[BurningFrog]

According to the libertarian Cato Institute's Human Freedom Index, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are in the top 10 freest countries on earth. The US is at place 20 and Venezuela at 144 out of 152.

http://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index http://www.cato.org/economic-freedom-world

Scandinavia has very free market open economies coupled with extensive welfare states financed by high taxes. You can call that socialism if you want, but it is a very different system than the criminal tragedy that is Venezuela.

[sillygeese]

> Scandinavia has very free market open economies coupled with extensive welfare states financed by high taxes.

That's a contradictory statement. High taxes represent a high level of intervention in the economy/market, which is the opposite of a free market.

It's not "working" in Scandinavia either, by the way.

There's a limit to how much you can intervene in your economy before it collapses. We're just not as far along the path as Venezuela.

[cb18]

Human Freedom Index, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are in the top 10 freest countries on earth.

I guess that metric is derived from formal, and institutional freedom or non-freedom promoting policies, but unfortunately, in some respects Sweden is looking increasingly out of place in such a high position on that list.

Anybody who points out that the country's immigration policies are close to destroying the country faces harsh backlash. Anybody just raising questions on the matter really.

Disturbingly, there has been some recent talk of actual formalized anti-freedom measures.

A couple weeks ago there was a stabbing and beheading attack at an IKEA store that killed a mother and son, and now some people in the govt are making noises about limiting freedom of the press because people are discussing it online.

I guess their main concern, according to them is that it is such a shocking, horrific, and in your face illustration of how insane the Swedish government's immigration policies are, that they are concerned people might exercise their democratic rights of guiding the government in what they see as a reasonable direction.

The Press Ombudsman Ola Sigvardsson is concerned that the Swedes are turning to sites run by political motives rather than journalistic ambitions.

Traditional journalism is characterized by a willingness to unconditional search for the truth and make it as good as possible. The other sites are characterized by having a political agenda, said Ola Sigvardsson.

So apparently, now that there is such glaring evidence of the need for political change Sigvardsson is interested in restricting any political discussion that are not inline with his own views.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is something that we can not take for granted. Politicians give us the right to print and give our opinion, but requires that we do so in a responsible manner. If we do not do it, maybe freedom curtailed, says Ola Sigvardsson.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=y&prev...

[emp_zealoth]

It is utterly terrifying (in Europe), the right is edging on fascism here(bible thumping, xenohobic, spiteful), the left is so high on "Political Correctness" (you literally cannot adress real problems because that is "homophobic", "patriarchic", "antisemitic", etc) What the hell is going on...

[kjs3]

What problems do you anticipate being able to solve with homophobia, patriarchy and antisemitism?

[BurningFrog]

> there has been some recent talk of actual formalized anti-freedom measures

This is the kind of things that worry people in the top freest countries.

In the lower ranked countries there is far more than talk about such things going on.

[cb18]

That's a fine point, it is basically a tautology though, and certainly doesn't mean we should ignore this kind of thing, lest the top free countries go the way of the less free.

What I find most disturbing about this guy's rhetorik is that he says "Politicians give us the right," when that is exactly opposite how things are understood to work in modern democracies. The people give their consent to politicians and by extension the government to govern.

[BurningFrog]

Yeah, I'm not saying you should ignore it. Only that compared to real life international freedom levels, it is a minor problem.