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1) From start of COVID, I've tried to address what I see as problems w/how Sweden is discussed at home & abroad: from "life is unchanged in Sweden" nonsense, to COVID and minorities, to masks to "herd immunity" bullshit. But, there's another angle I think is worth discussing.
2) Many non-Swedish media have criticized Sweden for a strategy that has claimed almost 7000 lives. Criticism often framed in moral/ethical terms: that this is disregard for human dignity, life. It's an important issue. But, it begs the question of when/how that frame is applied.
3) When I hear intl. media criticism of Sweden's COVID policy on humanitarian/dignity grounds, I wonder where this media criticism was when countries in Europe (and the US) refused to take in refugees fleeing for their lives from war in Iraq and Syria. It was largely missing.
4) Sweden, which took in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Iraq and Syria was rarely praised for humanitarianism by intl media. Quite the opposite: it was critiqued for being "naive." And, very few media outlets and pundits called out countries taking few/no refugees.
5) Let me be very clear here: this isn't an argument that taking refugees somehow justifies or "balances out" COVID deaths. No. What I'm arguing is that there appears to be a hierarchy for which deaths are worthy of moral critique in broader "Western" media.
6) What media choose to not print, not discuss or not be outraged over can tell us a lot. Journalists and pundits are under no obligation to cover everything, of course, but when clear contradictions emerge, they are worth noting. I see this as one of those cases...another layer.
7) This is about basic intellectual and professional consistency. It's about when and where we apply our concern, critique and outrage on issues of "humanitarianism." Because, after all, humanitarianism isn't broken down by nationality, right? It's universal.
8) Let's consider when and where the international media take stands on human dignity and the value of human life. Are certain lives worth more than others? To me, we should avoid any coverage (often obscured by passage of time) suggesting the answer "Yes" to that question.
9) The near-7000 COVID deaths in Sweden should (and probably will) be investigated and discussed for years to come. Each of those deaths is a human tragedy, and should be considered as such. Let's just apply that standard universally. That's it.
