I’m very interested in politics even though I don’t blog a lot about it. My international readers wouldn’t follow blog posts about Swedish politics unless I did a lot of explaining and I can’t be bothered with that. I thought I’d share some of my political views with you though.
1. I vote for the Swedish Left Party. Out of the eight political parties in the “Riksdag” (similar to the American senate) the Left Party is the one most left-wing. It’s a socialist party.
2. I believe in high taxes to finance a welfare which everyone can use to a minimum or no cost at all.
3. I believe the government should own as much of the welfare as possible. That way the money we pay for health care for example goes directly back to us, the population, rather than into the deep pockets of some rich dude who use the money to buy a yacht. Since we got a right-wing government a lot of the welfare has been sold out to companies abroad. I find the fact that Americans make money off of the welfare which used to belong to the Swedish people extremely disturbing.
4. I’m a feminist who believe there is a patriarchy which needs to be torn down. I believe the gender roles are roles we learn to fill rather than roles we are born into because of our gender. I believe both boys and girls deserve to live within the whole spectra of human behaviour and preferences and should get to be whatever they want to be. Both boys and girls should be able to wear pink and play with dolls, if that’s what they want. Just as both boys and girls should be able to wear blue and play with cars, if that’s what they want. The sex of a person should not limit that persons choices and possibilities in life.
5. I’m pro gay marriage and for equal rights for LGBT people. Woman and man, man and man, woman and woman, it’s all love, it’s all good.
6. I believe politics and religion shouldn’t be mixed. Religion is something you do on your free time, not something you base laws upon.
7. I’m against monarchy. It’s non-democratic to have kings and queens who inherit their title and are paid millions of our tax money to live in luxury.
8. My personal ethical belief is that you should only eat what you can kill. If you’re too soft to kill a cow, then don’t eat a cow. If you’re too soft to kill a fish, then don’t eat the fish. Don’t let others do the dirty job for you. Me, I eat fish, because I can kill a fish. I can’t kill cows, pigs and chicken though, so I don’t eat them.
9. Global warming is fact and we need to do whatever we can to prevent it, from recycling to driving less to making laws dictating how much damage corporations are allowed to do on the environment. It will cost money but the effects of global warming if not stopped will wreck more economic havoc than any cost to prevent it will.
10. I’m against the European Union. People from other countries than Sweden should not write laws affecting us. We’re a relatively small country with a small population so the voices of other bigger and more powerful countries within the EU will always have more weight than ours. It’s not ok to have to follow decisions we are against simply because we’re a small country.
11. For the same reason I want Sweden to keep the Swedish Crown. We should not join the EMU and get the Euro. Sweden is too small a country to be taken into consideration when economic decisions concerning all of EMU are taken. Sweden should control the currency of Sweden, not Brussels.
12. I’m extremely outspoken when it comes to politics and definitely not nice when I debate with right-wing people. I blame them for the destruction of so much of what is good with Sweden and often ridicule everything they stand for. Still, democracy is a beautiful thing and even people who I with every fibre of my being believe are dead wrong, are entitled to their opinion and should be able to express it freely.
Well those are a few of my political beliefs. Very left-wing. Always have been. I’ve voted for the same political party ever since the school election back in 1998 when I was fifteen. I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Agree or disagree with me? Don’t worry, I won’t bite you if you disagree. Some of the people closest to me vote for political parties I strongly dislike. That doesn’t mean I dislike them, only their political opinions.