I argued against car burning as bad for climate, and because people might get hurt, and because not helping us reach our goals (which is an open and just society where racist policies like what Paludan is proposing is off the table).
The protests and the car burning is getting interpreted as crimes and the inherent message is completely scrubbed away in the media. I was like “the costs in resources and human lives outweigh the benefits” but… there aren’t even any benefits.
This is what Paludan wanted to happen. He tricks the media into pushing his false narrative that it’s all about the book, “see how they act just because I wanna burn a book”.
We’re in a racist hegemony where the destroyer of democracy is protected and canonized as an incarnation of democracy, and those under the boot are demonized, and othered as undeserving of democracy.
And as wave after wave of feeling all this helplessness and frustration and I don’t know what to do, people write me, asking me “but what do we do?”
I don’t know. I have no idea and I’m feeling doomery. But let’s strap on that good old green thinking hat:
In Sweden, ultimately the power is the media. Any time something is on Uppdrag Granskning, the next week there’s a law against it.
Ergo, we need journalism. We need to get into mainstream media.
SVT, newspaper chronicles. The ultimate gatekeeper of reality and of who counts.
How do we even… does anyone know how to submit articles to those things? I can translate my recent posts about this to Swedish if there’s stuff from them people wanna use.
I am trying to think of the Paludan shitshow more seldomly and just enjoy spring (dialectics between not letting the hate&fear consume me vs not letting myself get too ostrich-headed) but when I check the news things are even worse; politicians doubling down on ignorance, privilege, bias, and racism, and reactions are even more violent, dangerous, and unfruitful.
It’s really undercommented that the disrespectful treatment of muṣḥaf is only a small fraction of the bigger problem, which is the underlying sentiment, mockery, hatred, and Paludan’s goal to eradicate and mass-deport muslims.
People aren’t (only) mad about a burning book (not that I condone it).
Invalidation feeds escalation.
Extolling Paludan as if he were a vital pillar of democracy and of “free speech” is ignorant and is suffocating. This is the open society sawing at its own branch, painting its own corner.
Let me start and end with that I expect better from politicans, police press contacts, and media than this. They need to do a whole lot better validating our concerns about Paludan. They’re fucking it up doubling down on him as if his acts and his agenda were untouchable and holy and enshrined in Swedish law. They’re not.
To protesters, you’re right that this is messed up, unfair, and cruel. The protests haven’t been working. Don’t shoot the messenger on that, it’s not me that’s trying to take your voice away. It’s the media and politicians, who have twisted it so that all the protests and ruckus only make them even more entrenched in their bigoted views. They’re biased and they’re unaware of their bias. Every stone thrown just has the opposite effect, just is further grist for their mill. (That’s how it’s been so far, these last few days, at least.)
I don’t wanna be patronizing or silencing or saying go slow, but for me, I’ve been helped by aiming for a sweet spot of urgency. I don’t wanna let things fester and boil and bubble under, but I want to be solution-oriented, deliberate, and precise.
Politicians, please sober the fuck up and realize that the guy you’re protecting is so far across the line that he can’t even see it from where he’s standing. “It’s a paradox but we need guys like him to be a democra…” No. He is ruining it for everybody.