Hacker News Reader

Comment by berntb | Hacker News Reader

My comment -- despite being quite carefully written and about something few people on HN really care about -- have really jumped up and down in votes. Which is expected. [Edit: A bit weird when it first had multiple plus votes, then ended up on -2 -- and the vote counter is +2? :-) 20 minutes later, up to 0 and vote counter 4. ]

The most extreme parameter when Sweden was compared to the rest of Europe used to be the high amount of trust in the society. People trusted each others and the state.

All that seems to be disappearing. I saw in my FB stream "Sweden is a country where we are right now learning to hate each others".

Sad. Or maybe it is part of growing up, as a country and as a society.

Edit: Vendan seems to think I'm happy about this change in societal climate? :-( I'm closer to mourning.

View on HN

Well, hating others is the first step. Soon you'll be able to "Make Sweden Great Again!"(tm)!!!

/sarcasm

You only think you´re being sarcastic. A small note here on Swedish history.

Back in the day (1600´s or so), Sweden was one of the great military powers of Europe, occupied Norway and Finland, and had armies and mercenaries fighting down as far as Munich in Germany. They were actually one of the leaders of the Protestant Revolution.

Back in the day...

Generally correct, but Finland was a part of Sweden since hundreds of years earlier than the 1600s (ignoring the question if you can use the concept "nation" about Sweden in e.g. the 1200s).

And Norway never really got into our greedy, grasping Swedish hands until much later... they had a bad time enough with being part of Denmark anyway. :-)

Edit: And I finally got that Vendan's point was about the recent US election. :-)

yeah, it was the sad kind of sarcasm where I'm sobbing inside :(

> People trusted each others and the state. All that seems to be disappearing.

I completely agree on that. Why is where we look at different measures. A lot of hard working people is seeing their income disappear. You can blame Wealth Inequality and fight for a better distribution. Or you can try to fight other low income groups to get as much as you can from the leftovers of the pie.

I agree that you should be sad or even angry. But not with people that has less than you, not with people that flees wars that they didnt started, but with the ones that are taking a bigger share of the cake that what's their fare share.

I wrote an answer, but removed it. I'm not arguing simplified Swedish politics on HN.

Sweden already is in the absolute top of redistribution of wealth. It is not the rich people's money you can get, since you can't have a too different system than every other country in the EU. (The threshold for moving is sinking quickly.)

Do note that people earn their money by taking them "out of their backs", as an older generation put it. Only populist left wing politicians think tax money are free.

There is a small radical group that believe destroying Sweden and all Nation States and unlimited migration is the wonderful utopia of the future. Of course most of these people make very good money from NGOs who promote this idea. They are becoming very militant to try and save these ideas and want to shut down any free press and free speech because the truth is that these policies are a disaster and most rational people will admit that now.

Do not let them bully you. They have no real power and are very small but very loud and angry.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com