Sweden: The Thread

[Eerors]

Homophobia isn't extremely uncommon either

Don't tell me that! I'll be moving to Sweden *fingers-crossed* this year...

 

[Aesir23]

I'm part Swedish (very small part though. Very far back in my bloodline). So, I'll just say that Sweden is awesome.

 

[Uber Evil]

Fuck, LEGOs are Danish aren't they? I even asked my friend to make sure. He lied to me. I suppose I'll edit that out.

it's a bit too Aryan for my tastes.

Please tell me you didn't mean that.

Aryan does not equal Nazis. Just...I'm not sure the real definition...just white? Calling someone Aryan is not calling them a Nazi though. And being in Scandinavia, Swedish people are (generally) certainly Aryan.

From what I know it is white, blond haired, blue eyed.

 

[Banana Phone Man]

I like Sweden. They (I think) invented the seat belt, speedometer and many other car saftey features. This makes them a country that has probably save 1000's, heck maybe hundreds of thousands of lives.

However, Norway invented the cheese slicer. I love ma cheese! Still I respect Sweden a lot even if I prefer Norway.

 

[Higurashi]

So I was in math class today, thinking about anything other than math as usual, and I ended up thinking about Sweden. I think it started with LEGOS. Now, Sweden is a country I respect very much, and I think it is the country that has earned my respect the hardest, as in none of it came from predetermined opinions. Normally I wouldn't like a country like Sweden; it's a bit too Aryan for my tastes. You know what I mean. But I've only heard good things about Sweden. No history of anti-Semitism, or any widespread racism as far as I know. Unlike those damn Swiss, which for some reason are always mixed up with them. Yes, I'm one of the people who mixes up Sweden and Switzerland occasionally, but only in name, not identity, and I'm quick to realize my mistake.

But the main source of my respect for Sweden is its products. In math, I thought up what I call the Triumvirate of Swedish Awesomeness: LEGOS (innacuracy), DICE (the game developers), and Swedish meatballs. I like Swedish meatballs very much.

So I hope it's okay to make a thread like this, but I wanted to see some public opinions/fact gathering on Sweden. So, discuss.

PS: What's up with IKEA? It gets badmouthed a lot (GTA4's spoof on it was hilarious) but in reality I don't know whether to praise or criticize Sweden for it.

You probably mostly hear the good stuff. We're good at maintaining our image to the rest of the world. We were nazis back when that was all the rage and let the Germans use our infrastructure freely (and even got bombed by the British for giving the nazis ore, but that's very hush-hush) but we kept it a bit more subtle than most and changed our minds swiftly once things started going down the drain.

We do have widespread racism since we've been taking in immigrants since, oh.. 1970. As such, a huge part of our population are immigrants and children of immigrants, and society has developed with and thanks to them. Nonetheless, we have the same kinds of factions any society inevitably develops, and prejudice is very common. However, the reason you probably don't hear much about it is because it usually stays at prejudice. We're a gentle people, and won't act too rashly. However, we do have problems like high unemployment right now due to a change in government, but that will get solved soon. More persistent problems are very high crime rates from immigrants. They are a large reason Sweden tops the rape ratio in Europe; 46 cases reported per 100,000 residents.

Moving on, we arrive at the main reason Sweden is, relatively speaking, extremely well-known for a country its size: our <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_inventions>innovation (yes, I've ranted on this before, so I'm going to save time and link to that instead). We've had a bizarre amount of inventions due to an ancient curiosity and the boost we got when we were a superpower in Europe.

As for IKEA, it gets badmouthed by people who dislike capitalism. Ingvar Kamprad was a true pioneer in creating a company with such extreme efficiency, and people have a lot of prejudice against capitalists. Truth is, he's treated his employers decently, and hasn't been that much of an opportunist throughout the years, so most of the badmouthing is unwarranted.

And yes, LEGO are Danish, while the Skype group was founded by a Swede and a Dane. DICE, hell yeah. They rock.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

I've never been to Sweden nor do I claim to know much about it. However! I listen to many good metal musicians from Sweden and the geography there is rather nice. I think it'd be nice to take a trip there some time.(As I said I don't really know anything about Sweden so there's not much to talk about here.)

 

[SantoUno]

Sweden birthed the most awesome melodic death metal bands, and for that they rule.

 

[Lord_Panzer]

A lot of you are feeling sorry for the lamp. That's because you're crazy, the lamp has no feelings, and the new one is much nicer.

Thank you for reminding me about one of the greatest commercials of my generation.

 

[Apocalypse Tank]

The TC's reasons for why Sweden is awesome is weak. My three would be:
Gustavus Adolphus (king and conqueror)
Alfred Nobel
The combination of Volvo, Saab and Ericcson electronics (Swedish engineering is top notch)

 

[ElephantGuts]

Oh god. This thread is...old. So old. Why?

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Don't forget Swedish metal. In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates, Sabaton, Amon Amarth. Awesome music everywhere you go. And I'm Swedish, it's awesome.

 

[ace_of_something]

Hrm. My mother and grandmother are from Goteberg or rather a town east of there. Near a big lake. The names escape me. My grandfather is American however he was a vagabond after fighting in two American wars and traveled the world.
Most of my Swedish heritage is lost though because my grandmother died when my mom was like a year old. So instead I got my stepgrandmom's (who has raised my mother from age 3) northern irishness.
My other grandparents are from Norway much more familiar with that stuff.

The tragedy is that I don't speak any other languages.