#norway stuff

[thelordsoftherings]

in Norway we say "på 17. mai er det obligatorisk å spise is" which means I love you and I think that's beautiful

[sentient-carrot]

I think something that is very uncomfortable for people who aren't at a particular risk of police violence, is that the police will almost universally align itself with authoritarian systems. The police institution itself is inherently based on dominance through use of force and violence. If they make you feel safer, then you are already shielded in a way that allows you to ignore the danger it poses on society as a whole.

I'm white in a country with a large amount of trust in the police relatively speaking, and that offers me some protections. I have other reasons that make me more likely to be targeted, but all in all I am not of our most vulnerable at all. With that in mind it would be easy to believe in the potential good of the police. After having worked with harm reduction for drug users however, I'm keenly aware of the damage the police enact on people who need help more than anything.

I don't think Norwegians in general know that the police regularly fully trash very mentally ill people's homes. They burst in, ruin the door (and with it your privacy until you can get the door fixed yourself or wait weeks) and throw all your stuff around, truly leaving you with days worth of cleaning and fixing. They beat people up brutally and can get away with that due to being... The state-sanctioned violence enactor.

When I bring up the harm they do, especially while drugs remain illegal and unregulated giving them free reign to destroy so many lives with a flimsy excuse of "Well they broke the law", people get surprised. They ask "But what is the option? We need some protection" which sure, you could argue that. The problem is though that violence is not protection, violence enacted does not protect you, it gives you the illusion of protection when what is really protecting you is your social status as a white, generally functioning person doing your demanded civic duty of work.

The amount of resources we spend on furthering violence and harm is immense. It's quite frankly wildly wasteful given that studies upon studies show compassion and support being much, much more effective at preventing harmful behaviour to oneself or others.

This is what I wish Norwegians (and pretty much all social democrats etc around the world) would understand, that the police only protects you as long as you're liked enough by the whims of society, and if you ever fall out of favour as vulnerable minorities tend to do when times get harder, you'll suddenly find this protection wasn't so much there for you as it was there to uphold the system and the structures of the dominant majority.

[harryallthetime]

In Norway we don’t say that we’re a cat person or a dog person. We say cat human or dog human, and I prefer it tbh.

[skogvette]

Translation: “police warns of toilet paper fraud in several locations”

[harryallthetime]

I'm half Norwegian, gratulerer med dagen! :)

Åå, så koselig. Gratulere med dagen 🥳🇳🇴