We continue the Nordic coverage, teaching non-Europeans about the reality behind the Nordic myth.
(I mean, now that Den is bored with the dying treasury companies #1517660, #1519091 he's gotta move on to something else).

see here for previous features: #1495232 #1552140

Yesterday, the FT had this Big Read

“No shootings in May.”
The news headline in Sweden this year was as banal as it was extraordinary. For around a decade the rich Scandinavian state, once feted as an all but ideal society, suffered more fatal shootings per capita than any other country in western Europe.

also: I love this graph... shootings clearly down... but bombings up?!

...apparently it's easier for 12-yo to carry out those types of attacks.

The gangs started offering what the police call “crime as a service” — using digital platforms to recruit young people to commit crimes in Sweden and beyond. One example from recent years posted to social media and provided by police talks about “rent-a-thugs” being needed, and offers SKr800,000 ($84,000) to commit an unspecified crime with “travel, housing” provided.

I wonder in what and how they pay #1565006. Yet again, I feel like I'm in the wrong line of business (#1507003).

Also, this desire to crack down on free communication (hopeless as it is) is pretty terrifying:

Youths are still being recruited online; the government has had success in taking down criminal adverts from TikTok and Snap quickly, but Wallenius says that Signal, the encrypted messaging service, remains a problem. Often, a seemingly innocent ad on another platform will ask young people to sign up to join a group on Signal where they will be recruited.

Not in favor of recruiting kiddos to do bad stuff, but I'm even more scared of Big Bad Gov deciding what is and isn't good/allowable communication between people.

also: nobody is surprised about this, right?

archive: https://archive.md/F6ANb