If the American states are the laboratories for democracy, Sweden has become the laboratory for open borders immigration. As you know, the warm-hearted Swedes opened their nation to a proportionally large number of Muslim migrants. They offer generous welfare benefits and imagined that they would have no problem assimilating the new arrivals. They count among the most “woke” governments in the world, and thus assume that their superior virtue will inspire similar virtue in new migrants.
As you know, the truth lies elsewhere. Gang violence and bombings are booming… excuse the expression. Sweden is blowing up. Paulina Neuding has the story:
Sweden has experienced a sharp rise in explosions in recent years, predominantly related to conflicts between warring criminal gangs. The use of explosives in the Nordic country is now at a level that is unique in the world for a state not at war, according to police. In response, the government issued a first-ever ”amnesty for explosives” in the fall of 2018, allowing people in possession of such weapons to hand them over to police with immunity. But this didn’t stem the tide: some 50 explosions were reported in the first three months of 2019 alone—an average of more than one every other day and an increase over the same period in 2018, a year that saw a record number of more than three blasts per week.
Amnesty for explosives… reminds us of New Zealand’s failed efforts to buy back guns. Another policy failure…
Sweden has also seen a marked rise in shootings… often perpetrated by migrant gangs. Who else?
There has been a corresponding marked escalation in gang-related shootings, which increasingly take place in broad daylight. Sweden had 45 deadly shootings in what police refer to as ”criminal environments” last year, which is an increase by a factor of 10 in one generation. In contrast, neighbouring Norway has less than three. Deadly shootings per capita in Sweden are now considerably higher than the European average. And systematic witness intimidation, paired with a code of silence in the country’s socio-economically weak immigrant areas, has made this type of crime difficult for the Swedish legal system to tackle.
As noted in a previous post, one of the consequences has been that women are more afraid to go out at night. Consider the irony: in the world’s first feminist government, women feel unsafe:
The rise in gang violence and other types of crime—including sexual offenses and a wave of robberies against children—has had far-reaching implications for Swedish society. In a country which boasts ”the world’s first feminist government,” a third of young women now report feeling unsafe going out at night. A recent survey in the country’s three largest cities showed that safety is now the main priority for Swedes who are looking to buy homes. Crime emerged as a top priority among voters ahead of the election to the European Parliament in May.
Since Swedes boasts one of the world’s most generous welfare states, by the theories of those who believe that crime is caused by socio-economic deprivation, all of these bad things should not be happening. Since it is, we should, Neuding says, rid ourselves of the notion that more welfare will produce less crime:
According to the prevailing ideology of the Swedish political establishment, this wave of violence, which is baffling to many European neighbours, should not be happening. A longstanding cornerstone of the country’s political conversation dictates that crime must be understood in socio-economic terms, and that welfare provisions are a cure-all against violence and social unrest. Yet Sweden is one of Europe’s most generous welfare states.
The Swedish government sees it differently. If it cannot be happening, then it is not happening. It is easier to cover up the problem than to address it. It is easier to see it as a public relations problem, not as a Muslim migrant problem:
Before any specific issues can be addressed the Swedish government must acknowledge the severity of the matter. In the past few years, the rise in violent crime in Sweden has attracted growing attention from international media. How has the Swedish government responded? By launching an elaborate PR campaign for foreign audiences that plays down the challenges—especially those in the country’s immigrant areas. Nothing will change if the government continues to respond to the reality in the streets with cynical rhetorical spin.
The next thing you know, they are going to blame it on Islamophobia.
That's actually pretty interesting just because civilization breakdown frequently comes with women having greater rights towards the end but then the collapse makes it unsafe for women to go out on their own anymore and so all gains are lost. In Sweden we appear to be seeing this effect in real time
ReplyDeleteI've said this before, but once more, with feeling: When will the Swedish men find and deploy their inner Viking?
ReplyDeleteWhen it collapses, but not before
DeleteMaybe those Swedish feminists need to buy guns.
ReplyDeleteO what Tolerate — that most sacred of all liberal values — hath wrought.
ReplyDeleteWe have evolved our thinking to tolerate the intolerable, if not celebrate it.
Nihilism crumbles before the determined foe.
Nihilism is eternal, OCD.
ReplyDeleteWhitney said, "civilization breakdown frequently comes with women having greater rights towards the end but then the collapse makes it unsafe for women to go out on their own anymore and so all gains are lost."
ReplyDelete“Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.” --Socrates