[Paulomus]

"These are civil liberties that our forefathers fought, bled, and died to give us."

The poster is Swedish. Sweden's last war was fought in 1814 to occupy Norway. Before that it fought in the coalition against Napoleon so that it could demand Norway in the peace settlement. Previous to that Sweden fought in the Great Northern War of 1700-1721 to maintain and extend its Baltic empire and in the 30 Years War to defend Protestantism in Germany and to seize the basis for said empire.

I suggest that the existence of civil liberties and democracy in Sweden has more to do with peaceful activism and good government that with bloodshed and violent struggle.

[cabalamat]

> The poster is Swedish.

Sweden is also an intrinsic part of Western Civilisation. People in other western countries have fought many wars, and many civil rights battles -- both violent and non-violent -- over the last two centuries, to get where we are today.

> the existence of civil liberties and democracy in Sweden has more to do with peaceful activism and good government that with bloodshed and violent struggle

Both have their place; it's a question of whatever tactics win in a given situation. To use a modern example, the Egyptian people were able to overthrow their dictator with a good deal less bloodshed than the Libyan people are.

[Typhon]

I suggest that the existence of civil liberties in many countries has to do with the example set by the American war of independence, and the French revolution (which was itself inspired by the other one).

[ignifero]

haha. bashing the swedes for their neutrality. classic

[pyrhho]

... I believe you are thinking of the Swiss.

[ignifero]

no, the Swedes