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Samskara@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
Sweden is a much smaller and far more homogenous country than the US. They didn’t need intersectionality to succeed.
Sweden used to be run by the Social Democrats for decades and they have helped a lot with emancipation from the 1960s onwards. Back then Sweden was even more homogenous.
Swedish culture of lagom är bäst emphasizes harmony instead of confrontation and conflict. Americans are pretty much the opposite of that.
Remember that the US is far more religious. Lots of religious fringe lunatics emigrated to the US from Europe and you can still see the results today.
Currently in the US you have elite white activists preaching long about intersectionality, while alienating the lower working classes, especially whites.
If everyone has enough, no one needs to have less to make people feel ok about it…
And if someone only pushes to help some demographics, they’re likely being manipulated so people don’t unify, or they’re just a bigot.
Lots of bigots just don’t want to be called Republicans, so they claim not to be but are still incredibly bigotted and only care about a slice or two of humanity, if there’s no demographic overlap with themselves, they just don’t give a shit.
Most people care about their own well-being first, yes. Caring about the well-being of groups they are not part of is a luxury for the privileged.
Hating on Republicans won’t overcome this.
Hating on Republicans won’t overcome this.
They’re the ones distracting everyone with bigotry…
What you’re doing is like saying:
Don’t blame the arsonist that keeps setting fires, sometimes fire is natural
Fire is an accident sometimes, but there’s a large group of people clearly intentionally setting the fire.
Fucking obviously we’re going to blame the arsonists, and anyone saying not to…
Well, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out why they don’t want arsonists blamed.
Republicans have managed to create an identity of unity with MAGA. The opposition has failed to put something meaningful against that. Intersectional activism as practiced emphasizes differences and division.
The arsonists are setting fires to the kindling and abandoned buildings they find. And yes, there are also natural fires.
The situation in the US and European countries is a little different, but has parallels. Let’s go back to Sweden as an example. Post war economy is booming and hires some foreign workers from elsewhere in Europe. Racists get upset a little. Birthrates of ethnic Swedes plummet from the 1970s until today. More immigration is needed for economic reasons. Even more immigration is allowed because of moral reasoning. The society becomes divided, violent crime skyrockets, cultural clashes with new immigrants rise. The newcomers have a very different culture and value than the native Swedes. People desire stability (lagom är best). (far) right promises that. The accelerating change of demographics and populations in Europe inherently lead to instability. This is a huge problem all over Europe and not easy to solve.
If the democratic, liberal, and left forces are unable to improve the situation, people will turn to fascists. Of course capitalism, a growing device between rich and poor, deindustrialization, etc. all accelerate this as well. AI is the next big wave that might cause disruptive change on a scale unseen before. Climate change in the background isn’t doing us any favors either. We live in rapidly changing world. Humans desire stability and safety more they desire universal justice and freedom.
The (intersectional) left tries to create solidarity between very disconnected groups, leading to the unholy alliance of Islamo-gauchism we see in many countries now. For political Islam this is an alliance of convenience with useful idiots. Supporting minorities is all well and good. Dismissing the majority groups out of hand is a recipe for losing elections.
You have to convince the arsonists that fires are also bad for themselves.
Dojan@pawb.social 21 hours ago
I don’t like the term succeed. It’s not a case of once you have it you have it. You have to keep working for it to keep it.
As it stands, we’ve not had a majority-left government in ages, our welfare is being sold off to private interests, and the gaps between classes are widening. The younger generation in particular has been susceptible to the influence of American right-wing media and as such we’re seeing an increased amount of religious extremism and right wing thinking.
Hell, the xenophobic lobbying has lead to the Nazi party having a majority seat in parliament.
Understanding of intersectionality is a useful tool regardless of the size or homogeneity of the population.
Samskara@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
Grew because the population became less homogenous.
Despite that Sweden and the Nordics are still leading in women’s equality. Have they been rolled back in a significant way over the last two decades?
Intersectionality is useful for analysis. As an activist method in practice it leads to alienating white men, oppression Olympics, purity testing, division.
Dojan@pawb.social 20 hours ago
I’d argue that it’s more complicated than that. It’s a factor, but we don’t exactly have a great track record of treating non-Swedes that well. We were quite cosy with the German nazis prior to and during WWII, and were enthusiastic about racial biology. Note how poorly we’ve historically treated the native Sami population.
We also still have a lot of systemic problems with e.g. “women’s professions” like nursing, cleaning, etc. not being valued fairly. Women’s health problems aren’t taken as seriously either.
Further, the right-block are campaigning to restrict rights overall. It’s not just the nazis but the Christ-democrats as well. We’re talking restricted abortion rights, there’s arguments against LGBTQ+ people, and so on.
The homogeneity was a helpful factor in establishing a more egalitarian system, but it’s not truly egalitarian, and there are still unequalities endemic in our society.
I admit I have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction whenever Sweden or Scandinavia is mentioned, because we’re so often, unfairly, painted as some kind of nigh utopia, where people are equal, education and healthcare is easily accessed, etc. etc. but we have problems. I grew up in poverty, to an abusive single mother. I’ve seen some low points of Swedish society and I resent people glossing over their existence.
fiat_lux@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Thanks for being real about it. As a non-Swedish-speaker living outside Scandinavia, I could only suspect that the frequent lionizing of Scandinavia (and dismissal of counterpoints with the magic word “homogenous”) was another flavor of white supremacy. I’m sorry that you’re dealing with exactly the same bullshit as many other places though.