Conservatism Emerging in Rural Sweden With Backlash Against #PCMadness

‘Tradition is important to us’: Swedish town rebels against

LGBT rainbow flag on city hall

A man holds a rainbow flag during the Gay Pride Parade on August 2, 2014, in Stockholm, Sweden.

© Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP

A municipality in Sweden decided to quit flying LGBT pride flags on public buildings, after conservative parties took over the city council.

The town of Solvesborg in southeastern Sweden has voted to stop hoisting the rainbow-colored flag on the city hall every August during Stockholm Pride, the annual LGBT-themed festival held in the nation’s capital. From now on, only local and national flags are allowed on public buildings.

The idea of flying the Pride colors was introduced in 2013, when the city council was led by the center-left Social Democrats. But now the city is controlled by conservative Swedish Democrats (SD) and three other right-leaning parties, who decided to revise the local flag code.

“Tradition is important to us, and I know many of our older residents share this view,” Mayor Louise Erixon (SD) explained the move to discard the Pride flag.

Not everyone is happy with the new flag policy, though. Politician and LGBT-themed event organizer Sophia Ahlin scolded her colleagues in the Moderate Party who sided with SD against the Pride Flag. “Their decision goes completely against what the Moderates stand for in terms of equality of all people,” she argued.

Having legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, Sweden is considered to be a largely liberal and LGBTQ-friendly country. However, Solvesborg with its population of around 9,000 is often described in the media as an example of conservatism becoming more popular in Sweden’s countryside. The leader of the Swedish Democrats, Jimmie Akesson, grew up in the town, while mayor Erixon is his partner. He wrote in an Instagram post that no flags of political significance would be hoisted on city hall.

Putin’s Questioning of ‘Liberalism’ Causes Existential Shock

Interesting article - is it time for the Liberal pendulum to begin to swing back?

Or is it already in progress?

I imagine a shocked hush descending on newsrooms across the western world; perhaps a disturbance in the woke forcefield had warned them in advance.  Vladimir Putin had questioned liberalism.

In an interview with the Financial Times ahead of the G20 meeting in Japan, the Russian President gave his view of : “...the so-called liberal idea, which has outlived its purpose.”

The shock in the headlines was palpable, how could anyone question the dominance of liberalism? Liberals will accept anything (literally, that is the point) but they turn distinctly authoritarian when their beliefs are questioned. 

Putin holds the view that the “liberal idea has become obsolete”, which suggests to me that he has not tried to get a job in the mainstream media recently, where not only is it not obsolete, it is a prerequisite for even getting inside the building.

The existential crisis caused by Putin’s dismissal of liberalism was such that, in a wide-ranging interview that took in the potential dangers of a nuclear arms race, war between the US and China, and even the Salisbury poisoning saga, the FT chose to headline it’s scoop with “Putin says liberalism has become obsolete.”  

You may have noticed that is the same sentence structure small children use when they run to tell their mother what the big boy next door just said that blew their mind. Don’t believe me? Say this out loud: ‘Mummy, Putin says liberalism has become obsolete!’  You see?

Personally, I am a Liberal myself, there’s very little I can do about it, I hope history is kind to me and my ilk.  I am also a drinker, yet whether it’s drinking too much beer or opening the nation’s borders to mass immigration, I’m self-aware enough to wonder whether the long-term consequences might come back to bite me.    

So, it’s worth delving into the details of what the Russian president said, beyond the nuance-free soundbites that have been cherry-picked for a wider audience, to see what he actually said.

“As for the liberal idea, its proponents are not doing anything. They say that all is well, that everything is as it should be. But is it?” or “The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population”.

Objectively speaking, if there really is a wave of political populism washing across the western world, then it is probably failures with the liberal consensus that is largely to blame. People do think they’re being let down, and they blame the ideology of liberalism. A lot of people are concerned about the impact immigration has had on their lives, or they are confused about the new rules of gender, or they feel no one is representing them and that the elites are moving ever further away. If Liberals are not able to take all this into account, then electorates will find someone who can.

Later in the interview, Putin said: “Various ideas and various opinions should have a chance to exist … it does not mean that [the liberal idea] must be immediately destroyed. This point of view, this position should also be treated with respect.” Sorry, Mr President, liberals are not in the business of allowing different points of view.

So could an outside view lead to some soul searching, a discussion on whether liberalism has become ideological dogma which doesn’t always work when confronted by reality?

Well, no, Putin is the chosen bogeyman and, because he was the one who said it, Liberals will take that as a sign they must be on the right course.  But a view from the outside can be extremely useful, if you’re willing to consider it. 

By Simon Rite

Simon Rite is a writer based in London for RT, in charge of several projects including the political satire group #ICYMI. 

Canada & the Saudis: Snowflake Versus Tyrant

BY RAHEEL RAZA Clarion Project

Canada’s ongoing spat with Saudi Arabia can be likened to a snowflake versus tyrant.

In a recent tweet, Canada reminded Saudi Arabia about its human rights record, specifically relating to the incarceration of liberal blogger Raif Badawi and now his sister, a women’s rights activist.

The kingdom responded by imposing trade restrictions, recalling its ambassador and declaring Canada’s ambassador persona non grata.

Small potatoes

Two points are worth noting about this incident:

First, Canada is operating from a very weak and isolated position. The Canadian government has steadily weakened all trade accords under NAFTA and has lost its position of authority among G7 nations after a series of diplomatic and trade gaffes, including a disastrous trip to India by Prime Minster Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau has come to be known as a man-child and after his trip to China, he was nicknamed “Little Potato.” The Trudeau government also has been appeasing Iran, which irks Saudi Arabia.

Such is the lure of oil. Yet even Western countries are not supporting Trudeau on the latter decision.

(On a side note, Pakistan has come out in support of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. What an interesting conundrum that none of Trudeau’s members of parliament of Pakistani origin have condemned Saudi Arabia. Talk about infiltration!)

Saudi Arabia probably has the worst human rights record in history. They have beheaded more people than ISIS. The day after they tried to defend their human rights record, they bombed a school bus in Yemen. The death toll is currently at 40.

And it was their second such atrocity in a week.

Second, the real reason the Saudis are paranoid about social media regarding human rights or any criticism of their attitude towards women is because most of the Arab Spring uprisings were started through social media.

If this is true, it is an indication of how vulnerable Bin Salman feels about criticism and social media. Reforms are necessary if another Arab Spring is to be avoided sometime in the future, but reforms are not welcome in fundamentalist Islam. 

While Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) speaks of reforms, Muslims have been struggling for reform for 1,400 years. And as much as they claim to have changed, the Saudis are by no means reformers.

Between their turf war with the equally evil regime of Iran and their constant export of their Salafi/Wahabbi ideology, they will eventually destroy the Muslim world if not the entire world.

As noted by J.J. McCullough in The Washington Post, “If Canada’s goal is a foreign policy oriented to endorse the spread of global liberalism, it is not at all obvious how a prolonged fight with Riyadh is more principled than tighter trade ties to Beijing or an embassy in Tehran.”

Just when I was beginning to believe that Foreign Minister Christia Freeland was a very capable minister, she pulls this trick out of her hat. Foreign policy by Twitter may work for bullies, and Christia may be a bully at heart but she cannot back up her bullying like Donald Trump can. Her only form of support is Trudeau and being known as 'Snowflake' or 'Little Potato' severely limits Justin's usefulness as an international heavyweight. Only another strongman can take on a strongman. Christia needs to find more traditional methods to practice diplomacy.

French Politicians Call for Those on National Security Watch List to be Expelled

Islamization Backlash in France

Perfect follow-up to yesterday's article on why France is such a target for terrorism. The balance between extreme liberal political correctness and national security has swung much too far to the left and must necessarily swing back hard.

Police guard the scene of a knife attack in Paris, France May 12, 2018 © Reuters/ / Reuters

In the aftermath of the Paris knife attack, French politicians are urging the authorities to kick those on the national security threat list, known as Fiche S, out of the country - even if they are there legally.

On Saturday evening, a 20-year-old man stabbed passers-by in the heart of Paris, killing one and injuring four more. The assailant, who was killed by police, was later identified by the media as a French national of Chechen origin named Khamzat Azimov.

Chechnya is Muslim, if you don't know.

He received French citizenship in 2010 and in 2016 he was reportedly put on the on the notorious Fiche S - a watch list used in France to flag individuals considered to pose a threat to national security.

The list doesn’t necessarily contain potential terrorists, it can include anyone who authorities believe represent a serious threat to the Republic, including violent protesters or hooligans. Those on the list may be put under surveillance, but not under arrest. 

Yet the name of the list has repeatedly resurfaced in the French media in connection with terrorism. Fiche S once included Amedy Coulibaly, an Islamist behind Île-de-France attacks in 2015, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, responsible for 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre and – most recently – Redouane Lakdim who was behind the Trebes attacks in March 2018.

On Sunday, the president of the Republican party Laurent Wauquiez released a statement, calling on President Emmanuel Macron to implement necessary measures to battle terrorism. One of the suggestions was “to expel systematically those on Fiche S who don’t have French nationality.”

Mayor of the southern French town of Béziers Robert Ménard, known for his controversial statements, also called for a review of the watch list. “The problem is that we have too [many people on] the Fiche S list in France. Our intelligence services are overwhelmed by the numbers. The question is: Do we have to expel them automatically? I think so, if they are foreign citizens,” he wrote.

Macron’s presidential rival, Marine Le Pen from the anti-immigration and Euroskeptic National Front party also hit out at Elysee Palace over its poor handling of potential threats. “What is the purpose of this Fiche S if it is not used to stop these time bombs from causing damage on French soil?” she wrote.

Another of Macron’s former presidential rivals, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, also released a statement calling for those on Fiche S to be expelled from France. “And we will still listen to the same hollow speeches of inaction and powerlessness!” he lamented on Twitter, referring to French authorities’ statements on the Paris knife attack.

“Recently naturalized" and "put on Fiche S": we will have to know in what order things were done...,” noted Florian Philippot who once served as vice president of Le Pen’s National Front party before launching his own.

Is the pendulum beginning to swing back toward security at the cost of hurting someone's feelings? It has to happen; and it has to happen soon.