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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   31540 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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How Peaceful Sweden Became Europe’s Gun-Murder Capital

This link is probably paywalled for most, so some of the salient points:

"Turf wars for control of the drug trade, driven by an influx of guns, personal vendettas and a pool of available youths, many from marginalized migrant communities, have resulted in a gun-homicide rate approximately 2½ times the European average, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.

With 62 people shot dead last year, up from 45 in 2021, Sweden’s overall homicide rate is about one-sixth of the U.S.’s. But in a European context, it is extraordinary. Stockholm’s gun-murder rate was roughly 30 times higher per capita than London’s.

Perpetrators are becoming younger, and are also resorting to increasingly violent tactics such as throwing hand grenades and placing bombs, injuring a growing number of bystanders, including children.

Because most shootings in Sweden take place among individuals from migrant backgrounds, they have fueled a surge of right-wing populism. In the 2022 election, the Sweden Democrats, a party that has roots in Nazism and blames Sweden’s liberal migration policies for the violence, gained more than 20% of the votes to become the country’s second-largest. Today it rejects Nazism and white nationalism on its platform.

The new center-right government has promised to tighten migration policies, double sentences for offenses committed in “gang environments,” widen the use of electronic surveillance and expel more criminals who aren’t Swedish citizens.

“Compared internationally, we have had a much laxer criminal law. And we have now lost control over the situation,” said Daniel Bergström, an adviser to the Swedish minister of justice.

Experts, however, say there is no simple explanation for the violence.

Nikoi Djane, a former gang member turned criminologist, said authorities had failed to help refugees integrate into society, instead segregating them from society in housing estates with few job opportunities or treatment for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The perpetrators have a responsibility, but they are also victims of their circumstances,” Djane said.

Manne Gerell, an associate professor at Malmö University with expertise in organized crime, said the problem was caused by poor integration and exacerbated by years of insufficient response from authorities, police and politicians.

Today, an estimated 75% to 80% of deadly shootings remain unsolved, and the low risk of getting caught has prompted a growing number of youths to kill for bounties issued by gang leaders, said Salihu, the crime expert.

It might also be helpful to look at this article in conjunction with this Free Press article on violence in Sweden: Two Bombings in One Night? That’s Normal Now in Sweden.

At least on its face, this situation has a clear cause (migration from non-Western countries) and a simple solution (stop accepting migrants and remove many of the migrants that are already in Sweden), but to even state these facts gets you labeled a "right-wing populist" (nice of WSJ to omit the customary "far right populist").

I do see where the Left is coming from here. Most migrants aren't committing violence, and it does seem cruel to kick out people who have been living somewhere for years or even decades. But I also think a given community has the right to maintain the integrity of its society and culture. That's also why I'm more okay with something closer to open borders in the USA: Our culture is already so hollowed out that migrants moving here are probably adding, not subtracting, from whatever "culture" there is in the US.

I do see where the Left is coming from here. Most migrants aren't committing violence, and it does seem cruel to kick out people who have been living somewhere for years or even decades. But I also think a given community has the right to maintain the integrity of its society and culture.

Sweden had and still has that right.

They chose to let in migrants. They chose to have a non-ethnic conception of citizenship.

Everything happening is Europe's choice. None of these Ancient Roman comparisons really map. One of the wealthiest, highest human capital regions in the world is not being presented with a fait accompli by Somalians or a technical problem it can't figure out.

This is just what they chose.

Who voted for mass immigration?

Take the UK - since the 1990s both major parties consistently said they'd be tough and restrictive on immigration. They then proceeded to increase it while in power. https://twitter.com/t848m0/status/1560662923101347840

The governments of Europe and the European Union make the choices, not the people. Consider how much intense opposition there was to Brexit, something that really could be considered the people's choice! It eventually happened, after a great deal of fooling around and delaying tactics. Or the many times states have rejected EU integration in referendums, only to be made to vote again or their decisions were ignored. Capital punishment was abolished decades before it became unpopular.

What is the point of democracy if the major parties consistently lie about their plans and implement their agenda regardless of what the voters want? Or if they form a 'cordon sanitaire' to prevent political representation of undesirables? Or if they manipulate the media by omission, lies, slant and emphasis to enforce ideological orthodoxy? Middle East Wars are the primary example. Russiagate is a secondary example, now that the Durham report has been released.

The governments of Europe and the European Union make the choices, not the people.

Unfalsifiable, else Brexit would have falsified it. You can’t expect the state to act on every whim of the populace. The promise of democracy is that the little guy gets some power, a backstop, not unlimited, on-call power.

Take away all his power, and he just might find himself in a Putin's invasion situation, where it’s not just a few dollars and soldiers on the line, but his life.

else Brexit would have falsified it

It took multiple constitutional crises (including a proguation of parliament, which many regard as undemocratic), a general election in 2017 where parties promising won over 85% of the vote, the biggest defeat of those parties ever in the 2019 European election when they reached deadlock over Brexit (and 30.5% of the vote for the Brexit party, a completely unprecedented rise for a new party in UK political history), and Labour losing their MP in Bolsover.

It also involved setting up internal trade barriers in the UK, against the wishes of most people in Northern Ireland.

You can’t expect the state to act on every whim of the populace.

True, but it is typical that if the state seeks a mandate from the populace in a referendum for X, it doesn't choose to do X even if the referendum goes against X. Can you imagine what would have happened if the Remain side had narrowly won the referendum, but the Conservatives implemented Brexit anyway, saying that membership of the EU was unworkable? Or even had a second referendum a few years later, saying that the Remainers had misunderstood the issues?

Still, even if you argue that Brexit was a transient and uninformed whim, it's still not comparable to the public's desire for less immigration, which is a very persistent preference in the UK, and many other EU countries. The problem is that, at least on this issue, democracy has been ineffective as a means of incentivising politicians to act in accordance with that preference. I think that this is a general flaw with democracy: people generally vote for candidates, who come as package deals, and who can afford to change parts of that package after the deal in order to appeal to special interest groups who are better organised than most voters.

You might argue, with Churchill, that "Democracy is awful, but it is the worst system of government, save for all the others," but that's a prima facie argument for less government, not more democracy.

It also involved setting up internal trade barriers in the UK, against the wishes of most people in Northern Ireland.

They voted for a barrier. So there was going to be a barrier somewhere, either between the irelands or the islands. Democracy doesn’t have the power to alter reality to make people’s wishes come true.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the Remain side had narrowly won the referendum, but the Conservatives implemented Brexit anyway, saying that membership of the EU was unworkable?

You keep talking as if Brexit hadn’t happened.

They voted for a barrier. So there was going to be a barrier somewhere, either between the irelands or the islands. Democracy doesn’t have the power to alter reality to make people’s wishes come true.

Yes, my point was that implementing what people wanted was costly, partly because democracy is limited in what it can do.

You keep talking as if Brexit hadn’t happened.

No, the point is that the hurdles for Brexit were high, partly because a considerable majority of the political establishment was against it. Again, this is an instance of one of the limitations of democracy: a referendum result can be incompatible with the wishes of those with the power to implement it.

Do you agree that Brexit not happening after the referundum would have been evidence in favour of ‘elites make all the decisions’? Then Brexit happening is evidence against.

People don’t update generally, fine. But you’re using anti-evidence as evidence.

a referendum result can be incompatible with the wishes of those with the power to implement it.

Sure, but the thesis you're defending here is that those with the power to implement it get their way regardless of the will of the people or referendums.

But you’re using anti-evidence as evidence... the thesis you're defending here is that those with the power to implement it get their way regardless of the will of the people or referendums.

I didn't say that elites make all the decisions. I simply expanded the facts about Brexit, which are relevant to assessing the strength of elite opinion in developed democracies.

My own view is that democracy provides weak incentives for politicians to enforce majority preferences, except insofar as these preferences correspond to the balance of political profits from special interest groups. Of course, the circumstances vary, e.g. there are arguments that special interest groups are more influential in proportional representation systems, while widely-encompassing special interest groups are arguably less harmful. Mancur Olson's The Rise and Decline of Nations is a good introduction to this topic, even if Olson was pushing too hard for the One True Theory of Society.

They voted for a barrier. So there was going to be a barrier somewhere, either between the irelands or the islands. Democracy doesn’t have the power to alter reality to make people’s wishes come true.

Isn't it funny how democracy results in erecting barriers they don't want, and abolishing barriers they do want?

You keep talking as if Brexit hadn’t happened.

In practice, it kind of didn't.

Isn't it funny how democracy results in erecting barriers they don't want, and abolishing barriers they do want?

The problem though is 'the people' seemed to want no barrier at all, which was incompatible with the Brexit which they also apparently wanted. If they ask for no border in the Irish sea, and no border on the Irish border, but also a border somewhere, you can't blame the politicians for failing to deliver on the impossible wishes of the 'people'.

In practice, it kind of didn't.

How so?

The problem though is 'the people' seemed to want no barrier at all, which was incompatible with the Brexit which they also apparently wanted. If they ask for no border in the Irish sea, and no border on the Irish border, but also a border somewhere, you can't blame the politicians for failing to deliver on the impossible wishes of the 'people'.

What's impossible about letting in the Irish, but not other EU members?

How so?

A lot of policies end up copy-pasted from the EU anyway, I think that's what happened with the Even More Annoying Cookie Banner Directive. Another curious thing is how all of Europe, including the UK, is now simultaneously passing gender self-ID. To be fair I think the problem is bigger than the EU but also let's not pretend the UK is independent now and it's elites are listening to the people.

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You mean, aside from the barrier around Britain the elites didn't want?

As is often the case, the EU was just a scapegoat for pro-immigration forces which operate both inside and outside the EU. They have met the enemy, and it is them.

You mean, aside from the barrier around Britain the elites didn't want?

Which barrier is that?

As is often the case, the EU was just a scapegoat for pro-immigration forces which operate both inside and outside the EU.

Right, and now the scapegoat is the voting public, even though they voted against it

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