Scandinavian Politics After the Norway Massacre
The brutal massacre of young Norwegians attending a political youth camp on the island of Utøya near Oslo has shaken Scandinavian politics. And while much of this change has come in a seemingly paradoxical form of governments’ confirming existing policies, it is no less significant in rejecting pressures for change that had been building before the terrorist attack.
In Norway itself, the immediate response was what could be expected. The nation — and especially the political establishment and its media — understandably rallied behind both its prime minister and government, with calls for a full investigation into the shooting as well as international cooperation to search for possible outside terrorist links to the shooter, Anders Breivik.
On a regional basis, the main response was a joint declaration by the three “conservative” prime ministers — the Danish Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Sweden’s Fredrik Reinfeldt, and Finland’s Jyrki Katainen — in support of Norway’s government and people. It was widely published in all four countries.
The content, however, went beyond a generalized expression of sympathy and became a political manifesto, seemingly in answer to that written by Breivik. Its main theme was to laud their achievement in producing and maintaining the Scandinavian version of the welfare state and being such excellent examples to the world in general .
For example, they wrote:
The Nordic countries are the world’s most open and deregulated countries. We are firmly rooted in democracy and in the values we cherish, that being freedom of speech and exchange of opinions. Our countries are characterized by a highly developed welfare model, extensive individual freedom and a high degree of gender equality. We stand in solidarity with rest of the world and we share our wealth, as well as open our doors to people fleeing war and oppression.
Some aspects of this approach ring with irony. Take, for example, Norway itself, a state that has been openly aggressive against those daring to speak out against multiculturalism. In the post-Breivik era this is becoming something of a witch hunt.
For example, “Document.no,” one of the best-known independent Norwegian web sites, has been relatively respected in the past despite taking a critical stance on multiculturalism, mass immigration, the country’s policy toward Israel, and Islam. It was never considered “extremist” outside of the extreme left wing. But now it is being vilified in the media as if it has poisoned the debate and led to the killings. A common theme has been, implicitly and sometimes explicitly, that “freedom of speech and exchange of opinions” has produced terrorism and that people must be intimidated from taking certain political stances.
A couple of corrections: The (Norwegian) Fremskridtspartiet is The Progress Party and Dansk Folkeparti is the Danish People’s Party (which was originally a breakaway faction of the Danish Progress Party).
I am continually amazed by Pajamas Medias ability to lie about Norway. Quite the opposite of a witch-hunt, there has been a massive quiet discussion on how to engage with the far right, and document.no has been lifted forwards as a good gateway to do this. Thus, the leader of the Islamic coucil of Norway just recently had a text there attempting (and succeeding) in getting a dialogue going. PM Jens Stoltenbergs first speech underlined that what was needed was more freedom of speech and more democracy. The only ones exploiting the attacks have been the Fremskrittspartiet, whose former leader has recieved massive critiscism for muddying the waters with several insensitive remarks.
Im starting to understand that you rightwingers over there are living in your own paralel universe where critiscism is muzzling and anyone who disagrees with you is a nazi/socialist/satanist whatever.
After the Nobel committee’s award of the Peace Prize to President Obama who could have doubts of Norway’s hostility?
That every statement originating in Scandinavia is now examined on the molecular level is perfectly natural given the regional track record of praising the worse the world has to offer.
When Scandinavia starts executing people who kill film makers and act to eradicate Jews from the face of the earth, then perhaps that Scandinavian country will be ready for readmission into the circle of mankind. Right now Norway is so inhuman that they cannot even divest themselves of someone who killed dozens of the ruling class’ own children.
Timmy McVeigh may have irrationally over reacted to the FBI massacre at Waco but having struck out irrationally in his overreaction the State of Oklahoma executed the man. It should be bothering the hell out of the Scandinavians that the Norwegians won’t clean up after their own monster.
If you are discontent with how Norway is portrayed here in pajamasmedia, can you give us any hint on how you consider the norwegian media portrays other countries?
Mumi: Its true that from an american point of view, we have a pretty left-leaning press. Leading conservative newspaper Aftenposten would propably be considered pretty liberal in your country. We have two christian conservative dailys wich support Israel, and some netsides like document.no wich represent the immigration-sceptic parts wich are a part of the “serious” debate. But the writers discussing my country here, unlike our most left leaning papers, actually *make things up*. Bruce Bawer writes that parts of my city Oslo is no-go areas wich is utter bullcrap. And this article states there is a witch-hunt going on here, wich is also toaly wrong. There is a debate, yes, but all except the most extreme violent right are allowed a say in the papers. (We dont give the Aryan Brotherhood much presstime, its true. They can express themselves elsewhere.)
There is a lot of soulsearching going on in all camps over here right now, and yes, some of the islam-paranoid people are being asked much tougher questions than before. The Eurabia conspiracy is being put under scrutiny. Wich is how I thought was a sign of healthy debate and healthy democracy, not a witch hunt. The right have a tendency to loose debates with ill grace, whimpering like children.
From an american point of view alone? Think again…
And when you call aftenposten a conservative newspaper, well, to save space and time I can just say that I fundamentally disagree.
When you say that most writers in pajamasmedia “make things up” regarding Norway, well that is pretty much what everyone (maybe except JA Snoen) in the norwegian media does regarding politics in the us.
The corrections I posted were written so as to be non-political and not to affect the arguments of the article itself. An article with which I am, in general, in agreement.
I don’t agree with the apparent politics, the politically shaded arguments, or the ad hominems put forth by this Norwegian character: someone who seems to think that being able to follow Norwegian news and politics in the Norwegian language is limited to those who live there and vote leftward.
“He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.”
Norway has visited a pox upon itself with its immigration policies and is now reaping what it has sown. I feel bad for it.
By the way the guy you gave the Peace Prize to inherited two wars, ended neither, doubled down on one and started three more for good measure (Libya, Somalia, Yemen) and is considering a sixth in Syria. Could you please stay out of US politics in the future and maybe concentrate on getting our own house in order? Before you guys solve the problems of the middle east you need to solve the problems of Groruddalen.
Well, as the old saying goes, “Liberals tolerate anything except people who disagree with them.” The socialists and liberals will use this incident to destroy their opposition, let alone free speech in their countries. Reminds me of the “Reichstag Fire” in Germany in 1933, and incident that gave Hitler an excuse to attack anybody who disagreed with the Nazis. The Europeans are good at this sort of thing. They take a tragic incident and use it to destroy their political enemies.
The current way of doing this now is by accusing people of “hate speech” against Muslims. Muslims can say and do anything they want in these countries, but if you ever dare respond to them it is considered “hate speech” and you can either be fined or thrown in jail. Just ask Geert Wilders how dangerous it is to voice your own opinions about Muslims in Europe. So this is nothing new, except now it is receiving more media attention. The Europeans should stop this, now, because it only encourages people to join radical movements in their own countries. The suppression of free speech is a quick way to sail down the road to tyranny and most people understand that. They will also react and fight against it, too.
“Our countries are characterized by a highly developed welfare model, extensive individual freedom”
It takes a nearly mindless, dogmatic socialist to believe that these two factors are mutually supporting. The more “highly developed” the individual’s dependence on government is, the less freedom there is.
Except for those running the government, of course. Who are pretty much “free” to do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want.
Maybe that’s the “individual freedom” they are referring to.
clear ether
eon
Actually… I’ve dealt with Swedish businesses. I would rate their economic freedom higher than the U.S. Less regulation and lower corporate tax rates.
They do the whole socialiam thing, but they only do it once. When they come over here, they are amazed that once they get done with the IRS and federal regulations, they have to do it all over again with the states and cities.
Yup. There is one place in the world that makes socialism look like it can work, and that’s Sweden.
Of course, it helps when you have a homogeneous, hard working population.
Which, thanks to the EU and stupid immigration policies, is one asset that is swiftly being undermined.
Good point. You can compare Sweden to a State in the US. And you can compare EU to the federal government in the US. As of now EU government is relatively small compared to the federal government in the US. The elites are working hard to make EU more intrusive and overbearing.
The main reason though that Sweden is doing well now is that their currency isn’t tied to the euro. And the Swedish central bank didn’t implement the same ridiculous interest rate hikes in 2005-2007 as ECB and the US FED.
In Sweden, the islamophiles have already stooped this low to smear the Sweden Democrats in the wake of the Norway attacks, trying to present members of that party as “Breivik-lovers”, as shown in the linked image.
Kenneth, any society that is open necessarily is multicultural.
Because what would a society that was open yet monocultural look like? It would be a fantasy-society in which everyone recognizes “the truth” and freely accepts it.
Come to think of it, this uniformity was precisely Breivik’s insane objective.
Open-but-uniform societies are a common fantasy of the ideological left … the ideological right … religious fundamentalists … and even libertarians.
But in reality, these ideologies embrace just one “freedom” … the “freedom” to agree with their ideology.
No thanks.
It would look like the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Immigrants were welcome, but… They were expected to hold Judeo-Christian values. They were expected to respect their hosts, drop all allegiances to wherever they came from, learn English, find a job, obey the law, not make themselves a burden, and generally integrate themselves and particularly their children into American society.
If the basic premise of multi-culturalism was true – that all cultures are equally good – then they should have stayed in the “just-as-good” craphole they came from.
Him with his foot in his mouth. Or could it be Her?
“Because what would a society that was open yet monocultural look like?”
Japan.
Good point aztikal … Japan, the country of the sarin-gas attacks of Aum Shinrikyo’s special brand of terror.
Heaven protect us from ideologues … every variety … who embrace murder to inflict their “truths” upon us.
——————-
Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_subway
Don’t forget that violent militia group we called the “Founding Fathers”. They killed people in the name of their bizarre “freedom” cult.
Old Solder, warn’t there a little document called “The Declaration of Independence” that the Founders published first? And it was mighty carefully written, eh? Signed by the authors? And widely circulated too?
Somehow I don’t recall that loners like Brievic and Kaczynski, or secretive ideology-first organizations like Aum Shinrikyo and the McVeigh/Nichols militia cults, ever took any similar steps. Ain’t that correct?
One word stands out in your article on the events in Norway and their effect.That word is ‘shaken.
So far 2011 is turning into a shaken year for many nations,Christ Church NZ, Japan,Oslo,Norway,the U.K specifically London and of course the U.S. with it’s shaky economy.
Sadly they are all missing the big picture.
Japan has gone out if it’s way to support and fund Israel’s enemies even after they learned that the Palestinians train their youth from birth to hate and kill Jews. Hopefully Japanese contributions to the Palestinians will dry up.
That would be a wise move.
All of these countries are pushing hard to carve up Israel and reward Islam’s aggressiveness and terrorism with a totally unnecessary 23 Arab,Islamic terrorist hub country on the back of Israel,too small a country to carve up.
The Norwegians cursed the Jews with their bogus peace scam as have all the nations calling for an unnecessary Palestinian state.
the real goal is Hitlers final solution by the fake peace process and God will repay ALL the nations for this evil.
Divine retribution is in forward motion especially for those nations which are pushing the division of Jerusalem.
Oslo and it’s cursed middle East peace process is ground zero for everything bad coming down on bad decision makers who stick their nose where it does not belong as is Washington with it’s severe and terminal illness of meddling in Israel’s sovereign affairs.
‘It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured(cut in pieces).And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.”
Zechariah 12:3
The cutting in pieces of the nations which assume to divide Jerusalem has only begun.
The earth is broken asunder, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken violently.
Isaiah 24
ALL who make themselves an enemy of Jews/Israel make themselves an enemy of G-D. G-D declared in the Bible regarding Jews/Israel:
Blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you.
A book has been written on many “natural” disasters that took place in America after American leaders made harsh demands on Israel.
Nations ignore G-D’s warnings at their peril.
Linda ,
it’s amazing how comatose the majority are when it comes to not paying attention to God’s clear and direct warning when it comes to carving up Israel.
Presumptuous arrogance drives the nations to their destruction like a moth to the flames.
When it comes to screwing with Israel ,they just can’t help themselves.
They don’t realize the high cost and severe injury their meddling will inflict on them personally.
Excuse me ,I don’t like to post anon,the phone started ringing and I hit submit before filling out the info.
Hi Physicist. Multiculturalism is a state policy that promotes all cultures being equal alongside that of the host culture. In short, their is no ‘main culture’ to intergrate with. The US still promotes itself as the ‘melting pot’, E pluribus unum, ‘from many one’, which is the direct opposite of multiculturalism.
Breivik interestingly enough rejects both systems, rather, he’s in favor of a very top down, statist driven type of governance (fascism), something that the anti-Islamization movement rejects outright.
Oh, so you’re the Tundra Tabloids guy. Great site!
Yes, great site if you dont care about reality but prefer a propaganda construct that confirms your paranoia. If you like to know about the real world, not so great.
Yes. This horrifying attack could almost have been made to order, for those who want to finally do away with liberty.
I wonder if there is more conservatism in Scandinavia that we are told here.
A “Yankee hipster” just got a really uncool greeting in Denmark
Very heh. But the Danes, in some important characterological aspects, are quite different from their Nordic neighbors. It’s no wonder they are consistently ruled “the happiest country” in all those so-called studies. Denmark, Australia, Canada – all three usually win, place and show. The US always goes missing somehow..
Name another monarch in Europe besides Denmark’s Queen Margrethe who has the guts and integrity to tell her people “we’ve been lazy about not making immigrants responsible for their behavior. We need to pay attention and to make the same demands we make of one another…” or words to that effect. Which is why disgruntled immigrants can cross the bridge to Sweden.
Or name another European country that stood tough against the Germans when they refused to cooperate with the Nazi Judenrein policies. Ergo, they have no guilt or regret about their behavoir. Yeah, they couldn’t stop the Nazis from taking those Jews who couldn’t escape, but they demanded good treatment for their citizens and insisted on allowing the Red Cross access to the Danish prisoners. As a result, no Danish Jews died due to their imprisonment. So unlike the Swedes and Norwegians, who are openly hostile to Jews.
And still hostile. Malmo will probably be Judenrein in a few years…a few years ago several young men in Malmo enlisted in the IDF because it felt safer than living in their native countries.
Caroline Glick mentioned an important book in one of her essays recently. Written in the 1950s by a guy named Tolman, “Totalitarian Democracy” perfectly describes these people. As poor Fjordman learned to his sorrow about his native country when it came time to find a scapegoat for Breivik. In a sane world that connection would never happen. But Socialism must have scapegoats in order to maintain control.
Muslims in Norway have said they don’t mind being jailed there, that it’s like a country club. You should see the place they’ll likely put Breivik when they’re done with their show trial (sorry, I can’t find the link in my history).
Watch to see if this happens or not: will the authorities or Breivik’s defense lawyer be too cowardly to perform due dilegence on THE manifesto via a thorough forensic linguistic analysis to see if any of his “original” sections were in fact written by a native English speaker – or rather, a native American English speaker? If that doesn’t happen, and if the results are never published, then we’ll know it’s all about pushing this under the rug while they busily point fingers at the fragile “far right extremists” in their midst. What they call “far right” would be risibly centrist in this country.
All the overt blame-game strategy would be amusing were it not so grimly overt and so costly to the victims. Those people on Utoya died for nothing — unless you can say their deaths had a meaning because they permitted the state to clamp down even harder on dissenting opinion. Those brain-washed ideologues, ready to apply their BDS techniques on Israel, will have served a larger purpose.
Norway, so holier-than-thou, ought to practice true moral consisteny. Thus, In addition to boycotting Israel they ought to refuse to use the many products and inventions that have come out of that small country. Here’s the latest:
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2011/08/and-another-brilliant-israeli.html
We had lots of hate mail from Norway. They hate us because they managed to produce a mass murderer in their nice, nice, tightly controlled country and they desperately need someone to shoulder the blame. Those folks sure are skilled at writing hate notes that would get them arrested in their own Utopia.
Those folks sure are skilled at writing hate notes that would get them arrested in their own Utopia.
That always seems to be the case. Free speech for me but not for thee.
What the rest of us have to do is to take the blinders off and stop ceding the terms of engagement to them, and to stop accepting their claims to more authority.
that should be “moral authority”.
Fjordman is a scapegoat in the same way that Zawahiri is. If you write manifestos urging the racewar, if you are quoted by a terrorist and have been in contact with the terrorist, its pretty sick to start whining about police harassment for being asked in for questioning. What is wrong with you people? If ABB was a muslim and Fjordman his mullah, would you say the same? Free speech for me and not for theee indeed.
“The Nordic countries are firmly rooted in the values we cherish, that being freedom of speech and exchange of opinions.”
The Nordic countries are utterly OPPOSED to freedom of speech. It is despicable that mainstream media and government leaders and not just in the Nordic countries, didn’t hesitate to spit on the graves of the slaughtered teenagers by using their murders for cheap political propaganda, to unjustly condemn and demonize the courageous men and women who place their lives on the line to warn about the dangers of Islam.
Linda: What are you talking about? Norwegian politicans declared “borgfred” (literally, peace within the castle) and the whole election campaign was suspended for 3 weeks. The only ones making this political has been the Progress Party, of whom Breivik was a former member. Your hate would look better if it was grounded in reality.
What hate, Norwegian? Linda said nothing hateful. She clearly despises you weak and clueless excuses for human beings. That isn’t the same thing as ‘hate’.
The question is, “Will the American Right-wing use this time to reflect on why this killer found its articles and blogs so supportive of his murderous viewpoint.”
The idea that the Nordic countries oppose freedom is just a lie. In case the blind and doumb posters didn’t know, Norway has historically been an ally of the United States of America. Is currently is involved with us in Afganhistan. It is shocking how willfully ignorant and “knownothing” the American right-wing has become. Today, Barry Goldwater would not be nominated by the Republican Party because he would be considered too liberal.
The American public will reject the new right-wing American extremists and knownothings, like it rejected Joe McCarthy. The bully boys and girls will crawl back under their rocks.
Ye, that’s right. Blame the right, Sarah Palin after the Loughner killings, etc. Did you ask yourself the question “Will the American Left-wing, Israel-bashers, Islamophiles use this time to reflect on why Major Malik Hasan found its articles and blogs so supportive of his murderous viewpoint”, after he killed 12 and wounded 30 servicemenat at Ft. Hood, Texas? Of course you didn’t ask that question. The Left, such as yourself is very good at the “blame game”. So, no one is allowed to express opinion because it may encourage some fanatic to kill? Everyone is guilty, except yourselves? Ludicrous.
This is in reply to @12Lawrence, above.
“Will the American Right-wing use this time to reflect on why this killer found its articles and blogs so supportive of his murderous viewpoint.”
I didn’t say ‘atone,’ I said ‘reflect.’ Obviously, Jarmo can’t tell the difference between atone and reflect. No one has blamed the American Right-wing. The killer copied out major sections of blogs and articles from the prestigious National Review. Should the killer’s plagiarism of articles and blogs from National Review (a magazine I enjoy reading)and affinity for right-wing ideology be cause for reflection on the effects of ideological banter?
No one has mentioned any figure on the Right-wing in America as responsible for this bloody murder of innocent young lives.
Get a grip, Jarmo.
And, where do you see the word “atone” in my reply? I do know the difference between atone and reflect. I responded to your use of “reflect”, to search within one’s self, to exptress carefully considered thoughts, which IMPLIES that the “Right-wing” should share blame for spreading some sort of murderpous ideas. Again, your bringing up the word “atone” is completely puzzling to me. I’ve got a grip, Lawrence, thank you very much. And no one blamed “right wing” blogs??
http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com/2011/07/ny-times-says-blame-for-norway-killings.html
jarmo:
The NY Times says the killer was influenced by the debate going on in the US concerning Islamism. The killer reads the blogs of the National Review (one of my favorite magazines). Being influenced by the right-wing American press is not the same idea as causing the killings. The right-wing is not being accused of the murders.
Again, Right-wing bloggers may have influenced the political and social ideas of the killer, just like, as you correctly state, the Unabomber read Al Gore’s book. Influencing the killer with sophisticated and complex ideas is not the same as causing the killer to go out and murder.
I think we all need to reflect on this tragedy–right,left & center. There are evil people in this world and the world is a dangerous place (How many time have I heard this statement from the right?). The Right has nothing to atone for, but we all need to reflect on violence and violent direct action as a political tactic.
It’s pretty clear that the ideology-first posters on this topic have *never* viewed America’s finest tribute to multi-culturalism, namely, Major Frank Capra and General George Marshall’s Why We Fight: War Comes to America.
Folks, *this* is what Founders-style multi-culturalism is all about.
——————————————
Why We Fight: War Comes to America
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2TxQ_TZou4
It is hard to just drop into this speech-ifying without some introduction. I am generally in agreement with “A Physicist”. I grew up in an urban, mill and factory environment. There was a general consensus that the “melting pot” was really a “stew pot” brewing up a complex and chunky concoction. “E Pluribus Unum” applied since everyone was building a life as part of a system that allowed for the possibility of a future. The Muslims that I have met in a University, Medical Center, or in a business environment were stirring the same stew pot. Some were “secular”, a few “observant”, but all were building a career, raising a family.
The more recent “political” Muslims have a radically different attitude. They seem to like to cluster and demand exemptions from laws so they can live by Sharia. Sharia is not analogous to Catholic or Jewish “canon” law. Sharia is the law of Allah which trumps all man-made (i.e. Constitutional) laws. Under Sharia, a man will not be challenged about what happens in his house. Under Sharia, it is no crime for a man to kill a child, or child of a child (due to a violation of honor, family authority, or religious belief). In most parts of the US, certain behaviors acceptable under Sharia can bring charges of murder, battery, rape, child abuse. Over in the City in 1989, a young woman by the name of Palestina Isa, refused her father’s orders to return to Palestine to marry a tribal elder to whom her father owed a debt. She had plans for college. For her disobedience, she was held down by her parents and knifed to death. It was no crime under Sharia; Missouri had other ideas. Those who wish to come to the United States and live exclusively under Sharia seems to forget that when they cross the red line at the edge of the international zone, the brood heifer and offspring become “persons” endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Multiculturalism only works in the stew pot.
Still, all the babble here ignores two idiosyncratic aspects of the incident which make it hard to use in general political discussions; the Norwegian link and the Justiciar Knight’s diet.
The politics in all of the Nordic states including the ruling red-green coalition in Norway are relatively “leftist”. Leftist politics often includes a relatively friendly attitude to Palestine vs Israel and this was very marked in the Labor party portion of the coalition. Indeed in March of 2011, a senior Labor party member, Anders Mathiesen, held forth that the “Holocaust” of the Jews during WWII is a myth. The Labor party has been hosting “seminars” (or “indoctrination sessions”) at its youth camp conducted by Palestinian “Islamists” (my term). If you put an “invasion” of an arrogant alien group whose central characteristic is a distinct anti-Semitism into the Norwegian stew pot, you get Vidkun A. L. J. Quisling who betrayed his country and fellow citizens. The uniform has changed from field grey to desert baggy but the arrogance and anti-Semitism are still there. The trigger link in Norway is the conquest within living memory due to political betrayal which makes a very potent albeit idiosyncratic model with which to interpret the current “multiculturalism” discord. The violent reaction was a glorious quest to destroy the new Quisling.
I have seen no discussion of the Justiciar Knight’s “diet” in the “manifesto”, a topic which is more relevant to the violence than any social or political analysis. On pages 894 to 900 of the pdf version of “2083…” he details using injectable and tablet forms of the anabolic steroid Winstrol (Stanozolol, a testosterone derivative originally developed by Winthrop Laboratories) and DBOL (Methandrostenolone, Dianabol, and other names, originally offered by Ciba until it was outlawed in the US). The pro-wrestler Chris Benoit, had abnormally high levels of such “testosterone”-like material in his blood on autopsy after he murdered his wife and son and then committed suicide. Irrational violence and suicide are the hallmarks of anabolic steroid abuse which Breivik enhanced with “stacks” of huge amounts of ephedrine and caffeine. The details of the 80 day long chemistry run suggest that Breivik was using other “vitamins” as well.
Anders was so juiced that is surprising that any number of defense establishment satellites didn’t detect his “plume” when he left home on his final quest. What political insight can be gleaned from “Roid Rage” and a Quest for the Quisling?
Acually, his “political” concept of uniting disparate local cultures in defense of a larger European culture has sort of an “E Pluribus Unum” air to it. The European Union documents which I have seen are a mass of minutia about taxes, currency, and trivial legalisms which would probably bring joy to the heart of any petty bureaucrat. I have never seen the statement of a heroic goal for “We, the peoples of Europe, …”
Maybe when Breivik returns to Earth, he can do some creative writing for the grey mass in Brussels.
With regards to the roids, the real scary part of his manifesto is where he describes how he quite deliberately starts cycles of roid use in order to overcome his doubts. He was programming himself for 2 years to be able to do it, including 3 times of “agnostic prayer” and meditation on the glorious act, planned use of roids, etc. This was a deliberate terror attack, not a roid-rage temper tantrum.
In general, its kind of sad to see the right wing not being able to deal with the fact that he was their own crazy bastard son, just as the Unabomber was the lefts.
The problem with terrorists is not their motivation or underlying political views. The problem is that they kill innocent civilians. The crucial words here are “innocent civilians”. Anybody who kills or plans to kill innocent civilians as part of an ideological campaign should be put down like rabid dogs.
The fact that I’m conservative and that I share something like 10% of Breiviks viewpoints, does not make me responsible for his terrorist actions.
The day before Brievic struck, these young campers, all sons and daughters of prominent left wing government workers and politicians were hosting a boycott Israel event.
Seems like the freedom they espouse has a selective menu and that their famed tolerance is not quite as multi as they spout.
“The day before Brievic struck, these young campers, all sons and daughters of prominent left wing government workers and politicians were hosting a boycott Israel event.”
But when Glen Beck compared them to Hitler Youth, the leftist-dominated media vilified HIM. The international MSM is made up of the most depraved, amoral, subhuman scum on the face of the earth.
Eric R:
Mr. Glenn Beck’s statement about the Labour Youth being like Hitler Youth is an outrage. That is why he said it.
Well done Norway. You have a long history of warriors, of courage and resistance to subjugation (WWII). In two to three generations you have trained your youth to be sheep, to allow one man to walk around for an hour and a half shooting them at his leisure. Shame on you.
Yes, I know they were children, around 15. What age were their grandparents when they resisted the Germans?
While our domestic right-wing pundits and bloggers remain focused on Muslim immigration into Europe and the U.S., the motivation behind Anders Behring Breivik’s murderous rampage appears to be blind, insane hatred of Norway’s ruling Labor Party and the social democratic model of development. The youth group, Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking (Workers’ Youth League), which owns the camp on Utoya Island, is a member of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). The killer murdered the flower of the next generation of democratic socialists. My conclusion is the killer is an anti-social democrat, driven to ideological mass murder.
Of course, leave it to Glenn Beck to make a defining comment. He says, discussing the massacre in Norway, “As the thing started to unfold, and then there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth or whatever — I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing. But anyway, so there’s this political camp, and some crazy man goes and starts shooting kids.” Right-wing pundits will suffer public shame while they distance themselves. But the killer was such an admirer of many spokespersons of the far-right fringe of American politics that he plagiarized freely from their works to fill up his 1,500 page “manifesto.”
The rise of the right-wing tendency in the Scandinavian countries has been significant in the past twenty years. The Scandinavian model has begun to unravel in Sweden, Finland, Holland and Denmark, where an increase in Muslim immigration has triggered an “anti-Islamicist” backlash against the multicultural model. As Yascha Mounk has argued, the term “has become a useful shorthand for everything the populists don’t like: Islam and any kind of extra-European immigration, of course; but also the loss of cultural traditions, the EU’s encroachment on national sovereignty, and even certain forms of cultural relativism.”
The rise of anti-immigrant and right-wing parties in Europe has been impressive since the beginning of the millennium. In 2001 in Denmark, the Dansk Folkeparti obtained 12% of the vote and 22 seats in parliament; in 2007 it improved its electoral results with 13.8% of the votes and 25 seats (of a total of 179). The situation is similar in Holland, where a center-right coalition rules with external support from Gert Wilders’ xenophobic Partij voor Vrijheid (Party for Freedom), which received 15.5% of the votes and 24 seats in Parliament (of a total of 150). In Sweden a center-right coalition attained an absolute majority in Parliament in 2006; in 2010 it lost its majority, but continues to rule with the external support of the extreme right-wing party Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats) which received 5.7% of the votes, clearing an electoral hurdle and entering the Riksdag for the first time with 20 seats (of a total of 349). In Finland’s April 2011 elections, the xenophobic and anti-European Union party Perussuomalaiset (True Finns) went from 4% to 19.1% of the votes and from 5 seats to 39 seats (of a total of 190). In Norway, despite the fact the the Labor Party continues to be the governing party, in the 2009 elections the center-right and its allies obtained an absolute majority of the votes and the most extreme of the right-wing parties Høyre (Conservative Party) and Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party) gained in seats and votes. It is noteworthy that Anders Behring Breivik was a member of the youth section of the Progress Party until he abandoned it because of its supposed “embrace of multi-culturalism.”
Analysts and pundits should have taken more notice of political trends after the assassination of Sweden’s social democratic Prime Minister Olaf Palme in 1986, and the “end of innocence” in the so-called paradises of social democracy. Another indicator of the turmoil under the surface is modern Nordic literature. The writings of the Swedish crime writers Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson, the Norweign Jo Nesbø, from the Islandic Arnaldur Indriðason, all depict a society that’s out of step with most outside conceptions of Scandinavian social democracy. Think of this detail: Sweden is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet for the last 20-years, more and more Swedes have gone to work in Norway. Naturally, as soon as they are declared “immigrant workers,” even Swedes are perceived in negative terms.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said, “You will not destroy us. You will not destroy our democracy or our ideals for a better world.” Will the Left heed Stoltenberg’s call to defend our ideals or will it remain quiet the face of terrorism, xenophobia and racism?