Hiding in plain sight: Censorship in Sweden

What do you do when you want to hide information from the sheep you (think you) control? The most obvious way to hide something is to, well, hide it. Make sure it's out of view from those you don't want to be able to see said thing. But what about if the sheep knows about the items existence but not know the exact details that could be revealed by those who are in possession of the item?

One such item is books. It's not until you're in possession of the book and have read it that you're able to know what it really says. Before that you may know, perhaps, of the title, the subject and some small tidbit of information from, but not the whole story.

So, what to do if you're in the business of hiding information from your sheep?

The best way is to actually show it to your sheep while at the same time offering other, similar items (books) with a slightly different approach or viewpoint. For example, there've been a bit of an uprising in Sweden after Expressen's (one of the large MSM newspapers in Sweden) controversial demand that Google censor videos with Hitler's speeches in Sweden.

Expressen is owned by the Bonnier family who also happens to own quite a bit of stuff in Sweden, such as the largest online book-store Adlibris. A store who just happens to sell the exact same thing as their owners want to censor from the Swedes. Double-standard, one might think. But, see, the problem is that until now they've put on this big facade that they're all for free speech and freedom of information and must therefore also offer books and information that seemingly goes against their beliefs, such as Hitler's speeches. And what do you know! They actually do sell books containing those speeches, although they charge 1803skr ($221 or €179) for one of them so it's not really something anyone would purchase since it's just the first of a series of books. My guess is that this particular book won't be sold as much as the ones with a lower price tag and about the same title, albeit slightly different, perhaps written by a scholar (approved by the state/Bonnier-family).

This is what's being done all over the place, from Amazon to Adlibris to your local library. Information is not really hidden, it's just drowned out in a flood of almost-the-same type of books with a slightly different approach and conclusion.

The most outraging part of the story is thus not the double standard that they offer books with Hitler's speeches in them, while at the same time trying to shut those same speeches down on a another platform but the way they (try to) twist our ability too think and speak freely and so openly tries to divert our attention to what they want us to think and talk about.

There are of course a lot to say about the censuring itself but that's a slightly different topic for another time!