gcheliotis

This is a prime example of how big business can cozy up to authoritarianism. Of course in the name of offering a service to the nation or saving something precious to all, I guess it’s “democracy” in this instance. Deep down I think it’s about asking a simple question: which regime will be most accommodating to fulfilling my ambitions, i.e. sustaining and growing my business empire with the least amount of oversight or regulation? Who is more likely to be anti-union? Who is more likely to employ migrants without granting them political rights? Who is less likely to tax the rich? Who is more likely to give me more power to influence public opinion and public policy? Elon is, in some respects, correctly betting on Trump. Of course it is a risky bet, and a marriage of convenience; one will sooner or later lose favor with the other. It would probably be wiser of Musk to stay out of the limelight and play Democrats against Republicans whenever and however it suits him. But I guess he can’t help himself. To be honest I don’t even know whether it’s possible for a major business figure to remain neutral in a country where perhaps the best predictor of a presidential candidate’s success is the amount of donations their campaign receives.

Well first these are the frequent talking points of incels when they harp on what they consider “low value females”. If you find yourself constantly repeating such devaluing talking points, maybe a break from the internet would do you good. Secondly, and more generally, it is usually more attractive to talk about the things you love than the things you hate. Unless you have already established that you and the other person hate the same things, then you can bond over that too.

This looks more like a scythe that doubles as a weapon to me

I think you have expressed my fear quite well. Maybe it is as I feared. I don’t know much about Sweden, but I do have the feeling that the far right everywhere gets brownie points for just naming things the left will leave untouched (with a huge amount of hyperbole, racial hatred and scapegoating to be sure). I’m not in any way trying to force an “immigrants bad” argument, just fearing that a surge in crime involving migrant populations benefits the far right disproportionately, especially if the rest of the political spectrum seem unable to effectively address the issue in a more socially productive and progressive manner.

So, if i got this right, you seem to be implying that immigrants, or at least non-native Swedes as some may have citizenship, don’t know, are implicated in this violence, right? But that the situation today is a result of several policy failures by different governments and it’s not necessarily something to be tied to more recent waves of immigration. It wasn’t clear from the article. I just wanted to understand whether this plays right into the far right playbook once more. Of course poverty is a common factor in crime, but (unfortunately) the topic currently dominating European politics is immigration, and a surge in crime is an almost certain win for the extreme right in this climate.

That is not what I said, but ok, let’s leave it at this :)

Ooph, there the same issue again, about what we consider “propaganda”. I have yet to meet someone with objective standards on this, who is able to hold people he agrees with politically to the same standard. Many on here also seem to hate the MBFC ratings that were added to at least create some baseline. So, at the end of the day the value judgements people make on these matters are more often biased than not. Anyway, I am actually interested in even “mouthpieces”, as I am always curious how the other side actually defends what they do, and they could be just marked as such for the avoidance of doubt.

…and that is the problem with banning people for their views… sooner or later an echo chamber becomes boring. And they too will probably go elsewhere, where their views will go unchallenged as well. Fast forward a few years and everyone becomes ever more convinced of their own sectarian “truths”.

Unless he was particularly obnoxious about it, don’t know the story 🤷🏻‍♂️

This thread is like a lesson in the importance of x and y axes range in time series plots

Nothing is surprising about nations allying to advance common geopolitical and economic interests. Perhaps you are perturbed by the fact that these are not the US and its allies, who have indeed defined the world order in recent years, after the end of WW2 and especially after the fall of the USSR. I don’t think anyone is surprised - let alone failing to recognize - that the current world order is being challenged. Of course that does unfortunately mean a more uncertain and likely conflict-ridden future for all of us. But there are also those who look forward to a multipolar world, or at least the decline of “the West”, because it didn't exactly serve everyone in the world equally well.

There’s a movie about that. Well, it’s about high-tech incubator eggs that promise relief from the toils of pregnancy so mothers can go on working (so they can afford said proprietary incubator eggs). Not a great movie, but it was interesting. Don’t remember the title unfortunately.