Muslim suburb of Rinkeby. The survey showed that in the last year, 17% of the boys had forced someone to have sex, 31% had hurt someone so badly that the victim required medical care, and 24% had committed burglary or broken into a car. Sensational statistics — but in all of Sweden, they appear to have been published only in a daily newssheet that is distributed free on the subways.

Instead of reporting on such worrisome findings, politicians and the press alike focus on the evils of America and Israel. Last year, for instance, Sweden's state-owned TV network ran a series of "documentaries" about America that included Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine." Viewers were protected from the fact that it had been shown to contain lies and fabrications. The series also included a sympathetic account of Stalin's atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whom Swedish TV described as having been executed not for history's most colossal act of treason but "for their Communist sympathies," and something called "Why We Fight," which explained America's military actions as motivated by the avarice of military contractors.

Swedish book publishing is similarly unbalanced. Recently Michael Moynihan, an American writer based in Stockholm, toted up the English-language political books that had been translated into Swedish since September 11. His long list included several works apiece by Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore, plus volumes by the communist historian Eric Hobsbawm, the anti-American journalist John Pilger, and the "Holocaust industry" critic Norman Finkelstein. On the entire list, only one author was not a leftist.

When voices of dissent do break through in Sweden, they're often punished. During the runup to the Iraq war, the Swedish government censured the independent TV channel TV4 for running an "Oprah" episode that presented both pro- and anti-war arguments. TV4 was charged with violating press-balance guidelines when in fact its offense was being too balanced — it had exposed Swedish viewers to ideas from which journalists had otherwise shielded them.

Only one sizable party in the country, the Sweden Democrats, articulates most Swedes' concerns about their country's immigration and integration policies. Again and again, it has been the object of breathtakingly undemocratic treatment by the political establishment. Earlier this year, for example, the government closed down the Sweden Democrats' Web site because it had published a cartoon of Muhammad. Stig Fredriksson, head of the free-speech organization Publicistklubben, complained bitterly. But the incident was hardly reported in Sweden — and, of course, barely caused a ripple abroad. If the Bush administration had closed down a Democratic Party Web siteΈ there would be scare headlines and editorials thundering about dictatorship — and rightly so. But when Sweden's rulers did it, it was apparently acceptable — because they did it in the name of political correctness.

Sweden Democrats have been the targets of events that recall China's Cultural Revolution. Staged "people's protests" by members of the "youth divisions" of other parties have led to the firing of Sweden Democrats from their jobs. A few weeks ago, a junior diplomat was dismissed when it became known that he was a member of the party and had criticized his country's immigration policy. On several occasions, thugs loyal to the ruling parties have broken up Sweden Democratic meetings and beaten up party leaders. And this is a nation in which a party led by an admitted communist was, in recent memory, part of the ruling coalition.

The Sweden Democrats enjoy considerable public sympathy. But given Sweden's oppressively conformist political climate, that sympathy is of necessity largely sub rosa. Mr. Friedman has suggested that one reason why the party has no seats in Parliament is that Swedish elections aren't really secret — other people at the polling place can look at your ballot and see which party you support. The stigma attached to voting for the Sweden Democrats is just that strong. Another reason is that the major parties have worked together vigorously to keep the Sweden Democrats out of the public square. The success of this collaborative effort is reflected in the fact that Sweden is the only major Western European country whose legislature contains not a single representative of a party critical of its immigration policies.

In 1972, the British historian Roland Huntford titled his book about Sweden "The New Totalitarians." He is echoed by a number of observers today who describe Sweden as an example of "soft totalitarianism." Are they right? That's a matter for debate — though it's a debate that won't take place in Sweden.
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Jens
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« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2006, 11:13:39 AM »

Who is this idiot, who knows absolutely nothing of Sweden, neither about Swedish politics, educational system nor basically anything else he feebly tries to precent in this "article"
Utter nonens!
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afleitch
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« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2006, 11:19:47 AM »

Who is this idiot, who knows absolutely nothing of Sweden, neither about Swedish politics, educational system nor basically anything else he feebly tries to precent in this "article"
Utter nonens!

I don't think this article is particularly balanced at all. In fact its nothing more than an unsubstantiated rant! Unfortunately some journalists and politicos, particularly in America wouldn't know what socialism was if it bit them on the face.
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Bono
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« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2006, 11:25:58 AM »

Who is this idiot, who knows absolutely nothing of Sweden, neither about Swedish politics, educational system nor basically anything else he feebly tries to precent in this "article"
Utter nonens!

Do you deny that that Muslim bitch that for some reason was given the post of minister acted autochratically and told the server to shut down the Swedish Democrats website, even when she has been forced to resign due to this?
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afleitch
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« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2006, 11:30:17 AM »

"Even more often it happens that dark skinned youths mug and knock down helpless elderly on their way home with their meagre pensions. Our young boys - blonde, blue eyed - are humiliated and mugged of their cell phones. A new phenomena in Sweden's history is the gang rapes of our girls."

^^^^^^^^^^

If this is the bile the party comes out with on a regular basis then I have no sympathy for the Sweden 'Democrats'
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2006, 11:31:14 AM »

The Sweden Democrats are the Swedish version of the BNP.
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Bono
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« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2006, 11:40:45 AM »

Non sequitor both of you. THat doesn't justify the totalitarian attitude towards them, especially with a communist party so active.
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Verily
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« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2006, 05:19:00 PM »

Bono, the Left Party is no longer a communist party, just socialist. In any case, I don't see the Left Party actually doing anything harmful any more (they did until the '90s), unlike the Sweden Democrats.
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Colin
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« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2006, 07:37:29 PM »
« Edited: December 14, 2006, 07:47:25 PM by Senator Colin Wixted »

The Sweden Democrats are the Swedish version of the BNP.

That's why they've never gotten more than 2% of the vote.

What a load of garbage. First off The Economist is hardly a socialist magazine and it sincerely does not support the Swedish model, since they actually ran a long article articulating the problems with the current system about 4 months ago. So their ranking it highly in both democracy and in quality of life does not stem from any bias that they might have but in the data presented.

The distortions within this article are gross to the extreme. Voting is no less secret in Sweden then it is in the US. What I have to say is why does this Friedman guy stay in a place that he obviously considers a communist hellhole? He's clearly an American citizens so he is welcome to come back to his own country if he does not like Sweden or if he is afraid for his safety or for the continued freedom of his person.

The reason that Swedes don't vote Swedish Democrat is because the Swedish Democrats make Vlaams Belang look like leftist Green anti-war hippies. I mean the Swedish Democrats are openly racist and openly neo-fascist in a way that is really only rivaled by those German neo-Nazi parties. There is a reason why Progress in Norway, which runs on an anti-immigrant, anti-welfare state platform, wins 20 or so  percent of the vote while the Swedish Democrats only win 2%.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2006, 07:47:25 AM »

Progress has also benefited from the collapse of the traditional Norwegian Right o/c.
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Democratic Hawk
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« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2006, 09:56:39 AM »

If this is totalitarianism, then I could happily Smiley live with it. The forces of malevolence like the Swedish 'Democrats' have no place in civil society and must not be tolerated

Dave
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Undisguised Sockpuppet
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« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2006, 01:20:01 PM »

Western europe, The UK and scandanavia ismply can't handle any social liberalism or mass immigration. Other societies like The US can handle it.
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Bono
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« Reply #12 on: December 15, 2006, 01:32:44 PM »

If this is totalitarianism, then I could happily Smiley live with it. The forces of malevolence like the Swedish 'Democrats' have no place in civil society and must not be tolerated

Dave

The forces of malevolence like the Left Party[communist] have no place in society and must not be tolerated.

Be consistent.
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Tory
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« Reply #13 on: December 15, 2006, 02:23:14 PM »

If this is totalitarianism, then I could happily Smiley live with it. The forces of malevolence like the Swedish 'Democrats' have no place in civil society and must not be tolerated

Dave

The forces of malevolence like the Left Party[communist] have no place in society and must not be tolerated.

Be consistent.

There is no consistency amongst the left Bono, just hypocrisy.
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Colin
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« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2006, 02:36:14 PM »

Progress has also benefited from the collapse of the traditional Norwegian Right o/c.

Very true. Hoyre has just crumpled in the last few elections.
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Gabu
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« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2006, 05:05:46 PM »

There is no consistency amongst the left humans Bono, just hypocrisy.

I fixed your post. Tongue
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Democratic Hawk
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« Reply #16 on: December 15, 2006, 09:37:42 PM »

If this is totalitarianism, then I could happily Smiley live with it. The forces of malevolence like the Swedish 'Democrats' have no place in civil society and must not be tolerated

Dave

The forces of malevolence like the Left Party[communist] have no place in society and must not be tolerated.

Be consistent.

There is no consistency amongst the left Bono, just hypocrisy.

I had thought of you, unlike Bono, as being a reasonably-minded person like most on the center-right

Bono, you should know me well enough by now to be well aware of the fact that I'm no fan of political extremism in any shape or form. This article talks of the Swedish 'Democrats' not the Left Party

Besides, the Left Party - a breakaway from the mainstream left-of-center Social Democratic Party - seems to be a democratic socialist party, while in the words of its former party secretary, the Swedish 'Democrats' are infested with Nazis. Contemporary Western European democratic socialist parties are hardly the same as far right neo-Nazis

Dave
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Michael Z
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« Reply #17 on: December 16, 2006, 04:50:14 AM »

If this is totalitarianism, then I could happily Smiley live with it. The forces of malevolence like the Swedish 'Democrats' have no place in civil society and must not be tolerated

Dave

The forces of malevolence like the Left Party[communist] have no place in society and must not be tolerated.

Be consistent.

There is no consistency amongst the left Bono, just hypocrisy.

Whereas the right has empty slogans that neither correspond with reality nor stand up to scrutiny. Tongue
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Gustaf
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« Reply #18 on: December 18, 2006, 08:10:23 PM »

Who is this idiot, who knows absolutely nothing of Sweden, neither about Swedish politics, educational system nor basically anything else he feebly tries to precent in this "article"
Utter nonens!

Do you deny that that Muslim bitch that for some reason was given the post of minister acted autochratically and told the server to shut down the Swedish Democrats website, even when she has been forced to resign due to this?

I hope Muslim bitch is some sort of joke...she's not Muslim she's Latvian.

Now, there are some true points. Swedish media is pretty biased, that is true. Our schools do encourage people to think "correctly" rather than freely (while pretending that it isn't so, which is disturbing). And many people's worries about immigration are ignored by the political elite.

But taken as a whole this shows very poor understanding of Sweden. Immigration and crime, in relation to each other and apart, are given LOTS of attention. They're probably among the top 5-10 issues dsicussed in Swedish media. In fact, many immigrants complain that their neighbourhoods and people only figure in media as related to crimes (there are good reasons though).

The SD is a party of complete idiots. They're not really racist or anti-semitic to a large degree, especially not when compared to Vlams Belang and other such parties (that is definitely an unfair comparison). They're xenophobic, but mostly just dumb. They've been treated so badly though, and had their basic democratic rights so violated that they're probably gonna get into parliament in the next election (though it is possible that their behaviour on the local level will discredit them so much that they fail, it could be either way actually).
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Gustaf
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« Reply #19 on: December 19, 2006, 06:29:23 AM »

If this is totalitarianism, then I could happily Smiley live with it. The forces of malevolence like the Swedish 'Democrats' have no place in civil society and must not be tolerated

Dave

The forces of malevolence like the Left Party[communist] have no place in society and must not be tolerated.

Be consistent.

There is no consistency amongst the left Bono, just hypocrisy.

I had thought of you, unlike Bono, as being a reasonably-minded person like most on the center-right

Bono, you should know me well enough by now to be well aware of the fact that I'm no fan of political extremism in any shape or form. This article talks of the Swedish 'Democrats' not the Left Party

Besides, the Left Party - a breakaway from the mainstream left-of-center Social Democratic Party - seems to be a democratic socialist party, while in the words of its former party secretary, the Swedish 'Democrats' are infested with Nazis. Contemporary Western European democratic socialist parties are hardly the same as far right neo-Nazis

Dave

The Left Party was quite reasonable for a while in the late 90s, but it is sliding back. It cooperates with groups like RKU (Revolutionary Communist Youth), a Stalinist party which blames the false rumour of Soviet genocides on Trotsky (yes, that is not a joke) and reveres North Korea. They've kicked out almost every sane person from the party leadership.
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Democratic Hawk
LucysBeau
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« Reply #20 on: December 21, 2006, 12:57:59 PM »

If this is totalitarianism, then I could happily Smiley live with it. The forces of malevolence like the Swedish 'Democrats' have no place in civil society and must not be tolerated

Dave

The forces of malevolence like the Left Party[communist] have no place in society and must not be tolerated.

Be consistent.

There is no consistency amongst the left Bono, just hypocrisy.

I had thought of you, unlike Bono, as being a reasonably-minded person like most on the center-right

Bono, you should know me well enough by now to be well aware of the fact that I'm no fan of political extremism in any shape or form. This article talks of the Swedish 'Democrats' not the Left Party

Besides, the Left Party - a breakaway from the mainstream left-of-center Social Democratic Party - seems to be a democratic socialist party, while in the words of its former party secretary, the Swedish 'Democrats' are infested with Nazis. Contemporary Western European democratic socialist parties are hardly the same as far right neo-Nazis

Dave

The Left Party was quite reasonable for a while in the late 90s, but it is sliding back. It cooperates with groups like RKU (Revolutionary Communist Youth), a Stalinist party which blames the false rumour of Soviet genocides on Trotsky (yes, that is not a joke) and reveres North Korea. They've kicked out almost every sane person from the party leadership.

Given that, then Left Party deserves to wither away, too, if they co-operate with the likes of the RKU

Dave
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Undisguised Sockpuppet
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« Reply #21 on: December 21, 2006, 05:21:18 PM »

Only a few societies can take social liberalism in any form. The US and the netherlands strike me as the only ones in the west. The rest of europe can't take secularism, immigration or any social liberalism without going to hell.
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