“The Internet is a tool for the bad guys and their ideas.”
The following pieces about the suppression of civil liberties in Sweden all have one thread in common: the far-left organization Expo.
Fjordman sends the following introduction about the history and political affiliations of Expo:
The organization Expo is — unfortunately — very powerful in Sweden today. It was founded in the mid-1990s by the now-late Marxist activist Stieg Larsson. He ironically went on to sell tens of millions of books of crime fiction after his death.
In 2007 Mona Sahlin was elected leader of the Social Democratic Party, which has been Sweden’s largest party for generations and often its dominant political force. She stepped down as party leader after losing the 2010 elections, when she was the left-wing candidate for Prime Minister.
In 2011, after having been a serious candidate for Prime Minister only a few months earlier, Sahlin joined the board of the organization Expo.
The journalist and dissident writer Ingrid Carlqvist is currently co-editor of the newspaper Dispatch International, along with the author and historian Lars Hedegaard. They have documented how Expo came to have a very powerful unofficial influence over the Swedish public debate on immigration, or the total lack of such. Sweden is nearly paralyzed by a climate of fear. You risk being fired from your job and socially demonized by the left-leaning press if you say anything remotely critical of mass immigration. As a matter of fact, you risk being fired without saying anything at all in public. It can be enough merely to give a small donation as a private citizen to democratic dissident websites such as Avpixlat.
Expo has contributed negatively to this totalitarian climate. Some of its harshest critics have even compared it to Stasi, the secret police in the Communist dictatorship of East Germany (DDR). The few who dare speak up against mass immigration in Sweden risk being physically attacked as well. Expo has been accused of having too close a relationship with violent left-wing organizations.
The leading Expo member Charles Westin was in 2007 editor of a book about alleged right-wing extremists. In addition to contributions by radical left-wing academics such as Mattias Gardell, it further contained a chapter written by the extremely violent left-wing organization Anti-Fascist Action (AFA).
AFA have for years staged very violent attacks on people who dare to question mass immigration or oppose Islamization. Some of their victims have been attacked with axes even in their private homes. AFA often post videos on the Internet where they brag about such attacks. They have done this with near-impunity for many years. The political establishment looks the other way.
Among AFA’s many targets have been members of the perfectly democratic and legitimate political party Sverigedemokraterna (The Sweden Democrats) These attacks have continued even after the Sweden Democrats entered the Swedish Parliament in 2010. Expo’s notable board member Daniel Poohl, who is not democratically elected, has publicly stated that it’s “not undemocratic” to deny the Sweden Democrats access to political influence.
In early 2011Mona Sahlin went directly from being the national leader of the very powerful Swedish Social Democratic Party to sitting on the board of Expo together with Charles Westin. That a leading politician sits on the board with a person who has cooperated openly with groups beating up members of a legal opposition party might have raised a few eyebrows elsewhere, but not in Sweden.
[See also: Fjordman on Expo here and here.]
Thoralf Alfsson is a member of parliament for Sverigedemokraterna from Kalmar. On Tuesday he wrote wrote the following post in his blog about how he has come to live in fear, as have many other Swedes who hold politically incorrect opinions. Mr. Alfsson identifies a particular trigger for the onset of his fear: Expo.
Our Swedish correspondent LN has translated Mr. Alfsson’s post, and follows it up with related material about the official and semi-official crusade against “hate” on the internet:
I’m Afraid
Every time the phone rings and the display shows the hidden number, I feel a great discomfort and a strong sense of unease, but I still almost always answer it. In nine cases out of ten, it is a journalist calls, or Expo.
Yesterday a person from Expo called. My discomfort and malaise is not lessened by the fact that it was someone from Expo — in actuality, one becomes only more uneasy and anxious. I know that he is no kind man, but someone who dislikes me, maybe even hates me and does not wish me well. He is not objective and has no honest purpose in calling, but is just looking to get a quote he can use to hurt me politically! In other words, a person from the Expo just want to hurts me by damaging my reputation and defaming me within legal limits. That is the stark and bitter truth! Therefore I never answer his questions but just say that I have no comment, and then the call is over for me, but it is never respected and he continues nagging, and I finally get to hang up with the knowledge that one will soon get to read something less nice on their hateful website.
An Expo employee is never objective, but has an agenda that seeks to harm me and my party. This process also spills over to my children and other relatives and friends who are indirectly affected. These items will attract further various “hilarious” people who do not hesitate to engage in such actions as unlawful threats.
Expo’s staff has all the politically correct media corps behind them who happily pick Expo’s twisted creations for their own newsrooms. Aftonbladet and Expressen have their own hacks rooting around, and come with their own interpretations of the same material that can also be spiced up with various errors. Here is no serious and honest journalism, but this applies double standards and practices. One rule applies to 7-clover* politicians and quite another to the Sweden Democrats.
Moreover, not only the politically correct media corps are cheering on Expo; numerous members of parliament from the 7-clover alliance, artists, celebrities, top union figures and even the Swedish Church also support the Expo’s personal persecution. Stigmatizing is just the beginning word for what is going on in Sweden.
I also think it’s very cowardly to call from a hidden number! Not daring to stand for something is just pathetic and a sign of weakness. Not to show who you are when you call is pure cowardice.
Starting today, I stop answering calls from a hidden number!
Last Sunday, I wrote a blog post about Islam Net in Norway. On several occasions Expo has identified myself and others as Islamophobes. It is documented! The first time I ended up as such, it was not only me on Expo’s list of Islamophobes, but also the journalist Kurt Lundgren, who became angry. Read the article from Ölandsbladet.
Continue reading →
To emphasize the necessity of genuine freedom of expression, think of the history of the last couple of centuries, when there was no freedom of expression. In the era of Maria Theresa, even going to mass was monitored. In the Nazi era, it was compulsory to support the Nazis’ nationalistic, anti-Semitic and racist “values.” Then, until 1989, half of Europe had to have the “values” of class warfare and the exploitative build-up of socialist societies. In truth, regimes were protecting their own power.