Forostar said:
That's the way a mate of mine put it on Facebook and I tend to agree. I am curious what you think.
....
What do you think? Do you care about the political views of the artists you listen to (to a certain extent)?
First off, I'd like to comment on the political stuff itself. The party has its parallel in Norway, a party called
Demokratene, consisting mainly of people who where thrown out of the
Progress Party because their sometimes controversial opinions on immigration caused too much trouble for the mother party. I would personally never vote for them (and I wouldn't vote for SD if I were Swedish), but I think it's very harsh to link individuals to Nazism because they support one of these.
Especially for the Swedish party, they have had to "clean up" to be more accepted by the mainstream, and I guess anyone expressing sympathy for Neo-Nazism today would be expelled.
Now to the main point: In Sweden, expressing the desire for a strict immigration policy has been more or less taboo and one is labeled racist easier than most other places. If one is allowed to use the term "political correctness" here, I'd say Sweden is the country in which it has gone the furthest. Thus, when a party arrives on the stage who dare to speak out such opinions, I suspect that anyone in favour of a more restrictive immigration policy might be tempted to vote for them - even if the party holds more extreme opinions than these potential voters (extreme in a relative sense).
I think those who voted for SD at the last general election, come from several parts of the political spectrum in Sweden. Of course you'd have those who have always been far right, but I'd guess both the Conservatives (Moderaterna) and the Social Democrats have lost voters to them. Thus I find it wrong to label any individual a fascist, right extremist, racist or xenophobe just because they have voted for SD once. For many it might have been a way to protest against that "self-censorship" the Swedish society has exercised on immigration issues. In Norway, more controversial points of view have been aired all the way back to the 80s, and the established political community has taken on the debate. I think that's why the Norwegian counterpart of SD has never gained popularity. Only those who actually
are very xenophobic (but not necessarily neo-nazi) will vote for them.
I would also like to express how bad I think the treatment of the party by media and the established parties has been. As the Wikipedia article mentions, they were denied the opportunity to advertise in papers, but that's not really bad. Worse, I think, is that big newspapers put up frontpages more or less telling people "DON'T VOTE FOR THESE PEOPLE", and the way their representatives have been boycotted in other ways. I think the Swedish members on here can elaborate more. But the fact is, these people are legally elected, and should be met with counter-arguments, not boycotting and hate-campaigns.
Enough on my opinion about the party (parties). When it comes to the political views of musicians I listen to, I haven't really given it much thought. I enjoy music by people who are socialists, liberal, conservative, Christians and atheists likewise. Only when their political or religious views become too dominant in their lyrics do I have problems with it. If an artist tries to shove his views down my throat with his music, he can go fuck himself. Otherwise, I don't care much.
At the end, a little remark about that picture and the comment related to it: Having one's hair very short like that is quite popular in Scandinavia, and does not imply any link to the skinhead movement or neo-nazism in general, so that one's off the mark.
