
Curators of Sweden - bvanvugt
http://curatorsofsweden.com/
======
rospaya
Not sure what happened in this thread and how it became about Islamophobia,
racism or Sweden being a modern DDR.

~~~
59nadir
The '#svpol' people showed up and poisoned the thread. They're the people you
generally avoid by not having idiots added on Facebook and not following media
celebrities on Twitter. Apparently they're inescapable now, even on HN.
Fortunately this link is most likely impopular, so the embarrassment is fairly
limited.

~~~
seivan
Essentially anyone who doesn't share your opinion is an idiot.

"I like discussion, debate, and reasoned criticism. But a lot of arguments
aren’t any of those things. They’re the style I describe as ethnic tension,
where you try to associate something you don’t like with negative affect so
that other people have an instinctive disgust reaction to it.

There are endless sources of negative affect you can use. You can accuse them
of being “arrogant”, “fanatical”, “hateful”, “cultish” or “refusing to
tolerate alternative opinions”. You can accuse them of condoning terrorism, or
bullying, or violence, or rape. You can call them racist or sexist, you can
call them neckbeards or fanboys. You can accuse them of being pseudoscientific
denialist crackpots.

If you do this enough, the group gradually becomes disreputable. If you really
do it enough, the group becomes so toxic that it becomes somewhere between a
joke and a bogeyman. Their supporters will be banned on site from all decent
online venues. News media will write hit pieces on them and refuse to ask for
their side of the story because ‘we don’t want to give people like that a
platform’. Their concerns will be turned into bingo cards for easy dismissal.
People will make Facebook memes strawmanning them, and everyone will laugh in
unison and say that yep, they’re totally like that. Anyone trying to correct
the record will be met with an “Ew, gross, this place has gone so downhill
that the [GROUP] is coming out of the woodwork!” and totally ignored."

Sorry that your safe space and bubble bursted.

~~~
59nadir
No, actually, anyone who comes into a HN thread immediately derailing it into
a pointless regional political debate is an idiot. That's pretty much it. I'm
sorry to burst your very long rant where you over-analyze and completely miss
the mark, but people are simply embarrassed by you because you've taken this
HN thread and run it into the ground without it receiving even one on-topic
reply.

> The discussion in these comments is embarrassing (and I'm not even Swedish).

> Apparently the mere mention of Sweden was enough to make local politics
> spill over here. It's like watching a post about a weather app getting
> overrun by climate change denialists.

That's the entirety of it.

------
cb18
I'd imagine most other countries haven't thought of doing this, because most
others countries don't have such a rigidly enforced group-think as does
Sweden.

 _Did you know that Sweden 's main export is not lumber or steel but in fact
white guys with beards who think they are hilarious?_

Sweden is also among the world leaders in exporting ISIS terrorists. Believe
it or not. [http://swedenreport.org/2015/02/04/more-isis-fighters-
from-o...](http://swedenreport.org/2015/02/04/more-isis-fighters-from-one-
swedish-town-than-entire-usa/)

In fact a native Swede "Islamophobia Expert" joined ISIS and is attempting to
recruit others. wtf?

[http://www.thelocal.se/20150203/swedish-islamist-convert-
in-...](http://www.thelocal.se/20150203/swedish-islamist-convert-in-isis-
video-row)

[http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/251905/swedens-
multicultur...](http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/251905/swedens-
multicultural-center-expert-islamophobia-daniel-greenfield)

I don't have time to look through many of these tweets, but I imagine there
are a number of things the authors refrain from mentioning.

I've found this blog [http://swedenreport.org](http://swedenreport.org) to
detail some shocking things that have transpired in Sweden in the past years
that those tweets probably bypass.

From the author's About page:

 _[...]

The purpose of this blog is to highlight some of the news stories that don’t
show up under the International News-section of your newspaper, yet might be
of interest for your investment decisions, understanding of politics in the
Nordic region, or perhaps just your vacation plans.

[...]

About me: I was born and raised in Sweden, but moved to USA as a young adult
in 1999. I acquired naturalized American citizenship 2007. In recent years I
had to relocate back to Sweden for family reasons, only to discover that much
had changed in my absence.

I am not affiliated with any political party in either country. I hold a B.S.
in Finance and an A.S. in Accounting from Excelsior College, New York._

(I have no connection with that blog, or the author, other than having read
some of it with astonishment)

~~~
fnordsensei
Wouldn't it be the other way around? Giving the account to an _individual_ ,
one week at a time, seems like a pretty liberal solution to me. The group-
think, authoritarian version would be to make it centralized and heavily
filtered.

    
    
      The rules of Curators of Sweden stipulate that the 
      curators are free to write whatever they want. Tweets 
      will only be deleted if:
    
      they violate Swedish law;
      they promote a commercial brand;
      they are a security threat.
    

As for the rest of your post: while I'm sure that you've a point, I don't
really see what it has to do with Curators of Sweden.

~~~
cb18
_I don 't really see what it has to do with Curators of Sweden._

Curators of Sweden, has to do with _Sweden,_ specifically the curation or
portrayal of Sweden. i.e. "The big picture."

My post also has to do with _Sweden,_ specifically the fact that there is a
lot going on in Sweden that is rarely mentioned in official channels and also
unlikely to be found in Curators of Sweden, but it is vitally important that
more people become aware of.

------
johansch
[https://twitter.com/sweden/status/640601633332850688](https://twitter.com/sweden/status/640601633332850688)

"Take care and remember to not have sex with racists, sexists or LGBTQ-
phobes!"

That has got to be worth at least 100 goodness points and should score him
some young, cute and immature leftist girls. Welcome to the social do goodie
economy.

~~~
seivan
You're probably getting down-voted because you're not adding anything, though
I'd argue it's really hard to add anything to the discussion.

Curators of Sweden are essentially hive-mind of the same types of people over
and over except only at one point, we had a person who was liberal (not left-
wing) and people shat their pants.

Another thing to add is the most vile racist Swedes I've grown to meet are
usually left-wing extreme (mainstream today) "anti-racists". You're approved
as long as you agree with their narratives, until you don't and branded as an
uncle Tom (though they use a different word that starts with house) and more
often not also called "fascist".

A perfect example of this actually happened today as a politician from
Folkpartiet (The Liberal Party) got booed as she was talking on an event about
supporting refugees. Her name is Birgitta Ohlsson and has fought a lot for
LGBTs, refugees and to even open the borders.

Swedes really watered down the word racist. Sorta like how everyone in Soviet
was a fascist. Kinda funny how I've grown to tolerate the Swedish Democrats in
comparison.

Seeing people like Nalin Pekgul, Sakine Madon, Hanna Gadban, Sarah Mohammed
and Alice Teodorescu being called racist pretty much did it for me.

~~~
johansch
Sweden certainly is in the forefront of building a modern DDR. I guess we'll
see a Swedish movie similar to that of "Das Leben der Anderen" in a decade or
two.

Just this week the largest daily newspaper (Dagens Nyheter) decided to out the
identity of an anonymous high-profile blogger (a 70 year old woman) who was
critical of the current immigration scheme. The main reason they did it was as
a form of punishment. This was made clear in their reporting.

~~~
ninjin
High profile blogger, author, and former journalist. I can't say that I am
giving this all too much of my attention, but I think that you are leaving out
a few things. They did state that they outed her after she posted the name and
phone number of two journalists claiming that they had been stalking her [1].
They also argued that the political influence wielded by the blogger rivalled
that of an established journalist and that it justified publishing her name.
Whether or not this really justifies publishing her name, well, that is a
different matter entirely.

Also, I am not sure if "critical of the current immigration scheme" is an
appropriate label for someone that has stated that "Those that allow this to
happen to Sweden should not have a single moment of peace. Those that with
open eyes and at a steady pace are betraying our country. Those that not only
allow but encourage and carry out the import of unidentified murderers, war
criminals, and terrorists - thus making Swedes potential victims of murder,
rape, and other violence." [2] (my translation). She has the right to express
those opinions, but I think that "critical", in this case, may be an
understatement and that she may deserve another label.

[1]: [http://www.svd.se/expressen-rojer-anonym-
bloggare](http://www.svd.se/expressen-rojer-anonym-bloggare) (Swedish)

[2]: [http://www.expressen.se/kultur/hon-ar-julia-
caesar/](http://www.expressen.se/kultur/hon-ar-julia-caesar/) (Swedish)

~~~
seivan
Biggest indicator of their lie would be that she put out their phone numbers.
Their phone numbers were already public and usually posted when they wanted to
be contacted. In fact, not just once, but several times.

Lets not kid ourselves here that that she wasn't being silenced with a hit-
job. The things they did against her would have been harassment against any
other person.

She's also somewhat right. Sweden let the gas-maker for Saddam stay [0], has
yet to prosecute any of the returning ISIS rapists. Not to mention lied about
the numbers. SÄPO said 100, but hospital records claims of over 300 - some has
gone back again after som R&R.[1]

She's right to be angry at the decision makers. I don't care about her opinion
itself, but she's not wrong in terms of Sweden letting murderers, war
criminals and terrorists come back.

Last week it turns out someone responsible for Rwanda has been living in
Sweden for 13 years without any issues.[2] He got prosecuted because they
won't piss off any voters by doing so.

I will personally never forgive Sweden and the people in charge betraying
innocent lives abroad, for not pissing off certain groups of voting cattle
here. [3]

I stand with Caesar even though I don't agree with her as much as you'd like
to think. You have to agree she was being silenced by the 'elite'.

[0]: [http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/jag-jobbade-at-
saddam/](http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/jag-jobbade-at-saddam/) (Swedish)

[1]: [http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regionalt/vast/hundratals-
svenskar...](http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regionalt/vast/hundratals-svenskar-har-
skadats-i-krig) (Swedish)

[2]: [http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/man-i-mellansverige-
gripen-f...](http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/man-i-mellansverige-gripen-for-
folkmord/) (Swedish)

[3]: [http://www.thelocal.se/20140702/green-
mp](http://www.thelocal.se/20140702/green-mp)

~~~
cb18
_I will personally never forgive Sweden and the people in charge betraying
innocent lives abroad_

The people just as betrayed or more so by the people making these decisions
are these people's fellow Swedish countrymen. What these governments and
people pushing this agenda of what I assume they believe is big-heartedness or
something, but with a willful blindness to the consequences have done is just
ghastly and absurd.

There are frequent bombings in Malmö, often directed at Jews. The bombings
appear to be spreading, just last month apparently, there was a blast in
Billesholm in northern Skåne.
[https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2015/08/01/sweden-
musli...](https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2015/08/01/sweden-muslim-bomb-
violence-spread-from-malmo-to-skane/) I'm fairly certain these things didn't
occur say 30 years ago, much less frequently.

Then also in the past 30 years, Sweden has skyrocketed up the charts to lead
the world in rape and school arson attacks.

Great job Swedish Government!

------
59nadir
If the website itself wasn't cringeworthy enough, the '#svpol' crowd showed up
in the HN comments to make damn sure no one could leave with even the
slightest doubt that everyone in Sweden is a complete tool.

~~~
pavlov
The discussion in these comments is embarrassing (and I'm not even Swedish).

Apparently the mere mention of Sweden was enough to make local politics spill
over here. It's like watching a post about a weather app getting overrun by
climate change denialists.

~~~
CuriousSkeptic
It's because the local politics are rather intense in Sweden right now. The
whole country is rather emotional at the moment, has been for the last couple
of days.

For a while now the racist parts of the population has been rather outspoken.
I guess feeling that their opinions has finally been legitimized with a far-
right party winning seats in parliament and all that.

At the same time the rest of the population has been rather quiet. I guess not
knowing exactly what to make of it. No one seems to have been prepared for it.
After all, the official, and somewhat internalized, image of Swedish culture
and identity has been that those opinions had no place in civilized society,
and thus shouldn't be dignified with actual response.

The last few days, the refugee situation seems to have been a rallying point
around taking back this identity. Resulting in a few days with more then usual
activity of emotional manifestations.

That said, I was rather surprised to have to witness this on HN and must say I
feel rather ashamed my self.

On behalf of Sweden: I'm sorry you had to witness that.

Edit: Down vote? Guess I should expect that for letting my own opinions on the
matter shine through. But really, I was just trying to provide some context
for interpreting the other posts in this thread.

------
unionjack22
Sweden Yes

------
contingencies
Get the head of the Swedish bar association to talk about Assange's case.
Until then, I'm not reading.

(Reply to below: It is precisely the fact that the head of the bar association
is prepared to speak openly about the abuse of process that I requested her.
Until Sweden comes to terms with its totalitarian changes, of which the
Assange abuses are but one, it wins no time or empathy from me.)

(Reply to second: If you consider the outright illegality and abuse of process
that has been used against Assange 'a pop issue', your worldview is twisted.
As for 'another issue', I hardly think twitter flourishes earn the title,
which traditionally implies some ounce of gravity.)

~~~
Cederfjard
I think you might be overestimating the clout and importance of the head of
the Swedish bar association. Why is this such a dealbreaker to you?

In any case, she has actually made some comments regarding the case. Primarily
in Swedish media, but a quick search yielded a few articles such as this one:
[http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/25/julian-
assange-...](http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/25/julian-assange-
appeals-sweden-supreme-court-arrest-warrant)

> Swedish legal opinion at a senior level has swung against the prosecutor’s
> decision not to travel to London to interview Assange, with Anne Ramberg,
> head of the Bar Association, calling the current impasse a “circus”.

> “It would of course after such a long time be sensible for the prosecutor to
> determine whether to prosecute,” she said. “The Assange story has become a
> less than flattering adventure not only for the English courts’ handling of
> the case, but also for the Swedish prosecutor.”

