Those generic rioting “youths” in Sweden
I was going to write a long article about the press’s coverage of the riots by so-called “youths” in Sweden, but this article pretty much covers the same territory:
In addition to the horrendous beheading of a British soldier in Woolwich by Muslim terrorists, Stockholm’s suburbs have seen riots for the last four nights, with car burnings and crowds throwing rocks at the police, reminiscent of the recurring riots in France.
Who are these rioters? The story on the Huffington Post has the following descriptions: “Gangs of youth… Around 50 youths…The youths set light to a parking garage… masked youths hurling rocks…. One policeman was attacked by youths.”
On the Bloomberg article with a link on Drudge, the rioters are described as “stone-throwing youths.”
The Washington Post: “Some 200 youths hurled rocks at police…Six youths were arrested.”
As for the neighborhood, Huffington reports:
Around 80 percent of the roughly 11,000 people living in Husby – a drab, low-income neighborhood of apartment blocks west of Stockholm – are first or second generation immigrants. “I understand that people react like this,” said Rami Al-Khamisi from the organization Megafonen, which represents citizens in Stockholm’s suburbs.
The New York Times has a short piece, which refers only to “riots in immigrant neighborhoods.
The MSM has united to hide what’s going on, in their efforts to out-PC each other and win the Most Tolerant prize. I do think that Reuters’ Niklas Pollard and Philip O’Connor may have edged out the others in the competition, though, because their article adds a lengthy blame-the Swedes-for-not-being-accommodating-enough-to-the-immigrants section:
Conversations with residents of this immigrant neighborhood soon bring tales of fruitless job hunts, police harassment, racial taunts and a feeling of living at the margins that are at odds with Sweden’s reputation for openness and tolerance…
As one Asian diplomat puts it: “On the one hand Sweden has all these immigrants. On the other hand, where are they? It sometimes seems they are mostly selling hotdogs.”
In a further illustration of two very different worlds, the first riot happened as many Swedes celebrated winning the world ice hockey championship. Most immigrants play football – it is a common refrain that ice hockey kits are too expensive.
“The worst vandalism is not what we’ve experienced in recent days,” said community leader Arne Johansson at a protest rally in Husby. “It is the creeping, slow vandalism that this rightist government has exposed us to over the past seven years.”
Seven years of center-right Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt – who has labeled the rioters hooligans – have lowered taxes and reduced state benefits. That has helped economic growth outpace most of Europe but Sweden also has the fastest growing inequality of any OECD nation.
Professor of criminology at Stockholm University Jerzy Sarnecki said society has become much more segregated, with a large, poor immigrant population living in areas of major cities where unemployment is dramatically higher than elsewhere.
Polls show a majority of Swedes still welcome immigration. Sweden has a reputation for treating new arrivals well – providing housing, Swedish lessons and allowing asylum seekers to live with relatives.
So which is it, folks? Is Sweden bad to them or good to them? No matter how much, it’s never enough for the entitled and their enablers.
By the way, Stockholm’s population is now 23% immigrant. Good luck with that.
The European model for immigration really doesn’t work, though it’s not because they’re not nice enough to them. It combines almost-unlimited numbers of new arrivals with no ability to assimilate them—which would be almost impossible to do in such huge numbers anyway, and is especially difficult with populations that have such huge economic and cultural and social differences from the host countries, no desire to change their ways in the cultural sense, and little push by the host country to do so. At least the US has had a long history of having to deal with immigrants, a society that has always been at least somewhat ethnically diverse, and a preference for assimilation and acculturation which, sadly, has been evaporating in recent years as we adapt the European model of cultural separatism and nanny-statism. Like so much of what we see in Europe, it’s really nothing to emulate.
[ADDENDUM: This should be unbelievable.
Except it’s all too believable.]
Rational people are stunned. They don’t know what to do while all their institutions fail.
Hang on rationalers! Chinese say May 2013 would be see the worst, and there would be a rally from there.
Kind of a consolation prize, though, isn’t it, to see the amazed and stupid looks.
I guess this explains why a leftist friend of mine has on several occasions sniffed that Scandinavians are racist: there are a lot of Muslim immigrants, many of whom are unhappy. Therefore…
I’ve read that people are blaming this on unemployment, disrespect, racism, social exclusion etc. How about we go back to basics and blame it on the people who are throwing stones at the police and setting things on fire?
This whole “look at what you made them do!” stuff is nonsense.
Tim Blair in OZ often refers to them as “youths of no description”. And then there’s this:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/nobodys_listening/
In the long history of the world there is no record of invaders assimilating to the ways of the invaded.
Re the riots: that’s not the worst of it. There’s a rape epidemic in Sweden and Norway — a bicultural rape epidemic.
In Memoriam
Throughout the West men have vanished – gone.
AWOL perhaps. I think there were none
For some long time now. Left not a son,
A prayer or a will. I’d read once there were some.
Neo,
What do you think of this?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/24/michael-adebolajo-ignorance-afghanistan-al-qaida
I don’t think it goes far enough, but it’s the proper and frame and a good step in the right direction.
* proper frame
This recent story about how natives live in fear of these “youths” in Norway is depressing. Seems these “youths” operate in packs & are systematically harassing and beating their fellow students in school.
http://tinyurl.com/bn5ppdp
In addition to “youths of no description,” I like Treacher’s “not all muslims…” method of reporting these numerous lone wolf incidents.
Lizzy @ 3:08 –
I remember one of the key moments in my transition from weird anarchist to (weird?) conservative involved realizing the moral necessity of attributing blame to perpetrators. The farther away one gets from that basic moral intuition, the surer one is to be politically insane.
Specifically, the realization came when I was reading Richard Pipes’ short book “Communism,” and I remember it like it was ten minutes ago. It was a footnote, page 135, and he was knocking down the standard leftist notion that the bombing of Cambodia was “the real cause” of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of mass exterminating terror:
“Some Western intellectuals, unwilling to blame this unprecedented slaughter on the communists, attributed it to the Americans, who in 1969-73 had bombed Cambodia in an attempt to destroy the Vietcong forces that had sought refuge there…”
And then the money line:
“…It is difficult to see, however, why the Cambodian’s rage against the Americans would vent itself in the killing of 2 million of their own people.”
For some reason the combination of mordant wit and compelling moral logic in that reply really put me at attention. Suddenly the whole leftist narrative of the Cold War collapsed before my eyes, like a house of cards in a hurricane.
Coming soon to an American City near you! Especially if you live in a Blue state “gun free” area.
We’ve always been a step behind the Euros. I’m just thankful our president, his fellow Dems, and the feckless members of the party of Stupid are doing their best to close the gap as quickly as possible. Why must we always lag behind the chic Western Euros?
The “Affordable” Care Act was a good start, but this is no time to rest! Next up – 30 million new fellow citizens, none of whom will know English, few of whom will care that they don’t, and many of whom will become resentful welfare cases – voting 75-25% for the party that promises ever more goodies.
Between “Praise be to Allah” and “La Raza” we’re in for some good times coming up. Good times.
kolnai,
They’ve done the same regarding the mass-murdering actions of insurgents and terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The only thing they know to do or care to do is blame and attack the US, because achieving their meta-goal of a new world order requires first and foremost defeating the US as ‘leader of the free world’.
The European Left denies human biodiversity — and champions the notion that you can shift men out of Africa into the northern latitudes without biological consequences.
There is a strong tendency for Americans to forget, or never comprehend, just how far north the Nordic lands are.
They are just a tad south of the Arctic Circle. Stockholm and Oslo are at latitude 60; Copenhagen is at latitude 56.
The Arctic Circle is at latitude 66.34.
What this means to Africans is that all of their cultural norms are overthrown:
The winter nigts are long, Alaskan long. Consequently, clinical depression is pandemic within the African immigrants.
Traditional foods are generally unavailable. Consequently, their wives have to abandon grandma’s cooking — it’s unaffordable if its possible at all.
The summer days are long, permitting (male) adolescents far, far, too much roaming time — for a culture with ‘turf issues.’
And, the whole five-times-a-day cursing of the infidel makes African muslims quite uneconomic.
Muslims are completely useless in any Nordic export industry. They won’t and don’t fit in.
Industry needs brainy workers — while Somalis on over run about 1.5 standard deviations lower in IQ. And that’s being generous.
Denmark found that even second generation muslims maintained a norm of -1.5 SD not withstanding intensive state funded remedial efforts.
The talent gap is so profound that the immigrants just throw in the towel — all of them. They collectively attack merely average Nordic students — as in beat so severely the children needs hospitalization. These crimes are so common that parents have found Nordic children playing hooky or deliberately flunking class.
If you’ve ever wondered how the American colonies ever got started down the road to segregated slavery — this IQ gap is telling.
Nordic populations are smart because Darwin worked his magic on prior generations. (As in 535-539AD)
Natural selection worked its magic on Somalis, too. However, genes that select for water parsimony and heat tolerance have absolutely no utility in the wet and cold far north.
This is a perfect instance of do-gooder-ism back-firing completely. There can be no social corrective.
The Africans can NEVER make a go of it so far north. It took the Swedish bloodline tens of thousands of years to make the shift. Such are the laws of nature and the nature of man.
“Suddenly the whole leftist narrative of the Cold War collapsed before my eyes, like a house of cards in a hurricane.”
Now, K, is this hyperbole? Confess! A technical device on your part, perhaps? One moment and poof (poof!) it’s all gone? Your thought process?
(Please don’t imply anything by poof! It’s just a word, sailor, we understand you’re down there in the hold of the ship, tucked far and away from comfort.)
Here’s some words and phrases which might be thought of as hyperbolic:
suddenly, whole, collapsed, before my eyes, like a house of cards in a hurricane.
My interpretation: You’re a cold hearted SOB!
I envision a Zeusean lightning rod hubrisianly thrown in occult manner to mock, yes mock (mock!) patriotic but pedestrian exegisessness.
We love you when you’re naughty!
Athena
Neo: “At least the US has had a long history of having to deal with immigrants, a society that has always been at least somewhat ethnically diverse, and a preference for assimilation and acculturation”
That’s the key for immigration to work – assimilation and acculturation. There must be a dominant culture with ethics, language, and national identity that binds a diverse people – nation as a tribe writ large. It needs to be clear for immigrants that they bear the burden of meeting the requirements of joining their new country.
The key to immigration is not a dominant culture but freedom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=zt1R8LQ5-LI&feature=endscreen
Hollywood told us they were waiting for a strongman.
We can’t even admit that shared values and even language are important. Diversity isn’t strength. Diversity is generally a hindrance to any functioning group. But shared values and language overcome that diversity. But when you say something like this, you’re a cultural imperialist or something.
The funny thing is, no Westerner would think to go into another nation and demand that the natives live as we do. We’ve really become rather craven.
wordan(etc.) –
Even Joyce nods.
Yeesh.
Jimmy J would not say so. He would history sacred.He would necessarily apply facts, not hyperbole. One must necessarily avoid hyperbole. Don’t you think? Isn’t that the historian’s first commandment? One must not make history serve one’s purpose and when hyperbole shows individual purpose, then, Yeesh.
But is she right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bfgrj_62-Y
Blert: You’re so wrong about race and intelligence that I’m not sure where to start, but I suggest that you read the works of Thomas Sowell for starters.
Neo says
“[ADDENDUM: This should be unbelievable. …”
Neo refers to,
Neo concludes,
“… ‘Except it’s all too believable.]”
Yes. In retrospect, and thinking of what our very own ancestors went through with similar types, it is indeed all too believable.
Remember King’s Mountain.
I read the Swedish Local from time to time. They too were not clear on who is involved in these riots.
They did however mention that the riot control police used racial slurs and that there was to be a follow up investigation on that. That however still did not help me to understand who was doing the rioting other than that they were immigrants.
It seems to be like its Middle Eastern youth who are upset over unemployment issues and quite possibly also being treated like 2nd class citizens.
I suppose we Americans should be grateful that our immigrants are mostly Mexicans.
For ongoing coverage of Europe’s “cultural enrichment” issues, there’s no better place than Gates of Vienna.
The muslims rioting, raping, and committing murder in the UK, Sweden, Netherlands, France, and elsewhere are not bent on destruction over unemployment. For the most part they immigrated to find low wage jobs and then latch onto the social welfare teat. They have no desire to assimilate and resent the fact that the natives do not share their ingrained misogyny and intense loathing of western civilization.
Nothing excuses their actions. There is no middle ground, give them a millimeter and they want a kilometer.
” Raj Says:
Shame to think that police are walking around provoking some of the citizenry to violence by shouting slurs at them. What could they possibly be thinking?
But then I was not even certain that all the rioters were citizens. As it is, I find it relatively difficult to work up much interest in the fate of Sweden or Swedes in general, and am beginning to feel the same way about the English.
In any event what moral obligation could I possibly have to care for the fate of people who are persistent masochists in the first place?
Raj, as Steve Sailer points out…the authorities are writing parking tickets for the owners of the burned-out cars. That’ll teach’m.
I, for one, welcome our new overlords. What was it, Omar or Mohammad or something? Now be a good fucking politician and get me a goddamn phone or something.
The swedes have painted themselves into a corner where their ideas of how to act leave them defenseless. they cant throw them out, they cant shoot them, and they cant break them up, and down the line.
IF you cant swim, its wise to avoid deep waters…
Of course, a new regime that had no such limits would not find such as hard to handle (with the caveat being world opinion, which if other places were changed would not matter any more)
to Soviet of Washington
no, the authorities are not writing parking tickets
the employees of those authorities are following the letter of their job descriptions which do not allow for them to think, or to adapt to any situation. if they follow the letter of what they are told to do, then they cant get in trouble and be responsible. its not their fault that the central planners didn’t write a perfect instruction set for each of the jobs below them.
its that simple.
our way of employing and handling them has changed from a position as a point of responsibility where a person had delegated autonomy to some extent to accomplish the job. to reams and reams of definition and instructions like mini laws in which little despots lock down employees, and mediocre through to the future
(remember, if you train your employees, they are going to want more money, or they are going to leave – so never actually train them, just make it look like you train)
i should point out that swedish law prevented the dialogue that people tried to have that would have potentially mitigated things. like in the US with articles that do not describe a perpetrator, vs ones that do, or the UK calling Pakistani’s Asians so that people will conflate, or the bands of roving men who were robbing and raping women in places like Stockholm but much more so in Malmo.. if you know this issue, you would know that the cars drawing attention so we look, but a lot more issues happen in malmo.
Although most of the immigrants in Sweden are Muslims, there have to be those of other religious persuasions.
One could tear a hole in this “justified rage of immigrants” narrative by showing that the only immigrants doing any rioting and vandalism are Muslims. Other immigrants may be just as “downtrodden” as the Muslim immigrants, but they’re not taking part in the violence. Why?
What’s going on in Sweden is jihad, plain and simple.
“The European model for immigration really doesn’t work,…”
Nor could it. The U.S.A. could theoretically take members of various nations and fuse them into an American nation, at least under the Melting Pot paradigm rather the current Salad Bowl where the constituent groups are pitted against one another and the Marxist politicos reap the votes; but the European nation-states (and Israel as well) are not proposition nations like the U.S.A. but ethnostates, nation-states where the nation is defined by some intrinsic criteria (ancestry or culture or some other thing), so bringing members of other nations into them and giving them full political rights destabilizes them completely.
That’s why I believe Israel’s only prospect for long-term, just and viable peace is to boot all the Arabs out of her borders. Members of a nation that already has a state should live in that state. I believe that the state should be its nation’s castle, its protective space where the members of the nation are kept safe and secure from demographic encroachment by means of exclusive political rights. The Leftists’ invention of the term “Herrenvolk Democracy” for this kind of sane, common-sense setup is nothing short of treasonous–it’s like calling someone a criminal for reserving his house to his family instead of admitting everybody like in Doctor Zhivago.
Breivik: John Brown?
Armchair,
Considering Breivik attacked the scions of the ruling class–it was a summer camp for older children of the ruling party–he’s even more focused than Brown.
Brown wanted to start a slave revolt.
Breivik wanted, apparently, to decapitate the ruling party, whose children could expect to be greased into journalism, politics, education, labor, and the ‘cracry. And could be expected to continue the policies to which Breivik objected. Given the numbers of people in Norway, the number of kids killed is a hell of a chunk of the party’s next generation.
He was crazy, but he wasn’t stupid.
Fact is, we may see if he did indeed have an effect. But other issues may supercede that, including a change of attitude toward the Establishment and the Muslim immigrant community. OTOH, perhaps the decapitation will make the change of attitude more likely, come sooner, be easier, be more severe. So it won’t be an isolated factor to be considered.
But it can’t mean nothing.
The original deal was that the socialist factions of Sweden would bring in immigrant values, give them citizenship and in return for voting socialist, the Swedish parties will provide maximum quality of life doles to the soon to be socialist voters.
I’m sure the socialists think that this is just an attempt to squeeze more dole out of the dolists, so thus they are upping the financial compensation and that will “fix” things.
“He was crazy, but he wasn’t stupid.”
His problem is that he had nothing to follow up on it. A tactical victory, in itself, is not enough. Nuking DC, in itself, is not enough. It wasn’t enough for Mao, and it won’t be enough for us or the Left.