Det här är vad de vill

English version can be found here.

Innehållsvarning: rasism

Så, gårdagen var lite av en röra. För framtida kontext eller ifall du inte vet, Trump-supportrar stormade Capitol Hill i Washington D.C. i ett försök att ta makt och det var ett enormt misslyckande, som allt de gör. Det var ett kuppförsök, men de hade inte ens inärheten av den planering och det stöd som krävs för att genomföra något sådant här. När jag skriver detta finns det några dödsfall och fler skadade kopplat till det här. Men även om det definitivt är nyhetsvärdigt och sannerligen väldigt märkligt så hade det aldrig en chans att lyckas och kommer kanske inte vara tillräckligt för historieböckerna. Det kan verka som en större händelse än vad det faktiskt är, framför allt om man tänker på vilken byggnad det gäller, men det är ändå något jag vill prata lite om.

Jag vill tydligt säga att var du är är i världen, det kan hända här. Det gjorde det just (förutsatt att du är amerikan). Om du är uppvuxen i ett väldigt stabilt land kan det vara lätt att tänka att kuppen, auktoritärer, fascism, politiskt våld och sådant är saker som händer i andra delar av världen, men inte här. Men det kan hända här. Ditt land är inte immunt. Demokrati är en ömtålig sak som kräver mycket stöd, och mycket händer på det. Så även om det här försöket var dömt från start så kanske inte andra kommer vara det. Så var medveten om det och håll ögonen öppna.

Du kan ha hört folk för fyra år kalla Trump för fascist, men det lät så löjligt att du kallade det så och gick vidare. Du kan ha hört folk säga så om ditt eget lands högerextrema partier och politiker (förutsatt att du inte är amerikan), men tänkt att fascism är vad som hände på 30- och 40-talet, så det är inte applicerbart nu. Plus var inte fascisterna från historia ansvariga för miljontals av dödsfall? Var är de miljonerna en antaget fascistisk Trump mördar?

Vi vill förhindra de morden långt innan de börjar hända igen. Det kan gå över styr fort. Många av oss har sagt i åratal att högerextrema är ett av de störta hoten mot samhället idag. Deras strategi är att vara väluppfostrade stöttare av frihet, med demokrati kan falla och frihet kan upphöra om de får som de vill. Men de kommer aldrig säga det till dig. De säger istället att Västvärlden är hotad av invandring, att de kommer och tar dina jobb, att vissa grupper av människor är våldsamma och farliga, att staten i hemlighet styrs av en liten grupp (inte alls judiska) människor, att de bara skyddar vårt sätt att leva och det borde du också göra om du vill ha en framtid. Om de kan få dig att bli rädd för ”de andra” får de med sig dig på deras sida. Du förstår, det är med rädsla de vinner. De kommer inte visa det heller. Om de presenterar sig som lugna, rationella, och välklädda och får dig att bli rädd för alla faror i världen så är det troligare att du springer till dem för räddning. De kommer inte berätta för dig vad de faktiskt vill förän du på riktigt är en av dem.

Men vi vet redan vad de vill. De är inte särskilt bra på hemligheter när man väl börjar rota. Det kan summeras i fjorton ökända ord:
”Vi måste säkra existensen av vårt folk och en framtid för våra vita barn”.
Det är den där rädslan igen, att existensen av vita människor på något vis är hotad. De bryr sig inte om demokrati. Rädsla är vad som driver dem.

Framtiden jag vill ha drivs istället av hopp. Jag gillar pluralism. Jag gillar sammanblandning. Mitt folk är hela mänskligheten och tillsammans är vi starka. Jag gillar yttrandefrihet, religionsfrihet, rörelsefrihet, åsiktsfrihet, och mycket annat. Min utopi är en där orättvisor och segregation är förbi, och jag tror att det kan uppnås. Sättet vi gör det på är med inkludering och öppenhet, inte med rädsla och skräck. Vad hoppas du på?

This Is What They Want

Svensk version hittar du här.

Content warning: racism

So, yesterday was a bit of a mess. For future context or if you don't know, Trump-supporters charged Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. in an attempt to take control and it was an utter faliure, like everything they do. It was a coup attempt, but they didn't have anywhere near the planning and support they needed to pull it off. As of writing there are a few deaths and more wounded. But while this certainly is newsworthy and very strange indeed, it never had a chance of succeeding and might not be all that worthy for history books. It can seem like a larger event than it really is, given what building it is, but it's still something I want to talk a bit about.

I want to clearly state that wherever you are in the world, it can happen here. It just did (assuming you're American). If you're brought up in a very stable country you might feel that coups, authoriatarians, fascism, political violence and such are things that happen in other parts of the world, but not here. But it can happen here. Your country is not immune. Democracy is a fragile thing that requires much support, and a lot hinges on it. So while this attempt might have been doomed from the start, others might not be. So be aware of that and keep your eyes open.

You might have heard people four years ago calling Trump a fascist, but that sounded ridiculus so you brushed it off as such. You might have heard people say that about your own country's far-right parties and politicians (assuming you're not American), but thought that fascism is what happened in the 30's and 40's, so that's not applicable to now. Plus weren't the fascists from history responsible millions of deaths? Where are the millions a supposed fascist Trump is murdering?

We want to prevent those murders long before they start to happen again. It can get out of hand fast. Many of us have been saying for years that the far-right is one of the greatest threats against society we have today. Their strategy is one of being well mannered supporters of freedom, but democracy could fall and freedom could end if they have their way. But they're never going to tell you that. They will tell you that western society is threatened by immigration, that they're coming to take our jobs, that certain groups of people are violent and dangerous, that the government is secretly run by a small group of (certainly not jewish) people, that they are only protecting our way of life and you should too if you want to have a future. If they can get you to be afraid of ”the other”, they win you over. You see, it's by fear they win. They won't show it either. If they present themselves as calm, rational, and well dressed and make you afraid of all the dangers in the world, you're more likely to come running to them for protection. They are not going to tell you what they truly want before you are truly one of them.

But you see, we already know what they want. They're not really good at secrets when you start digging. It can be summed up in fourteen infamous words:
”We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”.
It's that fear again, that the existence of white people is somehow threatened. They don't really care about democracy. Fear is what drives them.

The future I want is instead driven by hope. I like pluralism. I like intermingling. My people is all of humanity and together we are strong. I like freedom of speech, of religion, of movement, of thought, and of much else. My utopia is one where injustice and segregation are things of the past, and I believe that is attainable. The way we do that is through inclusion and openness, not through fear and intimidation. What do you hope for?

Optik (Public Relations)

English version can be found here.

God kväll alihopa. Jag kom just hem en härlig promenad i snön. Det är säsongens första snö som ligger kvar här och inte bara smälter bort. Jag älskar snö. Hur som helst, jag har några tankar om optik.

Idag annonerade generaldirektören för Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap, Dan Eliasson, att han kommer avgå. Anledningen är att han mottagit kritik för att han reste på semester till Kanarieöarna nu i mitten av den värsta tiden av Coronapandemin för Sverige. Sveriges regering har rekommenderad folk att minska sitt resande få mycket som möjligt, och han, en stor figur inom regeringen, reste till en turistort. Så det är inte bra. Jag menar, det är ju inte exakt världsnyheter, men det är ett bra exempel på dålig optik.

Så optik, om du inte vet, är helt enkelt en term man kan använda inom public relations for att beskriva hur något ser ut utifrån, hur det uppfattas. Och jag vill berätta att ibland spelar det roll för bra anledningar, och ibland för dåliga. I Eliassons fall kommer hans handlingar antagligen inte direkt skada många, men det kan skada många fler indirekt. Om regeringen säger A och gör B, hur troligt är det att folket gör A? Så regeringen, helt korrekt, distansierar sig from Eliasson för att visa att de inte gör B. Så det här är ett fall där optik spelar roll så det uppfattas.

Men ibland spelar det faktiskt ingen roll, men påverkar ändå världen runt om oss. Till exempel, läget såg ganska bra ut för den amerikanske presidentkandidaten Howard Dean när han klev in i året 2004. Så under en samling i mitten av januari blev publiken högljud och han var högljud tillbaks, vilket kulminerade i att han levererade ett kort och glatt skrik. Detta blev fort en nyhet och meme och han blev fort skrattad åt av miljoner. (Sök ”Dean Scream” om du är intresserad.) Optiken här kan till och med ha gjort att han senare förlorade nomineringen. Men spelar hans skrik verkligen roll? Skulle det ha påverkat hur han var som president? Som en extra poäng, sätt detta i kontrast til Van Halen, som ofta drog nytta av, gillade, och uppmuntrade rykten om dem. Memes är bra optik för vissa och dåligt för andra. Men optiken här gör inte någon till varken en bra eller dålig politiker eller musiker.

Och sist har vi de fallen där optik används för lömska anledningar. Om vi till exempel tar en artikel skriven om ett stort företag. I denna artikel kan vi läsa allt om hur det här storföretaget gör alla möjliga olika dåliga saker, saker som ser riktigt illa ut i allmänhetens ögon. Och allmänheten, de blir skitsura. Vad gör nu storföretaget varje gång det här händer? Helt riktigt, VD:n avgår (med en liten fallskärm på några miljoner) och företaget släpper ett uttalande om hur de utreder de dåliga sakerna och blickar nu framåt. Bra! Eller? Fel! Optiken här är gjort för att vara bra, men hur mycket måste företaget faktiskt ändra sig efter det här? Eller kan de bara fortsätta som normalt, förutom vissa små policyändringar och ett nytt ansikte för att representera dem?

Allt det här kanske bara är en liten grej, men det är något jag skulle vilja att alla aktivt tänkte lite på. Ibland spelar optik roll, ibland inte. Och ibland används det för att dölja något ruttet. Så ha gärna det i åtanke nästa gång ni hör i nyheterna om någon kontrovers eller liknande.

Ha det bra!

Optics (Public Relations)

Svensk version hittar du här.

Good evening everyone. I just came home from a nice walk in the snow. It's the first time this season it stays on the ground and not just melts away. I love snow. Anyway, I have some thoughts about optics.

Today the swedish director general of the Civil Contigiencies Agency, Dan Eliasson, announced that he will resign. The reason is that he recieved some criticism about traveling on vacation to the Canary Islands now in the middle of the worst part of the Corona pandemic for Sweden. The Swedish government has recommended people reduce their travelling as much as possible, and he, a major figure in the government, travelled to a tourist heavy destination. So that's not good. I mean, it's not exactly world news, but this is a good example of bad optics.

So optics, if you don't know, is simply a term you can use in public relations to describe how something looks from the outside, how it's percieved. And I want to tell you that sometimes that matters for good reasons, and sometimes for bad ones. In the case of Eliasson, his actions will probably not direcly harm many people, but it can do major harm indirecly. If the government says A and does B, how likely is it that the public will listen to A? So the government is correctly distancing themselves from Eliasson to show that they do not do B. So this is a case where optics matters in the way it's percieved.

But sometimes it doesn't actually matter really, but still affects the world around us. For instance, things were looking pretty good for US presidential candidate Howard Dean going into 2004. So in a rally mid January the crowd got loud and he was loud back, culminating in him delivering a short and happy shriek. This quickly turned into news and a meme and he was promply laughted at by millions. (Search for ”Dean Scream” if you're interested.) The optics here might even have made him lose the nomination later on. But does his scream really matter? Would it affect how he would perform as president? As an extra point, contrast this to say, Van Halen, who often benefited from, liked, and endorsed whatever rumour circulated about them. Memes are good optics for some and bad for others. But the optics here doesn't make someone a good or bad politician or musician.

And lastly we have the cases where optics are used for sinister reasons. Say for instance there's an article released about a large company. In this article we can read all about how this big company is doing all kinds of bad things, things that look really bad in the public eye. And the public, they get outraged. Now what does big business do every time this happens? That's right, the CEO resigns (with a small bonus of a few million dollars) and the company releases a statement on how they are looking into the bad things and moves forward. Good! Right? Wrong! The optics here are made to be good, but how much does the company actually need to change after this? Or can they just continue on as usual, perhaps with a few small policy changes and a new face to represent them?

This all might be a small point to make, but it's something I would like everyone to actively think about. Sometimes optics matter, sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes it's used to hide something rotten. So please keep that in mind whenever the news tells you of some controversy or another.

Have a good one!

Gentrifiering

English version can be found here.

Innehållsvarning: ojämlikhet och våldsbrott

Tiden är kommen. De är innanför våra dörrar, invaderar våra hem. De kommer slita. De kommer bryta. De kommer förstöra. Och vi har banat vägen, ödmjukt överlämnat oss åt deras angrepp. Och med tiden kommer de bygga upp. Vår hyresvärd har påbörjat renoveringar, så nu tycker jag att vi kan prata om gentrifiering.

Jag vet inte om du vet vad det är för något eller inte. Kanske har du hört talas om det och har en vag idé. Allt det här är förenklat förstås, och orsakerna kan variera väldigt. Kortfattat är det en process där man gör ett område rikare, ”finare”, eller mer ”gentilt” (gentil → gentrifiering, och ja, jag vet är derivationen är mer komplicerad än så). Storföretag och deras klientel flyttar in och ekonomiska värdet på området går upp. Brottslighet och fattigdom brukar gå ner samtidigt. Det kommer troligtvis bli mindre nedskräpning och området kommer se bättre ut.

”Det låter ju bra!” hör jag dig säga. Och ja, det definitivt bra saker som händer här, men du kanske har noterat att jag i alla fall försökte ha en cynisk ton kring det. Jag blir inte överlycklig här direkt.

”Men vänta lite”, kanske du säger, ”hur är det här en dålig sak?” Jag är glad att du frågade! Vi tar det från början. Gentrifiering är en sak som händer naturligt när städer växer och ekonomin frodas. Man kan inte riktigt stoppa det. Människor vill leva nära rikedom och handel. Det är där jobben och den bästa shoppingen finns. Och de rikaste bland oss har störst medel att få det att hända, så områden närmare centrum brukar ha fler dyra och lyxiga hem, och de lokala butikerna brukar tillgodose de kunderna. Områdena runt om och förorterna brukar hemmen för de mindre rika och de lokala företagen brukar vara anpassade för de med mindre pengar. Självfallet finns de förorter och grannskap som är mer överklass än andra, men även där är rikedom koncentrerad till de områdena.

Än så länge kanske detta inte är särskilt förvånande. Men intressanta saker händer när staden och/eller dess rikedom växer. Då kommer områden av lägre klass liksom ”levla upp”. Fördelningen av rikedom kommer ändras, och den ”upplevlingen” heter gentrifiering.

”Yay! Mer rikedom till fler människor!” Men inte så fort. Vi kan titta på vad som händer med ett exempel:

• Familjen Ason fick just en stor befordran och vill flytta till ett finare hem. Det finns inga tillgängliga i centrum, så de vidgar sina vyer. De hittar hem i grannskap X som är nyrenoverade eller nybyggda och ser perfekta ut. Levnadskostnaderna kommer stiga, men de har mer pengar nu, så det är okej.

• Familjen Bson har bott i grannskap X länge. De har lågbetalda jobb, men har alltid klarat sig. De engagerar sig ofta i lokala aktiviteter och känner sig som en del av en gemenskap. Men på senaste tiden har fler hus byggts och fler hem renoverats. De har tittat på kostnaderna för dessa hem och blivit chockade över hur mycket dyrare de är jämfört med deras. Under de lokala aktiviteterna så har de också märkt att flera ansikten saknas, folk som sagt adjö och flyttat. När fler människor har flyttat in dessa nya hem har Bson också jämrat sig över nedstängningen av flera lokala företag som det inte gick så bra för längre. I deras plats har nya butiker öppnats, men ingen i familjen verkar vara särskilt intresserad av dem eller tycker att deras erbjudanden är för dyra ändå. Nu har de fått en notis från hyresvärden om att deras hem ska renoveras för ett stambyte. Som en bonus kommer de även få nya badrum och kök. Självklart kommer hyran höjas också. När de läser detta får Bson en sjunkande känsla i magen.

Gentrifiering är en oundviklig effekt av tillväxt, men om man låter de gå okontrollerat kan det splittra gemenskaper, döda lokala företag, och förstöra liv. Som med de flesta saker så är det de fattiga som får betala för det.

I vårt fall så vill hyresvärden göra ett stambyte och göra om badrum och balkong. De bestämde sig för att göra detta efter att problem med brottslighet i området nådde en topp för några år sedan. Två unga män, pojkar egentligen, sköts till döds utanför vårat hem i en drive-by. Båda var involverade i en kriminell organisation som kretsar kring en särskilt familj och morden var en hämnd för tidigare mord, och de var inte de sista. De var däremot de sista här eftersom polisen klev in och gick hårt mot organisationen, vilket resulterade i att de blev arresterade eller utspridda över staden och landet. Polisen gjorde ett bra jobb som löste situationen (förutom för hur de behandlade en del av oss som bor här. Jag tvivlar starkt på att jag någonsin bjuder in en polis i mitt hem igen), och till en början gjorde även hyresvärden det. De byggde om det omedelbara området för dubbelmordet så det inte alls såg ut som det gjorde innan, vilket gjorde det möjligt för de anhöriga till offren att behandla sin sorg bättre och gå förbi utan att behöva bli påminda om deras förlust och bryta ihop varje gång.

Men sedan bestämde hyresvärden sig för att renovera hela grannskapet. Det här är en gissning, men jag tror att anledningen är tvåfaldig. De ville reparera till rykte av att ha ett sådant här ”dåligt” område. Och de ville gentrifiera området för att få in mer pengar på hyra. Visst, rören är antagligen gamla och stambytet behövs nog, med de kunde gjort långt mindre för att åstadkomma det. När de lade fram sina idéer så fick de stor kritik av Hyresgästföreningen för att det skulle leda till att en stor del av hyresgästerna inte skulle kunna betala sin hyra. Förhandlingarna var hårda och utdragna. I slutändan får vi en månad utan hyra och sju år av oförändrad hyra, vilket är härligt. Men det får mig att tänka på vad som händer efter de sju åren har gått. Om tio år, hur många kommer ha tvingats att flytta? Kommer alla kunna hitta nya hem i tid när vi har en bostadsbrist i landet? Kommer alla kunna behålla sina jobb efter flytten? Många små butiker kommer antagligen ersättas av inte bara nya, men även av storföretag. Och hur många vänskapsband kommer klippas av distans?

När det kommer till min egna familj är jag inte särskilt orolig. Vi har planer och kommer antagligen kunna hantera detta fint. Vi är inte särskilt folkliga av oss. Våra vänner bor lite överallt och vi åker för att träffa dem. Men jag ser en hel del samlingar utanför våra fönster. Stora släkten som firar olika saker. Där finns musik, mat, skratt, och alla möjliga trevliga saker. Kommer det vara borta om tio år? Hur är det för andra områden som inte får sju år, utan kanske bara sex månader, eller ingenting?

Gentrifiering händer, och det är definitivt inte bara dåligt. Men när det händer så är det i stort sett som en orkan av förändring för alla som bor där. Många människor kan bli allvarligt sårade av det. Inte alla klarar sig igenom det med ett tak över huvudet eller ens sina liv. Jag anser att vi som samhälle har ett ansvar att göra den förändringen så enkel som möjligt för de involverade.

Och vad du än gör, ta inte ut din ilska på arbetarna! De gör bara sina jobb.

Ta hand om er.

Gentrification

Svensk version hittar du här.

Content warning: inequality and violent crime

The time is here. They're inside our doors, invading our homes. They will tear. They will break. They will destroy. And we have prepared the way, meekly surrendering to their onslaught. And, in time, they will build. Our landlord has started renovations, so lets talk about a little thing called gentrification.

I don't know if you know what that is or not. Maybe you have heard about it and have a vague idea. This is all simplified of course, and the causes can be very varied. The gist of it is that it's a process of making an area more affluent, ”nicer”, or more ”gentile” (gentile → gentrification, and yes, I know the derivation is more complicated than that). Bigger business and their clientele moves in and the economic value of the area goes up. Crime and poverty usually goes down at the same time. There will probably be less littering and the area will look better.

”That sounds nice!” I hear you say. And yes, there are some definite good things happening here, but perhaps you noticed that I at least tried to have a cynical tone about it. I'm not exactly bursting with joy over here.

”But hang on”, you might say, ”how is this a bad thing?” I'm glad you asked! Lets take it from the start. Gentrification is a thing that happens naturally as cities grow and the economy prospers. You can't exactly stop it. People want to live close to wealth and trade. It's where the jobs and best shopping is. And the wealthiest of us have the most means of making that happen, so the neighborhoods closer to the centre of the city will usually have the most expesive and luxurious homes, and the local shop will be catering to those customers. The surrounding areas and suburbs will usually hold the cheaper homes for the less wealthy and local business will be geared towards people with less money. Of course there are suburbs and neighborhoods not in the city centre that are more upper class than others, but even there the wealth is concentrated in certain areas.

All of this is maybe not that surprising to you. But interesting things happen when the city and/or its wealth grows. Then areas that were lower class will in a way ”level up”. The wealth distribution will change, and that ”leveling up” is called gentrification.

”Yay! More wealth to more people!” But not so fast. Lets see what that looks like with an example:

• Family Ason just got a big job promotion and wants to move to a nicer home. There are none available in the centre, so they're exanding their view. They find homes in neighborhood X that are freshly renovated or recently built, and they look perfect. The cost of living will go up, but they have more money now so it's okay.

• Family Bson has been living in neighborhood X a long time now. They have low paying jobs, but have always made due. They're often engaged in local activities and feel like a part of a community. But lately more houses have been built and more homes have been renovated. They looked at the costs of these new homes and were shocked at how much more expensive they were to their own home. During community activities they have also noticed several missing faces, people who have said their goodbyes and have moved away. As new people moved into these new homes Bson have also lamented the closing of several local businesses that weren't doing so well anymore. In their place new shops have opened, but the no one in the family feel particurarly interested in them or feel that their services are too expensive anyway. Now they have recieved a notice from their landlord that their home will undergo renovation to repair old pipes and such. And as a bonus they will get a redone bathroom and kitchen. Of course, rents will be increased as well. When reading this Bson get a sinking feeling in their stomachs.

Gentrification is an inevitable effect of growth, but if left unchecked it can shatter communities, kill local business, and destroy lives. As with most things, the ones who pay the price are the poor.

In our case our landlord want to change old pipes and redo bathrooms and balconies. They decided to do this after problems with crime in our neighborhood came to a head a few years ago. Two young men, boys really, were shot to death outside our home in a drive-by. Both were involved in a criminal organisation revolving one certain family and the murders were retributions for earlier killing, and they were not the last. They were however the last here, as the policed stepped in and went hard against the organisation, leaving them in jail or scattered over the city and country. The police did a good job of solving that situation (apart from how they treated some of us who live here. I seriously doubt I'm ever inviting a police officer into my home ever again), and to begin with the landlord did as well. They redesigned the immediate area of the double murder so it looked nothing like it did before, making it possible for the victims' close ones to process their grief better and walk through it without being reminded of their loss breaking down in sorrow every time.

But then the landlord decided to renovate the entire neighborhood. This is my conjecture, but I believe the reason for this is twofold. They want to repair their reputation of having this ”bad” neighborhood. And they want to gentrify the area to be able to make more money from rent. Sure, the pipes are probably old and need changing, but they could have done far less to achieve that. In fact, when these ideas were proposed they recieved heavy criticism from the tenant's association because it would leave to a large portion of residents unable to pay rent. Negotiations where hard and drawn out. In the end we get one months rent back and seven years of unchanged rent, which is great. But it leaves me wondering what will happen after those seven years. In ten years, how many people will have been forced to move? Will everyone find new homes in time when we currently have a lack of housing in the country? Will everyone be able to keep their jobs after moving? Many of the small shops in the area will probably be replaced by not just new ones, but big business ones. And how many friendships will end because of distance?

When it comes to my own family I'm not worried. We have plans and will probably handle it fine. We are not really people persons (people people?). Our friends live all over and we travel to see them. But I see many gatherings outside our windows, large families celebrating many different events. There's music, food, laughter, and all kinds of happy things. Will that be gone in ten years time? How is it for other neighborhoods that don't get seven years, but maybe six months, or nothing?

Gentrification happens, and it's definitely not all bad. But when it happens it's basically a hurricane of change for everyone who lives there. Many people can get seriously hurt, not all might even make it out with a roof over their heads or even alive. It is my belief that we as a society have a responsibility to make this change as easy for the people involved as possible.

And whatever you do, don't take it out on the workers! They're only doing their jobs.

Take care of yourselves.

Konversionssyndrom (del två)

English version can be found here

Innehållsvarning: all möjlig stress!

Det här är del två i en serie. Del ett hittar du här.

Det har varit en tung dag och du är på väg hem från jobbet. Telefonsamtalet du just hade hjälpte inte heller. Du känner att det är på väg. Alla musklerna i din kropp är på helspänn och det känns som att de ska springa vilken sekund som helst. Allt du hoppas på är att du ska hinna innanför dörren innan det händer, men går långsamt framåt. Efter att nästan ha trillat några gånger och att du använd alla möjliga saker som stöd kommer du äntligen in och stänger dörren och suckar i lättnad. Du kom i alla fall hem.

Du försöker ta av dig din jacka, men dina armar verkar ha egna idéer. Efter att ha förstått att varje försök att klä av dig är hopplöst fokuserar du istället på att sätta dig ner, innan du plötsligt känner hur du åker mot väggen bredvid dig och träffar den hårdare än du än du hoppades på. Hela din kropp skriker nu inom dig och du kastas mot golvet som slår luften ur dig. Din kropp har börjar vrida sig, dina lemmar slingrar sig till bisarra former. Allt av det smärtsamt. Och du kan inte göra någonting.

I en halvtimma ligger du där på hallgolvet och försöker samla dina tankar medan din kropp värker och rör sig på underliga sätt. Jag är inte i fara, tänker du för dig själv. Jag kanske har några blåmärken senare, men det här kan inte skada mig allvarligt. Det är sant, men en klen tröst. När saker lugnar sig ligger du kvar där en stund och tar djupa andetag. Det värker fortfarande, men inte lika mycket som innan. Svett rinner över nacken och du upptäcker att du är genomvåt, så du bestämmer dig för att resa dig upp och klä av dig. Tömd på energi, du kommer inte få mycket gjort ikväll, så mycket vet du. Det känns alltid så underligt antiklimatiskt och förläget efteråt. Du vet inte vad som borde hända, men nu är det bara så normalt igen. Dags att fortsätta med kvällen då.

Berättelsen ovan är ett försök att visa ett icke-epileptiskt anfall. Självfallet är det inte en fullständig försklaring. Allas upplever det olika och i olika situationer. Välkommen till del två om min lilla text om konversionssyndrom!

Du kan faktiskt ha sett konvsersionssyndrom mer än vad du vet. Som jag skrev innan så är det vanligare än vad många tror. Du kanske till och med känner igen vissa av dina egna erfarenheter i det här. Den gången du var riktigt stressad, kanske rent av utbränd, kände du inte lite av det här? Om inte så är jag glad för din skull. Funktionella symtom är inte ovanliga när det kommer till stress. Men för att vara tydlig: det är också väldigt vanligt att inte uppleva symtomen.

Allt av det är inte konversionssyndrom dock. För att det ska vara det behöver det bli något i stil med kroppens standardreaktion till stress, vilket kan vara lite irriterande. Men du kan ha sett det på andra ställen också, så som i granatchock ('shell shock' på engelska). Det är en del av alla krig, men man såg det väldigt mycket under och efter första världskriget, där många soldater reagerade underligt till främst spärreld. De tog skydd i skyttegravar när bomber landade överallt runt om dem. Allt de kunde göra var att sitta still och hoppas på att inte bli träffade. Detta kunde pågå i timmar. Även när de var i trygghet efteråt kunde de stirra ofokuserat i långa stunder, bli väldigt lättretliga, ha sömnproblem, ha svårt att gå, uppleva ofrivilliga skakningar och rörelser, och andra sådana saker. En del av det är var vi idag skulle kalla posttraumatisk stresssyndrom (PTSS, eller PTSD), men det andra är konversionssyndrom. Man kan även se det i miniserien Band of Brothers som utspelar sig under andra världskriget. I tredje avsnittet får vi följa en soldat som under strid plötsligt blir blind utan någon skada mot kroppen. Sjukvårdaren diagnostiserade det som hysterisk blindhet, som låter väldigt likt något vi har pratat om. Om ni läsare har några fler potentiella pop-kulturella eller historiska exempel så får ni gärna höra av er!

Nu kanske ni undrar hur man ens får det här, eller så kanske ni har en god gissning efter förra stycket. Orsaken är alltid någon form av stress eller trauma. Det kan vara strid, sexuellt, mobbing, fysiska skador, eller i princip vad som helst som orsakar stora mängder stress. Och även om hur det exakt fungerar fortfarande är okänt (ifall hos mig när jag skrev det här, och jag är inte proffessionell. Jag är patient) så vet vi att adrenalin och flykt-, kamp-, och frysresponsen spelar en stor roll i det här. Så när vi som lider av det här upplever en episod, attack, anfall, eller vad du än vill kalla det, så får vi en enorm dos av adrenalin som saboterar hur våra hjärnor fungerar. Så för att vara tydlig: det här är inte något patienten hittar på. Det är en bug i hur människor är programmerade.

I mitt fall fick jag konversionssyndrom när jag var kring tjugo år. Fram tills dess hade jag levt med Aspergers syndrom, depression, och social fobi hela mitt liv utan att jag hade någon aning om det (Kul fakta: jag fick alla fyra diagnoserna samtidigt), vilket gjorde mig till en sönderstressad invidiv, väldigt mån om att passa in och jobba hårt för att ”passa in”. Jag blev utbränd och fortsatte ändå och lyssnade inte alls på min kropps signaler tills kroppen bokstavligt talat gjorde mig oförmögen att göra något alls.

Men efter att ha först hört att problemet var att jag har för korta muskler (det har jag inte), sedan att jag troligtvis har multipel skleros (det var en kul dag), och blivit testad för alla möjliga olika neurologiska problem (nålar i ryggrader kan vara obekvämt) så beslutade sig neurologerna sig för att säga ”hej då!” och jag hade turen att få diagnosen från ett annat ställe och möta en läkare på en tredje plats som tur nog var specialiserad inom funktionella symtom. Från henne kunde jag få förklarat lite vad som pågick med min kropp.

Det är inte bara jämmer och elände dock. Större delen av folk som får en diagnos och behandling blir friska igen efter bara några veckor. Så det är ju fantastiskt! Men ja, jag är inte en av dem. Samtliga fall kan potentiellt bli botade, men det behövs några saker för det (bara för att ge ett hum. Använd inte den här listan för behandling!):

1. Erkänn allvaret i problemet och att patienten inte hittar på. Kan genomföras med allmänt vett och genom att lyssna.

2. Gå till källan för stressen. Identifiera vad som triggar symtomen. Kan kräva någon djupare psykologi så som psykodymanisk terapi.

3. Hitta nya och nyttigare reaktioner på triggers. Kan kräva något i stil med kognitiv beteendeterapi (KBT) för att justera undermedvetna beteenden.

Det här är en förenkling förstås, kanske så pass mycket att det är inkorrekt för vissa patienter. Men ett problem med det här är att djupare psyokologi ses ofta lite ogillande på av vården idag, främst för att KBT är mycket mer effektivt och därför billigare per patient och bättre för den allmäna mentala hälsan i samhället. Men KBT kan inte göra allt djupare psykologiska terapier kan, så det lämnar en hel del patienter utan vård. Det vill säga, nummer 2 i listan kan bli väldigt svår att genomföra om du inte är villig att betala för det själv (det är inte billigt). Jag har till och med fått sagt till mig av offentliga vården att de inte kan erbjuda mig den behandlingen (som de kunde för inte många år sedan).

Så jag spenderar min tid är att lära mig att göra saker utan att orsaka allt för mycket stress, att försöka gräva mig in i min egen hjärna (bildligt talat, ahem) och hitta exakta triggers för mina symtom, och ibland genom att fortfarande pusha mig själv för hårt för att göra roliga saker eller ha ett jobb. Jag har gjort mycket framsteg (och min fru har varit extremt hjälpsam i det), men det finns fortfarande många dåliga tankar och vanor att reda ut för att förstå hur jag fungerar och hitta den exakta orsaken till det här.

För att summera: många människor upplever funktionella symtom någon gång under livet. Vissa människor jag till och med konversionssyndrom där ens hjärna är övertygad om att dessa symtom är bra standardreaktioner till stress. Att leva med det är handikappande. Och tja, jag har konversionssyndrom och har haft det i över tio år nu. Och viktigast av allt, nu vet du vad det är för något! Det är ett lyckat uppdrag enligt mig.

Så ta hand er själva och varandra. Stress skadar mycket mer än folk inser.

Puss och kram

Hej då!

Conversion Disorder (Part Two)

Svensk version hittar du här

Content warning: all manner of stress!

This is part two in a series. Press here for part one.

It's been a rough day and you're coming home from work. The phone call you just had didn't help either. You can feel it coming. All your muscles are tense and feel like they can burst at any second. All you hope for is that you just can make it through your front door before it happens, but walking is slow. After almost falling over a few times and using all manner of things as support you finally get inside and close your door and breathe a brief sigh of relief. You at least made it home.

You start trying to take off your jacket, but your arms seem to have their own ideas. Realising that any attempt at taking your clothes off is hopeless you instead focus on trying to sit down, before suddenly feel you self moving towards the wall beside you, hitting it harder than you hoped for. All of your body is now screaming inside and you are flown to the floor, knocking the air out of you. Your body has started writhing, your limbs twisting into bizarre shapes. All of it painful. And you can do nothing.

For half an hour you're down there on your hallway floor, trying to collect your thoughs as your whole body aches and moves in strange ways. I'm not in danger, you think to yourself. I might have a few bruises later, but this can't seriously hurt me. It's true, but a cold comfort. When things settle down you lie still for a minute, taking deep breaths. You still hurt, but not as bad as before. Sweat runs down your neck and you discover that you're drenched in it, so you decide to get up and undress. Drained of energy, you wont get much done tonight, you know that much. Things always feel strangely anti-climactic and awkward afterwards. You have no idea what should happen, but now things are just back to normal. Time to get on with the evening then.

The above story is an attempt at showing a non-epileptic sezuire. It's of course not an exhaustive explaination. Everyone experience it differently and in different situations. Welcome to part two of my little text on conversion disorder!

You might have seen conversion disorder more than you know. As I wrote before, it's more common than you think. You might even recognise some of your own experiences in this. That time you were really stressed, maybe even burnt out, didn't you feel some of this? If not, I'm happy for you. Functional symtoms are not uncommon when dealing with stress. To be clear, it's also common to not experience these symptoms.

They're not all conversion disorder though. For that it has to be something close to the body's standard reaction to stress, which can be rather annoying. But you might have seen it in other places as well, such as in the form of a thing called shell shock. It's a part of any war, but it was seen to a great extent during and after World War 1, with many soldiers reacting strangely to primarily artillery barrages. Taking cover in trenches with bombs landing all round they could be hit any second and all they could do is stay put and hope they wont get hit. This could go on for hours. Even when safe they could stare into the distance for long periods of time, become very irritable, have trouble sleeping, having trouble walking, experience unwanted tremors and movements and things like that. Now, some of that is what we today would call post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but some of it is conversion disorder. It can even be seen in the miniseries Band of Brothers set during World War 2. In the third episode we get to follow a soldier who during a battle a suddenly becomes blind without sustaining any injury. The medic diagnoses it as hysterical blindness, which sound eerily like something we've talked about. And hey, if you have any more potential pop cultural and historical depictions, please let me know!

You might be wondering now how you even get this. Or perhaps you have a good guess after the last paragraph. The cause is always some form of distress or trauma. It can be combat, sexual, harassment, physical injury or basically anything that can cause a large amount of stress. And while the precise workings of this are still unknown (at least to me at the time of writing, and I'm not a professional. I'm a patient) we do know that adrenaline and the fight/flight/freeze response plays a major part in this. So when we who suffer from this experience an episode, attack or what ever you want to call it, we get a huge boost of adrenaline that messes up how our brain functions. So to be clear: this is not something the patient is making up. This is a bug in how humans are programmed.

In my case I got conversion disorder when I was around twenty years old. Up until that time I had lived with Asperger's syndrome, depression and social anxiety my whole life without knowing (fun fact: I got all four diagnoses at the same), leaving me a very stressed individual, very keen on fitting in and working my ass off to ”make it”. I burned out and kept going anyway, not listening to my body's signals at all until my body quite literally made me unable to do anything.

But after first hearing that the problem was that I have short muscles (I don't), then that I probably have multiple sclerosis (that was a fun day), and being tested for all kinds of neurological disorders (needles in spines can be uncomfortable) the neurologists settled on saying ”bye!” and I just lucked out (or ”lucked in”, depending on where you live in the world) in getting the diagnosis from somewhere else and met a doctor in a third place that just happened to be specialiced in fuctional disorders. From her I could understand a bit of what was going on with me.

It's not all doom and gloom though. The absolute majority of people who get a diagnosis and treatment become healthy again in just a few weeks. So that's great! But yeah, I'm not one of them. All cases could potentially get cured, but a few things are needed for that (just to give you an idea. Don't use this list as treatment):

1. Recognise the severity of the issue and that the patient is not making this up. Could be done with decency and just listening.

2. Get to the source of the stress. Recognise what triggers the symptoms. Might require some form of deep psychology, such as psychodynamic therapy.

3. Work out new and more healthy reactions to the triggers. Might require something like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to adjust unconscious behaivours.

This is simplified, of course, maybe to the point of being incorrect for some patients. But one problem with this is that deep psychology is often frowned upon by healthcare today, mainly just because CBT is more effective, and therefor cheaper per patient and better for the general mental health of society. But CBT can't do everything deep psychological therapies can do, leaving many people behind. So number 2 in the steps above can become really hard to achieve if you're not willing to pay for it yourself (it's not cheap). I've even had the public health care tell me this, that they can't offer me this treatment (like they could not many years ago).

How I spend my time is learning to do things without it causing too much stress, trying to dig into my own brain (figuratively, ahem) to find out the precise triggers of my symptoms, and sometimes still pushing myself too hard in an effort to do fun things or have a job. I've made a lot of progress (and my wife has been extremely helpful in this), but there's still a lot of bad thoughts and habits to unravel in order to understand how I work and find the exact cause of this.

So to sum up: many people experience functional symptoms some time in their lives. A few people even have conversion disorder where your brain is convinced these functional symptoms are good, standard reactions to stress. Living with it is very disabling. And, well, I have conversion disorder and I've had it for over ten years now. And most importantly, now you know what it is! That's mission succesful for me.

So take care of yourselves and of each other. Stress is much more harmful than people realize.

Love you

Bye!

Konversionssyndrom (del ett)

English version can be found here.

Innehållsvarning: beskrivningar av stressfulla situationer

Tänk dig att du är på jobbet och har en okej, men inte fantastisk dag. Du sköter ditt och en kollega säger något som slår lite väl hårt. Du vet att du borde ignorera det, skaka av dig det, och på en bättre dag hade du kunnat det. Kommentaren var inte direkt elak eller så, och personen menade antagligen inget med det, men den gjorde dig lite ledsen. Du fortsätter jobba oavsett och ser fram emot att komma hem sedan och koppla av.

När du fortsätter jobba börjar din kropp kännas lite trög och något börjar hända med din syn. Allting ser likadant ut, men det känns långt bort på något vis. Ett glas vatten kanske skulle göra gott, tänker du och börjar gå för att skaffa dig ett. Men att gå runt på din arbetsplats verkar så främmande för dig nu. Allting har förvandlats till en lång tunnel och luften till lera.

På något sätt lyckas du ta dig till köket och häller upp ett glas vatten, men du kan knappt greppa det. Av rädsla att tappa det ställer du ner det på bänken och börjar titta på din hand som du försöker göra till en knytnäve, men inget händer.

”Är du okej?”, du vänder dig om för att svara en annan kollega som står bredvid dig, men du bara stirrar på henne i förvirring medan inga ord kommer ur din mun. Det är först nu du inser att den tröga känslan är att dina ben inte kan bära dig längre, så du sjunker ner på knä för att undvika att slå dig själv. Du känner din kollegas händer på dig och hon låter orolig, men allt du tänker på är hur att bara sitta upp är för mycket, så du börjar glida ner mot golvet tills du ligger ner.

Du kan fortfarande titta, röra dina ögon och du andas fortfarande, men du försöker flytta dina armar och ben utan respons. Rösterna runt dig är fortfarande tydliga, men allt känns overkligt. Din chef skyndar över till dig och går ner på knä vid dig.

”Blinka två gånger för mig”, säger han. Du gör så, tacksam i att upptäcka att du fortfarande kan.

”Ska vi ringa ambulans? Blinka en gång för 'ja', två gånger för 'nej'”. Du blinkar två gånger, glad att du bestämde dig för att ha det samtalet med honom. Men nu är du fast här en stund framöver, utan att kunna göra någonting.

Jag har konversionssyndrom. Du har antagligen aldrig hört talas om det innan, så jag tänkte att vi kan prata en stund om det. Diagnosen är ganska ovanlig, men symtomen är antagligen vanligare än vad du tror och tillståndet är förmodligen underdiagnostiserat. Den korta historian ovan är ett exempel på hur mina symtom kan se ut. De här är inte alla mina symtom och det finns fler. Symtomen vi kan se ovan är:

• Dissociation, den overkliga, långt borta, och främmande känslan. Den beskrivs även ibland som att titta på en video av sitt eget liv

• Funktionell afasi, oförmågan att behandla språk i hjärnan. Och funktionell betyder att det inte är något fysiskt fel med hjärnan då orsaken är psykologisk.

• Paralys i nästan hela kroppen, vilket betyder att du inte kan röra på dig.

Jag tänker försöka att inte använda för mycket medicinskt språk, för det riskerar att tappa er underbara människor, läsarna. Jag vill att ni ska få lite förståelse för hur det kan vara att leva med det här, inte att alla ska bli experter. Men lite språkbruk är nödvändigt, så ajg hoppas att ni kan stå ut med det.

Bra att veta: allt jag beskriver här är funktionellt. Det betyder att trots att symtomen är somatiska, som betyder ungefär ”av kroppen”, så är orsaken inte det, utan psykologisk. Andra ord ni kan ha hört om det är psykosomatisk och hysterisk. (Ja, jag är hysterisk!)

Andra symtom jag upplever är konstant smärta, icke-epileptiska anfall och mindre ofrivilliga rörelser, skakningar och ljud, försämrad koordination (ataxi), svårigheter att svälja (dysfagi), svaghet i kroppen som inte är hel paralys, och oförmåga att producera ljud med min röst (afoni, till skillnad från afasi). Ja, och paralys påverkar inte alltid hela kroppen, det kan vara bara delar av den. Jag har ätit många måltider med andra människor där jag bara har använd en arm, vilket har skockerat middagssälskapet när jag förklarat vad som pågår.

Vissa symtom andra med det här tillståndet kan uppleva är svimning, domningar, stickningar, dubbelseende, blindhet, dövhet, och även hallucinationer. Tja, jag är glad att det inte är jag!

Så det här är ganska intensiva grejer. Om du har bjudit in mig till ett evenemang och min dag inte är den bästa så hoppas jag att du finner i ditt hjärta förmågan att förlåta mig.

Hur som helst, det var del ett! Här ville jag introducera er för tillståndet för att ge er lite av en aning vad det kan handla om. Håll ögonen öppna för nästa gång då vi ska utforska mer hur det kan vara att leva med och vilka som kan få det. Spännande grejer!

Länk till del två!

Conversion Disorder (Part One)

Svensk version hittar du här.

Content warning: depictions of stressful situations

Imagine you're at work and you're having an okay, but not great day. You're going about your business and a colleague says something that hits a little too close to home. You know you should just ignore it, shake it off, and maybe on a better day you could. The comment wasn't directly mean or anything, and the person probably didn't mean anything by it, but it makes you just a little bit sad. You continue to work regardless, looking forward to coming home later and just relax.

As you're working you start feeling a bit sluggish and something happens to your vision. Everything looks the same, it just feels distant somehow. Perhaps a drink of water would do some good, you think and start walking to get a glass of water. But walking along in your workplace seems so alien to you now. Everything has turned into a long tunnel and the air has turned into sludge.

Somehow you manage to get to the kitchen and get a glass of water, but your barely able to grasp it. Afraid of dropping it you put it down on the counter and start looking at your hand while you try to make a fist and nothing happens.

”Are you alright?”, you turn to answer another colleague standing next to you, but you just stare at her in confusion with no words coming out of your mouth. It's just now that you realise that the sludge like feeling is your legs not being able to support you any longer, so you sink down to your knees trying to avoid hurting yourself. You feel your colleague's hands on you and she sounds worried, but all you're thinking about is how even sitting up is too much, so you start sliding down on the floor untill you're lying down.

You can still see and move eyes and you're still breathing, but you try move your arms and legs with no response. The voices around you are still clear, but everything still feels unreal. Your boss comes running over and kneels down in front of you.

”Blink two times for me”, he says. You do, thankful to discover you still can.

”Should we call an ambulance? One blink for 'yes', two for 'no'”. You blink two times, happy you decided to have that talk with him. But now you're stuck here for a while, unable to do anything.

I have conversion disorder. You likely have not heard of it before, so I thought we can talk a bit about it. The diagnosis is rather rare, but the symptoms can be more common than you think and the disorder is likely underdiagnosed. The short story above is an example of how some of my symptoms might look. These are not all of my symptoms and there are plently of other ones. The symptoms we can see above are:

• Dissociation, the unreal, distant, or alien feeling i described. It's also sometimes described as watching a video of your own life.

• Functional aphasia, the inability to work language in your brain, with functional meaning that there's not something physically wrong with your brain, and the cause is psychological.

• Paralysis of almost the entire body, meaning you can't move.

I'm going to try to not use too much medical language, because it risks losing you lovely people, the readers. I want you to gain some understanding of how it can be to live with this, not for everyone to become experts. But some use of lingo is inevitable, so bear with me.

Good to know: everything I explain here is functional. That means that while the symptoms are somatic, meaing roughly ”of the body”, the cause is not, but rather psychological. Other words for this you might have heard are psychosomatic and hysterical. (Yes, I'm hysterical!)

Other symptoms I experience are constant pain, non-epileptic seizures and lesser involuntary movements, tremors and sounds, impared coordination (ataxia), difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), weakness that's not total paralysis, and not being able to make sounds with my voice (aphonia, as opposed to aphasia). Oh, and paralysis doesn't always affect my whole body, it can be just parts of it. I've eaten plently of meals with other people only using one arm, leaving my dinner company in chock when I explain what's going on.

Some symptoms others with this condition might experience are fainting, numbness, tingling sensations, double vision, blindness, deafness and even hallucinations. Well, I'm happy that's not me!

So this is some intense stuff. If you have invited me to a fun event and I'm not having the best day, I hope you'll find in in your heart to forgive me for not going.

Anyway, that's it for part one! In it I wanted to introduce you to the condition, just give you an idea of what it is. Stay tuned for next time where we will explore more of how it is to live with and who might get it. Exiting stuff!

Link to part two!

An Autumn of Writing

After a long pause from online presence, the Youtuber Ze Frank came back. He already had a following, an audience who wanted more as was very exited for his return. His first video? It was about how scared he was to do this and how to handle those emotions¹. Back in 2012 I watched that video and it stuck with me. It's still something I think about whenever I want to create something. This already succesful creator was scared and unsure of himself. It seems like the only difference between success and failure is that succesful creators know what to do with those emotions.

So, taking inspiration from another creator, CGP Grey², this in my Autumn of Writing. I'm not setting a goal for me to fail at. This is a theme, not something I even can fail. This autumn I want my creative energies to be directed towards writing. Perhaps I'll even make a habit of it and keep doing it, but it's okay if that doesn't happen. I'm not going to write every day. When I do write, it won't always be for this blog. I'm not going to write about anything in particular or in any one format. But I am sticking to my theme, so I'm writing whatever I want!

So what's this blog about? I see this as a space for me to practice writing and publish whatever I want other people to think about, or maybe just something about me I want to share. I like thinking about politics, health issues, history and science among other things, so maybe I'll write more about all those things. This is not always going to be totally accurate with sources cited, and definitely not peer reviewed! This is just a place for my thoughts, sometimes well researched, sometimes not. But I don't like the idea of spreading false information, so I do strive to have my facts straight.

Next up I plan on writing a bit about my health and some things that are diffcult for me. Self centered? Hell yes! But I suffer from a condition more people need to be aware about. Best case scenario, perhaps I even manage to reach someone suffering from it without knowing. What can this mysterious condition be? Stay tuned for next time!

Hope you have a nice day!

1 An Invocation for Beginnings by Ze Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYlCVwxoL_g

2 Your Theme by CGP Grey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGuFdX5guE

A Quick Test about Politicians

I would like you to do something for me, if that's alright. I would like you to think of different current political leaders, both those you like and those you dislike. Then I want you to go through the list here below and consider whether they fit the description of any of the points. It can be good to examine them more objectively from time to time. And hey, it's just a fun little experiment. Is that okay with you? If yes, keep reading. Anyway, here it is, yes or no answers:

1. Do they focus heavily on tradition, in that we must preserve it or perhaps learn from it to better lead our lives?
2. Do they dislike many aspects of modern society, and perhaps even state that our society is in decline and has been for a long time?
3. Do they like to take action and perhaps don't factor in as much if that action is based on science or other intellectual thinking?
4. Do they dislike people disagreeing with them, perhaps to the point of even trying to hinder any criticism thrown their way?
5. Do they often point to a group of people, blaming them for the faults of society?
6. Do the appeal a lot to a middle class who might be struggling or are afraid of something changing in society?
7. Do they talk about a group of people working in secret to make society worse?
8. Do they talk about their opponents as sometimes strong and a great threat and sometimes weak and feeble?
9. Do they talk about there always being a fight or war (doesn't have to be an actual war) going on, or perhaps how we must always be ready for one?
10. Do they dislike weakness or weak individuals, and perhaps regard their own group as stronger than most?
11. Do they talk about being ready to sacrifice or even perhaps to die for their beliefs?
12. Do they often present themselves as tough or strong, or perhaps believe men and women have certain roles in society?
13. Do they talk about how the people has a strong will and do they often present themselves as speaking for the people?
14. Do they often use a simpler or more easily understood form of speaking compared to their opponents?

If the answers are some ”yes”, but mostly ”no”, then no worries. Most politicians fit some if these. If pretty much all were ”yes” then I have some bad news. But don't worry and please be honest with yourself. People who fit these desciptions are usually very good at fooling others into believeing their view of the world is the one and true, and yes, you might have been fooled. If so you now stand in front of a choice: do you double down on your convictions, or do you start questioning what you've been told? The thing is, the list you just read, this is Umberto Eco's list of the fourteen properties of fascism.

Coronavirus and Sweden

I want to talk about the Swedish method of fighting the Coronavirus, as there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding on the subject, a lot of misinformation being said.

Here are some disclaimers: Please note that I'm not a biologist, a medical professional, some other form of expert, or any other relevant description. I am merely a concerned citizen. The information in this article is relevant for July 2020. In fact with me not being an expert and all this might be outdated even now! This might also be a sensitive subject for some as death is a scary subject and the sheer scale of this outbreak gets to people. If you fear this might be too much, I'd advise you not to read further. Oh, and whenever I say ”Sweden” here, I usually refer to the Public Health Agency of Sweden (PHA), but I think you'll get it.

So what's being said? On both news and social media I read a lot about how Sweden has botched preventing the spread of the virus, how they have totally failed protecting the people, how people are dying everywhere here, and how no one here seems to care or do anything about it. Countries are closing their borders to us specifically and many people regard Sweden as one of the more worse off places when it comes to Covid-19.

This is a bit frustrating because not a lot of that is actually true and I will attempt to adress some of these issues in this article.

As I stated: I'm no expert. But I have been listening to experts on this since this started and I do believe I have a good layman's grasp on this to talk about it while no one is thinking of this as gospel. So take my words with a good pinch of salt.

Prevention

So did Sweden fail in preventing the spread of the virus? I mean, kinda, but everyone did. Perhaps that's not the best question to ask, so let's try another one to get to the core of the issue: did Sweden do too little to prevent or limit the spread of the virus?

Early on Sweden tried, like everyone else, to track the spread of every case and quarantine those individuals to stop the spread that way. I don't know if you remember, but around that time we all found out that many infected were asymtomatic, meaning there was no sign of any disease on them. That's true now as well. Anyone of us could be infected without us knowing. So Sweden changed their strategy from preventing the spread, which was shown to be virtually impossible, to limiting it and reducing the harm it does to society. Basically, doing what's best long term. What they didn't know was that despite this being agreed upon before as a good idea between many states in case of an outbreak, not many would do the same and Sweden stood alone in this. This here is when other countries, both the media and public, started to criticize the country for how it handles things. But the answer to the question is that Sweden abandoned the idea of eliminating the spread quite early in favor of harm reduction, because the spread couldn't be contained. This is a decision I agree with.

Harm Reduction

But what did Sweden actually do in terms of harm reduction, considering all the dead?

Firstly I wan't to make one thing clear. Any action taken to either prevent or limit the spread of this has three goals in mind (my own list, not quoted from anywhere):

1. The hospitals' intensive care units must not be overloaded, as this will lead to people not getting treatment and death tolls will rise.
2. The Coronavirus must be kept away from the elderly and other high risk groups. They have prooven to be especially sensitive to this. If the virus starts spreading among elderly the number of dead starts rising fast and it also fills up the hospitals quickly (see 1).
3. The action taken should be a net positive for society. So while it may save lives due to the virus, it shouldn't cause more suffering or death due to other causes. And there are plenty of other causes, such as poverty, suicide, domestic violence, drug abuse and so on.

Please keep this in mind when discussing possible actions to take and the effects they may have.

I won't list all the things done here, things such as public transportation, pubs and restaurants, and job security (again, no expert. Just want to clarify a few things). I will just go into three things: curfews/stay at home-orders, schools, and masks. And I will say this here, I don't know that the best strategy is for every country, every region. These are just my thoughts on what has been done here.

Curfews, Lock-Downs, and Stay at Home-Orders

Sweden hasn't issued any curfews. And while there are some forms of stay at home-orders, like it's illegal to purposefully or out of extreme negligence spread this around, what Sweden has done is to give guidelines. And if the guidelines fail, set rules. And some such rules have been set. This is all simplified, of course. What many other countries did was to set rules first. This has also led many to criticize Sweden for it's lack of action, but I think it was the right move to make. Yes, there might be more early deaths, but it also might lower the risk and intensity of further outbreaks, reducing the overall dead in the end. And the thing is, it seems to have worked! The government trusted the general population to take personal responsibility in fighting the virus and population generally did that. No lock-downs necessary here so far.

As to the end result of this, we will just have to wait and see. What has happened recently however is that in many of the countries who took harsher actions, such as lock-downs, there has arisen a pressure from the puplic to open up again, despite all the experts virtually screaming no. And I agree with the experts here, in both cases. Sweden kept its communities fairly (but not totally) open to make it through this long term and the public pressure to open up here is actually very small. And if the other countries open up now they will most certainly face a second outbreak, which has already started to happen in places. Again, I'm not saying what's right or wrong for others. Heck, in some places the spread was so intense that curfews was pretty much necessary. What I'm saying is that I don't see this as valid criticism against Sweden.

Schools

That goes for schools as well. Early on in this we found out that children hardly ever get sick from this and do not spread it around at all as much. Yes, there are adults there as well, but mostly kids. This led the Swedish government to conclude that it was better to keep schools open (see goal 3 above), but students who feel any symtom of possible Covid-19 should stay at home. Because of this school attendance has been low, in my daughter's school attendance was roughly around half during spring, but kids still went to school. Did that increase the spread of the virus? Probably. Too much? It's hard to say, but I doubt it. Shutting down schools is a drastic measure I'd rather not take if i could avoid it. And secondary schools, collages, and universities started holding many more courses online, sometimes 100%, so that's good, but beside the point.

Masks

Another thing that has apparently shocked the population of the world is how few Sweden use masks in public. My wife has relatives in South Korea and they could hardly believe it when they saw footage of people in public without masks. They thought all swedes were crazy, so they made sure we got some good masks, which we gladly accepted and keep here in case they're needed. ”But aren't they needed now?!” I hear you shout through the screen, and my answer to that is in Sweden in general at the moment: no. There are a few things to consider here: what kind of mask it is and how to use it.

So what kind of masks are we talking about? Well, I would put them in two categories: filter and no filter. Filters come in many flavours and I'm really not qualified to tell you exactly what they do, but just know that they do different things under different circumstances for different amounts of time or wear. Some even help prevent diseases! The ones for viruses might keep the wearer from being infected if used correctly.

Masks without filters are usually only a piece cloth, most commonly a surgical mask (surgical masks have no filter!). They pretty much do nothing to keep the wearer from getting infected, but they do help keep others from infection since all they do is stopping the wearers virus filled saliva from flying around. That's all they do, which might help if used correctly.

So how do you use them correctly? There are many misconseptions as to the effectiveness of masks. I'm hoping to clear some of them up here. The reason Sweden doesn't recommend using them in public is to my knowledge twofold. The first reason is that they might give a false sense of security, which might lead people, infected and not, to walk around in public and take unnecessary risks. They have a mask so they should be safe, they feel (incorrectly). The second reason is user error. This lead the PHA to the conclusion that masks risk spreading the infection more than it contains it. How you use a mask correctly (not an expert! Double check this information if you want to use a mask!) is by putting it on, making sure it covers both mouth and nose, washing your hands, and then do not adjust the mask. If you adjust the mask you put your fingers on your face. Both fingers and face might be contaminated, putting both you and other at risk. If the mask has a filter you also need to make sure it seals to you face so air doesn't leak in from the sides. Some facial hair, like mine, can prevent a mask from sealing.

Personal Responsibility

What can we as individuals do about it, not just here en Sweden? What I've heard many times over is:

• Wash your hands thuroughly leaving and entering your home (everywhere, even thumbs, between fingers and under fingernails. There are guides online.).

• Stay at home if you have reason to think you might be infected.

• If in public, keep your distance from people.

• Don't leave your home if you don't need to (very much depending on where you live and other circumstances).
• Cough and sneeze in the crease of your elbow or in a napkin.

• Limit physical social interactions. Don't hang out with people you don't hang out with often.

• Don't visit your elderly relatives if you don't have to.

• If you are elderly, take extra precausions not to get infected (even if you don't care if you get it. You can still infect others).

• Don't travel unecissarily.
• Work from home if you can.
• Look up rules and guidelines in your country or area.

”But I have seen pictures of swedes out in public as if nothing's going on!” or something to that effect I've heard people say. And yeah, many of those photos are bad, I'm not going to deny that. Please keep in mind that they are examples of some of the worst behavior and that they probably occur in your country as well. Sweden has just been more popular to criticize in the media. Hence this article! But yes, plently of people in many countries have ignored the risks in society right now. In Sweden it's heppened in pubs and at graduation celebrations among others. In other countries sport games have been a big factor in the spread of the Coronavirus. It's because of examples like this that Sweden has issued some actual rules regarding this, not just guidelines. Many of those rules concern pubs and restaurants. And many venues, such as sport, music and amusement parks, have chosen to close down for a time. In these times when people have started to get tired of isolating themselves we must be extra vigilant of our own actions. This can easily lead to a second wave of the virus. ”Like the one going on in Sweden right now?” No! Because of this recent myth I am now going to explain a bit about testing.

Testing

Yes, testing. It's is a big part of combating the virus and it also comes in different flavours and like with filter masks I am not qualified to go over the different kinds of tests. Just know that not all tests are the same and I bet you can look up what actual experts have to say on it online.

Tracking down who's sick and who's not is one of the things you do as a first response when dangerous infectious diseases pop up. You quickly find who's sick and isolate them until they're healthy. We've got a pretty good grasp of it by know and it's one of the main reasons why different infuenza scares over time have turned out to be not that big (though some were bigger than you think. Look it up). It's not that they weren't that dangerous, it's that humanity is pretty good at dealing with them now. We couldn't deal with this one that way though.

But testing can still be a good thing to do sometimes, whether you want to see who sick right now, who has antibodies, or something else. When you test you can get what's called confirmed cases. This does not mean total cases, just the ones that are confirmed. That's one reason why some countries have had a high number of confirmed cases with a low number of deaths, like South Korea who from the start wanted to test as many people as possible. So when a country decides to increase testing, like Sweden recently did, you are going to see an increased number of confirmed cases. This does not mean things are getting worse, as the number of total cases might be the same as before.

I'll repeat: more tests leads to a higher number of confirmed cases, not a higher number of total cases. Confirmed cases or only the ones we know of. Most cases are probably not confirmed cases. To compare number of comfirmed cases between countries actually tells you very little of how those countries are doing. Here's another way of comparing.

Dead

There's a problem with comparing the number of dead of covid-19 between different countries though. Who do you count? People brought into hospitals with the virus who didn't make it, is that a good way? What it the patient died of something else and just happened to be infected? What about people who die outside of hospitals? The elderly are extra sensitive to this, so what about retirement homes? Turns out that not everyone uses the same methods. And some numbers are hard to trust, like the numbers from China, North Korea and Iran. Some countries are more inclusive in their counting, meaning the numbers can be extra high. Some are more exclusive, meaning the numbers can be extra low. Which way of counting is better? I don't know. The number of dead in Sweden due to covid-19 are extra high, and how the dead are counted is one of the reasons.

Valid Criticism

Okay, so I've been going over what can seem like how Sweden basically have done nothing wrong despite all the criticism, but that is definitely not my meaning. There have been mistakes. Communication between different bodies of government haven't always been the best, warning of not peing prepared enough for a pandemic before this weren't listened to, stock piles of medicine and other resources have been too low after years of making them smaller because of budget reasons, the general puplic haven't always taken the situation seriously, and then there's the other reason for the number of dead in Sweden. For years we've heard warnings from people who work in retirement homes or other parts of the elderly care that they were under staffed. Too few workers for too many patients, and never was it solved. With the workers being so few they couldn't stay at home, or were forced to work, if they felt a bit sick. And they often don't have time to take extra precautions between patients as well. If they don't work our elders get no care. If they do work our elders get infected. So that second goal from before about keeping the virus away from elderly and other high risk groups, that has failed. This is the other reason for the high number of dead in Sweden.

Take care everyone.

Listen to experts.

Take their advice to heart.

Stay safe.

On deportation of returning ISIL members

Svensk version kan hittas här: https://joakimhenberg.blogspot.com/2019/02/angaende-utvisande-av-atervandande-is.html

There’s been a lot of talk recently about deporting citizens who fought for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also called Daesh. Today one such discussion occurred at the place I work just as I was leaving, which left me thinking about it all the way home. So here’s what I think about it: it would be a bad idea for several reasons.

Firstly, revoking people’s citizenship and deporting them would be a racist policy. This might not be obvious at first glance. I mean, why should we have to take care of people, not even born here, doing horrible things? Do they even deserve citizenship? Why should that be our problem?

Those are legitimate concerns, but they are also a slippery slope which can lead you into a trap making your arguments racist. Wanting bad people to be punished is all well and good, but we need to be careful exactly how they are punished. Say some immigrant with citizenship commits some awful crimes: murder, rape, robbery and other horrible things. We don’t want him or her here, do we? Well, no. But say that person isn’t an immigrant. Take for example Breivik. Should the Norwegian government have deported him? To where?

And there you go. If the immigrant is deported then we have different laws based on country of origin, perhaps even ethnicity, no matter if you’re a citizen or not. All immigrants would then be second class citizens, which would be racist.

Secondly, deporting people is a bad punishment. But we want good folks here. People we can count on, who contribute to society. Those are the kinds of people we want as citizens, right?

It’s not wrong. But consider this: moving to another country is hard. You have to get a home and a new job quickly. Then you also have to learn the language as fast as possible, create an entirely new social network and deal with people who are suspicious of strangers. But is it worse than spending years in court and prison?

If you want your fellow citizens who support ISIL to be punished, great, but is forcing them to move really the punishment you had in mind? Wouldn’t it be better, more just even, to make them take responsibility for their actions before the law?

Thirdly, it would be poor foreign policy. Keeping good foreign relations is not a bad idea. It eases trade, lowers ethnic violence, secures peace, creates alliances, and probably a myriad of other nice reasons.

So what happens to those relations if we start sending war criminals and terrorists to other countries? Would you want more of those in your country? No? Well, other countries don’t want them either. Why should they accept the people we deport?

Hardly anyone likes ISIL, I don’t, and you likely don’t. But Swedish citizens returning after fighting for ISIL is a Swedish problem, so let Sweden deal with it. Make them face the law.