Autokrator15 wrote:SelucianCrusader wrote:Oh, there are many conservatives here of varying flavours. Actually, the Swedish left is kind of like a walking dead, at least right now. If the polls are to be trusted, the next election will be a competition between our equivalents of your VVD and PVV (sort of), having 50-55% of the vote together (and there's a small Christian democratic party in parliament as well). This government kind of brought this upon themselves by their handling of the refugee crisis.
Actually a reason why the Social democrats could keep power for such a long time (and does now) is because they constructed the rules to be in favour of the biggest party, who can form a government without having a majority behind them. Only a plurality over any other bloc is needed. That's why ol' Göran Persson (our Tony Blair) could rule with a purely Social democratic cabinet when I was a kid, even when the Social democrats were down to 36% of the vote.
Swedish people aren't liberal in general. Quite a few might think of their intolerance as “progressive”, but Scandinavian people
are notoriously conformist and hate when people go outside the norm or show strong feelings. Nor are our laws really liberal. Come here and try to smoke pot like in your country or buy a prostitute and enjoy your stay in one of our prisons. In Sweden there's no limit on how long you can be detained btw, so make sure to really enjoy our outsourced prison meals.
Yeah, I converted when I was in my young teens. I began the process when I was 14 and took first communion when I was 16. We Catholics are around 2%, most are immigrants from central and southern Europe though. Sweden has a visible catholic heritage any way, with local saints decorating coat of arms and so on, we were all Catholic for over 500 years after all. The Church of Sweden is very funny. It's a church ruled by elected politicians (it's governance is dictated by law). Every four years they hold Church elections with political parties. It's like the “progressive” version of lack of separation between church and state.
Hahaha, well basically I enjoy rock music with ethnic themes. When I wrote that, I was thinking about Arkona (Аркона) if you know about them.
Sweden might not be liberal but it sure as hel is socialist. Your social welfare state and government interference in the market is idioticly big. You need some privatisation ala Thatcher and Reagan style
. Oh and about your catholicism, we'll cure you of your heresy soon enough, Ill make you a ten commandments abiding Calvinist (Yes, you are breaking the laws of God by worshipping your idols
)
Sweden is more corporatist than socialist. Welfare services are mostly a mix of public and private. It's called
kundvalsmodellen ("the customer's choice model") and basically means that you're worth a sum of public money that you can spend at a public or private institution of your choice. AFAIK, my country is the only country in the world where one can actually make profits from fully subsidized elementary schools.
The legend of mega-socialist Sweden comes from Sweden in the 80's when the Social democrats pushed for
giving labour unions control of businesses, which was a hugely unpopular idea (guess who controlled the unions?). A lot has changed since then. I have a cousin who lives in Northern Ireland were health care is actually free. Last time I had to go to the doctor, it costed about 20$. In some ways, the American welfare system might even be slightly more benign since they have food stamps. Here the only people who get free food (and housing, TV, internet) are the.. you know.. It creates a legitimate resent among quite a few people when some people don't get proper health care, and people can't feel safe outside.