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Btw I recommend forming a pod of fed-up foreigners, where you take turns looking at bad takes on the covid reaponse in Sweden. Thank you for your brave service @resaflickan, you are a hero to me
Also, if you’re outside of Sweden and still somehow haven’t had your fill of takes, a tip: if a piece only includes white people, Swedish names, and cheerleaders for the brand, it’s PR. The conversation within Sweden is genuinely more nuanced. And Sweden is a diverse country.
Migrants, people with foreign backgrounds, and the elderly have been most affected, so if their voices aren’t included, the interviews really just tell you what more advantaged people think about the vulnerable. But then, I trust you to know that.
It of course isn’t a binary situation, but is difficult to talk about here because critical questions are automatically met with an assumption that you’re demanding a full lockdown. They only acknowledge the complexity enough to shout “it’s complicated!” But we can’t discuss that
The discrediting of outside viewpoints is also troubling. The optics matter. And it’s also distressing when people come from abroad and say “whoa, this is weirdly normal compared to where I’ve just been” and be met with “it’s not normal! Stop it!” When that’s not what was said.
I worry we won’t be able to adapt to a post-crisis world. We aren’t used to masks. We’re sloppy in shops and around hygiene in ways that it’s clear other countries have mastered better. We aren’t talking about how to interact w/other regions because we can’t imagine being wrong
I find it troubling so many articles are full of voxpops w/people who haven’t been affected by the virus. There are people who’ve lost dozens of loved ones! If you’re writing about, I dunno, cancer management, & only interview people who haven’t been affected, it’s bad journalism
The strategy here has, like in many places, centered the comfort of the advantaged and not the needs of the less-advantaged. In that sense, it has worked pretty well. But it’s not a good thing that the authorities got most people to go along with an approach based on inequality.
The “mental health!” And “abuse!” arguments don’t fly with me because disabled people and those in institutional settings, the very ones you’re happy to lock up indefinitely, suffer these things in greater proportion to the general population. What about their mental health?
