The utopian dream of a future society without borders, sexual standards, or religion that once seemed inevitable is looking increasingly improbable. Political upheavals such as the election of President Trump, Brexit, and the rise of populist victories in mainland Europe show that tide is increasingly turning against this vision in the same countries most famous for subscribing to it in the first place.
Sweden is a great example of this because of it's noteworthy secularism, named the second least religious country in the world only behind Communist China in a WIN/Gallup poll, with over 70% of its population declaring themselves as either atheists or non-religious, while also being the trendsetter for privately and publicly enforced feminism, gender/social engineering experiments on children, as well as mass-multiculturalism (with increasingly dubious results). To quote famed Catholic philosopher G.K. Chesterton, “In truth, there are only two kinds of people; those who accept dogma and know it, and those who accept dogma and don't know it.” Secular countries like Sweden with their ideological orthodoxies are a testament to that capacity for the non-religious to be some of the most devout believers of all.
Sweden's recent election has recently made headlines, and while it was not yet an upheaval of Brexit or Trump-level proportions, its display of the decaying power of leftism and rise of populism are a sign of the times, according to Sentinel source "the Social Democrats captured 28 percent of the vote, in their worst election result since 1908, conforming a downward trend for a political force that was once among the strongest throughout Europe." By contrast, Reuters reports that the far-right populist Swedish Democrats are on the rise, "...famously liberal Sweden voted in record numbers on Sunday for a far-right party that wants a referendum on leaving the 28-nation bloc." The Swedish Democrats, like many populist parties such as the French Front National had former ties to extremists, but have since purged them and adopted an innocuous logo (in their case a cartoonish blue flower), becoming part of the political mainstream, which in itself is a testament to the severity of the immigration problem. A party does not go from fringe to formidable against media and social condemnation unless there is a socio-political tectonic shift among the population at large.
To turn a feminist term back against them, Swedish leadership and liberal media have a tendency to "gaslight" those concerned about the rising rates of sexual assault or terrorism by saying their claims are unfounded or wildly exaggerated. In March of 2018, Labor Market Minister Ylva Johansson claimed in a BBC Interview that the number of reported sexual assault/harassment cases “is going down and going down and going down.” The opposite however has been proven true, and she was forced to give a public apology.
A researcher at Stockholm's Institute for Economic and Business History Research named Tino Sanandaji wrote at Politico: "Exposing negative statistics about immigration sparked angry accusations of bigotry. Establishment voices shied away from the topic for fear of being accused as racist. Opposition to immigration became off-limits within all establishment parties, and Swedish policy gradually moved toward open borders." Like any other problem, suppression only aggravates the issues until they surge into the spotlight.
TheNational.ae summarized the situation there and across Europe succinctly,
...the Swedish election does continue a distinctly European narrative, as told via the ballot box over the past two years. Starting with the Brexit referendum in June 2016, electorates in France, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Austria and Italy have expressed their anxiety about immigration, cultural cohesion and domestic security. Voters have, accordingly, offered an attentive ear – and varying levels of support – to politicians who give the appearance of understanding their concerns. As the Sweden Democrats’ parliamentary group leader Mattias Karlsson put it, parties like his act as channels for people’s feelings.
The same Liberal ideologues who once railed against policies they considered environmentally unsustainable seem to have “jumped the shark” in recent years, and are now losing ground in elections because their policies are unsustainable for civilization. The rise of the populist right across Europe, like the rise of Trump, is not because of wishful thinking, but of confronting hard truths that are forcing people to switch political ties against the narratives pushed by mainstream media and political establishments. It's very telling that the post-religious "March for Science" Left who once prided itself in secular logic and scientific fact now are so committed to the dogmatism of their utopian ideals that they often rely on censorship or pearl-clutching moral outrage whenever their ideas are questioned.
As the political center of the Western world has faded and politics have become polarized, we are finding an increasing amount of cases, from South African Genocide, to No-Go Zones, to basic scientific facts about gender differences where there is no consensus about what is real. Until people are united by objective truth, regardless of ideology, this political polarization will continue.
While the Swedish Democrats party itself has some truly odious history, the fact is that until the concerns of its noteworthy base are met, it will likely only rise in power. John Fund of the National Review aptly notes, "Of course, there are elements in the ranks of Brexit supporters, Trump backers, and the Swedish Democrats that are nasty and retrograde. But so long as elites continue to ignore the legitimate fears and grievances of ordinary voters, they will be both inhibiting a genuine public debate over solutions and encouraging even more of a backlash."