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Sweden Twitter Experiment Goes Painfully Awry
- Zirro 14y agoI'm from Sweden, and I have never heard of this before.
- SuperChihuahua 14y agoYou must have missed "hanna widerstedt" :)
- Zirro 14y agoIndeed, it seems that way. The world of bloggers is to me, as we would say in Sweden, ointressant.
- smoyer 14y agoI have known a few Swedes and have owned 4 Saabs and none have them have ever behaved like this. There's always 5% of a population that can make the other 95% hide in embarrassment.
- patdennis 14y agoReally? My last Saab was a great car, but showed an odd racial insensitivity sometimes.
- smoyer 14y agoHmmm ... there was a period when my car seemed to dislike any cars in front of it at red-lights. Once we realized the turbo's waste gate was stuck closed, we sent it to sensitivity training and it's behaved perfectly ever since.
- silverlake 14y agoThere's a fine line between master troll and dimwitted psycho. Which is she?
- smoyer 14y agoI think she actually fits into a third category ... those who perceive themselves to be Internet personalities.
- TomGullen 14y agoMy troll-dar isn't as sharp as it used to be as I get older, but it seems quite likely that they've just got a troll on their hands here from reading the Tweets. Either way, anything like this was a time bomb waiting to go off if there wasn't any vetting process at all.
- SuperChihuahua 14y agoShe might be a copy cat of "hanna widerstedt" who got really "famous" in Sweden after saying similar things on YouTube. After that she got featured in several magazines and in Big Brothers as well and got her 5 seconds of fame!
- mc32 14y agoThat's just bizarre --off the rails. It's not as if she has the excuse of being an actor and could blame this whole episode on being high or coming down hard off of something. Pity the kids. What a mom.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mef 14y agoWouldn't this mean the experiment has been a success? The experiment is "... based around the idea that no single voice can represent the country, so a slew of guest Swedish curators will do the best job to portray the national character." Take a cross section of any society and you're going to get people of all kinds, including people like Sonja.
- sheraz 14y agoProfessional trolls are not part of any society
- gaius 14y agoMeanwhile in Norway http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1740707/ http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1740707/
- MartinCron 14y agoI was trying really hard to work some sort of joke about Norwegian trolls into this Swedish trolling story. If anyone reading this is on the fence about watching the linked film, I would be honored to nudge you to the "yes, watch it!" side.
- ktizo 14y agoApart from the really good ones, who we put on tv.
- btilly 14y agoI suggest listening to talk radio for a bit. There are more than a few professional trolls out there.
- ticks 14y agoThe Mashable writer might just be a bit sensitive, I like the Sweden account (and follow other similar ones). Users seem to be free to talk about all sorts of sensitive topics without problem. To me, this week is just an off-week, where I am less interested in the person but will be sticking with it.
- niho 14y agoI'm swedish and this is really not that strange. She's just an ordinary Stockholm hipster with an odd sense of humor. We got a bunch of those here. We've sort of had a tradition of that kind of very politically incorrect and absurdist humor here at least since the mid 90s. I would even go as far as to say that it is considered a bit chick in some circles to behave like that. But I can see how an american/international audience wouldn't get the joke.
- roguecoder 14y agoYeah, that's totally it. We don't ever have any ironic-but-also-super-racist racism over here.
- sheraz 14y agoI wrote to the curatorsof sweden and suggest they follow up with Aron Flam. I think it would be appropriate (and actually funny)
- effn 14y agoI second this.
- sequoia 14y agohttp://meloukhia.net/2009/07/hipster_racism.html http://meloukhia.net/2009/07/hipster_racism.html > Hipster racism involves making derogatory comments with a racial basis in an attempt to seem witty and above it all. Specifically, the idea is to sound ironic, as in “I’m allowed to say this because of course I’m not racist, so it’s funny.” It’s an aspect of a larger part of the hipster culture, which wants to seem jaded and urbane and oh-so-witty. Using language which is viewed as inflammatory or not appropriate is supposed to push the boundaries and make someone look edgy, but it only really comes across that way to people who buy into that system. To everyone else, it’s just racist. So no, this isn't some unheard of Swedish phenomenon, it's "hipster racism," as described above. And god help us if you are going to tell me that Swedes just aren't racist like Americans.
- apdinin 14y agoSeems Sonja did a good job. We're talking about Sweden, right? How often does that topic come up in daily conversation for non-Swedish people?
- huma 14y agoI don't see what's the big fuss here. Maybe a few edgy comments, but nothing "painfully awry". I would say kudos to the organizers for their trust in their fellow citizens to speak out freely without censorship. Btw, her profile [1] on the project's page is up and straight about her agenda (and her character, as well): "I’m gonna tweet about my thoughts and being me, about having children and living my life and what not." There may be a day when we become so politically-correct about everything that we can't speak out minds anymore. [1] http://curatorsofsweden.com/ http://curatorsofsweden.com/
- sciurus 14y agoYou don't think the string of tweets starting with "Whats the fuzz with jews. You can't even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises, and even if you do, you can't be sure!?" is "painfully awry" for a twitter account intended to promote tourism to Sweden? What about the tweet about the "hungry gay with aids"? I doubt those encourage anyone who's jewish or homosexual to visit Sweden.
- rorrr 14y ago> twitter account intended to promote tourism to Sweden? Isn't it just some personal twitter account?
- sciurus 14y agoBased on the news reports, I thought it was controlled by the Swedish government's tourism ministry.
- ticks 14y agoI guess that's why it's an experiment. Tourist boards are driven by marketing and PR types. It's refreshingly transparent to hear from - apparently - real people... you see the country from their viewpoint.
- effn 14y agoWhat's "painfully awry" about thinking jews are no different from other people apart from the circumcision thing?
- mycodebreaks 14y agoThe guy is definitely getting questioned by authorities at an airport if he comes to the USA.
- unkoman 14y agoI see nothing wrong with this.
- S_A_P 14y agoSeems to me that she has been given a platform to stir the pot and has taken the opportunity to do so. This seems like trolling to me, plain and simple. Use strong words/imagery that incite emotion and blind the reader from noticing that she isn't really saying anything that bad. That said, I'm sure the Swedish tourist board wasn't quite expecting this...
- superjared 14y agoYou didn't think calling a photoshopped picture of Freddie Mercury "hungry gay with aids" that bad?
- S_A_P 14y agoI think its crass, tasteless, offensive and annoying. However, with the troll filter on, I cant really get that upset about it...
- roc 14y agoIn the grand scheme of internet trolling? It barely registers.
- ktizo 14y agoIs either stupidity, insanity, tasteless and surrealistic trolling, or brilliant satire. And I've got no idea which at this point.
- fghh45sdfhr3 14y agoAlways bet on stupidity.
- berntb 14y agoSweden is certainly one of the most politically correct countries around; there is just one "good" way of thinking. In short, just another stupid moral panic in Sweden. Nothing to see here, move along.
- theorique 14y ago
- sparknlaunch 14y agoThese are so good they cannot be real (humourous).They read like a Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G, Borat) film script. Here I thought the Swedes were the more intelligent inhabitants. Sonja has proved us right/wrong? Can't wait to see this new meme go viral.
- peterwwillis 14y agoI think this is the funniest thing i've ever seen. Troll or not, this is hilarious
- Synaesthesia 14y agoYeah! She's still tweeting some hilarious stuff on that account.
- f055 14y agoCant blame Americans for being uptight. You'd never understand Sweden's freedom of speech :P
- javajosh 14y agoCan't emphasize enough: it is remarkable for Sweden to hand real power over to individual citizens. Totally wonderful. While she is acting like a git, she is also not the polished PR machine that most countries feel the need to use to present themselves. Humor or not, her words are real. I really, really applaud Sweden and would love to see something similar in the States. I have no doubt that the USA version would put the spotlight on some really horrible sentiments - but again, that is what is real. It's just like Borat, highlighting whitewashed racism that is ever-present in the US. In the end, it's a very good thing to just be honest.
- adrianb 14y agoThe NY Times article was written in TROLLHATTAN. I thought that's a joke too. It seems it's a real city.
- yesbabyyes 14y agoAs a Swede, I might be biased -- but given that Stephen Colbert has asked to be an "Artificial Swedener"[1][2], I'd say it's a roaring success! [1] https://twitter.com/StephenAtHome/status/212753977018810368 https://twitter.com/StephenAtHome/status/212753977018810368 [2] http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/415197/june-12-2012/operation-artificial-swedener http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/41519...