>> Before President Trumpâs reference on Saturday to a terror attack in Sweden, the biggest story in Stockholm was this one:
a report about the so-called âfake newsâ industry published by Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper.
But Trumpâs remark was met with a collective âWhat did he just say?â in Sweden, a country recognized by most Americans as largely peaceful, except in, say, Stieg Larsson novels.
In response, Swedish officials from the prime minister on down have taken to social media to debunk those claims. And leading the defense is Swedenâs official Twitter handle, @Sweden, an unusual account that is curated by a different Swedish citizen each week.
This week, that suddenly important job fell to Max Karlsson, a 22-year-old paralegal and trumpet player from Stockholm who found out he would be @Swedenâs curator earlier this month.
Karlsson has spent the past two days firing off tweets correcting the assertions made by Trump and others by âdumpingâ facts.
We have around 100 murders per year. Thats like two days in the US. Two. Days.
â @sweden / Max (@sweden) February 20, 2017
During the time Sweden received 250.000 refugees, unemployment has fallen with 1,2%-points.
ArbetslĂśshet - Ekonomifakta
â @sweden / Max (@sweden) February 20, 2017
... Karlsson told Yahoo News that heâs had a mostly positive experience conversing with both pro- and anti-Trump Twitter users.
<< ---
Meet the 22-year-old fighting Trumpâs terror talk about Sweden from the countryâs official Twitter feed
>> âIâve had great conversations with both Trump opponents and Trump voters about how we can have discussions based on facts, and why polarization is hurting the truth,â Karlsson said. âBut I have also learned and relearned that some people are unwilling to face facts, ready to threaten others for their agenda and willing to smear opponents with degrading remarks just to prove a point. I canât believe some adults are allowed online.â <<
Yeah how well we know. Hey Max, check out the message board echobubble.
The Dagens Nyheter article linked is instructive in itself ----
>> A church in Kristianstad, Sweden, is desecrated. An unknown party has been masturbating in the nave. On the floor are faeces and used syringes.
The parish thinks drug addicts are to blame â but in the US a different explanation has reached millions through Facebook.
MĂĽns Mosesson tells the story of how one piece of fake news went global, all from a shabby basement room in Macedonia.
A church in Kristianstad, Sweden, is desecrated. An unknown party has been masturbating in the nave. On the floor are faeces and used syringes.
The parish thinks drug addicts are to blame â but in the US a different explanation has reached millions through Facebook.
MĂĽns Mosesson tells the story of how one piece of fake news went global, all from a shabby basement room in Macedonia.
...
He doesnât trust CNN, nor CBS or NBC any more. On Facebook though he can fill up on his favourite sources. That morning, the site Focus News has posted a frightening report.
The article concerns a church on the other side of the Atlantic.
âWhen the Church of the Holy Trinity in Kristianstad, Sweden embraced a group of Muslim asylum seekers, they were shocked to find that the Islamists took advantage of their generosity in the sickest waysâ, it reads. The piece tells the story of a gullible parish that lets refugees stay in their church until they discover that âthe Muslims they gave food, shelter, and love were not only destroying the church property but were relentlessly urinating, defecating, and masturbating in the pews.â
The story grew in popularity; soon shared on Facebook pages with over 10 million followers.
When I speak to Michael on the phone he can still recall how outraged he was.
âYou do not desecrate a House of Godâ, he says. âThe Muslims hate the Christians, OK? That's all Islam is, it's politics. It's not a religion, alright, although they want you to believe that. They have said they are going to take over the world. If you look in the Koran, I don't know where, but if you open the Koran you'll find that it's there too.â
Over 12.000 Americans saw the article from Focus News, many of them pitching in with social media comments
âDemons from hellâ, reads one from a Texan with a puppy on her profile picture. âSend them back to their own country!!!!!â, adds Joan. Sandra, a mother of two comments: âSickening if it is true, and like others have said, would not doubt it.â
But there were good reasons to doubt it.
....
It is September 2016 and Bengt Alvland is compiling all the incidents that have occurred in the last few years.
He recounts the most dramatic one, when a few years ago at a christening a drunk man ran up and tried to grab the baby. Other incidents included attempts to steal the altarware, people setting fire to service sheets in the candle holder, pushing their way forward to take all the biscuits after a service, and then the semen, excrement and syringes of course.
It was a perfect little story, defecation and masturbation in the House of God.
Naturally the local paper were soon on it.
Who is behind the desecration of the church? asked reporters from local title Kristianstadsbladet.
Bengt Alvland cannot of course say for certain. There are no witnesses to many of the incidents, but he is still set on saying it as he sees it, linking it with the opening of the new methadone clinic. As is often the case when someone speculates or generalises, the details are slightly unclear.
It is at that moment of uncertainty that things are set in motion.
To understand why, it is helpful to quote the exact words from the piece that Kristianstadsbladet posted on its website on 7th December 2016.
âBengt Alvland does not know who these disrupting persons areâ, it says. âHe says that they are not the usual homeless people, known to the staff, but âa new clienteleâ.â
The story is followed by the normal sequence of events when a piece of remarkable news travels. The article gets quoted by national news agency TT, as well as the evening papers Aftonbladet and Expressen. It appears on public service television SVT in the evening.
Some xenophobic sites also pick it up. They post quotes that are technically correct, but to many readers it is clear that âa new clienteleâ means something other than what Alvland intended.
âThe mass invasion now appears in more grotesque forms than ever, disrespectful apesâ is one of the comments on Nordfront, a campaigning organisation for the white power Nordic resistance movement. âJust as I thought that the gypsies couldnât sink lowerâŚâ writes another. âIf we take another Christian country, Poland for example, they would have dragged the gypsies out and given them a thorough beating.â
Right wing Swedish site Fria Tider runs it with the headline: ââNew clienteleâ crap and masturbate in churchââ.
....
Ivan posted an article on his home page on the 8th December 2016. The piece was about how Muslims had defecated and masturbated in a church in Sweden.
âIt was a real hitâ, Ivan says. âThe second I read the headline I knew that it was going to run like crazy. It hits people right in the head.â
Ivan waves his arms about, a caricature of an outraged American.
â'How can this shit be!? It's not possible!' It has become my job to figure out what people in the US want to read, topics that they want to share with their friends. Donald, Melania⌠Islam, Muslims. Everybody clicks on stuff like that.â
The headline of Ivanâs article read: Liberal church houses Muslim refugees, horrified by what they find in pews.
The numbers are pretty detailed:
The story reached 12,880 of those following Ivanâs page on Facebook.
The piece was shared 110 times.
Most importantly, there were 3,324 Americans who clicked through to Ivanâs site.
Around 11 per cent of those visitors also clicked on one of the ads.
Every American click is worth 0.06 US dollars, which means that Ivan earned almost 22 dollars from the one article.
That may sound like petty money to some, but it isnât for the 25-year old Macedonian.
âI have been out of work for four yearsâ, he says. âSo this is perfect for me. I can sit at home and make money and even have a smoke at the same time.â <<
Much more context
at the link but that's what we have here --- a game of "telephone".
Gullible's Travels. Hard to believe.
I remember some USMB wags posting it here too. Not sure if they were the same ones who dutifully reposted the one about "three million Amish".
