I think there are a few things to note here.

First, when you say you support the right to protest, I think it's important to recognize that you're talking from a different country and different cultural framework than the protestors are.

Sweden is not the US and has a European view of hate speech and laws generally.

They have also adopted, at least to some level, the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, which this clearly violates.

So while we might say that this is a non-violent protest, the framework around rights is not the same, and I think we're seeing the proverbial rubber meet the road when it comes to acceptable speech in various European nations.

@whose_nose

well... I don't particularly care about this or that country's laws when making a personal judgment. I think that there are dangers in state control over things that can sometimes outweigh the dangers of the thing they're protecting against.

There are very few areas where I definitely fall into the traditional US socio-political fold. This is one of them.

I'm not sure why I should reconstruct opinions based on the changing statutes across borders. There's a bunch of shitty laws in the US. Do I need to conform to those, too?

@whose_nose

I'm not saying you need to reconstruct your opinions based on statues across borders; I am saying that just as when other countries judge the US based on their own cultural background, I think it's a form of imperialism (even if it's a minor one) to judge countries based on our cultural framework.

That doesn't always mean it's automatically wrong to do so- I certainly don't agree with the view of women or homosexuality in many countries, but I think we should always bring awareness to it when we discuss it.

@whose_nose

imperialism implies a power dynamic not at play here.

Heres the thing, Europe’s postwar laws worked because society believed in their purpose—not because the laws alone held back fascism or authoritarianism or radical fringe ideologies of whatever stripe.

That social pact is gone. Without it, protections fray, fueling backlash from both left and right.

It’s a familiar cycle, but the overlap with rising right-wing authoritarianism and left-wing antisemitism is alarming.

You can’t imprison a broken social relationship in the same way that "you can't blow up a social relationship." As the saying goes.

The world today is not the world of 10 years ago, and all of these assumptions of safety and democracy are fleeting and ephemeral now.

@whose_nose

interesting discussion. I'd like to add a facet: the discussion what is protest (and is every protest equal) and what is incitement to hateful violence.

and we need such discussion outside the means of the state, as repression is not discussion, and the (quite arbitrary) boundaries of law are not the same as what is socially acceptable.

protesting against the state is also something else than "protesting" against social groups.