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Norwegian police have arrested a high-profile American white supremacist as he was scheduled to address a far-right conference in Oslo
Link information
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- Title
- US white supremacist arrested in Norway | DW | 02.11.2019
- Authors
- Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com)
- Published
- Oct 30 2019
- Word count
- 248 words
He seems to be making a freedom of expression defence. That would be article 10. https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf
In Europe that's not an absolute right.
Gods I wish Americans would stop exporting their beliefs to Europe, especially when it's shit like this or Steve Bannon funding "think-tanks" in Europe to spread his hateful ideas.
I don't think it's really fair to generalize this neo-nazi or Steve Bannon as "Americans". Nor do I really see how this is exporting beliefs - Steve Bannon's actions are those of a private individual, he's not even tangily part of the US Federal Government anymore.
You can be a private individual and still export your beliefs, not to speak of the numerous religious organizations trying to evangelize the rest of the world. Religious zealots are rarer in Europe and more importantly, they don't run around trying to convince everyone else of their shitty beliefs. Remember when American evangelicals went to Ireland to try and stop the abortion referendum from succeeding?
Actions of indivuduals do not need to be endorsed by the US government to make it a uniquely American issue. Citizens from other countries don't go to America and advocate for universal healthcare.
Idk, I guess I don't like making generalizations from the actions of a few individuals because it leads to unsubstantiated and vastly overbroad generalizations. An example of this in the US is "illegal Mexican immigrants are rapists". While you can find instances of illegal immigrants having committed the crime of rape if you want, the vast majority of them don't. I wasn't personally aware of American activists in Ireland, but googling led me to a single article about one group, "Let Them Live". I'm not aware of the scale of American missionary movements in Ireland, but since I can't find anything on this being a mass movement, nor have I ever heard of a phenomenon from other Americans, I don't think it's really fair to make a mass generalization of Americans from the actions of a single group. I don't approve of such behavior and I think most Americans wouldn't either, probably even many that oppose abortion here.
Far more Irish citizens participated in acts generally considered terrorism by the international community, let us not forget, yet I don't think it would be socially acceptable (or should be socially acceptable) to say that Irish people are violent.
Regarding Ireland: This article lists at least two groups, the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom.
What I meant is that not all Americans engange in spreading their beliefs around the world, but in general, whenever groups work in different countries to do this, they are American. Perhaps it gets reported around here more, cause reinforcing stereotypes sells. Ultimately I don't want to generalize the citizens of an entire nation.
I wonder what's the deal with white nationalism and Norway.
The country itself isn't really racist but somehow it manages to attract all these lowlife white nationalists.
It certainly can be. I used to live in Norway, albeit 20 years ago, as my parents were sent there as foreign workers by an American oil company. There was a lot of racial discrimination and harassment directed towards their coworkers and even my patents weren't treated particularly well - one very memorable incident for my mother included being berated and called a "stupid cow" by a manager because she couldn't pronounce the woman's name without a strong accent. I imagine it's become less so - and of course it's my anecdotal experiences- but Norwegians are still among the most conservative in Europe when it comes to immigration and tend be pretty nationalistic. Conservative on immigration + very financially successful = far right's wet dream, because they seen it as a validation that what they think is right.
Of course, ignoring the nunerous tradegies in history that were caused by nationalism and ignoring that Norway's success stems from both gaining access to very valuable natural resources and smartly managing the results from them. Certainly not by privatizing it and letting their society become extremely economically stratified like has happended in many other oil states.