GreenCardSeeker
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- Jul 24, 2008
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- 246
Many of the ideas of liberty and such that the American founding fathers felt were so important aren't even discussed in Sweden or the other socialist states in Europe. We don't have any public debate over the importance of separation between the different powers of the state, executive and so on. Formally Sweden has a division between the justice system and politics, but in practice it doesn't exist. Jury members are appointed by the political parties. Neither mass media nor the school curriculum teaches people why this is important or what relevance it has to abuses of power occuring today. Even though I'm not a lawyer and don't understand the intricacies of law, the court system we have today is the same as the one that existed when Sweden was still a real monarchy.
There is no constitutional court, no power to prosecute the government when it defies the constitution. What's in the constitution doesn't matter much since the state isn't obliged to follow it. For example, in 1979, registration of people's political views was outlawed in the constitution, yet the state kept on doing it. For most of the 20th century, the social democrats have been in control of the country with a few short breaks when they've lost too many voters. Usually majority has been achieved by forming a government with the communist party. The social democrats have never recieved less than 35% of the votes since the 1920's, their voters don't even consider voting for another party, they're born and raised to believe in the party just like religious people, and the state is God to them - they believe it can accomplish anything if given enough tribute and authority. The social democrat leaders failing to stick to their election promises has never really affected the votes they've gotten, their voters simply won't consider voting for anything else. The party controls just about all the trade unions as well, and union membership fees have traditionally gone to the social democratic party. Most newspapers in Sweden have been tied to the party as well, and the state has paid out subsidies to them, called "presstöd", which they've motivated by the claim that leftwing newspapers would have it harder getting advertising money - remember, the ideas of class warfare have been quite central to the outlook on society here.
The way to political power in the country has been the same ever since the first half of the last century: Start in the socialdemocrat youth organization and work your way up by being loyal to your leaders and performing tasks like monitoring competing parties. During the post-war era, few people talking politics at workplaces have avoided making it into the political files the socialdemocrats have set up, encompassing hundreds of thousands of people at one time.
Taxes have been the highest in the world for some time; Since the taxes are so high, they've used a sneaky way of obtaining them. The income tax employees see is slightly over 30%, but the employers also have to pay a similar amount on top of that. The socialdemocrats(calling them SDP for now) motivated this by "taxing corporations directly", when it doesn't change anything than simply hide the tax from the employee. General sales tax is 25%, though lower on some items like food, travel and books. Vastly higher on alcohol, tobacco and petrol. Adding all taxes up, Swedes pay between 60% and 80% of their income in taxes depending on income and consumption habits.
Crime has absolutely skyrocketed under SDP rule, going from roughly 50 homicides/year around 1950 with a population of 7 million, to 258 2007 with a population of 9 million. Most of it is due to non-European immigration, though crime among Swedes have risen too as the actual penal system has been abolished and replaced by one emphasising "care". Sentences are very peculiar too - the minimum sentence for first degree murder is 6 years in prison, though prisoners are normally released after 2/3 of the time if they've behaved in prison. The average murder conviction is a little less than 9 years in prison. A few percent of people convicted of murder spend only 4 years in prison, which incidentally is the maximum possible sentence you can get for "hate speech", which can simply be a matter of quoting the Bible on homosexuality. Thought offenders have been threatened with the same time in prison as some have spent for murder.
The state TV floods people with anti-American propaganda, buying just about every anti-American documentary produced in the world by remotely respectable companies, and showing it. Almost on a daily basis, viewers are reminded of how supposedly bad the USA is, an extremely one-sided portrayal where hardly anything good is ever brought up. The state TV even went as far as showing the documentary Outfoxed - in other words, this Pravda-like TV attacked a free American news channel. They really should have a look in the mirror instead - even though Fox news might not be that great, it actually features dissenting perspectives unlike the tightly regulated broadcasts on SVT(SVeriges Television, the name of the state broadcasting company).
The #1 issue on the mind of the average Swede is the almost unregulated immigration, which has been disastrous for the country. Roughly 1 million immigrants, mainly from the third world, have been let into this country of 9 million as asylum seekers and provided with lots of subsidies. No background checks have been made, it's just been a matter of burning your passport to hide your identity and making up a story of persecution, and you've been given asylum status here. With the stagnant economy where for a long time not a single new job in the private sector was generated, this has led to large unemployment and social problems that weren't present at all before. Swedes in general recognize the problem, but mass media is very strict about never presenting anything negative about immigration and not revealing the ethnic origin of offenders. Debate shows on SVT carefully screen anyone allowed to speak to make sure they don't have a critical view of immigration, and no discussion of the matter is allowed.
Strangely enough, while the SDP voters are generally the most opposed to immigration since their voters belong to the lower "class" and have to suffer the consequences the most, their own party has been the one most vigilant in blocking any debate on the matter. The party has made sure to brand anyone critical of immigration as a "racist" and attempted to link this opposition to concentration camps. They've insinuated that if people were fed the truth about the matter, the Swedes would want to set up camps and execute the immigrants. The contempt the political elite here has for the people is tremendous. People asking for the right to speak their minds on immigration are often branded as "nazis".
What makes their use of the word "nazi" funny is the fact that the socialdemocrats sterilized not less than 63'000 women, or nearly 2% of the female population at the time, from the 1930's to 1960's. Women in mental hospitals, criminal offenders, mentally retarded people or just promiscous women hanging out in subcultures. Mass media was aware of it yet didn't report it to the public until the 1990's, since mass media in Sweden is closely knit to the state - it doesn't bring up topics that go against of today's state, can only criticize past politics.
As you can see, this is a really insane country. I'm planning to make a video blog-like documentary about it, though since I don't have much in the way of funds, it will have to be limited to voice narrating over pictures and tables and such. I don't have any experience in making video, but it seems like many people are able to make videos these days, so I figure I should be able to as well, even though my scope might be a bit bigger than just a 5 minute clip. I know I would become really hated here in Sweden if I presented SDP in the bad light that it really deserves, so I don't see myself having much of a future left in the country if I made such a documentary. Do you guys reckon it could be worth it and become a hit, telling a shocking story and teaching about the dangers of statism? If say I'd make a documentary and 10'000 people were to watch it online through Youtube/torrent sites, it'd be worth it for me, but I'm not sure how interested people would be in watching a fairly long documentary not featuring any interviews. General feedback would be nice. I've gathered tons of information to include, but haven't yet made up my mind on how to structure it. I suppose a history lesson told in chronological order would be the most appropriate, possibly divided into a few different timelines for different aspects of life in society, like perhaps politics at state level, life for political dissidents under the SDP and the abuses of power regular citizens are subjected to, then at the end describing how life is like in Sweden today, a country that has never gotten a taste of individual liberty.
There is no constitutional court, no power to prosecute the government when it defies the constitution. What's in the constitution doesn't matter much since the state isn't obliged to follow it. For example, in 1979, registration of people's political views was outlawed in the constitution, yet the state kept on doing it. For most of the 20th century, the social democrats have been in control of the country with a few short breaks when they've lost too many voters. Usually majority has been achieved by forming a government with the communist party. The social democrats have never recieved less than 35% of the votes since the 1920's, their voters don't even consider voting for another party, they're born and raised to believe in the party just like religious people, and the state is God to them - they believe it can accomplish anything if given enough tribute and authority. The social democrat leaders failing to stick to their election promises has never really affected the votes they've gotten, their voters simply won't consider voting for anything else. The party controls just about all the trade unions as well, and union membership fees have traditionally gone to the social democratic party. Most newspapers in Sweden have been tied to the party as well, and the state has paid out subsidies to them, called "presstöd", which they've motivated by the claim that leftwing newspapers would have it harder getting advertising money - remember, the ideas of class warfare have been quite central to the outlook on society here.
The way to political power in the country has been the same ever since the first half of the last century: Start in the socialdemocrat youth organization and work your way up by being loyal to your leaders and performing tasks like monitoring competing parties. During the post-war era, few people talking politics at workplaces have avoided making it into the political files the socialdemocrats have set up, encompassing hundreds of thousands of people at one time.
Taxes have been the highest in the world for some time; Since the taxes are so high, they've used a sneaky way of obtaining them. The income tax employees see is slightly over 30%, but the employers also have to pay a similar amount on top of that. The socialdemocrats(calling them SDP for now) motivated this by "taxing corporations directly", when it doesn't change anything than simply hide the tax from the employee. General sales tax is 25%, though lower on some items like food, travel and books. Vastly higher on alcohol, tobacco and petrol. Adding all taxes up, Swedes pay between 60% and 80% of their income in taxes depending on income and consumption habits.
Crime has absolutely skyrocketed under SDP rule, going from roughly 50 homicides/year around 1950 with a population of 7 million, to 258 2007 with a population of 9 million. Most of it is due to non-European immigration, though crime among Swedes have risen too as the actual penal system has been abolished and replaced by one emphasising "care". Sentences are very peculiar too - the minimum sentence for first degree murder is 6 years in prison, though prisoners are normally released after 2/3 of the time if they've behaved in prison. The average murder conviction is a little less than 9 years in prison. A few percent of people convicted of murder spend only 4 years in prison, which incidentally is the maximum possible sentence you can get for "hate speech", which can simply be a matter of quoting the Bible on homosexuality. Thought offenders have been threatened with the same time in prison as some have spent for murder.
The state TV floods people with anti-American propaganda, buying just about every anti-American documentary produced in the world by remotely respectable companies, and showing it. Almost on a daily basis, viewers are reminded of how supposedly bad the USA is, an extremely one-sided portrayal where hardly anything good is ever brought up. The state TV even went as far as showing the documentary Outfoxed - in other words, this Pravda-like TV attacked a free American news channel. They really should have a look in the mirror instead - even though Fox news might not be that great, it actually features dissenting perspectives unlike the tightly regulated broadcasts on SVT(SVeriges Television, the name of the state broadcasting company).
The #1 issue on the mind of the average Swede is the almost unregulated immigration, which has been disastrous for the country. Roughly 1 million immigrants, mainly from the third world, have been let into this country of 9 million as asylum seekers and provided with lots of subsidies. No background checks have been made, it's just been a matter of burning your passport to hide your identity and making up a story of persecution, and you've been given asylum status here. With the stagnant economy where for a long time not a single new job in the private sector was generated, this has led to large unemployment and social problems that weren't present at all before. Swedes in general recognize the problem, but mass media is very strict about never presenting anything negative about immigration and not revealing the ethnic origin of offenders. Debate shows on SVT carefully screen anyone allowed to speak to make sure they don't have a critical view of immigration, and no discussion of the matter is allowed.
Strangely enough, while the SDP voters are generally the most opposed to immigration since their voters belong to the lower "class" and have to suffer the consequences the most, their own party has been the one most vigilant in blocking any debate on the matter. The party has made sure to brand anyone critical of immigration as a "racist" and attempted to link this opposition to concentration camps. They've insinuated that if people were fed the truth about the matter, the Swedes would want to set up camps and execute the immigrants. The contempt the political elite here has for the people is tremendous. People asking for the right to speak their minds on immigration are often branded as "nazis".
What makes their use of the word "nazi" funny is the fact that the socialdemocrats sterilized not less than 63'000 women, or nearly 2% of the female population at the time, from the 1930's to 1960's. Women in mental hospitals, criminal offenders, mentally retarded people or just promiscous women hanging out in subcultures. Mass media was aware of it yet didn't report it to the public until the 1990's, since mass media in Sweden is closely knit to the state - it doesn't bring up topics that go against of today's state, can only criticize past politics.
As you can see, this is a really insane country. I'm planning to make a video blog-like documentary about it, though since I don't have much in the way of funds, it will have to be limited to voice narrating over pictures and tables and such. I don't have any experience in making video, but it seems like many people are able to make videos these days, so I figure I should be able to as well, even though my scope might be a bit bigger than just a 5 minute clip. I know I would become really hated here in Sweden if I presented SDP in the bad light that it really deserves, so I don't see myself having much of a future left in the country if I made such a documentary. Do you guys reckon it could be worth it and become a hit, telling a shocking story and teaching about the dangers of statism? If say I'd make a documentary and 10'000 people were to watch it online through Youtube/torrent sites, it'd be worth it for me, but I'm not sure how interested people would be in watching a fairly long documentary not featuring any interviews. General feedback would be nice. I've gathered tons of information to include, but haven't yet made up my mind on how to structure it. I suppose a history lesson told in chronological order would be the most appropriate, possibly divided into a few different timelines for different aspects of life in society, like perhaps politics at state level, life for political dissidents under the SDP and the abuses of power regular citizens are subjected to, then at the end describing how life is like in Sweden today, a country that has never gotten a taste of individual liberty.
