Sweden’s ‘Official’ Twitter Makes Odd Comments About Jews Jewish people make up 0.16 percent of the population in Sweden. That’s slightly more than in Norway, slightly less than in Switzerland. It’s conceivable that many people growing up in Scandinavian countries — or, really, anywhere in Europe, except maybe Gibraltar — might have never met a real-live Jew. Naturally, they might be curious. Sweden’s “official” Twitter account, @Sweden, is intensely democratic. A new citizen takes the reins every week, and although the account is managed by the Swedish government, each new personality has the freedom to express her- or himself without much restraint. One week it was a lesbian truck driver named Hanna. This week it’s Sonja (above), a single mom. It’s natural to use this platform to ask questions, even embarrassing ones; on Tuesday morning, she asked a doozy of one. Whats the fuzz with jews. You can’t even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises, and even if you do, you can’t be sure!? — @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012 It begs the question: Is the government screening anything on the account? And if it is, why didn’t it screen this? Or will it? (At 11 a.m., six hours after the original post, the tweet was still live.) More questions followed — and so did criticism, causing Sonja to respond, “I thought it was a good idea to ask the question when so many well-educated people all over the world can answer.” Her queries are alarming for her historical ignorance and her ambivalence about why such a question might be triggering or insulting, but also for the unfortunate fact that this week, her ignorance is especially significant — it represents her entire country, whether intentionally or not. Sweden’s post–World War II legacy is complex. During the war, Sweden, a neutral country, took in thousands of refugees but allowed German troops to traverse freely. It adopted wartime immigration laws to turn away asylum seekers from Germany, forcing many back into hostile territory and, eventually, concentration camps. Sweden’s social-media management should be screening their guest Twitterers. This could turn into a PR nightmare. But the real issue is that if Sonja’s questions are any indication, the country is in need of some serious education about the Holocaust and its global legacy. If @Sweden’s Twitter transparency results in increased historical consciousness, the uncensored-social-media experiment, however disastrous, might not be the worst idea. [HT Gawker] Cooper Fleishman is HyperVocal’s managing editor. Follow him on Twitter. Follow us! Click and Follow Us for more updates straight to your news and nonsense feeds.
David R. Evans 12.06.12 @ 2:46 pm Zionist propagandists have conflated Judaism, Zionism and Israel in a successful effort to crush legitimate criticism of Israel’s murderous and illegal expansion onto stolen lands. If one criticizes Zionists illegitimate state, one is met with condemnation, and is accused of being unsympathetic to the long-suffering Jews. These good Jewish people know the difference between Judaism and Zionism, and they know that Israel is a racist, apartheid abomination: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/ “Zionism’s assertion that Israel was given its birth certificate and thus legitimacy by the UN General Assembly partition resolution of 29 November 1947 is pure propaganda nonsense, as demonstrated by an honest examination of the record of what actually happened.” – Alan Hart, author of Zionism, The Real Enemy of the Jews, and close friend of former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir: http://www.countercurrents.org/hart050410.htm
Omphalos 12.06.12 @ 3:55 pm My interpretation of the tweets from Sonja are, that she, albeit somewhat ham-fisted, tried to criticize why jewish people are, and have been through history, prosecuted and murdered since they have no external traits that define them as a people (mind you that I am also from Sweden and may not be able to explain my point perfectly.) In my eyes, she’s asking why it was the Jews that the Nazis were trying to exterminate. It shows that she might not be very well-educated in the matter, sure, but racist? I don’t know. I’m not sure I understand exactly what the fuss is all about.
Barkleyspam 14.06.12 @ 3:33 am Aside from the spelling mistakes, little seems wrong with Sonja’s comments. I am a Jew and, when told as a child about the Holocaust, asked my parents how the Nazis could distinguish Jews. She asks “Was it a blood-thing?” and is even polite enough to add “(for them)”. The answer is Yes, it was a blood-thing, i.e. a racial-thing for the Nazis, as demonstrated by the fact that the Nazis observant Jews, non-observant Jews, and converts to Christianity in precisely the same murderous way.