You've crossed the line

Lo folks
Yesterday the swedish riksdag (the decision making body of the Kingdom of Sweden) refused to pass the (social democrat and environment party) government's budget, and passed the moderate/liberal oppositions coalitions budget. As a result of this the swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven promised that in december he will announce a new election (according to swedish constitution ha cannot formally announce it until three months after the previous election) to be held in March the 22 of next year (again in accordance with constitution he could at earliest slate in in february but he's pushing it back one more month to allow the second largest party the Moderate Conservatives time to elect a new leader after their previous leader, previous prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, resigned after he lost the election earlier this year).

Most of us knew this would happen, more on why later, and even with it looming the parties close to Löfven's government has been unwilling to open up any kind of dialogue, amongst them the liberal party that I myself am a supporting member of. Now I'm not saying the leftist government are entitled to the support of the centrists and liberals, they aren't, but I fail to see why listening to them would have been a bad thing. After all the conservatives that the liberals reigned with during the previous term (collectively known as the Alliance for Sweden, or derogatory as the bourgeoisie alliance) was no more liberals than the social democrats are. The liberals have reigned with the social democrats before and I hope they will do so again when it fits their agenda. This locking ourselves up in blocks is problematic since it pushes us towards a two party system that benefits no one.

That said this is not primarily their fault, the alliance (however little I may like it) proposed a coalition opposition budget and of course they will vote for that budget. No the ones to blame are the third block. The Swedish Democrats, isolationist, mercantilist,  cultural nationalists and value conservatives (derogatory usually referred to as racist, though granted that is an oversimplification).
Now you don't need me to tell you that their ideals and agenda is basically diametrically opposed to everything I stand for, I find them simplistic, ignorant, biased, shortsighted and overly fond of simple solutions to what is really complex issues. So naturally a lot of people love them. There will always be those ready to rally to the banner of "Those there are the enemy let's fight them" (granted that is true for the extreme left too).
But (ah that little word), I have regardless defended them from a lot of the flack they have received over the years, not because I agree with them, but because I believe in freedom of speech, I believe that if 13% of the swedish people vote for them, we need to respect that. Well that was true, up until yesterday. Up until then the Swedish Democrats for all their loathsome opinions have, parliamentary speaking, acted like professionals.
But in abandoning their own budget proposition and supporting the alliance they have also abandoned every pretense of being a serious party. Now some of you people will say "But hey Fredrik what if they liked the Alliance Budget", and you'd be right, if that was the case my point would be moot. But a statement they made two days ago when they promised they'd resort to this course of action blows that possibility out of the water. acting party leader Matthias Karlsson promised that the Sweden democrats would vote down any budget proposed by a government that did not cave to their demands of reduced immigration (they desire a 90% reduction).
I'm sorry... did but to me, that sounded awfully much like a threat, a threat of reprisal to anyone who does not give in to their demands.
You know I believe there is a word for that, it's called terrorism (albeit white collar one). And that's a line that once you've crossed you cannot come back from. I have been defending your right to express yourself, defended the task you've been given by the swedish people, but this is not it, you have made a mockery of the system and shown your true colour. I can see only one answer to that, as much as I am a fan of compromise, there can be only one course of action, this must be opposed whatever in every way possible. This is a declaration of war towards the establishment, and they think it will benefit them, but the truth is that they have given us the people who like me have been forced to shield them because of our belief in the democratic systems a perfectly good excuse not to.
And your declaration of war will not hurt the ones you oppose, no it'll hurt everyone, the swedish stock market will suffer from increased uncertainty, which by extension means that the economy of every person in Sweden will suffer. Funds that should've reached schools and welfare will be frozen. And any reforms by either side of the political spectrum, as well as the ability to react to things that happen, will have to wait six months to after the new election and the election of a new prime minister.

You may have pleased your angry young men demographic but you will find that crossing that line has cost you a lot, and you will not be able to get back over it, not easily at least. When you eventually get voted out of office you'll look back and you'll see this moment of petty as the turning point.

Arr there be a change in the waters.

Lo folks, this post is about Pirates, no not the jack sparrow kind the pirate party movement. Specifically about the swedish one.

Most of you don't know it but I used to be a firm believer in the movement back in the day. I believed as Marconi did when he introduced the radio (Yes I know Tesla managed to get it to work before he did, no I'm not interested in whatever you think Tesla invented) that open dialogue would make mankind better people more open minded and less hateful. And then Hitler and Stalin used it for the exact opposite, well we're not there yes, hopefully we will never get there with misuse of the internet. But the thing is while I still believe in an open and free internet as a propagator of enlightenment and reason, I long ago lost faith in the Pirate party movement and it's simplistic anti authority solutions (I'm simply too old to be a angry young man).

But because of my former interest in the party I kept them in my facebook feed, I have over the times commented on some of their posts telling them they need a vision beyond being a discontent party. Well they did no better in the last two elections than in any of the previous, and now today their party leadership announced that they resigned.

(These are all in swedish but international readers may want to translate using chrome)

Here's a press release by Party Leader Anna Troberg.

Here's her letter of farewell to her supporters.

Here's a letter of farewell from vice party leader Marit Deldén.

and last a letter of farewell from party secretary Henrik Brändén

Now assuming that you have read these I'll discuss the issues I have had with the Pirate Party and the issues they seem to have had in their party.

When I talk politics I like not to define it as one dimensional left right axis, I prefer to view it as a three dimensional cartesian space. Defined by three axises. The first one is obvious, it's the left right axis, from conservative on the right to socialist on the left.

The second axis is progressive versus reactionary, no reactionary is not conservative.
The last axis is globalisation, versus isolationism and merchantilism. (Enlightenment to me is in the progressive centre-left globalisation corner)

Now the pirate party long ago decided upon where it is on the progressive reactionary axis. It's progressive, it wants to tear down the old order and always struggles against authority. But it has issues on where it is on the other two axises. It has avoided touching the globalisation issue (and the related europification) with a ten foot pole, it has also failed to define it's position on the left right axis, making sudden leaps between liberalism, libertarianism and borderline socialism. And while this has managed to help them get discontents from both sides of the left right spectrum it has also led to strong opposition inside the party when the party decided to expand it's issues.
The whole gamer gate thing seems to have upset that balance further, with the leftists in the party moving strongly against the opinions of gamergate seeing it as the hand of the patriarchal authority that according to the party's anti authority creed needed opposing, but the libertarians in the party saw that opposition to be authority of the cultural socialism that needed opposing. That is ever the problem with anti authority messages indignation and righteous rage. With we and them thinking. Because authority isn't a united them, not is those without it united we.

And that's where the party fails to live up to it's potential, it needs to make these choices, now I think they should go for the liberal path, education, knowledge and freedom of through, even when that means we have to suffer such lowlives as those who use the so called gamer gate to propagate sexism. That is the price we pay for freedom, but being a liberal and a progressivist I am a firm believer that the voices of reason will eventually win out.
But perhaps even more because the leftist party already pushes the integrity line in the left flank so they're not really needed there while the political centre needs an influx of new thoughts.

I also wan to raise my voice in opposition of the idea that questions of gender struggle and ethnic and cultural diversity are leftist ones. They are not, they are progressive ones, and while the nature of how they are handled on the left right and centre may differ the end goal does not. In fact the idea of gender equality came from a liberal concept of egalitarianism, one of the fundamental pillars of liberalism.

Well change is at hand in the pirate party, new leaders will have to be chosen, I hope those are strong visionaries that can lead us back on the path of progress, and better living through technology, but I find if rather more likely that the pirate party will descend into gamer gate hell and lose it's progressivism in favour of taking the reactionary idea to preserve the status quo. 

Well enough ranting for now, until next time.