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Norwegian left-wing party leader Bjørnar Moxnes resigned on Monday after stealing a pair of luxury sunglasses from Oslo airport
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- Title
- Left-wing Norway party leader resigns after stealing Hugo Boss sunglasses
- Published
- Jul 24 2023
- Word count
- 233 words
How weird. Here in the US we have people who have tried to overthrow the government running for re-election and have denied every thing they've done under the sun and will never admit to anything. Like, I admire the integrity of the guy for admitting a wrong, but I almost think that someone with that kind of integrity should stay in politics, but he also tried to steal sunglasses. I'm so confused.
He will not be leaving politics, as he only stepped down as leader of the party. He will keep his seat as a representative in the parliament for red. Being part of the left most party in Norway, taking the job as a political watchdog for the other larger parties, it's hard to do that job with controversies surrounding you.
Moxnes will not be dissapearing from the Norwegian political scene, but he will be taking a back seat for a while.
Wow. This is weirdly refreshing given all the scandals we usually see where politicians deny far worse. I... really don't know how to feel about that.
What a thing to torpedo a career over.
It’s easier to believe they’ve done something like this several times and this is the first time they’ve gotten caught. It’s too weird to be an isolated incident.
Even then, stealing luxury sunglasses is so... minor compared to the scandals we usually see in the news. Not even just in the US, but all over the world. It feels like there's got to be something more and he resigned to prevent people from looking deeper, but I can't see what stealing sunglasses would reveal.
Minor crimes and improprieties are often the cause of resignations in Scandinavia.
As an American who's been dealing with the wild insanity of the Republican scandals since 2016, that's just mind boggling. If that's true, I'm envious. The world might be a better place if such minor scandals were enough to end a career compared to the massive amounts of corruption we see all over the world.
Like this example from Finland back in 2020.
Dont forget the huge and very serious scandal with the prime ministers 100€/month breakfast bill. That was a horrible time to be alive.
There kinda is something more to it.
He stole the sunglasses, and when confronted about it, he lied about what had happened. As more information was revealed, he altered his lies slightly, however eventually the video from several surveillance cameras were pieced together, which made it evident all his stories had been lies this entire time.
He ended up admitting fault for stealing the sunglasses and about how he handled the situation. His fellow party members say that the worst thing about the case is how he lied to covered it up.
edit: Still though, it's not like he did blatant insider trading or urged people to topple the government...
Elected officials really should be held to a much higher standard than they get away with, especially related to petty crime. Stealing sunglasses from an airport is a huge red flag for morals and integrity, if the base is crumbling what does that say about the overlying structure? What's next? A bribe here, a little embezlement there, maybe something darker and more sinister?
As an American I'm shocked by the number of my fellow countrymen who are themselves shocked by this news. There's no question in my mind that this should be the standard of conduct for anyone given public trust, if your moral compass does not exceed that of the common man then you need to step down and the public should demand it.
Fully agreed. As an American, I'm envious that this can be career ending. Really shows how low our standards for politicians are.
Maybe he just saw the sunglasses and thought "I really really want those".
Kinda reminds me of when Senator Al Franken resigned over some inappropriate photos that were taken jokingly (if in poor taste). It was like, yeah ok maybe you should
apologize but resigning is overkill. You have “family values” republicans that will get caught with a male prostitute at a truck stop and will just have a press conference saying how it was a “moment of weakness” and that they “have found Jesus, etc” all kinds of platitudes but absolutely no resignation. If the decent politicians all resign over small indiscretions, it’ll just distill the shit politicians into a higher and higher concentration.
Whether resignation was called for is open to debate, but Al Franken had at least 8 (4 anonymous) accusations.
It may have played out differently if it didn't have the context of #MeToo, Roy Moore, and Trump's Access Hollywood tapes. An example of that might be the DNC initially dragging their feet when Cuomo was accused which ended up having significantly more supporting evidence, and Cuomo himself had to be forced.
There are clear examples of politicization of sexual assault, like Jacob how-is-he-not-in-jail Wohl's ridiculous claims of sexual assault against Muller, Buttigieg, Warren, and Kamala Harris. There are also many that are unknowable and ranging from credible to unlikely, like Blasey Ford's accusations against Kavanaugh or Tara Reade's against Biden.
The first accuser against Senator Franken was quickly promoted by Roger Stone/right wing media, and it was pointed out she had done similar acts (e.g., humping a surprised Robin Williams and slapping his ass). From that, a lot of people remember the incident as baseless and politically motivated, but that wasn't the whole story.
There is also a tricky line with vaudeville-adjacent arts, or areas with traditionally lax norms. Are the Marx brothers loveable scamps fond of naked bonfires or serial flashers? Either view is understandable.
Kleptomania? I assume he stole things like pens and small trinkets and this time just got caught. But at the same time, people are weird, I bet there could be a unique train of thought that would convince anyone to steal some sunglasses.
While I understand this site doesn't share the shallow snarkiness of Reddit, I somehow feel this story begs for a NotTheOnion tag. Or is is there a better term for serious news which sounds like satire?
To provide a contrary opinion, this does not at all sound like satire to me. It sounds like a perfectly normal and reasonable course of action.
Politicians in party-based elective representative democracies (that is, where you at a fundamental level literally vote for a party, not for a specific person) with multiple parties need to have support of the voters because there are often other alternatives that are similar enough to sway some voters from one party to another. Being caught intentionally breaking the law in a significant way, particularly for own enrichment (as opposed to, say, by taking a moral stance that the law is wrong), and particularly at the level of party leader, erodes the trust for the party and can cause significant damage to the opinion of the party.
Yeah, in principle you're right, party leaders should be the absolute pinnacle of humanity. But ofttimes, the ones securing the top position in the party structure ends up being less than ideal.
Here in Denmark, I guess the standard political scandal is theft of public fonds for things like going on an expensive vacation or a house renovation. We also have the word 'partishopping' for when the top brass shop around for the party which can benefit their career the most.
In this light, compared to things like corruption or not even being a loyal party member, stealing a pair of sunglasses just sounds so minor, at least to me.
That is not what I said. There is a very wide gap between not "intentionally breaking the law in a significant way, particularly for own enrichment" and being "the absolute pinnacle of humanity". Reducing the contrast between the two does not further a complex and nuanced understanding of the world.
the closest thing we have on Tildes is the offbeat tag, I think
Nice one, thanks. Do you know if there's a list of tags somewhere?
Tags are all user-generated, so therefore almost infinite.
Like most others, I'm also a bit confused about this.
Firstly, theft and robbery are as much a sin when done by a lefty as by anyone else. There is a tendency among some to forgive or even eulogize them as if they were a Robinhood for stealing from the so called affluent class which is plain wrong. In fact, even more principled approach is expected from left leaders than others for these are the ones who are supposed to right the wrongs in society after ascending to power.
But having said all that, a pair of sunglasses doesn't even register on the scale of theft and robberies in that sense, especially for a party leader. Was this some idea of a joke?
My understanding is that it's less the theft itself and more the series of lies he told to cover it up before inevitably being exposed by security camera footage. I think it would've been different if he'd immediately come clean.
It's also worth noting that these were expensive sunglasses that cost over $100, so it's not like an $8 pair from the gas station.
What is he, 8 years old?