Chisinau Forum: Vávra Suk on the role of alternative media in international affairs

Today, as the acting Editor in Chief of the influential Swedish Weekly Nya Tider, which translates as New Times in English, I see that the tide is really turning.

And several countries in Europe already have a government that is ready to defend their national sovereignty against globalism, whether it comes in the form of imperialist states who want to act as “World Police” or from huge companies whose economic or opinion-shaping force is greater than that which any single country can muster.

Public opinion is also changing in my country, Sweden, which for decades has been one of the most extreme in the world when it comes to the implementation of multi-culturalism, gender theories, LGBT and other politically correct crusades. It is great to see that citizens more and more vocally demand the right to their own national identity, their heritage, and not least the right to their own tax money. It is an important change, but it is in no way clear what the end result will be.

Today I can see two main branches in the alternative media; one that is against Islam wherever it may be, be it in England, Paris or Tehran. Let me call this branch the counter-jihadist view. And then there is the non-interference branch promoting the sovereignty of peoples and their right to create their own culture, whoever they may be and whatever culture they want to have. Let me call this the anti-imperialist view.

For me, the counter-jihadist view is as bad as the globalist multi-cultural position, if not worse. Don’t get me wrong, the Islamic state is a terrible menace, both in Europe, in Syria, which I visited and could see the devastation at first hand, and elsewhere. But the critique of the counter-Jihadist doesn’t stop there. It wants to export a liberal Western culture to all parts of the world, into societies and civilizations of other nations – especially Islamic societies. That, in my view, is sheer imperialism.

It is the same form of imperialism, a mirror, of the globalist agenda promoting multi-culture in the West, destroying our European countries. They too want to force their ideology upon every country. The globalists want to open every country to McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and American oil companies. They want to eradicate all unique cultures in the world and transform the nations into obedient consumers with the culture of fashion and profligacy. The counter-jihadist applauds the wars waged against sovereign countries in the Middle East, only because they are Islamic.

A fair and moral standpoint is that of the principle: live and let live. To use an old slogan of the Left, every people’s freedom is the road to world peace. I would say the only road. If we want to defend our Western values in Europe, if we oppose Islamisation, we should equally not intervene in other countries, other nations. Their culture is theirs. They alone can choose which culture to live by and if they want to change something, again it is their decision.

Indeed, if we want to defend our Western values, we should embrace the differences and unique expressions of every ethnic group’s identity – not only our own. Therefore I’m happy to see different countries and continents represented here today. This is true anti-imperialism!

In Nya Tider, we frequently publish geopolitical news and analysis from hotspots such as Syria, Libya, Ukraine et cetera, along with news from Sweden about rising criminality and the collapse of welfare services. These issues are linked, and it is important to explain the connection to the readers.

The counter-jihadist position is dangerous because it creates animosity between peoples that should instead unite. The globalists started this process by wreaking havoc in the Middle East and creating chaos, and at the same time orchestrating a mass immigration to Europe never seen in the continent’s history before, threatening our way of life and opening the doors also to deserters, criminals and terrorists. The counter-jihad stance takes this conflict to a new level, by declaring a war of civilizations as a matter of principle.

Many Europeans, fed up with being robbed of the welfare they built up during generations, and feeling an imminent threat to themselves and their loved ones, now look for solutions. We in the alternative media have a big responsibility to direct this rightful anger to the real culprits, and to explain that the struggle of the Syrian people is the same struggle as the one we are fighting in Europe, only with different means.

Our common struggle is against the globalists, those who hate all the unique cultures. Let the world be truly diverse, with every nation free to create the society of their choice. The world is now changing, in many respects thanks to alternative media, and alternative media stays in the forefront.