Nordic wrestling with reality (Sweden, progressive paradise circling the drain

Politics International Politics
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There’s been a lot out there about how the Scandihoovian nations never were the paradises of enlightened nanny-state policy they’ve been represented as such as by certain ideologues, but people hereabouts may gave missed all that. And besides, there’s a new wrinkle. GUNS.

gatestoneinstitute.org/6865/sweden-anarchy

[quote]And the Swedes are preparing: demand for firearms licenses is increasing; more and more Swedes are joining shooting clubs and starting vigilante groups. After a slight dip in 2014, the number of new gun permits has gone up significantly again this year. According to police statistics, there are 1,901,325 licensed guns, owned by 567,733 people, in Sweden. Add to this an unknown number of illegal weapons. To get a gun permit in Sweden, you need to be at least 18 years old; law-abiding; well-behaved, and have a hunting license or be a member of an approved shooting club. In 2014, 11,000 people got a hunting license: 10% more than the year before. One out of five was a woman.

“There is also a high demand for alarm systems right now,” says a salesman at one of the security companies in an interview with Gatestone.[/quote]

That’s because there’s high cause for alarm.

ABBA always did look like the people from Logan’s Run.

EDIT: Might want to generalize this thread to that whole frosty region. The history and culture being so intertwined and all facing the same existential crisis.

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Well if you link to an article it must be true.

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So, roughly 5% of the population own rifles/shotguns, in a country with significant wilderness areas and a long tradition of hunting. The number went down from 2013 to 2014, then back up this year.

Interesting that your definition of “circling the drain” = “becoming more like the U.S.”

I’m surprised that there are any Swedes left to buy guns, or that they have any money left to spend on them- my personal memory of right-wingers predicting that Swedes are an endangered species due to socialism, atheism, pornography, and fornication, causing them to commit suicide and/or impoverish themselves , goes back to the mid-60s.

More recently we’ve heard about demographic collapse, widespread illegitimacy due to gay marriage etc. Seems like any day now there’ll be nothing left but a few lonely minarets rising over a frozen wasteland, mute testimony to the horrors of five-week vacations, single-payer health-care, paid maternity and (shudder) paternity leave.

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Treating anyone with a differing opinion from you as an “ideologue” worthy of contempt or derision is not exactly a great way of having productive, evidence-based conversations about policy. At least, I assume that having informed exchanges about the issues is your motivation for sharing all of these news posts, unless yelling into the void to flub the general consensus around here is its own reward.

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I think that Europe’s lesson with regard to Multiculturalism is very interesting. Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden have all tried different approaches and many have had great successes. The main issue is that regardless, they all face an imported underclass that is proving very problematic. One then wonders whether adding to this underclass to the tune of millions of new immigrants, many of whom have proven very difficult to assimilate is worth it. It will be a very interesting debate and one with no easy answers. I guess the old Chinese curse of “may you live in interesting times” is once again correct/appropriate.

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Yes, fie on gay marriage for causing demographic collapse–because of all the people who have turned gay from the prospect of a big fancy wedding–and, among the few remaining heterosexuals…unrepentant fornication!

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The moose must be shaking in their hooves.

Sweden’s gun laws seem similar to Australia in some ways - people are not allowed to carry weapons around in public and to own a firearm one needs a ‘genuine reason’ such as sport shooting, hunting, or collecting. Self-defense is not a reason. According to GunPolicy.org Sweden had 138 gun deaths in 2010 (latest year available). 18 of those were homicides, 113 were suicides. That is roughly 6 suicides for every murder, so ISIS better watch out. By the time the caliphate gets to the Swedish border the Swedes will have all topped themselves, and there will be no one to terrorize! :cry:

[quote=“No fair game: Sweden’s multiplying moose pit farmers against powerful hunting lobby”]“We need to shoot more moose,” says Bernard Andersson bitterly. For 10 years he has farmed on Orust, an island on Sweden’s picturesque west coast. The moose pillage the fodder he grows for his cattle, trample his crops when they settle down to sleep for the night and break down his fences, allowing his cows to wander.

Farmers complain that as much as half of their crops are eaten or destroyed by the animals, forcing them to buy expensive feedstuffs. Apple trees on the island look like “mutilated bonsai”, they say, thanks to browsing moose.

In the forests, the picture gets worse. It’s not the moss the moose are devouring, but the young pine trees, creating a wasteland of dead and dying saplings. They are literally eating into one of the country’s main exports.

In winter an adult moose, which stands 2 metres high at the shoulder and can weigh up to 850kg, can consume 200 litres of pine needles every day, according to Sweden’s environmental protection agency. And they push over the larger trees to feed their young.

But for hunters, the flourishing moose population is key to providing adequate numbers of the animal for the first few weeks of the annual hunt, which has almost religious status in Sweden.

“People book holidays and go home to the villages where they came from to go hunting for a week. Schools and offices close. It’s a really social thing,” says Göran Bergquist, a moose specialist with the Swedish hunting association. “They don’t measure each year from 1 January, but before and after the moose hunt.” [/quote]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/27/numbers-game-hunting-moose-swedish-farmers-foresters

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Actually the Germans are quite smart offering automatic asylum to Syrians, who tended to
Have a high level of education. It’s immigrants from sub saharan Africa , Afghanistan etc. that will encounter more difficulties integrating and gaining employment as many haven’t even graduated from elementary or junior high school.

btw I have eaten moose before and they are mighty tasty with some mushroom sauce. On the other hand reindeer I would give a miss unless I was stuck in the frozen north.

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[quote=“headhonchoII”]
Actually the Germans are quite smart offering automatic asylum to Syrians, who tended to
Have a high level of education. [/quote]
You might want to think that through a bit better.

Given that ISIS issues the passports these days, the point is… academic.

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Here’s a story that nicely encapsulates the larger dilemma:

nytimes.com/2015/12/20/world … &smtyp=cur

[quote]The goal is that participants will “at least know the difference between right and wrong,” said Nina Machibya, the Sandnes center’s manager.

A course manual sets out a simple rule that all asylum seekers need to learn and follow: “To force someone into sex is not permitted in Norway, even when you are married to that person.”

It skirts the issue of religious differences, noting that while Norway has long been largely Christian, it is “not religion that sets the laws” and that, whatever a person’s faith, “the rules and laws nevertheless have to be followed.”
[/quote]
A stern lecture. Yeah. That’ll teach them. Did you know that Syrians are well educated?

I’ve got a feeling they’ll be seeing a lot more church burnings in the future.

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Right and wrong and politically correct coverups of an actual rape culture. This seems to be happening a lot on that continent:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/ … t-cover-up

[quote]Swedish police have come under criticism for keeping quiet about alleged sexual assault incidents by young immigrant men over the past couple of years at a music festival in Stockholm.

The allegations came to light in a report over the weekend by newspaper Dagens Nyheter, citing internal police memos, and mirror similar incidents over the New Year’s holidays that have sparked investigations in Germany.

National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson vowed to investigate whether there had been a cover up.[/quote]

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Remain calm! All is well!

rt.com/news/330180-police-v … es-sweden/

[quote] A police patrol of 10 officers was forced to flee a refugee center in Sweden after being surrounded by a mob of violent migrants. Law enforcement officials had arrived to relocate a 10-year-old boy after reports of his repeated rape at the facility.

One of the officers described what had happened in a police report obtained by the Vestmanlands Läns Tidning newspaper.

“Even more people appeared behind us. I was mentally prepared to fight for my life. We were 10 police officers in a narrow corridor. And I hear someone yell that there is an emergency exit,” the officer said.

The incident took place in the Signalisten asylum in Västerås last Wednesday but police didn’t provide any information to the press until Monday this week.[/quote]

Remember, the police are the enforcement arm of the government. When they cut and run, it’s the government that’s cutting and running.

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It’s just a damn shame that you weren’t there. If Rowland was there, shit would not have gone down like that. You would have handled business, Rambo style right? You’re a hero Rowland, why are you wasting your talents making idiotic posts on chat forums when you could be out saving the world? Superhero’s should not neglect their gifts. Please, use them. Save us. Save humanity.

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My, Brent is cranky lately.

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The main problem is that it is very hard to stop them from coming. Sweden is planning to send 80,000 back - they turned out not to be Syrians.

In Denmark, we are trying to repatriate a few Pakistanis, however Pakistan just tore up the treaty allowing for that, so we are stuck with them it seems.

Newspapers are full with stories about how the young men react to women dressed up for party - a syrian bar owner complained about his compatriots in a rather direct manner, since they scared his female customers away. (His compatriots real or fake are no longer welcome in his establishment unless they speak Danish).

I think the key is to get the ones with usable skills in work fast - it seems to be working somewhat in Germany, however they have a good number of choose from.

If they come with no marketable skills, it will be hard.

Overall, public opinion is hardening, we are stuck with a huge cost of getting people with a background in goatherding and a view on society based in the middle age turned into productive residents, that will be an uphill struggle.

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I doubt a good paying job is all it takes to cure fanaticism. I mean, Bin Laden wasn’t exactly starving. And what happens to the natives who lose jobs opportunities to these immigrants?

Looks to be a very hard sell…

bizpacreview.com/2013/08/27/ … talk-82318

Also, not all goatherds are terrorists.

18

The Stockholm main train station is now unsafe due to Moroccan teen gangs operating in the area
dailymail.co.uk/news/article … girls.html

If the Swedish government was sane, they would arrest the gangs and deport them. Seems the Swedish politicians and police don’t really care about Swedes.

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Thank God Uk and Ireland are islands that aren’t easy to get to.

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The USA is not easy to get to from Syria, but Obama and his Republican allies plan to send 300,000 Syrians to the USA. So being difficult to get to is no guarantee of a lack of invasion.