1) Since this piece is generating a great deal of discussion in and about Sweden, I'll say something obvious: The intl press have an obsession with Sweden. From refugees to far-right to #COVID19, for a country of 10 million it gets huge attention, including on major Op-Ed pages.

2) It's clear that Sweden is held by intl media to a different standard than other nations. That's not a complaint. It's an observation. Multiple factors play into this. One is the mythical notion of an egalitarian Swedish social democracy that's very much trapped in the 1970s.

3) So, the international image of Sweden morphed into some weird amalgam of Björn Borg, IKEA, feminism, free daycare, Volvo and nature is seriously out of date...but let's not avoid the fact that this is an image leveraged and promoted by Sweden itself in nation-branding.

4) Image of Sweden also marked by clear desire on part of media to frame Sweden as an ethnically, culturally and politically homogeneous nation. The result is often superficial coverage that rarely goes beyond how Event X "threatens" something vaguely fundamental in/about Sweden.

5) After 2014 w/arrival of Syrian refugees all nuance went out the window, and we were left w/breathless articles and Opinion pieces about how Sweden was a "changed nation." From what? We weren't told. To what? Well, we don't know yet. But, we could be sure that it wasn't good.

6) Intl media reveled in Sweden's "social democracy" and "egalitarianism" until it started taking refugees, at which point those qualities were re-framed by those same media as naïveté and lack of "realism." This was about what intl press wanted Sweden to be, not what it is.

7) We see the same thing with intl media coverage of Sweden's #COVID19 strategy. Instead of addressing the complexities of Sweden's strategy, much of it is actually about how the strategy reinforces or challenges simplistic media stereotypes about Sweden.

8) In #COVID19 reports, Swedish Stereotypes™ stifled intl coverage of key issues. Social Democracy™ not privatization of Swedish healthcare. Political Consensus™ not complexity. Homogeneity™ not higher death numbers in minority communities. Egalitarianism™ not inequality.

9) So, when NYT publishes piece saying Sweden's strategy was to not lockdown in expectation of economic salvation, it's another in a long line of pieces on Sweden that misses multiple issues: social inequality, healthcare, privatization, local politics, political communication.

10) If covered properly, refugees or Sweden's #COVID19 policy are worthy of attention. But, the "Look What's Happening in Sweden!" angle says less about Sweden than it does about journalism that favors conflict over context. Mythical Sweden is better clickbait than actual Sweden.

11) For a more detailed argument regarding what I see as the rank hypocrisy (and bigotry) of the international media when it comes to covering Sweden, #COVID19 and refugees, see this piece. https://medium.com/@ChrChristensen/want-to-discuss-sweden-and-covid19-start-by-looking-backward-ea83ab6b08ab?source=friends_link&sk=bf98083a9012f6fc607640b675aec0a0