Can we talk about Sweden for a bit?

Can we talk about Sweden for a bit?

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Discussion

Looket

Original Poster:

688 posts

120 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
Let's talk about Sweden. I feel that the world should know what's happening here at the moment.

It's all very complicated, and I don't feel quite well-informed enough to explain everything from top to bottom so perhaps other Swedish (or others with ties here) users could fill in the blanks.

Basically, a lot in Sweden is public record. My name, NI number, phone numbers, registered address, registered cars, income, high school grades, criminal record and any correspondence I've ever had with government (e.g student loans company) are all out there for all and sundry to marvel at. Most of it free, some of it yours for a small fee to a private company.

Now, there are two companies in particular that act more akin to STASI than anything else. Piscatus, owned by Robert Aschberg (tv personality with a show called 'Troll Hunters' that turns up at peoples' homes to confront them about what they've written on the internet, and grandson to an infamous banker who allegedly laundered stolen Soviet gold) describes itself as a 'news agency' that specialises in collecting and collating information from courts, authorities and government agencies. For a small fee all information pertaining to an individual found in those documents is yours. Also on the board is Martin Fredriksson, a self-proclaimed journalist heading the group known as Researchgruppen.

Researchgruppen is a collection of political activists cum journalists with many and known ties to extraparliamentarian autonomous leftist groups. In other words, the violent extreme revolutionary left. In 2013 they hacked the entire Disqus database together with the newspaper Expressen to name and publish people who had been expressing anti-immigration views. They have claimed that they have the names and full details of around 400 people that in essence, have the wrong opinions. What will eventually happen to those people or their details is anyone's guess.

However, the last few days have been a bit special. It all started when yet another newspaper, Aftonbladet, stated that they would start naming 'trolls' and 'haters' on Flashback. Flashback is the largest general interest forum in Sweden with a million registered users and topics covering every imaginable aspect of human interest - from computer games to drugs, from sexual-, psychological- and medical health issues to politics. Despite promising to only publish those in a position of power, thus far a doctor, a lawyer, a lumberjack (WTF!) and ONE politician have been outed for their views on immigration and 'racist' comments. There is a lot more to come.

It has been rumoured for years that Researchgruppen had a hacked database dump of the Flashback membership list, but nothing was ever confirmed. Two days ago however, Piscatus were hacked and a list containing the NI numbers and emails to 40,000 people registered at Flashback was leaked. As things stand, it would appear that Researchgruppen indeed do have a membership list (albeit slightly dated, around 2010 or so) and that they have cross-referenced the e-mails used for registering at Flashback with information stolen from hacked internet shopping sites et al; this would be the final list of 40,000 e-mails that they have been able to connect to actual people. This list has then been shared with the likes of Piscatus and God knows who else to presumably trawl through each and every single post ever written by those people. A huge register of views if you will, available to anyone for a small fee. And all in the name of journalism and freedom of expression, of course. Also highly illegal, but seeing as the period of limitation has now passed... meh.

At this point I should explain what we like to call the 'opinion corridor' over here. It's an incredibly narrow spectrum of views and opinions that are considered OK by the medial and political elite - the rest are immediately brandished racist, nazi, fascist and so on. Our last prime minister explicitly stated that Sweden does not belong to Swedes. In other words, any kind of opposition to current (batst crazy, I might add) immigration policies is very much taboo. It is openly accepted that anyone supporting the Sweden Democrats (UKIP equivalent currently polling around 20%) only have themselves to blame if they get physically abused - let alone loses their job and becomes a social outcast. I'm not exaggerating, it's not hyperbole, it just is what it is. I would quite literally be fearful of my own life had I been in that list and expressed any kind of 'deviating' views.

Sorry if this is all very confusing a frankly a bit odd, but again - I'm a bit confused myself and I hope others can fill in the blanks and connect the dots. I just wanted to let you all know that time travel is indeed a possibility - you're only a two hour plane ride away from 1984.

I despair.

aizvara

2,050 posts

166 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
Looket said:
Lots....
From what little I know of the Sweden Democrats, they come across like a bunch of racist, misogynistic morons who have a habit of whining when people take them to task for their more egregiously stupid pronouncements.

Is that the sort of thing that Aftonbladet have been "outing"?

Edited by Big Al. on Thursday 12th February 17:01

wc98

10,334 posts

139 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
here was me thinking it was some wonderful socialist eutopia over there. looking at the previous post it would appear the thought police have followed you to pistonheads smile

Esseesse

8,969 posts

207 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
From what I've read, Sweden looks like it may well have serious issues in not so many years. And it seems to be firmly in the grip of the arguably far/fanatical left.

aizvara

2,050 posts

166 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
wc98 said:
here was me thinking it was some wonderful socialist eutopia over there. looking at the previous post it would appear the thought police have followed you to pistonheads smile
Why is expressing one set of opinions OK, but any response is somehow 1984-incarnate?

Bluebarge

4,519 posts

177 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
All the member states of the European Union (EU) are also signatories of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article 8 of the ECHR provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence," . This all sounds like a clear breach of that.
Is there no equivalent of this lot in Sweden?
https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/


wc98

10,334 posts

139 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
aizvara said:
Why is expressing one set of opinions OK, but any response is somehow 1984-incarnate?
sorry mate ,it was only a joke ,the smiley was supposed to convey that. i have very little knowledge of the current situation in sweden,what i have heard is a bit worrying ,but it is for swedes to sort out.

BrabusMog

20,083 posts

185 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
I spend a lot of time in Sweden, they seem to have a lot of the issues that we do. Although it is a bit of a socialists paradise. I've asked my girlfriend what the hoohah is, I'll report back.

Esseesse

8,969 posts

207 months

Justayellowbadge

37,057 posts

241 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
I used to spend a fair bit of time there 10 years or so ago - it really is a very conservative place. Not a place that fosters true individualism.

TEKNOPUG

18,844 posts

204 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
What you've described is the storyline form an as yet, unreleased Nordic Noir. I therefore suggest that you get Saga Norén on the case yes

aizvara

2,050 posts

166 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
wc98 said:
sorry mate ,it was only a joke ,the smiley was supposed to convey that. i have very little knowledge of the current situation in sweden,what i have heard is a bit worrying ,but it is for swedes to sort out.
No worries, it's probably me being touchy - been a long day policing thoughts and suchlike.

wc98

10,334 posts

139 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
aizvara said:
No worries, it's probably me being touchy - been a long day policing thoughts and suchlike.
smile

BrabusMog

20,083 posts

185 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
I asked my missus about that article that was linked to earlier and she replied:

We have one called Sverige Demokraterna, and they have a few people who is really racist.. They call black people for n***** and stuff like that, and that's not acceptable. But they're really popular if you ask the people.... Sweden is a really bad country when it comes to immigrants.



The Don of Croy

5,976 posts

158 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
Esseesse said:
That article makes for interesting reading - could be the future of European politics...

Looket

Original Poster:

688 posts

120 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
This is a fair summation of events: http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=3269...

It looks and reads like a bit of a looney site, but it explains things a bit better. Just to clarify, unlike the previous Expressen outing, this one has not been entirely focused on SD. This time private individuals without any seemingly obvious political affiliation have been hung out to dry. There's a Green Party politician, and the aforementioned lawyer has some kind of relation to SD but the rest are just normal people with 'uncomfortable' opinions.

The thing is, it's not really about SD (or any kind of perceived racism or any other BS) at all. The debate climate in Sweden is ridiculously repressive, people simply can't voice their opinions without fear of heavy reprisals. So there's a lot of pent up frustration, and the sole outlet is Flashback. People are angry, people are upset, and in the heat of the moment they say things that sound really quite bad. These are the people, who come from all walks of life, that the establishment is hounding relentlessly. And now also evidently systematically surveilling and creating huge databases worth of incredibly sensitive data available to anyone with a bit of cash. It's rather slippery a slope and dangerous in more ways than I could possibly begin to imagine. As said, there are 1 million registered users (out of a population of 9 million) - there are all kinds of people there. Politicians, journalists, normal 9-5 proles, students, but perhaps most importantly a plethora of criminals, psychos and general nutters who now have learned that a.) they may be rumbled and b.) people they don't particularly like on there may be rumbled in exchange for $$. Do the math. Also add a rather large chunk of the extreme (and violent) left with free access to that database and you have a serious social disaster on your hands.

Bluebarge, I'm not really sure where this is all heading at the moment as it's quite fresh. But as far as I know, atleast Piscatus and Aftonbladet are protected from privacy invasion laws under journalistic research laws. They're allowed to hold a lot of information about people, whether or not that applies in this case I don't know. But as said, all the hacks would have been done atleats five years ago, so although obtained illegally it would appear that the information is now allowed to be used freely by Aftonbladet without any legal complications.

Edited by Looket on Thursday 12th February 17:20

BrabusMog

20,083 posts

185 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
Interestingly enough, my girlfriend mentioned Flashback and said she would never post there but enjoys reading it "even if people do talks about murders and stuff like that".

flyingvisit

235 posts

123 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
It's my understanding that Swedish cities have serious issues with (mainly) Muslim immigrants. Nothing serious, just ghettos, gang rape, that sort of thing. You know, the usual. And NO dissent is allowed.

I suspect (alright, I know) that Google will provide all the gory details.

FredClogs

14,041 posts

160 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
Aye, Norway is pretty similar, they've allowed themselves to be run by a clique for too long, they're small countries where the political control has been pretty narrowly focused and because of the natural wealth or generous state people have never really felt the need to complain to much, plus it's fecking cold for long periods so complaining on forums is pretty much all people can do. To be fair France is pretty similar but the weather means they can get out a bit more and burn a sheep or something, the French people know well enough to throw a tantrum at the right time.

Looket

Original Poster:

688 posts

120 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
BrabusMog said:
Interestingly enough, my girlfriend mentioned Flashback and said she would never post there but enjoys reading it "even if people do talks about murders and stuff like that".
People talk about literally everything.

Do a Google Translate and see: https://www.flashback.org/

flyingvisit said:
It's my understanding that Swedish cities have serious issues with (mainly) Muslim immigrants. Nothing serious, just ghettos, gang rape, that sort of thing. You know, the usual. And NO dissent is allowed.

I suspect (alright, I know) that Google will provide all the gory details.
Yep, nothing serious. It's also a complete coincidence that Malmö, the third largest city with 41% of its population being of a foreign background (the majority of which are from the Middle East and the Horn of Africa) is the bomb capital of Europe. Nothing to see here!