I have sent letters to the editor of Swedish newspapers three times, and two of them got published. The first time was in 2017, and the article can be seen below:
As you can see, unfortunately it is in Swedish. Let me translate it to English though and see whether it is still something that I stand by to this day or not. Below you can find my translated version of the text:
Do not hollow out the word “racism”
“True racism involves disliking an individual or a group of people because of their skin color or the fact that they look different—and any such form of racism is, of course, abhorrent. Over the years, however, the meaning has changed. “Racism” has become a term that is increasingly being misused.
An absolute low point here in Sweden occurred in 2005, during a bizarre incident in which an ice cream product from the chain GB was accused of being racist. Why? Because it was named “Nogger Black,” and the name was written in a font resembling graffiti. A Swedish person who felt offended then gave the matter some “serious” thought (the kind people often apply to this subject) and concluded that the ice cream was racist because the name would take on an entirely different meaning if one of its letters were changed. Furthermore, graffiti was considered a stereotype associated with a specific group of people.
This is how far the obsession with labeling things “racist” has gone in Sweden. When such bizarre examples receive media attention, we all lose; and the term “racism” is further hollowed out every time it is misused in this way. This is a dangerous trend, as it could lead to a society where the term “racism” loses so much credibility that people fail to react even when faced with genuine racism.
Therefore, stop misusing this word—which fundamentally describes very serious matters—and reserve it for instances where it is truly warranted, so that people will actually take notice and take action.”
What are my thoughts about this article in 2026?
So, are these views that I still agree with to this day, in 2026? Absolutely!
Although I have to say that, when it comes to this specific issue of racism, people have finally started to wake up and recognize bizarre cases of fake racism, like this one, for what they are.
However, this has been replaced by other crazy forms of political correctness, and it makes me wonder: What is it about us human beings, and the society we live in, that creates this constant need to feel offended by various things? To take offense and play the victim?
It’s as if people get some crazy kick out of it or something. I really don’t get it.
But what all the people who support this type of crazy thinking seem to fail to realize is that they’re only making things worse for themselves.
Take Sweden, for example, once again.
Before the 2010 election, the anti-immigration party called Sverigedemokraterna (the Sweden Democrats) weren’t even represented in parliament.
However, partly as a result of this bizarre mentality with people seeing racism everywhere even when it didn’t exist—sure, of course racism existed here and there, but not on the scale these crazy lunatics were portraying it as—the Sweden Democrats have now become one of the country’s biggest political parties.
In fact, after the election that took place in September this year, they’re now the third biggest party, having received 17.48% of the votes.
In other words, they’ve gone from not even being represented in parliament to becoming the third largest party in the country. And this election has even been described as a really bad one for them, considering that they used to be the second biggest party.
So that’s how successful this approach to combating the so-called racism issue has been.
But it’s as if these… I don’t even know what to call them. These lunatics simply never learn from their mistakes.
When one crazy idea fails, they just come up with another one.
And a lot of people seem to be trying to… How should I put it? They’re trying to trivialize the importance of this type of craziness and the effect it has on people.
But I think they fail to realize the enormous implications it can have.
I’m convinced, for example, that these types of ideas directly contributed to Donald Trump getting elected twice.
And to compare this with a similarly crazy issue being debated today, there’s the idea that transgender people—such as biological males who identify as women—should have the right to compete against females in sports.
Which is, of course, insane.
And things like this piss people off.
Sure, there are more serious issues, but don’t underestimate the cumulative effect that ideas like these can have. Because when people are constantly confronted with these sorts of things, sooner or later, they get pissed off.
Also it’s just incredibly tiresome and upsetting when people turn things like this into political issues.
What about the second article?
The second debate article, or letter to the editor, that I managed to get published was about something far more trivial than the previously discussed topic.
It was about my argument that the head coach of Sweden’s national football team should be replaced by either Graham Potter or Henrik Rydström.
And, as it turned out, I was actually proven right in the end. Well, at least when it came to Graham Potter becoming the national team’s head coach.
The previous coach wasn’t fired, though. He left when his contract ended.
But Graham Potter is currently the head coach of the Swedish national team, which is great!
Unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall, meaning you have to be a paying subscriber to read it. That is pretty stingy, considering we’re talking about a letter to the editor from 2023.
So, yeah, shame on you for that Dagens Nyheter (the name of the newspaper)!
I guess there isn’t really that much more to discuss about the second article though, unlike the previous one. However, at the time of publication this was a very hot topic in Sweden, so I was very happy to get it published.
And the one that wasn’t published?
The third article, the one that no newspaper wanted to publish, was published somewhere else. As a matter of fact, it was the first article to be posted here on Viking Observer. That’s what I call consolidation of the best kind!