The clip below prompted a reaction. This piece is all about Sweden, so wait until next time if this is not up your bakgata. There isn't that much to write about the mythical kingdom of Svea.
Alex and Alexander seem to have happened upon a piece in the Telegraph about Sweden. Of course the people most suited to reporting on Sweden are those who don't actually live there. We couldn't find the piece, but that's OK. Here's the ten-minute video on it.
https://rumble.com/v28rte0-sweden-focuses-on-nato-as-economy-law-and-order-declines.html
In a word: it's all true. But of course the detailed view from ground zero is much worse.
Alexander cites two of Sweden's legends, Tage Erlander and Olof Palme. Erlander ran the country in the post-war period, and Palme ran things in the television age. Back then, almost every celeb and his nan supported Palme and his party. Why not? Standard of living was best in the world. Best. In. The. World. Who can't support that?
Parliamentary debates were often televised. Not that Joe Blogs could necessarily understand the context, but he could see how Palme made mince meat out of any opponent. In fact, an opposition party used his invincibility as a tactic to win in 1976: they made the people feel pity for the loser.
Palme wasn't a Social Democrat originally. He was not political at all. He completed his higher education in the US, then defied his father by spending the summer after graduation to hitchhike around the north American continent. His super-wealthy father expected Olof (called Skit-Olle by his friends) to become a Navy Admiral or something. Olof didn't fancy the idea.
Sweden's PM Tage Erlander was looking for a new personal secretary. Palme responded to the call. Remember: he still didn't have a political affiliation. He met with Erlander, and Erlander was knocked out, proclaiming he'd never met such a 'natural' for politics. Palme had what it takes, said Erlander. He understood the democratic system, how it's a matter of rolling up your sleeves and sitting down with your opponents and working things out.
Palme rose fast, Erlander retired, and Palme's oratory became a thing of legend, so much so that Shirley MacLaine fell for him. You can read about this in the excerpts from one of her books at the website of Oprah Winfrey. Further, it seems Irma had a succession of lover boys strung across the globe, yet would willingly cheat on them for an additional tryst with Olof. This puts earlier things into new perspective, such as her interview with Swedish state television about her new book, where she insists Olof be present for the interview, as she has questions she wants to ask him.
This is after the Social Democrats lost power in 1976. The questions have to do with Astrid Lindgren and Ingmar Bergman, two ginormous bloopers, for which Olof offers apologies and explains how it wasn't really that big a deal. Fill in the blanks yourselves.
But yes, the post-war years in Sweden were glorious, and it wasn't until the 1980s that the cracks would start to show. The US hated Sweden. The suspicion's always been that the US had something to do with the country's undoing. Sweden's very presence was proof positive of the big lies of the Deep State. Those big lies are no longer as visible.
The above clip comes with a mugshot of Sweden's current PM, Ulf Kristersson. Ulf is what Swedes would call a 'syltrygg' - in other words, someone with a backbone made out of jelly.
Ulf was an up-and-coming in the youth league of the 'Moderates' in the 1980s. He was considered weak back then. The imperialistic faction of the US GOP financially supported two of his rivals, Fredrik Reinfeldt and Anders Borg. Reinfeldt is stupidity taken to the ultimate degree, and Borg is fascism kitted in formal attire. Neither of them made a lot of sense in front of a camera, but they didn't care: they wanted the exposure.
Catastrophes never come out of nowhere, and the reason Reinfeldt and Borg were able to rise to power - something unthinkable only twenty years earlier - was the rise in corruption in the Social Democrat party. All parties deal with corruption, but the Social Democrats have their work cut out. This seems to happen to all organisations.
The Social Democrats had transformed Sweden from a two-class society - the elites and the working class - to a three-class society, with the emergence of an actual middle class.
Middle class? You know: they're the people without ethics of their own, always trying to emulate the elites. Before their emergence, most of your cabbies in Stockholm had university degrees. There weren't any other jobs for them. By the time the 1980s rolled along, the new middle class hadn't the foggiest about the tough times of the older generations. Useless political parties with no tangible platform started to gain more leverage. And always the 'Moderates', who were more right wing than the John Birch Society. The Moderates learned how to suck up to Big Business, and Big Business learned what horses to wager on.
Gangsta Paradise
Here's the piece BTW. We just found it.
Fraser Nelson? So his GF is Swedish. That explains it. He talks about Södertälje which is a burb south of Stockholm, and yes, it's dangerous. Swedes are in the minority there.
Burbs controlled by Social Democrats today: higher taxes and higher crime rates. Shitholes.
The government of Social Democrat Göran Persson was arguably the first thoroughly corrupt government in history. Persson knew the secret of Gary Winnick: bribes must be meted out on both sides of the aisle.
Persson gave way to Reinfeldt who positioned himself as 'the new workers party'. Oh yeah. Goldfish minds? Perhaps. But what was their alternative? Persson's Social Democrats who were rotten through and through?
Back in the 1980s, when Reinfeldt and Borg were still vying for control of the party youth league, and Kristersson was kicked to the curb, they devised an ingenious plan. Their 'Moderates' party had never had control of the country. The Social Democrats had, and, for that, they hated the Social Democrats with a passion, with an obsession.
The problem, reasoned Reinfeldt and Borg, was that the Social Democrats always delivered on their promises. Healthcare was good. Care for the elderly was good. Cradle to grave security. Everything just worked. But what if the system could be broken? That was their chance.
And how to break the system? By overwhelming the social services - the hospitals, all of it. And how to accomplish that?
Open Your Hearts!
By the time of the 2014 election campaign, it's pretty certain that PM Reinfeldt and his finance minister Borg had already secured lucrative positions in the private sector. They wanted to lose in 2014 - they could make tonnes more money if they succeeded in failing. But they wanted to deal a fatal blow to the Social Democrats and somehow get them to take the rap for the destruction they’d planned and would ensue.
Reinfeldt is hated in Sweden today. And with good reason. He started, on the 2014 stump, by warning people that tough times were ahead. Reinfeldt and Borg had namely planned for a tidal wave of wanton immigration. Borg was off across the pond telling think tanks in the US: 'you guys keep making the wars, we'll keep taking the refugees!'
And so it went. The Swedish people were sick and tired of Reinfeldt and his lies, so they went back to their failsafe: the Social Democrats. Except the Social Democrats were still thoroughly corrupt, and, in effect, had to settle for the party janitor as their new party leader, subsequently prime minister, and complete chaos of course ensued.
There was a time when people expected Rick Falkvinge's Pirate Party to finally get seats in the parliament. That was not to happen. Instead a little known party, the Sweden Democrats, got seats.
Who were the Sweden Democrats? They were fascists and Nazis, was the word on the street. Closer inspection showed that they were an anti-EU party. That's about it. And for that they were roundly castigated by everyone. Because everyone else found something to gain by EU membership. The Sweden Democrats were also for the 'little guy', and the Social Democrats hated that, and subsequently lost a lot of their members to the new party.
The Sweden Democrats were disinvited to big ceremonies such as the Nobel awards and banquet. They just kept on.
Now, in the most recent election, the Sweden Democrats finally came out as the biggest opposition party in the country.
The post of PM will traditionally go to the leader of the biggest coalition party, but not now. The three other coalition parties refused to support a coalition if the Sweden Democrats got cabinet seats.
So the Sweden Democrats today sit in a sort of 'outhouse', or 'PlaySkool', separate from the rest of government. They're supposed to have an 'influence', and perhaps they do, but what a weird type of government!
And what about their aversion to the EU? They not only support EU efforts in the Ukraine, they're the ones to introduce that absurd EU motion to brand Russia a terrorist entity!
This can perhaps be explained by historical animosity towards Russia dating centuries back, but that's not mature, adult reasoning.
All the while, of course, that the damage done by the EU continues. Let's look at some of the comments to the above clip.
'I do not think people understand how bad it is in Sweden. I fled the country 16 years ago partly because of the crime rate, and it is much, much worse now. 35 years ago I never locked my car, and unless I left for vacation I never even locked the door to my house. Today you can barely go out after dark in most places in Sweden.'
All true. We didn't flee, some twenty years ago, but we somehow never made it back. And no, we'd not return today. Heaven forbid. Sweden is the most dangerous country in Europe. Healthcare is shit. The parents of Kat Janouch had to be transported to the Czech Republic to get proper care. Our own children, and now their children, still live in that mess, the perfect examples of boiling frogs.
'If Sweden can't decide whether it should kiss NATO's butt, stop the internal chaos, support a Nazi regime in Ukraine or benefit its citizens, then its leaders should be sacked.'
It's all about vested interests. Prior to the demise (assassination) of Palme, none of this was possible.
'Limited immigration is usually fine, but then suddenly you turn your cities into Kabul... and it's not your country any longer.'
And this was what Reinfeldt wanted.
'Sweden is at the point of no return. They are so brainwashed with WOKE/SJW values that they are unable to do what it takes to fix their problems.'
Yes.
'SWEDEN. 12,000 rapes since 2014.'
That's how you destroy a people. Old women in wheelchairs being sexually abused and raped. That's warfare.
'Sweden has been derailed. We have become a violent and corrupt country.'
Somewhere along the Beltway, someone is smiling.