Comments by "Fredrik Dunge" (@DaDunge) on "The Soft Power of Christmas" video.

7:30 I would say that's more to do with that the US are bad at it, and also that they seek goals that aren't suitable for soft power. Soft power can't give you dominion over others, but it can make others want to be like you, it can make it so countries don't want to antagonise you because their people really like the idea of your country... Ok I am beginning to see why we (Sweden) are the most softpower influential country on earth on a per capita basis. Using soft power to get people to do what we want comes natural to us. I saw your video on South east asia a few days ago and I was thinking we (the EU) should step in and help the South east Asian countries work together more to help them protect their independence from china, I mean we have a lot of experience of these things from putting the EU together, just help them with stuff like negotiate with rebels, organizing better bilateral systems between countries and stuff like that. Also we really should consider helping Iran with their energy crisis as a means of stabilizing that region, and get them to owe us a few favours... would solar power work in Iran? They've got a lot of desert as I recall.
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8:30 I don't think you are right there Shrivan, perhaps France's soft power came from it's hard power but if you look at your list earlier many of the countries with the most soft power are nordic countries with next to no hard power. We built soft power on soft power not as an extension of hard power. As an extension of prosperity and stability. In fact I would argue that Soft power exists in spite of hard power or rather that using hard power depletes your soft power, the US weakens it's soft power by throwing it's hard power around and Napoleon using hard power to force Europe to it's knees depleted the french soft power.
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Well it's kind of a cool Holiday.
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I don't know how many Gemanophiles has it created across the world? Because Japan seems more fascinated with German history than Germany is.
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I think that the EU is sort of an echochamber of softpower, it allows each member to wield part of the soft power of the entire EU. And thew softpower of the EU grows accordingly since each of it's members have so much of it. But there is some truth to it. Sweden dares to do things a country of it's size usually does not, recognizing Palestine, calling Putin a dictator to his face, laying down formal complaints about how china treats journalists.
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@Peizxcv Swedish pancakes swedish meatballs, also Sweden produces loads of music. Plus you can't say "except these really major institutions what have they got", plus what Sweden's got that we're most famous for is the Nordic model of government also Swedish neutrality means we're generally perceived as unbiased and are often asked to mediate conflicts way bigger than us.
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@Peizxcv First off I don't because I am Swedish so to me they're just meatballs but to others Swedish meatballs are quite different from american style meatballs and french style fricadelle. But I understand they are quite popular abroad. Assange got served a warrant because he got accused of rape, what did you expect us to just let him of the hook because he was famous? Well that's not how things work in Sweden our judiciary is completely independent, and it is illegal by our constitution for government ministers to give direct orders to any part of the executive branch, including law enforcement. The politicians only interact though the legal system by the making of laws. As for Obama's peace price... "the recipient (of the Nobel peace prize) is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway." So take it up with Norway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize
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@Peizxcv Swedish cuisine is in general the same or similar as all north European cuisine, you don't get English restaurants or dutch restaurants either, because as a general rule they're just considered restaurants. Also ethnic restaurants generally show up with relatively poor migration which Sweden hasn't had to the US since before Germany was a thing. Also soft power is not just culture and culture is not just food. Also you don't need to actually have people eat the food for it to have an impact, look at how Americans joke about pickled herring that is presence and presence is soft power. If you look at the equally prosperous Netherlands you find a lot less knowledge about dutch cuisine than about Swedish cuisine. Also the US is one country New York one city, you personal experiences are exactly that, personal. And some countries may be like that but Sweden ranks top three on the democracy index so you must be thinking about other countries, as an american you probably shouldn't speak you lot are listed as a flawed democracy at 25th place. The Swedish justice systems is one of the fairest in the world according to every NGO who measures these things. As for the specifics of this case i am not particularly familiar with the specifics, there's no reason for me to be, I know our justice system works so I don't have to be. And your ignorance in this matter says more about you than about Sweden.
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@Peizxcv And Sweden's cultural influence on the US is not really it's full cultural influence, I've travelled a lot and wherever I've come in Europe and Africa people know Sweden and generally have a positive image of what Sweden is. People like Swedes.
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@Peizxcv Oh we're not but you are criticizing us at fields which we are actually good at by any good or independent metric. And we don't have more crime, well more crime than china but duh china is an authoritarian state they always have low crime because it's either internalized or stamped out. Except you don't you lead on hard power and you have led for research for most of last century though I'm not sure I would argue you do today, at least it's not undisputed any more. Your cultural output is good but you're abysmal at turning it into soft power. Partly because you're so heavy handed in your use of hard power which taints the cultural presence of US culture and makes people view it with resentment rather than admiration. You don't see other countries want to be like the United states. And you say we can't take criticism then claim the US is best at everything and we can't take that it's not. Eh have you ever heard the word projecting?
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@Peizxcv Make me think? the freaking study cited in this video, also I have seen other studies before saying the same thing. And leading global power? Never said it was, in fact I chalked it up as Sweden having a strong voice in the EU which in turn is a very big player in the world, especially wielding soft power, as such the EU amplifies the soft power of it's members. And actually Sweden is great at many of the things you mentioned, but again it doesn't matter what you are good at what matters is if you can turn it into soft power which Sweden obviously can as shown by the study in this very video! And you think China are good at softpower? I really don't think you get what softpower is. Just like no one says "I wish my country was more like the US", no one is saying "I wish my country was more like china" Science isn't wrong because you disagree whit it, if science and you are of different minds, you either got to prove that the science is bad or the likelihood is that it's you who is wrong. But you've as far as I can tell have got nothing, you can argue all that you want but arguing doesn't make your right evidence does, you either have it or you don't.
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@Peizxcv I can but it's irrelevant. That's not what soft power is about, not unless you can leverage these things. Population is not soft power either. Stockholm is a self important backwater, high on its position as the largest fish in puddle, you don't have to tell me that, I am quite aware. In fact continental europe in general don't have very big cities, the EU have twice the population of the US but no cities near the large american ones, we're spread more evenly over large rural areas instead. You are measuring the skill of a fish by it's ability to climb a tree if you measure a European country by the size of it's largest city. And actually a study a few years back showed Sweden was the per capita most influential country in the EU (that's the other study I mentioned in my last post), for reasons such as the weight of a vote in the EU parliament, average importance of the commission jobs given (the EU commissioners are like the ministers of most countries, but one is chosen from each country and since there has to be 28 of them the actual weight of the post differs a lot) and diplomatic influence. Think of us as like the swing states in the US, we're not populous but we're often kingmakers because we aren't perceived to have completely thrown our lot in with any side in particular. And again I'm not seeing any evidence refuting the study in the video. You can argue all you want but arguing proves nothing evidence is the only thing that matters, Shirvan's got it you don't.
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@Peizxcv So? It's not who publishes that matters it's the metholdology used. So unless you can find a flaw in that it d9esn matter who published it. Unless you arenlcaimimg they're lying but again then you got to be able to prove that. You can't just go around arbitrarily accusing studies of being wrong or lying.
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@Peizxcv Also your far left is the centre right in most countries.
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@Peizxcv Now you're just trolling come back when you've actually got an argument.
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@Peizxcv Again your talent for projecting is truly remarkable.
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@Peizxcv Hmm you're seriously not capable of not replying are you? that's fascinating.
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@Peizxcv Quod erat demonstrandum...
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6:45 I was like haha Norway is on that list at 12th place, they've realy gotten rich of of their oil.... what the h*ell! Sweden is in fourth place?! How are we second only to the big Three of the EU? How are we in 4th place when China is in 27th? Suddenly China's sabre rattling when we called them out on that journalist makes a lot more sense.
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