The cries of the afflicted reach (Swedish) high heaven

by Lev Tsitrin

“Segregation has been allowed to go so far that we have parallel societies in Sweden. We live in the same country but in completely different realities.”

This is not a quote from Bruce Bawer (though I cannot guarantee that he — and other on-the-ground observers who were not self-blinded by political correctness haven’t said this before, for years upon years, in fact); I pasted it from a Reuters report, and the words are those of the Swedish Prime Minister, no less.

So, what happened? why did Magdalena Andersson change her accommodating tune?

Apparently, the reality hit, and hit hard. “Many Swedes were shocked earlier this month after violent riots left more than 100 police injured. The violence erupted after a Swedish-Danish politician burned the Quran at a rally and sought to hold more in several immigrant-dominated neighborhoods,” per the Reuters’ report.

It looks as if the Swedish “elites” started to discover that humanitarianism should be a two-way street: not only does it consist of helping those in distress, but it also demands reciprocal action from those who were saved from their distress. Humanitarian action (in Sweden’s case, “taking in more people per capita than any other European Union country during the [Syrian] migration crisis in 2015”) should have resulted in grateful assimilation by the new arrivals — but it looks as if the help was taken for granted, and that Syrians simply imported their mores to the new place, colonizing it.

Clearly, the latest events were a rude awakening for those on top. And yet, acknowledging that there is a problem is a necessary first step for solving it. Whether the solution (“Andersson said she wanted to introduce local youth crime boards where social services and police could collaborate. She also proposed tools to make sure that youths stayed in schools and off the streets without the consent of parents”) will be sufficient remains to be seen — but it looks as if the Rubicon has been crossed. What was obvious to a few who were dismissively labeled “right-wing extremists,” has finally become obvious even to those in power. “Swedish PM says integration of immigrants has failed, fueled gang crime” — to quote the full title of the Reuters report — may just be electioneering (Swedish elections being scheduled for later in the year) but is still good news — and a proof that democracy, even when heavily diluted by political correctness — still works. Let’s hope it will triumph — in Sweden, and elsewhere.