Denmark - Oh! To be Danish. An Essay

Yeah, it was a weird night yesterday. I don't actually agree with all the foreign press saying that this was a big right-wing swing. Actually, the right won by the thinnest of margins, 90-89, and the polls had given them more seats throughout the last four years. The left has had a big comeback in the polls over the last year. Having followed politics throughout the last years, this seemed like a much smaller right-ward shift than expected.

Basically, what happened was that four years ago, a left-wing coalition won, but the least left-wing party had a much better election than expected, causing them to then basically force through pretty right-wing policies over the last four years, meaning that their lead evaporated almost immediately in the polls. That party, confusingly titled the Radical Left, even though they are the least radical left, got half of the seats they got four years ago, but are apparently unable to take a hint.

The DPP nearly doubled their vote, true, but that neither surprises nor frightens me. They had a much better European election. What has been horrifying has been the other parties, including the Social Democrats, basically competing to see who could copy most DPP rhetoric. The Social Democrats had a slogan saying: 'If You Come to Denmark, You Must Work', which is fair and good, but refugees don't work because they aren't allowed to...

I need to tell another funny story: The guy who will become the next prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, everybody hates him. He's been prime minister before, but that was because the old one resigned to take the job leading NATO - like Blair/Brown. He then immediately lost the next election. In the years in opposition, he's been embroiled in scandal after scandal. Back in the days, he'd been attacked for claiming almost everything to his expense account, even nights in hotels under a fake name. Then, a few years back, it surfaced that he was claiming an absurd amount of expenses for leading a South Korean NGO, including flights on first class for hundreds of thousands of kroner. As that sorta faded, it came to light that the party had spent tens of thousands of kroner buying expensive suits for him last election - money that the taxpayer in the end had helped with, as parties get public funding to even the field. And also, because he smoked in non-smoking hotel rooms, a whole lot of extra expenses, and they'd payed for his daughters holiday plane tickets, etc.

He was very nearly toppled as leader of the party, but at the last moment, he threatened to throw the whole party into a fight for the leadership post, which would have hurt everyone immensely. However, they underestimated how much people dislike him now. When the election date was announced, and the campaign heated up, he couldn't get through with any of his messages, since nobody believed him. It was actually quite funny, the opposite of a tefflon candidate. All the other candidates kept pulling numbers and anecdotes out of their asses, and none of it seemed likely, but then when he did the same, everyone would be 'ah, come on, that's not true'. At one point before the scandals, the party polled 33%. They ended up at 19%. Amongst those who lost their seeds were several of his closest allies. So now, we have a new leader, who led his party to their worst result in many decades, and who was clearly the problem. A fine new prime minister.

jerks: http://time.com/3974498/denmark-ban-kosher-halal/

The Danish government could definitely try and do something like that, but I'm a bit confused, because I haven't heard anything about it, and the minister they quote in the article, Dan Jørgensen, hasn't been the minister since the election in June. I don't really know what's going on.

hmm looking closer it seems like all the links in the Time article are from 2014, but the piece does say it happened this Monday. and no one else besides some Pakistan wire service is carrying the story. so maybe just a Time fuckup?

Both observant Jews, under kashrut laws and Muslims, under halal laws, will not eat meat unless the animal has been killed with a single slice to the neck, with the intention to minimize its pain.

fwiw, this is not remotely true in the UK where the vast majority of halal meat is pre-stunned despite there being no laws to require it.

idk how halal meat works but it's definitely true that shechita requires the single slice across the neck (iirc where the windpipe is?)

I've seen several videos of animals struggling for the better part of a minute after (perhaps botched) kosher or halal slaughter. Consciousness likely continues for some time even after the loss of blood pressure (Dr. Beaurieux and the guillotined Languille, etc).

oh no doubt, animal slaughter is not for the weak of stomach. have you ever seen a chicken after it has been decapitated?

Actually, I'm pretty sure parliament is on vacation, so I don't think it even could pass a ban of this kind right now.

The debate about halal/kosher eating is definitely interesting and jerksy, though. At the latest citizenship day, where all the people who got Danish citizenship came to the parliament, the Danish Peoples Party demonstratively only served pork to them. They're also constantly talking about how important it is that every official institution MUST serve pork for dinner, and that nobody should be able to opt out. Being Danish is eating pork.

I know a guy who used to be a farmer. He told me that 1) all halal meat is pre-stunned in Denmark and 2) all meat is slaughtered halal, since doing two types of slaughtering would be bad for costs. Only difference is specifik halal is done with a prayer first. This of course doesn't stop people demanding that halal meat be banned from public institutions, because of animal welfare.

If that is true, but if kosher is done without pre-stunning, then this story would be pretty ironic, since you bet that the point of such a law would be to do something against islam and muslims. Jews are just collateral damage. And further irony: It's usually the same people who are most against anti-semitism when it seems that it is muslim immigrants who are perpetrating it, who are most willing to make laws against Jewish practice if it can be sold as being against muslim immigrants. They are very bad allies.

And jerks.

it's a similar thing w/ intactivists as well right? a lot of them in europe - my impression is - are mostly against islamic circumcision? or rather against circumcision but they're the types of ppl who one would likely think are motivated primarily by anti-islamic bias and not antisemitism? (obv there is a lot of antisemitism as well like that comic book about the evil circumcising rabbis)

Yeah, circumsision is another interesting one. It's often focused only on female circumcision used a lot for anti-islamic purposes. But at times I get the feeling it runs into another barrier of jerksism, which is that some people can't stand fighting solely for the good of women, and their misogyny wins out over their islamophobia, so they begin equating Jewish male circumcision with Islamic female circumcision. Which seems bizarre to me, whatever one thinks of the dangers of male circumcision. And also left-wing anti-semitism, I think, where it becomes a jerkish way of fighting Islamophobia to try and paint Judaism as badly as possible, to make Islam look better by comparison. Jerks on all sides.

This is us: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/07/denmark-places-an-advertisement-in-lebanese-newspapers-dear-refugees-dont-come-here/

denmark is having a moment in the US dem primary atm bc of the debate this week, but this link has nothing to do with that:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/world/europe/denmark-lion-zoo-dissection.html

He. Almost a 130.000 people have signed an online petition to stop it. It's normal for Danish zoos to do this, but wow, it really pisses some people off.

it seems crazy to me - if they had to put him down anyway, why not make it an educational experience?

Denmark Plans to Isolate Unwanted Migrants on a Small Island

I guess this is the most-current Denmark thread, lol

yeah that's obviously not the brightest idea of all time but it's not as if the people affected are much better off atm - they're officially deported but cannot be sent home since they risk torture/death penalty, in the end they choose to stay in Denmark but they are not allowed to work/marry/vote, they have to register at local asylum centers daily and they hardly have any income...

some evil motherfuckers among them for sure, terrorists and war criminals, but feel bad for the rejected asylum seekers (I also understand the necessity of being able to reject some asylum seekers)

There's a rolling Danish politics thread, just for this :) And it's complete bullshit, they're spending something like 300.000$ per asylum seeker so that they can say they've send them to a small island. Politicians crowing about how horrible they've been to people of color. That's Denmark.

haha aight

agreed that it's a stupid waste of money anyway and obv not sympathetic

can't believe there's a rolling danish politics thread o_O

It's, uh... It's a long story...

some evil motherfuckers among them for sure, terrorists and war criminals, but feel bad for the rejected asylum seekers

Yes, I imagine we all feel bad for the rejected asylum seekers being housed alongside criminals and terrorists on an island called The Virus.

Jesus Christ.

I believe there's still a fair chance that this doesn't actually happen

It's not called the Virus, and they're all criminals. Still, 'Jesus Christ' is in order, it's a fucking disgrace.

Also, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if this was too stupid and expensive even for Støjberg.

So, uh, what's the Danish response to Trump's aggressively colonialist offer to purchase Greenland?

he's cancelled his visit there after they politely said no.

What a fucking clown. I can't imagine being American and feeling anything other than bottomless shame and embarrassment at this bully's behaviour.

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/08/denmarks-dangerous-example

Just reading this..

the Danish ambassador was just on the wireless talking about what a class Trump is and explaining how when Truman wanted to buy it it was cold war military strategic planning rather than just trying to acquire a piece of real estate.

People on the right got really mad and offended. People on the left reacted the same way you do when a toddler shits all over the floor. I mean, it's not legally possible for Denmark to 'sell' Greenland, it's not a colony anymore, so there's been no practical discussion at all about the offer.

Trump should so be impeached on his business transactions while holdinng office, there has to be so much there.

A fun detail is that he was officially invited by the queen - even though he said he considered going before he was invited - and for a lot of conservatives, you just don't disrespect the queen.

I imagine some of those Cons were mildly apologetic or even enthusiastic regarding Trump's policies prior to this episode. There does seem to be a fair amount of more-or-less closeted Trumpsters throughout Scandinavia, as elsewhere. This is strictly anecdotal, of course, but one of my friend's Norwegian uncles sculpted a larger-than-life effigy of Mr Pissweave, which he then donated to his little seaside town, which appears to be quite fond of their white champion from across the pond.

Not that many Cons, really, I don't think. His abhorrent behaviour and constant macho nationalism is off putting to old school Conservatism, I think. There's of course support from the MRA/alt-right pockets, who nearly got into parliament last election, and I think there's some closet support from Libertarians (but those two groups overlap a lot, amirite?)

I'm really confused as to which parts of the right thinks what at the moment, though. This hasn't really taken up as much space as it might have otherwise, as there's a giant leadership crisis going on in the main right-wing party right now, so the media is quite focused on that. There's just a lot of things up in the air right now.

Ignoring the orange fuckface is generally a good approach anyway.

Yeah. But the problem is when the fuckface invites himself over. This whole thing has been such a gigantic farce :)

It's always an infinite-ring circus with him. Impossible to keep up.

Lol, there was a 26-year old former member of the Libertarian party who had bought a billboard just saying Trump at the central square in anticipation of the visit. And I say 'former member' because he left the party after he was caught filming himself threatening a police officer, and then lying about it.

My understanding is that Obama is headed there too fairly soon, and this whole nonsense was just a way for Trump to back out of his trip because he was worried Obama would get a much better reception, and didn't want to be subject to unflattering comparisons.

They should sell Greenland to Obama.

has Trump had Mercator projection explained to him yet? He might think it's more bigley than the US.

thank you for your service

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/world/europe/denmark-children-nudity-sex-education.html

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdH78PvzGfwVUYxAOpsG-ZnvC1mNt43dn

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/john-dillermand-denmark-launches-childrens-tv-show-man-giant-penis

Fred C======B

john penis man
anne lise jackingson
sofie limp
christian gross
erle anuson

what's going on in denmark

I dunno but i bet its defense lacks nous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3sGocnMP3A