26 years ago, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, killing 16 kids and a teacher. The UK govt responded by enacting tight gun control legislation. In the 9400+ days since, there have been a total of 0 school shootings in the UK. #Uvalde
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Christian Christensen
@ChrChristensen
American. Professor at Stockholm University. Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin. Write about journalism, politics, culture.
Joined May 2007
Christian Christensen’s Tweets
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You may well ask: "Were there mass school shootings BEFORE Dunblane?" Answer: No. But, the fact that UK government took action after one event shows what I consider to be decisive action. Gun control clearly made it less likely to happen again...and that's the whole point.
I’m no political scientist, but if you have 12 “key speakers” at your convention, and 6 of them have the same last name as the leader, your party might just be floating into North Korean territory.
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Usual bullshit from my fellow Americans about stabbings in the UK. I hate to break it to people, but the US has a higher per capita homicide rate with knives than England & Wales. In addition to a gun homicide rate that's 90x higher than England & Wales.
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US gun nuts: "In Europe you don't have guns to protect yourself so you get stabbed!"
Guns (2017)
England & Wales: 4.6 per 100
USA: 121.5 per 100
Knife homicides (2020)
England & Wales: 0.48 per 100,000
USA: 0.54 per 100,000
Complete and utter bullshit.
#Buffalo
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At this point, opposing gun control is enabling mass murder. Period. #Uvalde
Yes. It’s called “voting.”
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Replying to @dokuz8news
AKP vice chair Ali İhsan Yavuz said "there must be some kind of organized action across Istanbul to get these results."
I’ve lived in the US, UK, Turkey and Sweden. I can promise you, Swedes are the least worried about someone burning their flag. If Turkish protesters wanted to get Swedes mad, they should have made a video of themselves not sorting bottles and cans from their trash for recycling.
People tweeting me that 30% of women in Sweden feel unsafe alone at night. Number similar globally. It's not immigrants. They're called men.
Biden's lead in Arizona is currently 19,348.
The Navajo Nation vote in Apache, Navajo & Coconino counties in AZ -- the three that overlap the Navajo Nation -- voted 97% for Joe Biden: 73,954 votes to 2,010 for Trump. That's Biden +71,944. More than 3 times Biden's current lead.
In Sweden abortions have been available on demand (up to 18th week) since 1974. In '75 there were 20.3 abortions per 1000 women. In 2018 it was 19.2. Number been almost same for 40+ years. Idea that easier access makes women treat it like a "contraceptive" is misogynist bullshit.
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These idiots will literally do ANYTHING except reduce access to macho war porn tools. Even if kids have to keep dying. #Uvalde
Swedish staff left the embassy as their Afghan colleagues worked. Then, they refused to answer calls from the Afghan staff and even blocked their official email accounts. Left the country. twitter.com/jahootsen/stat
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In the 21 years since 9/11 roughly 275,000 Americans have been murdered using firearms. When 3000 died we scanned bodies and took shoes off for 20 years.
I’m not 100% sure, but this Trump supporter wearing a t-shirt reading “BBQ, Beer, Freedom” interrupting a press conference in Nevada might just be the most perfect crystallization of what’s going on in the US. Ever.
From
Timothy Burke
"Leave her religion out of it!" say conservatives who 3 minutes earlier said Ilhan Omar wearing a headscarf means she wants Sharia Law.
Imagine Sadiq Khan taking a trip against govt regulations to heavily COVID19-infected Muslim nation where Khan attends indoor event with thousands not wearing masks. Khan then returns to UK and breaks quarantine rules. Then imagine reaction of media, Farage and political right.
Swede Simon Åkesson turns a Trump speech into rambling nonsense in Swedish about Pippi Longstocking. Even if you can’t understand Swedish, it’s gold.
From
Emanuel Karlsten
Imagine Muslims in the US going to mosques, likely spreading disease, and saying on camera that they are protected by the blood of Mohammed....then imagine the collective brain explosions of Fox News and US conservatives.
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“I go to the grocery store every day,” says the woman who is attending church services.
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Muhammad Ali on race in the US...and wondering why Tarzan, the “King of the Jungle” in Africa, was white. Guy was a national treasure. #BlackLivesMatter twitter.com/inthenow/statu
Man rapes woman
Woman gets pregnant
Man tells woman she must have baby because God
Man then tells single mother she is a drain on society
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Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg has told GMB he opposes abortion and believes it should not be an option, even after a woman has been raped
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One of these people got 8 months in prison for occupying the US Capitol after a violent clash with police where the building was stormed. The other got 5 years in prison for mistakenly voting while she was on parole (and vote wasn’t even counted). Try and guess which is which.
1) Sweden's Corona Commission, put together by the Swedish govt to evaluate national response to COVID outbreak, came out with a new report. It contradicted a great deal of bullshit spread by people outside of Sweden. Here are some of the key findings, and they aren't flattering.
US gun nuts: "In Europe you don't have guns to protect yourself so you get stabbed!"
Guns (2017)
England & Wales: 4.6 per 100
USA: 121.5 per 100
Knife homicides (2020)
England & Wales: 0.48 per 100,000
USA: 0.54 per 100,000
Complete and utter bullshit.
#Buffalo
Breivik killed 77 in Norway & no-one asked me as a white male of Nordic Christian background if I felt the need to condemn it. #CharlieHebdo
This is one hell of a video. And one hell of a citizen talking to those soldiers. Watch to the end. Power of speech.
From
Gadi Schwartz
I live in Sweden. Abortions on demand since 1974. Also paid parental/maternity leave, subsidized daycare, subsidized pre-/after-school care, paid days off to care for sick kids. Sweden has more "family values" in its national little finger than all of US conservatism combined.
Trust-fund baby + 6 bankruptcies + "Grab pussy" = President
Protest racism = Treasonous "son of a bitch"
White privilege. #TakeAKnee
And the name of the girl who pulled this Viking sword from the lake?
Saga. What else?
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Eight-year-old Swedish girl pulls Viking era sword from lake dlvr.it/QmGWyD
Libertarians, 2021: "COVID Vaccine passports are tyranny! We have always stood for freedom!"
Libertarian Party, 1988: "Children with HIV should be banned from schools, doctors shouldn't have to treat them and companies should be allowed to test all employees."
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Martina also owner of greatest sports burn ever:
Male sportswriter: "Are you still a lesbian?"
Navratilova: "Are you still the alternative?"
From the BBC. Woody Allen 'sad' for #Weinstein. Then the classic male response: let's hope this doesn't mean men have to stop sexually harassing women in the workplace. The "Witch hunt" defense.
Pricelsss. Sweden's Deputy PM trolls Trump & his man-soaked anti-abortion pic with pic showing her signing Sweden's progressive climate law.
One of these guys killed 9 people. One of these guys was selling single cigarettes. #DylannRoof #EricGarner
I'm an American in Sweden. Please let me know "what's going on" here.
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The leader of a country with high levels of poverty builds a palace for himself for over $1 billion and you can’t see the problem?
The person who wrote this is currently the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Finland. She admitted it, yet refuses to resign. This is what mainstreaming racism in politics looks like. It’s social cancer.
1) As a US citizen in Sweden, I’m disturbed when I see the US right push the “Swedish model” for dealing with COVID19. It’s an utterly cynical, disingenuous position that goes far beyond the question of lockdowns and masks, and highlights what’s rotten at the core of US society.
Big news from Sweden as media reporting that murder weapon used to assassinate Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986 was found. Prosecutors are expected to name the killer at a press conference on Wednesday, ending a 34-year national drama.
"Why don't refugees go to Muslim countries???"
They do...overwhelmingly. We just don't talk about it so much because it doesn't doesn't fit into the narrative we (in the US and Europe) like to tell about ourselves.
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Refugees hosted,.
Turkey: 3,480,000
Pakistan: 1,390,000
Uganda: 1,350,000
Lebanon: 998,000
Iran: 979,000
Germany: 970,000
Bangladesh: 932,000
Sudan: 907,000
Jordan: 691,000
France: 337,000
US: 287,000
Sweden: 240,000
UK: 121,000
Canada: 104,000
(UNHCR)
Let's remember that Disney suspended for merely calling Trump a racist. Now they have the star of a hit show, #RoseanneBarr, making actual racist comments.
Shit, meet fan.
Scott Adams fans will cry "cancel culture" after his disgusting, racist rant in favor of separating races. Consider contrast with Charles Schulz who embraced defense and protection of minorities. Note how Schulz rips those who pontificate about "getting back to American virtues."
The discovery of a street food shop (“termopolium”) in Pompeii — with complete, colorful frescoes of what you can eat, like chicken and duck — is really mind-blowing. Pots even found containing traces of food from 79 A.D.
Jesus Christ, Trump just can't hear a question from a woman without cutting her off and telling her to be "nicer." He's such a colossal, insecure, pathetic little misogynist.
Sounds smart so long as you don’t think about it.
Having to be reprimanded by Auschwitz. The desperate search for the bottom of the anti-vaxx barrel continues.
After 6,000 deaths, we were told Sweden wouldn’t experience a significant “second wave,” and that while other nations would suffer through the winter, Sweden would fare better. Guess what? That was all bullshit. (Via )
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No single tweet, speech or TV show will make someone kill. But, a steady, daily flow of stereotypes, vilification and dehumanization will create an environment where violence is easier. Where a sense that those killed were "asking for it" by their very existence. #Christchurch
Shopping center in Istanbul gives shelter to street dogs during cold weather. Great picture in depressing times.
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Here in Sweden it’s now illegal to ask for milk at restaurants because radical feminists decided that milk is a sign of patriarchy. So people are ordering coffee without milk and then taking it across the border to Norway to have milk put in. I blame Critical Race Theory!
Holy shit, this is gold. Metal Jesus gold. twitter.com/A_Dixie_Girl/s
Massive anti-racism protest in Berlin today, with hundreds of thousands marching. For all the media coverage of far-right populists and their motivations, there needs to be more coverage of the huge number of people who resist the call of hate, and to ask what motivates them.
#France's "bad" voter turnout (74%) is 10% higher than the best US turnout in the last 20 years (64% in 2008). And 20% higher than 2016.
Pretty astonishing how the Front National, UKIP, Trump, Geert Wilders have unhackable emails. #MacronLeaks
*Raging forest-fires in Sweden’s Arctic.
* Hottest July in at least 260 years in Stockholm.
*At least 50 dead in wild-fires around Athens.
*80 dead from heat-wave in Japan.
But let’s keep framing global warming as a “debate.”
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To those wondering what the climate has to do w/peace, consider how many future military conflicts & humanitarian crises will result from serious climate change (land, water, food, migration/refugees). So, reducing that change would reduce that violence.
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Swedish climate activist @GretaThunberg has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Twitter: "Sweden has highest number of reported rapes in Europe only because of immigrants!"
Same Twitter, 5 mins later: "Julian Assange case shows how the definition of rape under Swedish law is ridiculously broad. This would never be rape in another country!"
Of course Americans think the video of being detained by police in Germany was staged. They can’t understand an interaction involving the police where no-one is shot.
To idiots saying "#Christchurch proves that tough gun laws don't work!" some numbers: 16, 9, 9, 13, 4, 5, 7, 6, 10, 7, 4, 9, 9, 5, 7, 11, 7, 3, 3, 8, 5. What's this? TOTAL number of NZ people murdered with guns each year between 1994 and 2014. Per capita rate 40x lower than US.
New high school built in Michigan has pre-planned places to hide in case of mass shooting, and curved hallways with large cement blocks to obscure "sight lines." Schools designed with mass shootings in mind. The US is rotting from the inside out. wthr.com/article/48m-mi
(1) The willingness of Trump supporters to be OK with Trump's non-stop vacationing says so much about race, labor and leisure.
Italy could have 3 different governments in the time it’s taking the US to count its votes.
"A big no-no"? This isn't kindergarten. It's criminal. Say it.
If 18 kids were shot in a school in Sweden (with two killed), I can promise you a hell of a lot more coverage that this. If there is a country that is "collapsing" it would be the one where kids shooting huge numbers of other kids is no longer newsworthy. #KentuckySchoolShooting
1) How xenophobic media bullshit that becomes “truth” works: The case of Sweden and the 60-year old “child migrant.”
So, did a 60-year-old really try to enter Sweden as a “child”? Yes. Now, take that one fact and let the deliberately misleading bullshit begin!
"Do you believe in evolution?"
"No"
"Global warming?"
"No"
"Racial Equality?"
"No"
"Then what makes The West superior?
"Science! Logic!"
I don't want to drive people nuts, but ABBA's manager, Görel Hanser, has just issued a press release saying that the band has recorded new music for the first time in 35 years.
"Why won't ordinary Afghan civilians fight heavily-armed psychopathic murderers in the streets?" ask people who consider bars closing early and not being able to go to Greece on vacation to be hardship.
Swedish public service broadcaster SVT runs live chat for kids where they ask journalists/experts about #Ukraine. Swedish Prime Minister answered questions from kids’ news program during press conference on Ukraine. Great to see kids treated as citizens, not just mini consumers.
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And, the 15,000 murders per year in the US are all ISIS?
Erdogan is in the US. If he meets Trump it could create a supermassive black hole that could swallow world politics.
1) Awful story from Sweden. In September, journalists at public broadcaster Swedish Radio (SR) signed statement demanding better coverage of racism/discrimination & called out racism/discrimination within SR itself.
SR responded by banning a number of them from covering racism.
Danish government: We can send Syrian refugees back to Damascus now because it's safe there.
Danish government: Our embassy in Damascus is closed now because it's too dangerous there.
Blocking traffic in Plano: "Terrorism"
Storming the Capitol, smearing shit on the walls and threatening to hang politicians: "Patriotism"
"I walked into a supermarket and started yelling at customers that they were ugly, stupid and should be punched, and that people should drink bleach in the Cleaning section. Then, the anti-free speech tyrants who work as cashiers told me to leave. It was straight out of Orwell."
What threatens so many people about these pictures is that there are no white men.
Been seeing this all over Twitter today from #Turkey. "Rock star" challenger to Erdogan #MuharremInce getting huge audiences in Turkey.
When (a woman) calmly debunks Carlson's (a man) infantile arguments, it's "heated." Because, you know, emotional ladies.
1) There are several reasons why this now-famous clip from resonates. His 1-minute deconstruction of media/journalism directly and indirectly addresses so many problems with journalism that we see on a daily basis, but never discuss openly. Here are the big ones...
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Theresa May didn't publicly break down over Windrush, or Grenfell, or disabled people having their benefits cut, or children driven into poverty.
In the end, she only publicly shed a tear over her own career.
1:02
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In 2016, the guy you’re interviewing as an authority on demographics and birthrates tweeted that he didn’t believe in the Holocaust and that concentration camps had swimming pools.
Watch the complete collapse when confronted with the blatant bullshit of his own definitions of “indigenous” populations. You will never see a better example of a journalist allowing a man to hang himself with his own rope than this from .
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Head to Head
It’s repulsive to see UK politicians and pundits who openly encouraged hate against kneeling #Eng players now claim to be outraged by the racism against them. They questioned the motives of the players. They belittled their efforts. They normalised the hate. This is the result.
When this picture was taken, women in the UK couldn’t get a mortgage, loan or credit card without a male co-signer, couldn’t get an abortion, could be legally discriminated against at work, and could (for another 30 years) legally be refused service in pubs. So, yeah. “Freedom.”
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My grandfather in the 1950s. Back when you could live life without waiting for the prime minister to decide how free we can all live.
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You don't think the willingness to invade Iraq/Afghanistan and kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis -- cheered by the media and with little public resistance -- didn't reflect broad anti-Muslim sentiment? Sentiment cynically leveraged by Bush to get approval for the invasion?
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"Monotone voice."
What a gutless, spiteful attack on a 16-year old with Asperger's who is devoting her life to a worthy cause. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Great video of a 1971 meeting between racist Enoch Powell and Jonathan Miller, where Miller points out the role of public figures in fanning the flames of fear and hatred against immigrants.
“I’m disgusted that the players I cynically criticised for kneeling against racism have been subjected to racism” is quite the position for a politician to take.
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I am disgusted that @England players who have given so much for our country this summer have been subject to vile racist abuse on social media.
It has no place in our country and I back the police to hold those responsible accountable.
1) How Context-Free Bullshit Spreads Online: The Case of The Veiled Woman on the Swedish Billboard.
So, the town of Gävle put this image up showing a local resident. The sign says "Welcome to Gävle" with the woman's name underneath. Because the woman is veiled, some were angry.
