Today, July 22nd 2021, marks ten years since the domestic terrorist attacks in Norway that made not only the whole country stand still, but sent shock waves all over Europe. Eight people died as a result of a bombing in central Oslo, and 69 people were murdered on Utøya, an island west of the capital. The attacks have been considered the most terrible in modern Scandinavian history.
Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian right-wing extremist fuelled by the anti-immigration and white supremacist conspiracy theories he had read online, decided to take matters into his own hands and put a stop to what he saw as an Islamic takeover of European society (“Eurabia”) and the promotion of “Cultural Marxism”. The enemy in his eyes were the ruling party, who he believed were enabling this change through immigration and multiculturalism as well as the disestablishment of a strong patriarchy. Before carrying out his deeds he had compiled a manifesto, spanning over a thousand pages, of mostly stuff he’d found online but also by well-established right-wing authors. This was e-mailed to many people in power some hour before the bomb, hidden inside a car parked near government buildings in Oslo, went off, alarming many citizens and injuring hundreds.
Photo credit: Morten Holm
A bit after five in the afternoon, Breivik arrived at Utøya disguised as a police officer. Utøya is a small island owned and utilised by AUF, the youth offshoot of the Social Democratic Worker’s Party, who were holding their yearly summer camp at the time. Armed with a rifle, Breivik went on a massacre for over an hour before real policemen arrived to arrest him (delayed due to a lack of ways to get to the island), forcing all the summer camp participants to run and hide as their comrades were injured and killed. At least a hundred were physically injured, far more were mentally traumatised by the event. Many of those who died were young, the majority still in their teens.
Discarded clothes after victims having entered the water to escape. Photo credit: Niclas Hammarström
It’s easy to paint Breivik as a lone madman, an unstable individual who is now safely behind bars at a maximum sentence. But through his manifesto we see his many connections to people and movements all over the world. He describes himself as a conservative nationalist, a fascist and a “counter-jihadist”, and cites authors Bat Ye’or (Gisèle Littman) and Robert B. Spencer, the American Tea Party movement, and blogger Fjordman among others as inspirations. He approves of the Hindu nationalist efforts to expel muslims from India, Geert Wilders of the Dutch right-wing Party for Freedom, and Israel waging war on Palestine. How can he be a sole extremist when are many people sharing his views? How can his massacre be an incident, an anomaly, when he himself claims to have been inspired and radicalised by the writing of others? The attacks cannot be separated from the politics that created them. At the time, the Norwegian political discourse was very centred around immigration, with far-right parties gaining more sympathy and other parties pandering to this by also starting to discuss immigration as a “problem”. When nationalism, xenophobia and islamophobia become ever more widespread and legitimised as a “point of view” in society, the more rampant the extreme utterances become. Many right-wing conspiracy theorists speak of genocide as a last step, where government takeovers in order to stop immigration and deporting those of unwanted ethnicities are first on the agenda. Breivik intended to help this cause by murdering members of the ruling party who he believed were bringing on the downfall of Western society. This should have been a warning, but ten years later fascism is still on the rise all over Europe (and the world!). Some places are close to, if not already at the last, horrific step. One terrorist being locked up does not put an end to this development. But it might not be too late to learn from it.
one thing you need to know about me is that i am constantly having insane galaxy genius ancient greek philosopher level thoughts about everything ever all the time but before leaving my mouth they get filtered through seven layers of autism and come out sounding like a youtube comment made by a nine year old
some of u reblog the most ableist posts without even realizing n it's so sad.
"you're depressed bc ur an adult who doesn't exercise n u only eat pre-made meals which is also why ur in pain all the time" bruh have u heard of being disabled? if i exercise i will get worse. regardless of food (which takes a lot of time/money/energy to prepare, not to mention food restrictions some of us need to find a way around!!) or exercise i am still in pain every day.
i was in pain when i played basketball at a national level at 14 and when i ran over 1h every day and also went to the gym at 21 and when i rode my bike a minimum of 40km up and down hills daily at 23 AND i am in less pain now at 25 bc I've learned not to push my body beyond it's limit.
"you're depressed because adult humans need to have sex" like that's the most ridiculous take I've ever heard lmao maybe U need to have sex to avoid depression and maybe some of us cannot have sex for traumatic reasons which will trigger even more depression. maybe things aren't black n white u should not be spreading such misinformation?
i beg yall ableds to pick up a book on the relation between trauma & pain & capitalism and also, while I'm at it, to fucking stop putting neurodivergencies on the same level as for e.g. spinal cord injuries. it ain't the same!
obviously a balanced diet + physical exercise can seriously improve some people's lives but not all of us have the capacity to make that happen. not all of us have the self sufficiency let alone external help to enjoy such privileges. just... be kinder & be careful with the info ur putting out there?
I just want to say I have absolutely 0 sympathy whatsoever for anyone complaining about anything homeless people do. oh you saw human shit on the ground?? hmm maybe it's because THEY DONT HAVE A TOILET. oh you saw someone cleaning themselves in a public restroom? maybe because THEY DONT HAVE A FUCKING SHOWER. oh no a homeless person is living in a tent and you think it's ugly?? CRY ABOUT IT IN YOUR FUCKING HOUSE. oh my goodness homeless people sleeping on the ground and they're in your way!!!! yeah THEY DONT HAVE A BED
if seeing homeless people bothers you that much then good news! you have some choices! 1) let them all live with you in your house! 2) start pressuring your local government to stop criminalizing the homeless and start giving them financial and medical assistance! 3) shut the fuck up and die!
slightly punk-looking teenager on a cop show: i wont talk. i know my rights
cops behind interrogation room glass: damn. this one teenager won’t cooperate. now we’ll never catch Fuckhands the Baby Murderer. and it’s all because the police doesn’t have absolute authority. this is terrible
grandmas across the world: damn, good point
hey just an FYI, disney's new animated movie strange world, which they're saying has their first gay character, is not like, a joke. i just saw it and it's an ACTUAL first gay character. he's the protagonist. him being gay is not his entire character but it's also not like, a cameo, or a background thing, or one scene you can cut out. it's a multi-generational story about this kid and his father and grandpa, and him being gay comes up in adorable ways throughout the story (to the point where this movie is gay enough to immediately be banned in several countries). it's really well done and a very pleasant surprise from the mouse and people should go watch it!
cop shows are like "dammit! we would have caught babyeater mike by now if people didn't have rights,"
I think it needs to become common knowledge that "inability to read social cues" can show up as overcompensating.
You don't know how much misbehaviour is allowed, so you become the perfect child who never tests rules.
You don't know if someone is irritated with you, so you'll be extra generous and self-effacing.
You don't know how much is expected of you at work so you'll kill yourself in a minimum-wage job and not notice that nobody else is working like this.
"Hardworking and quiet" should be as much of an autism red flag as "ignores rules and doesn't know when to stop talking". Or why don't we just start using words to communicate so i can stop tracking everybody's eyebrow twitches, that would be great.