Letter from Sweden
Editor’s note: This was submitted as a comment but I thought it was of general interest and would get more visibility as a blog post. It is slightly edited from the original.
In Sweden the arguments from the elites are very similar. Our elites claim that “structural racism” in the Swedish culture is a deep problem in our society. At the same time our elite argue that Swedish culture and the Swedish people are social construction.
A very common argument is that “Swedish culture is the sum of all cultures”. Often, our elite begin a debate with the rhetorical question: “Who is a Swede” when they argue for multiculturalism. What they want to do is to tell us that we as Swedes do not exist. We, as Swedes can only exist when we discriminate against immigrants. This kind of argument was easy for the nationalist Swedish Democrats (SD) to reject. They just say, we exist as a people and as a people we have the right to decide who and how many people can come here to Sweden moreover, they should adopt our values. In one debate, Congressman (SD) Matthias Karlsson just said “If we as a people do not exist, how can the Kurdish people exist, and how can you claim identity politics for them”. The journalist and his political opponent just gasp. Read more