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Sweden – “portal into the future” ?

The woke seek total victory and total defeat – which I long ago predicted they would get, albeit maybe delphically. But an interesting article in Unherd describes the latest state reached in Sweden’s dry-run of woke cancel culture as “an uneasy ceasefire”.

It started as all-out culture war.

With the benefit of hindsight, immigration now appears not as a question important in and of itself, but as a form of wedge corresponding to a very particular political moment of establishment fear and anger at parts of their own electorate.

But six years on,

While the deplorables are still mocked, there is no bite to it anymore. SD voters are no longer at risk of having their careers cancelled. In 2021, an unspoken attitude of ”don’t ask, don’t tell” prevails.

In the areas in Stockholm where most of the country’s journalists live, it is probably less awkward to openly admit to sympathising with SD on immigration than it is to proudly proclaim that Sweden is far from full and ought to take in at least a million more Afghans in the next couple of years.

How have the SD, the Swedish lovers of free speech, the heterodoxians like the article’s author, achieved this (I hear you begging me to say 🙂 )? Well, in large part at least, the article thinks they (we) haven’t. It is due to

the belated discovery that these consequences of immigration are in fact very real, and that methods of ”shaping the narrative” cannot really change material reality.

More critically, there is the realisation that nobody — certainly not middle class progressives — wants to live with those consequences at all.

It was not of course a belated discovery for Sweden’s “deplorables”, but I predict they will be treated as Edmund Burke was over two centuries ago. By the time the woke of his day were unable to avoid seeing that the French revolution was as unpleasant as Burke had predicted, they knew he was ‘already’ a enemy of it ‘anyway’ – so they dismissed him as just an accidentally-right stopped clock they could go on despising. Sweden’s deplorables will be called ‘stopped clocks’ by Sweden’s woke because they warned of danger beforehand, not after it became undeniable, just as Donald Trump is a ‘stopped clock’ to many who are falling out of love with Biden, but not with their own self-identity as clever, compassionate and politically far-sighted. The woke find forgiving deplorables for being deplorable very hard – but forgiving deplorables for being right when the woke are wrong is much harder.

Read the whole article – it will repay you.

26 comments to Sweden – “portal into the future” ?

  • llamas

    Yeah, criminal gangs running around settling their disputes with M75 AP grenades will tend to excite that kind of wrongthink among the proles. Amazing, innit?

    llater,

    llamas

  • Flubber

    So wokethink doesn’t stop your neighbourhoods turning into unsafe shitholes?

    Who would have thunk it?

  • Snorri Godhi

    Stockholm is pretty peaceful compared to Malmö. There is even a blog called Jihad i Malmö (in Swedish). My guess is that the cause of it are the migrants who felt unwelcome in Denmark and migrated across the Öresund (aka Øresund). Only a minority of them are inclined to violence, of course, but minorities within minorities can still do a lot of damage.

    I remember reading an article by a journalist based in Malmö, saying that he has been woken up so often by bombs going off that by now he and his family go straight back to sleep. (Possibly an exaggeration, as i seem to remember that he was woken up only 5 or 6 times. But perhaps that is enough to realize the fatuity of getting up to have a look from the window.)

  • Paul Marks

    I read the article with interest.

    I am glad that Swedish Democrat voters are no longer so persecuted in Sweden – people should not be persecuted for their political beliefs.

    It would be nice if political persecution, “cancel culture”, stopped in English speaking countries.

  • Stonyground

    “Only a minority of them are inclined to violence, of course, but minorities within minorities can still do a lot of damage.”

    It surprises me that the non violent ones don’t deal with the violent ones themselves. If you move to another country hoping to settle and thrive, these idiots are the last thing that you need.

  • Snorri Godhi

    It surprises me that the non violent ones don’t deal with the violent ones themselves.

    Indeed!

    (But who knows? maybe in the countries with relatively little Muslim violence, the non-violent Muslims do indeed deal with the violent Muslims themselves.)

  • rxc

    The wedge that is being used here is empathy. It used to be that empathy was something that was provided to people who deserved it, because they became stuck in a situation that they did not create of deserve. Usually by priests. Now, empathy is being used as a weapon. Everyone has been labeled a victim (except for white men, of course). So the “suffering” of every other group demands empathy, and reparations. Substantial reparations. From governments, which have to be “fair”. But many of those victims (rough immigrants and people who don’t fit into the dominant US culture, for example) cannot return the empathy or give thanks when they receive it, or even try to fit in. They just continue to eat at the heart of the existing social structure, and the progressives defend their suffering and behavior as something that is the fault of the rest of society. And society naturally has to pay for this suffering, one way or another.

    What is going on is the destruction of Western Judeo-Christian society. Destruction of the ability of people to communicate with one another without getting angry and violent, Destruction of educational institutions. Destruction of any working relationships in all institutions and organizations, among groups that are identified as victims or oppressors or both, with no rhyme or reason for the labels that are applied. It is like throwing sand into the gears of society, to destroy the infrastructure that allows people to work together.

    This is the plan. The Progressives have stated it explicitly. You just have to listen to the interviews of the antifa members in places like Portland. They want to raze the entire society to the ground, and then rebuild it.

    Build back better.

    How? “We have a plan, We will do it right, next time. But we first have to destroy this terrible system that is holding us all back, and then we will figure it out.” Yeah, sure.

    Maybe the Swedes can give the rest of us some inspiration for how to deal with this mental virus that has infected Western Society.

  • Snorri Godhi

    Halfway through the article, this couple of sentences strike me as important:

    More critically, there is the realisation that nobody — certainly not middle class progressives — wants to live with those consequences at all. Crime, overcrowded schools, social and ethnic tensions, and violence toward ethnic Swedish children committed by gangs of immigrants have all conspired to cool attitudes on the subject.

    What strikes me is that in many if not most other Western countries, “middle class progressives” apparently do not have “to live with those consequences”.

  • Flubber

    One of the byproducts of their quest for egalitarianism I would suppose.

  • Rudolph Hucker

    in many if not most other Western countries, “middle class progressives” apparently do not have “to live with those consequences”.

    All’s well for the middle class progressives, until they run out of other people with money to pay for those consequences.

    Power cuts in Islington?
    Shock horror!
    Get the popcorn ready.

    I’m a great believer in people having “skin in the game”. Mine’s the Honda Generator on stand-by in the garage. Enough to power some LED lights and keep the internet router alive. If we need to keep warm, we’ll cuddle-up with the dogs and livestock.

  • TomJ

    It surprises me that the non violent ones don’t deal with the violent ones themselves.

    Really? You can’t think of a reason those not prone to violence might avoid confronting those prone to violence?

  • staghounds

    Stonyground-

    There are violent people in your town, why aren’t you dealing with them?

    Q. E. D.

  • bobby b

    “It surprises me that the non violent ones don’t deal with the violent ones themselves. If you move to another country hoping to settle and thrive, these idiots are the last thing that you need.”

    Much easier to cry lack of power and fear, become a victim yourself of anti-immigrant sentiment, and quietly reap the benefits of the increased social power of your group that fear of your violent countrymen fosters. Sort of a win-win situation for the less violent.

    I would view them fighting back against their violent co-immigrants as a sign of good faith in their assimilation promises. Haven’t seen much yet. It’s almost as if they’ve hired them to do their dirty work while keeping their own hands clean.

  • (Any excuse to quote from one of my poems is instantly taken. 🙂 )

    As regards Stonyground (September 22, 2021 at 7:15 pm)

    It surprises me that the non violent ones don’t deal with the violent ones themselves.

    and followup comments from various people, may I remind you of

    Think you, if most of them don’t kill, it will not be like World War Two?
    (When, as you know, most Germans did not personally kill a Jew;
    When most are scared or hate-filled, acts of killing only need a few.)
    Now each one missed by Hitler will be hissed or spoken of likewise
    By migrants who care not if they are heard by one, percentage-wise
    From that subgroup who won’t just talk but will make sure that that Jew dies.

    There is ‘not violent’ in the sense of opposing it morally, doing what you can when fate presents you with the opportunity to oppose it practically, etc., and then there is ‘not violent’ in the sense of leaving the actual violence to others. As bobby b (September 23, 2021 at 5:54 pm) points out, these alternatives correlate with those of assimilating to the host versus obliging the host to assimilate to the immigrants.

    It is only fair to add that a thoroughly woke state and police force do not just disempower the natives. A Swede might be much more afraid than an immigrant of being victimised by the police if he dared to defend himself against an immigrant gang, but an immigrant might be even more afraid than a Swede that testifying against a member of an immigrant gang powerful in his neighbourhood would see sweet fresh air of police protection against their retaliation. Any would-be immigrant influencers of their community’s tone are also very obviously deprived of appeals to enlightened self-interest (“this will turn the Swedes against us”, “they will penalise us”, “we could be expelled back whence we came”) – in both short and medium term, any such arguments can be (have been) seen to be simply wrong.

  • Snorri Godhi

    TomJ:

    You can’t think of a reason those not prone to violence might avoid confronting those prone to violence?

    I’d think that it’s not as simple as that.
    An organized minority will always prevail over a disorganized majority* — but if the majority gets organized under community leaders, then they can enforce the peace even when the majority and its leaders do not get a kick out of violence.

    * IIRC this insight comes from Gaetano Mosca.

    Of course, all of this requires that the community feels the need to “prove” themselves to the guest country. If the media constantly portrays the community as victims, then they ain’t gonna bother.

  • Snorri Godhi

    Getting back to the article featured in the OP:
    The author (interestingly, not a native Swede, judging by his name and looks) seems to suggest that Sweden was a pioneer in its backlash against multiculturalism.

    I should think instead that the backlash started in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark, early in this century; and really got going with the murder of Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands — not by an Islamist, please note.

    PS: Australia also deserves a mention.

  • Deep Lurker

    How much of the problem is immigration-in-general, and how much is immigration of people holding certain theocratic views?

    How much trouble is caused in the UK by Jamaican, Hindi, Polish, etc. immigrants as opposed to Pakistani and other Muslims?

  • Paul Marks

    “Angry Foreigner” – a person of Bosnian heritage who lives in Sweden, is a good source of information about the situation there. If he has not been banned from Youtube yet.

    He is angry that the Swedish people do not defend their own country.

  • the murder of Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands — not by an Islamist, please note (Snorri Godhi, September 23, 2021 at 9:09 pm)

    The killer was a fanatical vegan activist who also believed in ‘protecting the weaker members of society’ (i.e. muslim immigrants) from people like Fortuyn.

    The judge refused to impose the life sentence asked for by the prosecution. The killer was freed more than 7 years ago. I think it would have been different if Pim had been offed by an opponent of his gay lifestyle (unless said opponent had been an islamist, of course).

    So backlash? – well, yes some, I guess (there was booing in the courtroom when the judge announced the sentence).

    The OP article suggests Sweden was just a year or two earlier than the anglosphere in its forelash of using pretend PC humanitarianism to cancel-culture a section of its native population whom it had long enjoyed hating and whose recent political growth it did not so much enjoy fearing.

    The article also speculates that the more recent partial backlash

    Outside of the inner core of the progressive sphere, such as NGOs and universities, you can no longer be summarily fired for sympathising with [the immigration-critical Swedish Democrat party]

    (my emphasis) may be for reasons that are peculiar to Sweden.

  • Ferox

    So if Sweden is a bellwether, then perhaps Europe (and the US) will wake up … just in time to watch helplessly as they are demographically overwhelmed by people who passionately hate the foundational ideals of their civilization.

    Won’t that be nice.

  • Snorri Godhi

    It seems to me that Niall, Ferox, and others are unaware of the cultural shift in continental Europe over the last couple of decades. Sweden is way behind the curve, particularly when compared to the other Nordics.

    Just as an example: the Immigration & Integration minister in Denmark, a social-democrat in a social-democratic government, and son of an immigrant, has stated that ideally there should be no more asylum seekers in Denmark.
    The social-democrats had to accept the “far-right” view of immigration unconditionally in order to return to government.

    The only continental country in which i believe that things have gotten worse in the last couple of decades, is Germany. I am sorry about that, because of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms; a few German scientists who influenced me; and a few attractive German ladies whom i met (the verb “to meet” implying no undue intimacy).

  • Ferox

    Snorri Godhi: So do you think France can be saved, then? And if France cannot be saved, how can Europe as a whole prevail?

    I am not over-hopeful that the US can be prevented from turning into a banana republic, if it isn’t there already. It might not even be possible if all the people at the top wanted to prevent it … and many of them want to promote that outcome. So we are probably lost.

  • Snorri Godhi

    Ferox:

    So do you think France can be saved, then?

    I am not very familiar with French culture, but i’d think it is possible to save France. Whether the French are willing to put up the effort, is a different question which i am not ready to answer.

    In any case, it seems to me that there has been a cultural shift in France. It has taken me a long time to realize that there is oikophobia in France: I used to think that all French people are chauvinists. I hope that i am not mistaken in thinking that the French are now finding a happy medium.

    And if France cannot be saved, how can Europe as a whole prevail?

    One possibility is to build a wall along the eastern and southern borders of Germany. That, and Poland getting nuclear weapons.

    I am not over-hopeful that the US can be prevented from turning into a banana republic, if it isn’t there already.

    As i wrote a few years back, i see my culture as mostly British, Italian, and North-American. (In order of increasing number of syllables.)
    As a consequence, i think myself able to appreciate the good and the bad in all 3 cultures.

    WRT the US, i’d think that calling it a banana republic highlights 2 big problems: an electoral system prone to fraud (probably more than any other Western country); and the ruling class (or rather, the Democrat establishment) being almost above the Law (while by contrast, in Nordic countries the ruling class is held to higher standards than the citizenry … and some other countries are not far behind the Nordics).

    What intrigues me is that, in both respects, Trump has done a lot to make the US “more like Europe”. An irony that might have escaped everybody else on Earth 🙂

  • Jacob

    There is one crucial thing nobody mentioned: the old and affluent European countries and the US desperately need workers, young blood. The natives go all to the universities and study law or economics or social or political sciences and art and won’t do menial work, and, between social benefits and inheritances – don’t have to do this work. And the population is aging and not reproducing enough. The country (any country) desperately needs construction workers, carpenters, plumbers, garbage collectors, street cleaners, bus and lorry drivers, janitors, chamber maids, road repair crews etc.
    So the immigrants are needed. You get them where you can find them. The supply of East-Europeans is not infinite.
    Whatever negative consequences immigration has – they are unavoidable.

  • bobby b

    Raise the wages for carpenters, drivers, plumbers, etc., and the shortage will disappear.

  • Jacob

    No, the aging population and small numbers of young people wont’ disappear.
    And personal (inherited) affluence and generous social benefits (as disincentive to work) won’t disappear either.