My user name is Swede,I hate right-wing phonies. Keep cards and letters

[Swede]

coming. John Fund is a motherfucker,childmolester rightwing cocksucker.

[Swede]

1. Tucker Carlson sucks cock.

[ithacan]

11. what's wrong with that?

is that supposed to be an insult?

[Swede]

2. Bob Novak is a traitor

[cliss]

3. Swede, you seem

a little worked up... it can't be all that bad. Besides, we all know the Ream-publicans are reaping their own "rewards", and we will get to be the lucky onlookers.

Hang in there! From one Swede to another.

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. bush

rove, cheney, and novak are traitors

[berry]

9. Have you or Swede noticed how many RWers have

Swedish names? I started a running list and it's getting pretty long--Victor Davis Hanson, Tucker Carlson, Stephan Thernstrom, Rehnquist, Grover Norquist, Ted Olson, "Buzzy" Krongard(?), etc, etc. Just wondering--am I the only one who has the impression that Swedes are over-represented (in terms of their % of the population) in the activist RW? Maybe I'm just oversensitive.

My father immigrated here from Sweden and he was a socialist. He used to call America a backward country for not having universal health care. I really, really don't know where these people are coming from. I was toying with the idea of writing a book about them just to figure it out (it might sell in Sweden?). But then I realized I'd have to interview them or at least read most of the garbage they write, and decided it wasn't worth it.

Actually, I have no personal acquaintance with extreme right wingers of any extraction. I find it really hard to understand WHY they believe what they appear to believe. So I think my interest in them is sort of "the fascination of the abomination" (though not precisely in the sense the phrase was used in "Heart of Darkness"--I am NOT drawn to evil (RW) people or ideas. Like Swede, I hate them.)

edited to add a few more names (and there are a lot of lesser known-- but still with the power to do a lot of ill--people I've left out)

[JohnKleeb]

10. I dunno

Interesting though there were a lot of Swede lefties as well, Earl Warren was either Norweigen or Swede.

[berry]

12. Oh, I know--generalizing is pointless.

But I did wonder just what tradition(s) these creeps come out of.

And of course, as the example of Earl Warren shows, there are lots of people whose mother's side was Swedish (or Norwegian) and we'll never know, one way or another. I wasn't totally serious in that post--I mean, I didn't really think anyone would have an answer, or even agree with me that there's a pattern out there. And I'm not at all sure about it myself. As I said, just wondering.

One of the worst RWers was a guy named Abraham Vareide (a Norwegian) who became very influential after WWII. He started out pleading the case of ex-Nazis to Marshall Plan people. Virulently anti-Communist. His Christian group is now called the "Family". Google Shalot, who wrote an article about this group in Harpers. These people were and are scary. I can probably dig out the links to this info if anyone is interested--but as this is the lounge, I won't go into more detail unless asked...

(Note--I'm not down on Norwegians either--my mom was Norwegian. And I don't personally know any of the bad ones.)

[JohnKleeb]

13. I wouldnt know personally but I always thought of the GOP to be a

bunch of WASPs lol
BTW as I say I am a Celtic Slavic Germanic person lol.

[Skittles]

5. I like you

:thumbsup:

[Swede]

6. Thanks Skittles.

I got a little carried away last night.

[goobergunch]

7. *gasps* (n/t)

[Swede]

8. I know.

[cliss]

14. I'm an immigrant from Stockholm

and I can assure you all my (numerous) relatives are all on the left of the dial. Not a single one of them can be considered "conservatives". They believe in taking care of each other.

Of course, it helps to keep in mind that BushCo is not Republican. They are something else. They just 'borrowed' a party to further their own plans.

And they positively DESPISE what they see going on over here. As the rest of the world, I assume.

[berry]

15. Hi cliss! Yes--that's how all my Swedish relatives are too.

(We're still in touch because it was my dad who immigrated.) And even my cousins in the US are very liberal--I would call them (and myself) radical egalitarians. There are two who I think might vote GOP, but they are pretty apathetic, not particularly interested in politics. That's why I'm so confused about where all this rabid RW activism is coming from. If my observation is correct. It's a puzzle.

Of course, there are differences between Swedes and Swedish Americans because of different experiences. For example, immigrants needed the church for support and community in the early days--so almost every immigrant group in the US is more "religious" than back in the "old country." And there was an authoritarian streak in the Lutheran Church as I remember it growing up--or maybe it was just our pastor. Still, the Lutherans are pretty liberal these days... So I just don't know.

Maybe it's nothing to do with Swedish heritage, and just part of the American pathology. I do know that some immigrants were deported for being leftists--one of my dad's friends being one of them (though I don't know all the details). This left his friends nervous and somewhat careful about expressing their views too openly, during the 40s and 50s at least. America wasn't all that welcoming to people on the left, even before WWII--fear of the laboring classes rising up and all that. The Cold War only reinforced these tendencies. So America had its influence (to greater or lesser extent) on who came, who stayed and how they behaved. But I don't have answers, just questions.

Anyway, I hope you weren't offended by my posts. I do know that Swedes in Sweden are quite as appalled by what's happening in America as anyone else on earth, and maybe more appalled. And I wasn't indicting the whole Swedish-American community. The people I was talking about are really a small group--but very vocal and, in the present mood of the country, very powerful. Just making an idle observation, and quite willing to be corrected.

[cliss]

16. Hi, berry

I'm glad there are more Swedes here at DU. And also, more on the democratic side. I really don't know what the story is with conservative Swedes.

Yes, I agree that most people in Sweden are observing the current events with horror. One Swedish young lady recently asked a friend of mine who was visiting in Gotland, if the Americans will come to Sweden and bomb them, if they protest too much, or go against US opinion. Horrible.