Guest Post by Skinny
The Authoritarian Left Finds an Enemy in a Long Time Ally
It’s a sad day for the socialist left. Scandinavia is no longer the socialist paradise of legend. (It was never a socialist paradise to begin with, but we should never let the facts get in the way of a good legend.) First it was Norway and visions of Ollie, the sustainable fisherman paddling around the fjords eking out a meager living. He was dirt poor, but at least he was equal, and isn’t that the point. The lefto looneys loved Norway and with a suicide rate high enough to make it the envy of the world, what’s not to love. Then they discovered oil in the North Sea. Anything but oil.
Why couldn’t they find unicorns or rainbows, or even solar panels, or Tesla batteries for that matter? Why did it have to be oil? And even worse, why did Norway have to harvest that oil. Why couldn’t they just leave it under the seabed for Mother Gaia to drink? And wealth. If there is anything a lefty hates more than oil. it’s wealth. And Norway has it. That gusher of black gold has lifted their per capita GDP to 78k per year ranking them 3rdth in the world. They are still pretty equal but rich and equal. Now instead of lutefisk, Ollie munches on caviar while sipping champagne on the deck of his sloop. To the misery loves company left, poor and unequal is preferable to rich and equal. Just ask Cuba.
The news from Denmark is equally devastating. The country of Han Christian Anderson, LEGO, and almost as many clogs as Holland was known as the happiest country in the world. And why not be happy. A socialist is always happy. At least in public or around prying neighbors. Alas, all that came tumbling down recently when Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen declared that “Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.” A market economy? Say it ain’t so! Who does this guy think he is, Donald Trump? Next thing you know he will be using words like “beautiful,” and “powerful” in every sentence. Who knows, he may even take up golf. If we can’t find a loyal Marxist on the Strøget in Copenhagen where shall we turn? Thank God for Sweden.
Speaking of say it ain’t so. This is the worst betrayal of all. We could always count on Sweden. The most pompous inhabitants on the planet. They would look down their high and mighty socialist noses at every other country on the planet. The blonde definition of cool. Job to hard? Take the summer off. Don’t feel like going back to work in the fall? Go on furlough, you’ll still get paid. Having a baby? What are you some kind of Muslim? Just kidding, take a year off, paid of course. What the hell, tell your husband to take off as well. Cool beautiful and especially socialist Sweden. The gold standard, what could be better.
Then along comes the Corona virus. The socialist authoritarian wet dream. The privileged get to order around every aspect of the lives of the unwashed. Everyone looked to Sweden for guidance. Surely the most heinous and inane declarations would spew forth from Stockholm. We could just imagine Prime Minister Stefan Löfven making announcements such as sleep in your N-95 mask. Wear your pants backward. Drive on the wrong side of the road, and change the official language to Zimbabwean. Ordering people around is what Swedes do best.
Contrary to popular belief, the number one cause of death in Sweden is not suicide, it’s no longer having anyone to order around. “It’s a shame about Sven. All his neighbors went away on holiday and left him alone. His natural affinity to be a recluse gave way to the more overpowering urge to boss his neighbor’s around. When the gardens became untidy, he could only complain to himself. Same for the rubbish cans not aligned just so. No wonder it killed him. It’s a miracle he survived as long as he did.”
How does this square with Sweden’s failure to toe the authoritarian model? According Karin Olofsdotter, Ambassador to the United States, “We are not shutting down schools for younger children or daycare facilities. We have no regulation that forces citizens to remain in their homes. And we have not ordered the closure of any businesses, though businesses like restaurants are required to operate with social distancing rules. The authorities also have a high level of trust in citizens to heed their advice.” Trust the plebes?
I don’t know who you are, but you certainly ain’t no Swede. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Anders Tengell, told Swedish TV on April 5 that COVID-19 could be stopped by “herd immunity or a combination of immunity and vaccination.” Who is Anders Tengell? Some lunatic shouting from the fringes of polite society? No, he is the chief epidemiologist overseeing the government’s response to COVID-19. He is Anthony Fauci with a more pleasant accent. And he is calling for herd immunity! When Dr. Fauci heard this, he coughed up his Hydroxychloroquine.
How can this be? Wasn’t Greta and her flying boat from Sweden? That was a girl who knew how to boss people around. What ever happened to her and the true Swedish spirit? Now Lars and Erika are card carrying members of the Cato Institute. Horrifying!
They need to listen to Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler. Don’t you just love those hyphenated names: its’ so European. “We don’t have a choice, we have to close Stockholm right now,” Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler, professor of Microbial Pathogenesis at the Karolinska Institute, told Reuters.
She is one of around 2,300 academics who signed an open letter to the government at the end of last month, calling for tougher measures to protect the healthcare system.
“We must establish control over the situation, we cannot head into a situation where we get complete chaos. No one has tried this route, so why should we test it first in Sweden, without informed consent?” she said.1 Now that’s a girl that gets Sweden. Instead we get Anders Tangell, and an ambassador mouthpiece going on about trusting the people.
Right on cue the reaction from the left has been predictable. Like a jilted lover they have turned on Sweden with a vengeance. “Sweden’s upright image has been tarnished,” bellowed Erik Agustin Palm (love those three-word names) on the pages of Slate. They have “largely ignored international scientific consensus on the most efficient and lifesaving response to COVID-19: social distancing,” and are “taking an almost entirely laissez-faire approach to the pandemic.”2 My God, who let Milton Friedman in?
Nele Brusselaers, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology piled on in the pages of Time. “I’m surprised and frustrated that they still have not taken any action or listened to the advice of organizations like WHO,” says Brusselaers. “They disregard any prediction model that has been published by experts in the field and they don’t even give a defense.”3
Alex Ward, obviously an American due to just the two names chimed in over at Vox. “Some experts I spoke to estimated that as many as 4 million Swedes — out of a population of around 10 million — may eventually contract the disease.” Can’t argue with that. After all he spoke to – Experts. More experts – there are always more experts – “Experts note it’s still too early to tell if the Swedish government’s methods will prove successful in the end.”
Lest we be to critical he did call on our favorite hyphenated expert, Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler, who added this lovely pearl. “I didn’t sign my informed consent for this experiment,” virologist Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér of the Karolinska Institute, a medical research center near Stockholm, told me. “I don’t know if [my family and I] can stay in a country that is not protecting its population.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t even go to the bathroom without Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér’s consent. And then there was this exchange:
Sweden’s Minister of Health and Social Affairs Lena Hallengren stated that “The government is ready to adopt stricter measures to combat the virus whenever we consider it necessary,” Hallengren said. But virologist Söderberg-Nauclér isn’t buying it: “It’s too late to try and stop” a larger outbreak, she told me.”4 You didn’t listen to me and my leftist orthodoxy. So now you are all going to die. Hell hath no fury like a leftist scorned.
Fortunately, there might be one final bastion of Nordic Socialism. There is always Finland. Never mind, who the hell cares about Finland?
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And you’re going to keep me locked in how?
I spent the whole summer in Sweden, back in the early 90’s, chasing a young svenska flicka.
This was way before any immigration had changed the country, not sure what the impact of having
“nogo” cities is on life over there.
At the time, the place was amazing as a summer adventure, it was daylight until 10pm for June/July.
We had these crazy crayfish parties in August, where you eat a bug and take a shot of Aquavit (vodka).
Anyways, it is a strange country when it comes to health care. I was asked to bring 5 boxes of Sudafed/cold medicine, because you can’t get anything over the counter. In the pharmacy over there, the only things available are: Contact cleaning solution, aspirin, and fem hygiene. that’s it.
Compared to US local grocery store or Walgreens shelves, all that stuf prescription meds in Sweden, and while heath care is free (70% income tax) it still takes weeks to see the troll dr.
So, they have no “home remedies” like we do, if you get sick, stand in line, wait for your apt. see the dr. then get your daycare or NyQuil.
oh, and weed? that is treated like heroin, nobody does recreational drugs over there.
When you go out to a restaurant, the server asks who is driving, and they only get 1 drink for entire night.
getting a DWI is like a felony conviction over here, you are socially ostracized, for doing anything that might be consider “against the rules”
very weird sense of morality over there.
They would not hire a “guy” to mow the lawn, unless he was “on the books”, no black market economy, again with the rules.
needless to say, I did not fit in to that society.
Dang, 12, you bring back memories! Will see your dual triode and raise you a tetrode. (And, I’ve got a pentode in my vest pocket).
Thank God the US doesn’t do socialist actions like bailing out everyfuckingbody. Capitalism has been destroyed and there is zero possibility that it can be restored. Trump is all mouth and is the most wishy-washy do nothing President ever. Criticizing Sweden or Norway when this country is sliding under the swamp surface is stupid beyond belief.
You forgot Denmark and Finland. I took a pretty good whack at them too. Anyway the point was the left used to love Sweden, now not so much. Now you know why Quinny doesn’t often allow guest posts.
skinny,
this is a good article you’ve written–
it has always amazed me that when the nordic countries are held up by leftists as successful socialist countries,no one challenges them–
until fairly recently they all had a homogeneous population with tremendous cultural norms,a good work ethic,and other countries such as the usa that would allow them to dump their exports–
where is the functioning socialist country outside of that part of the world?
In Malmo it’s still homogeneous. All Mohommadiens.
Thanks for using proper word for the “religion of peace” They don’t like to be called mohammedans. Ditto Robert Gore.
I know. That’s why I call them that. For their part, they can call me a crusader all they want.
i had never heard that muslims were offended by the term mohammedans so i went looking–short link here,go down to why they’re offended–
hint,it goes to the beginning of christianity–
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mohammedanism
Interesting. I just assume they were offended because they are offended by everything. I don’t know about the Religion of Peace claim, but they certainly aren’t the Religion of Tolerance.
Skinny
If you keep letting facts and logic get in the way, you’re never going to get a MSM gig. I enjoyed your article and I like your writing style.
I second that. Liked it much.
More, please.
Thanks lads, much appreciated. I’ll pump out as much as I can. Of course for every Paul and Robert there are 10, when is this guy going back to work?
It does not matter how many people get the whooWHO flu because like the seasonal flu 99.8% of everyone recovers.
That was a damn fine article, Skinny. Really enjoy your writing style. Thanks.