Sweden Yes
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About
"Sweden Yes" is a catchphrase used to mock multiculturalism and gender equality politics, specifically Swedish ones. The catchphrase has also inspired the phrasal template "X Yes," referring to countries with progressive ideals. Sweden Yes was originally popularized on the international board of Krautchan.net in early 2012 and spread to other sites like 4chan and Reddit in the following years.
Origin
The first use of the phrase can be found on the German imageboard Krautchan's international board in mid-January 2012 when a problem with the board software removed users' flags. On January 18th, 2012, a thread asking the users to reply with their country of origin and if they had ever tasted semen was submitted, with the first reply being, "Sweden Yes," as a mockery of Sweden's bad multiculturalist reputation.
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Background
Sweden has been known for being positive towards non-European immigration and being the EU member state that accepts the most political refugees. A poll made in January 2015 showed that more than 70 percent of the Swedish population was positive towards non-European immigration, 23 percent of which were very positive towards it.[9]
Spread
On November 13th, 2013, the subreddit /r/SwedenYes was created, featuring news related to immigration and gender equality.[8] The earliest archived instance in /pol/ comes from a novelty thread where the Family Guy character Brian Griffin asks for the best country to immigrate to. One of the posts, made on November 29th, 2013, contained the message "Sweden Yes."[3] On the same day on the same board, a thread about the Swedish military contained a post using the catchphrase.[4] The same thread featured various posts also with the catchphrase.
Captain Sweden
Captain Sweden is a series of webcomics featuring an anthropomorphization of Sweden's multiculturalism and progressive thinking named "Captain Sweden," often depicting him having interracial intercourse. The first instance of the comic can be found on a Diary.ru post by user ~dovolen on April 5th, 2007, featuring two immigrants robbing a woman, when Tolerastov, a man dressed as a drag queen, appears and persuades the robbers into having intercourse with him.[5] The first translated version of the comic can be found on Rule34, adding the Swedish flag to Tolerastov and naming him "Captain Sweden," also featuring the catchphrase (examples shown below).[10]
On May 4th, 2013, user Taikuri uploaded another Captain Sweden comic to the Finnish media-sharing website Naamapalmu, depicting Captain Sweden making a snowman more "tolerant."[7] Both comics began being posted on multiculturalist discussions, especially on /pol/.[6]
On March 28th, 2015, animator Alerta Judiada uploaded a YouTube video named "Captain Sweden Saves the Day!," featuring an adaptation of the original comic, garnering over 72,000 views in less than two months. The video has since been removed from the platform and the account terminated.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Tumblr – Tagged sweden yes
[2] Archive4Plebs – Search for sweden yes on /pol/
[3] Archive4Plebs – Best country to immigrate?
[4] Archive4Plebs – The Swedish army's fighting capability has been destroyed – Finland to the rescue?
[5] Archive.diary.ru – толерантность правит миром
[6] Archive.4Plebs – Search for captain sweden on /pol/
[7] Naamapalmu – Kapteeni Ruotsi
[8] Reddit – /r/SwedenYes
[9] Europa Portalen – Svenskar mest positiva till invandring
[10] Rule34 – Image 981790
Top Comments
The Sovjet Cat
Mar 16, 2015 at 10:07AM EDT
Z. Moderator
Mar 16, 2015 at 09:41AM EDT