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Snaps on New Year's Eve

Two of Flashback's most articulate contributors share final 2011 thoughts.

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STOCKHOLM (Rixstep) — The thread began a half hour after the news hit the Internet. And it's still going strong. The names of the players can change, but the core crew remain the same.

New Year's Eve is a big holiday in Sweden, but thread veterans 'MoLoK' and 'trenterx' posted their final comments for 2011 at 16:25 and 19:20 respectively.

Two insightful posts which touch upon issues that heretofore had mostly gone unmentioned.

Best 2012 (or whatever year) wishes to all.

Two Snaps

I've never taken the time to explain it but I define the term at any rate. It's about national feminism. A movement with an authoritarian and national character. They react instinctively when Sweden is criticised for something the national feminists usually take care of themselves. Not because there aren't those of differing opinions but because all the rest know to keep quiet.

Now and then some small town news site will interview a local chief of police who laments their increasingly overwhelming problem with faked rape complaints.

Compare this to when Greece and Sweden clashed a few years back. One heard a concerted outcry from Sweden.

When organisations criticise Sweden because we discriminate against immigrants or maltreat those without passports, very few people will come to the country's defence. At most a middle echelon manager at the Migration Authority.

But when they criticise Swedish feminism - or for that matter the Swedish judicial system - then all hell breaks loose and a strange nationalism erupts in the media elite.

There's of course a different sound to it when specific examples are cited. Quick, da Costa, Lindberg, the Egyptians, etc. In those cases we get a single lonely maniac who remains at the barricades. You won't find a single national feminist who will voluntarily enter into a discussion about Claes Borgström's behaviour during the Quick preliminary investigations and trials.

But the Assange case is still not of substance. It's not allowed to become substantial. Our media have refused to write about actual facts in the case. Their attempt however to disarm the scandal with Irmeli Krans was interesting. But how they deal with the condom without DNA and all the bits of confused testimony remains to be seen.

The hope of the national feminists and the media elite is there'll be no trial. That's patently obvious.

Sorry for the sprawling post but I just had two snaps.

- MoLoK

Happy New Year!

That's spot on if you ask me.

Sweden has more equality than many countries. Mostly thanks to the struggles of our mothers. So we have good reason to feel a certain national pride. But when it's transformed into arrogance and self-righteousness, as has happened now, we can truly speak of a Swedish national feminism whose spokespersons can readily be called Sweden feminists. These people can be characterised by the way they summarily dismiss all criticism of the Swedish system that originates outside the country, no matter it's from males such as Michael Moore and John Pilger or females such as Naomi Wolf and Brita Sundberg-Weitman.

Fredrik Reinfeldt's interjection into the judicial system against Assange, that the case is above everything else a matter of 'taking two Swedish women at their word', is an example of Sweden feminism. So is Claes Borgström's recurring appearance in the media to criticise Assange for using his right to have the EAW tested in the courts in the UK - because, according to Borgström, the Swedish judicial system is beyond reproach.

The Swedish judicial system, when it concerns the rights of women, is above the laws of all other countries and must not be criticised, and especially not outside Sweden.

Sweden feminism is radically different from earlier feminism which was internationally and not nationally oriented.

There's another political reality aside from Sweden feminism that affects the Assange case both politically, in media reports, and in the preliminary investigations of the police. And that is our ten year history of a secret cooperation with the United States, during both social democrat and conservative governments. And it's evidently ongoing even today.

We need more insight into this link with the US. I believe there are ongoing probes by the US into Sweden's policy should the US request the extradition or 'rendition' of Assange for questioning by their grand jury in Virginia. Of course these probes are both informal and secret.

National feminism and Sweden's secret cooperation with the US pose two formidable obstacles. Their interests seem to converge at the moment. The media are silent. But nothing lasts forever.

Happy New Year to everyone in the thread!

- trenterx