The Rawness

Part 1 can be found here, where I discussed reasons why to me the focus on Black IQ versus IQ is very much a waste of time. Here in Part 2 I’d like to discuss what I consider average IQ of a racial group to be indicative of.

Average IQ of a racial group is simply an indication of how hospitable that racial group’s history has been to unintelligent people. That’s it. It’s all just a matter of how easy it has traditionally been for unintelligent members of that race to survive and reproduce.

I read excerpts from a book in the 90s called Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, and although it’s been a while since I’ve read them, I recall it gave some convincing theories regarding the causes of Eurasian innovation and world domination throughout history. A good summary of the book can be found here:

[T]he book is not merely an account of the past; it attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations, as a whole, have survived and conquered others, while attempting to refute the belief that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that: the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences amplified by various positive feedback loops; and that, if cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example Chinese centralized government, or improved disease resistance among Eurasians), it is only so because of the influence of geography.

For a real dumbed-down, oversimplified example, consider the following. In a civilization that is developing in a continent like Africa where its warm and sunny, it’s easier for people who are not too bright to survive since it doesn’t take much innovation and resourcefulness to figure out a way to survive in an environment like that. In a place with harsh climates with radical environmental changes accompanying the changes in seasons, and prolonged periods of bitter cold, it is much harder for a stupid person to survive. Thus significantly more stupid people will be weeded out of the gene pool in the latter example in comparison to the former example, which would probably raise the average IQ in the latter society more. This is just one example of how the environment a civilization develops in can affect its average IQ.

Level of concentration of different organizations such as city-states in a given space can affect average IQ too. For example say two continents have areas of equal size. In one continent, the given area is occupied by one society, a monolithic empire of shared language and culture with very little warfare and fear of invasion and few natural barriers. In the other continent, the given area is filled with numerous city-states formed by the separations caused by natural boundaries like mountain ranges, and the competition and warfare among all these groups forced Europeans to encourage innovation. More conditions to weed the less innovative out of the gene pool.

Here’s another example of how environments can influence cultural and genetic development: Sparta and Athens. Both countries probably started out with similar genetic stock (if anyone knows otherwise, please feel free to correct me). Why did one city turn into such an intellectual center of innovative knowledge while the other became a master of physical combat and warfare? Are Athenians simply inherently smarter than Spartans through genetics? No, the reason is this: Sparta was situated on fertile soil, very good for farming. This made it very attractive to invaders. Invaders would frequently attack Sparta over and over again to get some of that good soil. Spartans had to adapt, and survival favored those who were physically stronger and were better fighters and tacticians over those who engaged in purely intellectual pursuits like philosophy. An uberintellectual philosopher probably had little value in Spartan society while great warriors and leaders probably enjoyed the most status. Also, they weeded out weakness from birth:

Everything was now dedicated to making each Spartiati a superb and unquestioningly loyal soldier. The Process started at birth. Newly-born babies were inspected by a committee of elders, and, if considered too weak , they were left to die by exposure on the sloped of Mount Taygetos. Those who survived were carefully brought up as Plutarch describes:

‘The women did not bathe the babies with water, but with wine, making it a sort of test of their strength. For they say that the epileptic and sickly ones lose control and go into convulsions, but the healthy ones are rather toughened like steel and strengthened in their physique.

So as you can see, the environment influenced the culture in terms of what traits were valued, how they chose to improve themselves, how they raised their children and how they structured their society. These cultural factors in turn influenced who survived to pass on genes and who didn’t, as weak children were allowed to die even. Genetics influence behavior as well (for example, societies with lots of tall men with high testosterone will probably be more hostile and have more competitive values). Which in turn influences culture, and the cycle goes on. These are called positive reinforcing loops.

Meanwhile, Athens was situated on land that was too shitty to grow anything. Because of its poor soil, it was less desirable and therefore less prone to invasions. Being relatively unmolested and left alone allowed Athens to prosper intellectually and devote more time to intellectual and athletic pursuits. Being intellectual requires a lot of free time to read, write and ponder deep thoughts for their own sake. One simply cannot become intellectual without having free time, and since Athens didn’t have to constantly fight and depend itself, it had exactly that.

Spending time obsessing over the IQs of Spartans versus Athenians in an effort to shape policy would be pointless, because as shown above the relationship between environment, culture and genetics is very complicated and intertwined. Sure one society may have ended up with a higher IQ than another, but all that shows you are the traits that society historically needed for survival, not what that society is forever capable of. If somehow conditions got reversed and Athens suddenly was attacked incessantly while Sparta entered an era of unbroken peace, within a few generations the situations could end up reversed with Sparta becoming a society that favors intellectual pursuits and Athens focusing on developing military prowess and battle toughness.

This is why I have a problem with the idea many antileftists push that society is shortchanging itself by not paying more attention to the race and IQ issues put forth in The Bell Curve. Even if blacks do have a lower IQ, all that shows us is that the history of blacks is one that wasn’t harsh enough to weed out more unintelligent people from the gene pool. If you subjected blacks to environment and cultural conditions that rewarded high intellect, competition and technical innovation first and foremost and made it hard to survive and thrive without these traits, you’d see a positive change in average IQ, much like if you devalued intellect, competiton and innovation in the culture and environment of whites and made it easy for them to survive and thrive without these traits, their average IQ would drop in time as well.

Average IQ of a racial group is simply an indicator of that racial group’s historical tolerance for the survival of unintelligent people, not an indicator of that racial group’s future potential for the rest of its existence.

In part 3, I’ll discuss why I think the history of Africans, and black Americans in particular, has produced environments that allow more unintelligent people to prosper, thereby lowering the average IQ for the whole group. And social policy solutions that can get great results for blacks without even having to address average IQ by race.

Recommended Reading:

Feel free to post any random thoughts on the economy here folks. How we got here, predictions on where we’re going, anything.

My first prediction: Illegal Mexicans will be caught sneaking back into Mexico for opportunity. Remember where you read it first.

The chorus and the bridge just kill it, one of the best uses of the Bob James “Nautilus” sample ever. Terribly underrated.

In response to this post, Why? writes:

This is really creepy.
You are aware that pimps are horrible, horrible people right?

That they abuse and hurt people. I find this writing dramatic hearsay. Personally I think you are simply attracted to the idea of controlling a situation you had difficulty in and are rationalising it. That is stupid. Anti social stupid. Creepy stupid. No, wait, it’s not stupid, it’s “outcome driven” your just trying to make yourself feel better about being a loser (really you wouldn’t obsess if you didn’t suck at it, losers suck).

That shit you said about “outcome driven” compared to keeping your values, ah, that just another way of saying people have separate goals. In the pimp example you gave (when people think pimps have a lot of sex) That’s just valuing sex over control. The people want sex, the pimp wants control. You’re making up vague phrases to appear all knowing but really it’s just cold reading. You find what you like.
It’s like some sort of morally inept modern-day wife’s tale. You say this teaches the basic ideas but they are conflicting. A perfect example is the career of a pimp. You said now blah, blah pimps money not thinking ahead, blah, ignore that completely because blah, blah, blah. You know, you wrote it.

Another example:
He’s on drugs. Oh yeah, that’s process driven. Hey I’ll get addicted to something! What better way to keep a clear sharp mind that to always be craving my next fix! Smart.

Also what the hell does malcome X have to do with pimps? Hey why not just write something john kerry wrote about physics?
Why are you looking to evaluate a pimp? Also what proof do you have that everything went so smoothly? All you have is a book that was written by (Hell he probably had a ghost writer) pimp. Think about that. A pimp wrote it.
A pimp. Someone who is bottom rung, fucked up in the head, thinks people are property boy. Oh another thing about pimps, they like to get their girls pregnant it gives them more leverage. You gonna write about that too? Pimps also pay their whores with drugs instead of money. Keeps ‘em real close. Why don’t you just suggest that?

Why not try to find someone who is in a caring and equal relationship? Or at least one where there isn’t the threat of violence, where both people in the relationship are allowed to talk to their family and friends?
Why not make your own values? Hopefully ones that don’t bring to mind guys who sucker minors in with drugs and parties and then slap them around and use shame and embarrassment and threats to keep control?

This makes me feel disgusted.

You are pulling shit out of your ass and clapping with it. There is no studying. You have not gone out on the street to try being a pimp. You have not been slapped in the name of control. You have not had your family and friends cut off from you. You have not collected statistics. You have not seen people lost to a lifestyle they wouldn’t wish on anyone. You are taking nothing but anecdotal evidence from a guy who is in a profession that has a reputation of being full of scum sucking asshole, manipulative liars. Pimps are liars. You have no concrete proof.

I hope you find better role models.

I admire the passion. My favorite part is “You are pulling shit out of your ass and clapping with it.” That’s hilarious.

In one of my recent Sweden posts, I described a concept called Simp’s Dilemma a play off the game theory concept Prisoner’s Dilemma. Many people out there still had no idea what a “simp” or a “trick” was though.

Lo and behold, I found a site with the perfect definition.

Here are some examples of “simp behavior”. If you or your friends are exhibiting 2 or more of these symptoms – immediately stop dating and email me for immediate help.

You bought her a Tiffany’s bracelet for Christmas, and she got you socks (because the Prada purse she bought herself the week before set her back) – but you see nothing wrong.

All your male friends avoid you like the plague – because all you talk about is what you bought “baby girl” last week.

Your going into debt trying to support the lifestyle your “girl” is into.

Your always eating p*ssy (performing cunnilingus), but you get a funny look every time “reciprocation” is mentioned.

You are giving her elaborate dates (para-sailing, trips to Brazil, Helicopter rides) – and she always gives you a nice hug as a thank you.

You get off the phone with “I love you” and she responds “yeah – you’re cool too”.

Unfortunately, simping has hit an all-time high as more and more respected members of the black community have endorsed such behavior. There’s even a catchphrase for it now that states “It ain’t tricking if you got it,” meaning that tricking or being a simp is okay if you have the money to blow. This makes no sense because you have to have it in the first place in order to simp. You can’t be a trick if you don’t have it already.

When I was growing up, simping and tricking was spoken out against by rappers in our community. But now we’ve gone from this:

To this:

It’s still tricking if you got it. Don’t be fooled. What we are experiencing in men behavior in the dating world is a bona fide race to the bottom. We can do better fellas. Just like a man will take easy sex but rarely respect it, women will take the freebies, but won’t respect this type of game.

But what do expect from a community of fellas raised by women?

UPDATE:

Nothing, however, beats this as the classic anti-simp anthem.

When I arrived in Amsterdam, I went to my hotel, the Pulitzer. I must say, the hotel itself was worthy of being a tourist attraction, it was that beautiful.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="448" caption="View From The Front of Hotel"][/caption]

This picture is the Canal and dock that are situated directly before the front door of the hotel.

The actual front door of the hotel is below:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="448" caption="Hotel Front Door"][/caption]

It all had a very Old World flavor to it, especially the quaint design of my room and the courtyards:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="448" caption="My Room"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="448" caption="Courtyard"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="448" caption="More Courtyards"][/caption]

It was set up very much like a maze, with access to various courtyards. The hotel is so beautiful that it is listed as one of the places to see in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List. I didn’t know this little tidbit until after I got back home and purchased the book, so I was totally unprepared for the beauty of the hotel when I arrived.

The duration of my stay was from Sunday night to Thursday morning. However, most places were dead. Unlike Stockholm, which was pretty much jumping every night of the week during the summer, Amsterdam is very much dead. The partying happens from Thursday to Saturday, and to a lesser extent Sunday, which is still a party night but not that jumping. There was only one really good place that Sunday night, called Jimmy Woo, which from the outside seemed like an incredibly nice hotspot. Like my first night in Stockholm, I went out early, dressed to the nines, stepped to door and…was totally dissed for not being on the guestlist. Mentioned the usual stuff, that I was from NY, on my own, ready to spend money, I was a record producer, everything. They did not budge. As I said before European guestlists are tough. Much tougher than the average NY guestlist. In fact, if you look at reviews of the club online, you’ll see most of the spot focus on how hard it is to get in and what a general disappointment it is once you enter, as it seems most of the people inside focus on showing off and profiling. I went to another club named Paradiso, had a so-so time. It’s supposed to normally be a good club, but on the night I went they chose to have a surprise pageant for Mr. Gay Amsterdam or something, so it was filled with homos that night. Yay.

From Monday to Wednesday, everything was DEAD. One of the funny things about Amsterdam, Americans have a stereotype about it being an all-day, all-night party and expect Dutch people to be these hard-partying degenerates, but the only people really acting crazy and walking around stoned on space cakes were American and British tourists so far as I could see.

Dutch people are surprisingly chill and laid back. They seem unfazed by the Red Light District. I saw mothers and young daughters being led through the Red Light district walking between the rows of whores in the windows like it was the most normal thing on earth. I even saw what seemed to be a field trip of young boys and girls walking down the corridors of whores (whorridors?) standing in windows. It was all old hat to them. They weren’t at all judgmental and believed in live and let live, yet Dutch people didn’t really seem to partake in all the vices so much themselves, or at least not the legal ones.

Even if you have no plans to patronize a prostitute, everyone needs to go to the Red Light District just to see it for themselves. It is a bona fide tourist attraction for all races, ages and genders. And there are some pretty good bars there too (my favorite being T’Loosje). What I really didn’t expect though was how anxious I got when walking around there (and it probably didn’t help that I was walking around somewhat drunk). I mean, shortness of breath, discomfort, paranoia, the whole nine. I walked briskly and was afraid to look any of the whores in the eye. And I’m not normally a shy guy or a prude. I remember the old vice-ridden, pre-Giuliani Times Square vividly from growing up where my friends and I would talk to whores for kicks, and I’ve been to plenty of strip clubs, but somehow seeing it so open, accepted and blatant in the daylight had an unexpected effect on me. Suddenly all my years of Catholic repression kicked in and I actually thought of my devoutly catholic mom strangely enough. I had a very acute Catholic morality attack and felt strangely panicked.

All that sexual energy concentrated in one area, and it wasn’t at night, in a dark smoky room or a crowded, dimly lit nightclub, it was in bright and broad daylight for everyone to see. And the passageways with the whores were very, very narrow with a rows of prostitutes in windows on either side of you, staring at you, banging on the glass to get your attention, or sometimes even opening the door to yell in your face to get you to buy sex, and the best way I could describe the experience was sexual claustrophobia; a really cramped narrow space with flesh visible in every direction, plus I’m absorbing all the intense, hungry sexual energy from all the men around me, all the emotionally detached, money-hungry energy from the whores and all the muutal contempt flying from everyone toward everyone else like stray bullets in a free-for-all shootout.

In America we prefer everything compartmentalized: sleaze is reserved for exclusively sleazy areas and nighttime hours.  You go to a strip club, massage parlor or a ho stroll, and it will usually be in a venue dedicated exclusively to vice and nothing but.  Then after you finish there you return to your normal daytime life and the two worlds never have to overlap.  It;s a setup perfect for creating hypocrites and double lives.  But in Amsterdam’s Red Light district, the world of vice was less stigmatized and fully integrated into the normal daytime life rather than hidden away in dark alleys and smoky backrooms, and it was the open merger of the vice world with the square, normal world in full daylight that caught me off-guard rather than the actual vice itself.

Once my Catholic relapse wore off, I was able to enjoy the rest of my time in the Red Light District. I often underestimate how profoundly screwed up and repressed my 9 years of Catholic schooling made me. I wasn’t sure for 15 minutes whether I wanted to be revulsed by the whores, titillated by them or whether I pitied them. Once my episode wore off, I went back to my usual self and stopped judging them altogether. The way I got that strange little panic episode to wear off was to force myself to keep eye contact with every whore I passed and force them to break eye contact first. I regained my sense of power over myself. But it’s amazing how just the aura of unrestricted female sexuality can mentally and biologically disorient us men if it comes in strong enough doses. Men who truly believe they rule the world and not women are utter fools.

As I’ve mentioned before, Dutch people are incredibly tall. Average male height is 6’3 and average female is 5’7. I am 6’2 and was often meeting women who were my height with flats. Also, this is not something that is specific to the native Dutch race, the tallness was across the board and noticeable among Dutch citizens of all races. This upshoot in height among the Dutch is a relatively recent phenomenon, within the past 50 years if I remember correctly (I’m too lazy to look it up right now, sorry), so the change seems to be affecting all races there across the board. I actually saw more of the tall, blonde stereotype that people expect to see in Sweden in Amsterdam.

And everyone rides bikes. Everywhere. Even to the bar or nightclub it’s common to see men and women arriving and departing on bicycles, even if dressed ultrastylish. At 4 AM I’d see packs of guys and girls riding drunk from the bar. There are somewhere between 1.5 to 2 bikes per person there. And people tend to buy shitty ones for cheap because it’s common for them to get stolen. It’s not often I saw a really nice bike around, and I was told that fear of theft was why.

Since the nightlife was dead, I did most of my socializing in quiet bars doing early evening drinking. I met a lot of interesting people while sitting around drinking outdoors. First, Dutch people are very, very intellectual on average in comparison to the average America, at least among the people I met. They are very intellectual, both the guys and the girls, and it took some getting used to for me. In NY, I’m used to vapid conversation, and I feel like I have to dumb things down a lot. It’s not so much about what people know here, it’s that I feel there is a profound lack of intellectual curiosity in NY (I don’t want to generalize and say all of America, because I haven’t seen much of the rest of America sadly). No one is interested in anything. People don’t read books. People don’t like discovering new music or studying history, except for hipsters, and they just do it to be cool and show off and be pedantic I find. In Amsterdam, I readlly encountered a lot of intellectual curiosity. I never had to dumb down anything. This was especially jarring with speaking to women there, because here in NY I just grew used to the average woman not having much of anything interesting to say except for celebrity gossip and shoes and the latest restaurant openings. Or which Sex and the City character she was.

In Amsterdam, I found myself debating with guys about Afrobeat music, which Iggy Pop album was the best, the music Iggy Pop and David Bowie made in Berlin, the current state of hip-hop, race, culture, and other topics on a very deep level. It was funny to hear them describe dating in Amsterdam as well. Many people expect Dutch women to be really easy because they somehow think the Red Light district and drug policies are a reflection of the average Dutch person’s behavior. In actuality, they aren’t. They’re very nice, and are very willing to hang out and talk to a strange guy for hours just to be friendly, then leave without exchanging personal information. And as a guy, the Dutch men said, you don’t expect anything just because a woman is talking to you for hours. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Even dates don’t necessarily mean anything. The guys told me that they often go out on dates, sometimes four or five dates in a week, and they don’t walk into them with any expectations of getting laid. Dutch girls are just very nice and friendly and are willing to give most decent guys at least one date to feel them out.

A guy I met said that sometimes the conversations were so nice that he was happy just going on multiple dates because of the nice people he’d meet and that any sex that happened, if it happened, was just a bonus. And they are very skilled at conducting engaging conversation I found. I personally had debates with women there over favorite philosophers (Neitschze vs. Voltaire vs, Rousseau) and who was the most brilliant scientist (Tesla vs. Einstein vs. Newton). One guy’s girlfriend told me how she enjoyed reading the works of great intellectuals from centuries ago because she found it important to be reminded of how every supposedly novel thought you’ve ever had and patted yourself on the back for today was already thought up centuries ago and expressed a million times better already. The reason she found this process important is because she felt we all need to periodically intellectually humble ourselves and keep ourselves grounded so as not to become too narcissistic.  From many people this would have made me roll my eyes and come off pretentious, but she had a sincerity that sold it.

I explained to the guys I met how NY dating is different than Dutch dating. Dutch girls are very nice and will rarely blow you out of the water rudely from the very beginning. They are very approachable. The downside to this friendliness is that it isn’t always easy to tell if they like you sexually or are just being nice. You sometimes have to be very patient to find out. In NY, though, women are so incredibly rude and rarely feel the need to be nice to you unless they want something from you, so when you are a guy here and you simply don’t get dissed after introducing yourself, you are halfway there. She must be at least somewhat intrigued to even let you utter a follow-up sentence. If she smiles and reciprocates conversation and asks you questions about yourself, you know she must like you. If she returns your phone calls, makes a date with you and doesn’t flake out beforehand, you have crossed a major hurdle and sex is almost a sure thing, if not on the first date then at least by the second or third, so long as you don’t do something utterly retarded like shit on yourself spontaneously or say something exceedingly boneheaded. Because the initial screening is so damn tough, the positive is that just getting your foot in the door is a good indication that she is sexually interested.

For a perfect example of how the grass is always greener on the other side, one of the men in the group I met heard my description and unlike his friends thought NY sounded 1,000 times better. He was like “Wow, you mean I don’t have to talk about deep, intellectual topics or have probing conversations or keep wondering if she is just being nice or is interested?” “No,” I responded. “If she lets you stick around and have a conversation in NY, she’s interested. And if you make it to the first date stage and she hasn’t flaked, you have a solid chance at sex.” “Man, that sounds like heaven!” “Don’t you think that sounds a little empty and shallow?” another guy in the group asked. “It just seems like such an empty interaction. I like our girls here and the substance they have to their character.” “Screw that,” the first guy said. “I’m getting too old and impatient to do a bunch of fucking dates a week. NY sounds way better.”

Go figure.

Anyway, one last post coming up in this series and I’ll leave this vacation topic alone. In the final part, I’ll talk about how Europeans view other Europeans, how they view Americans, and most importantly, how they view the “Muslim problem,” which seems to be the main issue of the moment on the continent.

Recommended Reading:

I personally don’t care about race and IQ findings, but not because I myself am black. I am comfortable dealing with unpleasant truths about black people all the time. Sometimes I even wonder if I’m too comfortable with that actually. And it’s not because it hurts my self-esteem and I want to sweep it under the table and not deal with it. And it’s not because I think the concept of blacks having lower average IQs is untrue; on the contrary there is much compelling evidence to show that blacks do on average have lower IQs.

My problem is, I just don’t think it’s as important as many people think it is. If blacks have lower IQ averages than other races, now what? Say we all accept that fact, where do we go from here? How do we change our policies? Do we create low-IQ alternatives for all black people? Schools geared toward lower IQs? Vocations we funnel black people into due to their perceived lower mental capacity? Replace our current Ivy League-obsessed meritocracy with an IQ-based meritocracy where IQ tests become the norm for entry into all types of preferred endeavors? Good luck selling voters on those concepts. Not only would such initiatives never pass, they’d be political suicide for any mainstream politician that attached his or her name to them.

The other solution is to create a separate “slow track” for blacks to compensate for their lower IQs, similar to Special Education. The problem there is that if you create a separate set of standards and expectations for blacks, this will just end up reinforcing the IQ and achievement gap, which will just keep widening generation after generation. If some people out there think blacks are in danger of becoming a permanent, entrenched underclass in this country for all time, measures like this will really speed the process along. Not to mention that selling black mental inferiority as inescapable and genetically unavoidable will do much to preemptively sap motivation among blacks who do have the capacity to achieve much intellectually.

For example, I think I’m damn bright, if I may toot my own horn, but if I was sold a bill of goods that I was destined to mental inferiority before I even got out of the gate, how much motivation would I even have had to achieve the intelligence I have? I’ve met people who were diagnosed with learning disabilities as kids who totally regret it as adults. A friend of mine who is very successful now said that he feels he would have achieved so much more if he was never diagnosed with learning disabilities as a young student, because it created a lowered set of expectations for him that he totally bought into. It wasn’t until he met a teacher late in high school that refused to accept the learning disabilities excuse and forced him to conform to the same standards as other students that he realized that he was capable of the same results as everyone else, even if it did require him trying a little harder.

Accepting lower IQ in blacks as an unavoidable truth, I think, would have the same problem of causing both the black students who have the potential to intellectually excel and the people in charge of teaching them to achieve their full potential to conform to the lowered expectations and live them out.

I think of it like our legal system views guilt and innocence. Our legal system prefers to err on the side of innocence. Just like our legal system considers it worse to have one innocent man be imprisoned than to have a bunch of guilty people go free, our educational system should consider it a much worse evil to have one person squander his potential than to have a bunch of people be ambitious beyond their capabilities.

The other route you can take is eugenics, or genetic cleansing. It’s not as far fetched or outdated or foreign a concept as you may think. Sweden, a very egalitarian and Western country had eugenics until as recently as 1976. This also would be a failure in the long run, even if it was remotely feasible for such a measure to pass politically (it’s totally not). Much like stock markets do corrections, as we are now realizing with the current state of our economy, I believe human rights in societies do corrections much like stock markets do corrections. Outrageous speculation in the 20s lead to the Great Depression, a huge correction. The boom times in the 1980s with leveraged buyouts, hostile takeover cowboys and junk bonds lead to a huge panic. Same with the internet boom in the 90s and our latest real estate boom in the 2000s.

Societies and human rights work much the same way. I believe the extent of the welfare state and widespread entitlement system of affirmative action, hiring quotas and diversity initiatives that is currently undermining the initiative of blacks to achieve is a social correction that came about from this country’s former excesses in the suppression of human rights for blacks in the form of slavery and in the accepted discrimination that followed. (The book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen discusses post-slavery racism in alarming depth, as well as any good book on the Reconstruction era of the South). I believe on some level Sweden and the rest of Europe’s current path to cultural suicide though an obsession with diversity and openness at the expense of their own culture, borders and security is an extreme social correction of former inhumane and discriminatory policies (like eugenics in the case of Sweden or colonialism and perceived exploitation on the part of other European powers).

The pendulum of society always swings back, and the more you move it in a certain direction, the harder the eventual swingback in the opposite direction will be. If we suspend our disbelief and imagine that the more extreme of the “race realists” who obsess over race and IQ to the point of pushing for eugenics ever get their way and actually get eugenics to become a political reality, all they are doing is paving the way for an eventual social correction in the direction of socialism in a generation or two that would dwarf our current welfare and entitlement system. If they feel they are currently getting ripped off thanks to paying for the welfare state and losing out on good schools and jobs thanks to affirmative action, that would be nothing compared to what their descendants would have to deal with in a world of post-eugenics entitlements.

Next, Part 2: What Average IQ by Race Really Signifies

Related Reading:

This is where I just touch on a bunch of topics that relate to Sweden but weren’t big enough to warrant their own posts or didn’t quite fit into the other posts contextually.

Skeletons in the Closet

Since coming back from Sweden and Amsterdam, I’ve been doing some research on both countries. I found out something utterly amazing about Sweden. From this article:

The revelations in Sweden’s largest newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, shocked the world: long admired as a model of the enlightened and humane social welfare state, Sweden had forcibly sterilized more than 60,000 people, mostly women, between 1935 and 1976. The sterilizations were part of a government program designed to weed out “social undesirables” in the pursuit of a stronger, purer, more Nordic population. Those undesirables included, as the paper put it in a subhead, “‘mixed race individuals,’ single mothers with many children, deviants, Gypsies, and other ‘vagabonds.’”

The program’s Nazi overtones were disturbing, yet inescapable. Under the headline racial purity in the welfare state, reporter Maciej Zaremba put it this way in his two-part series in August: “In Sweden, it was only under Social Democratic rule and in Germany only under Nazism that citizens could be deprived of their reproductive functions as a result of their origins or their disabilities.”

His stories may have been a jolt for Swedes, but it was no surprise that it was Zaremba who produced them. For more than a decade, Zaremba, 46, has been exposing the underside of Sweden’s welfare state in Dagens Nyheter, a 380,000-circulation morning newspaper that is Sweden’s most influential voice. He has uncovered abuses in trusted institutions: the State Marine Institute, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and Sweden’s celebrated judicial system. But this time he challenged the utopian vision Swedes hold of themselves and their government, and called into question a piece of their national identity.

The sterilization program is not mentioned in Swedish history texts. Like most Swedes, Zaremba didn’t know very much about the Swedish Sterilization Act, which was passed by the Parliament in 1935 and stayed on the books for forty-one years. Early in 1997, Zaremba came across an obscure book about sterilization, which was co-written by historian Gunnar Broberg of the University of Lund, but published only in the United States. Immediately, Zaremba knew he was looking at a major story: “The numbers of sterilizations Broberg uncovered convinced me this program was much bigger and more widespread than anyone ever imagined.”

So Zaremba read everything he could about sterilization in Sweden and around the world — including the U.S., where forced sterilization of the mentally disabled, certain criminals, and others was legalized in several states starting in 1907 and continued until the 1960s. In Sweden, meanwhile, Zaremba learned that the sterilization program was rooted in the study of eugenics, a pseudo-science devoted to the creation of a superior race. But the program was expanded in 1941 to include any Swedes who exhibited behavior judged by the state to be anti-social…

More disturbing, Zaremba discovered that the sterilizations had never been voluntary, as was believed in Sweden, and as they were portrayed on paper. In the largest group of cases, adolescent girls who fit the state’s criteria had been removed from their parents’ homes by state officials and put in reform schools or institutions. Then, as a condition for their release, they were forced to undergo sterilization. And the state’s criteria could be alarmingly arbitrary: people who fell behind in school were labeled “stupid,” people who were outgoing were “sexually promiscuous,” and people who were quiet or shy were deemed “anti-social.” All were grounds for sterilization. It was clear from the files that sterilization had been forced upon vulnerable and often terrified women, a point Zaremba drove home forcefully in his articles:

Freedom of choice was in fact totally illusory. The person concerned was either declared ‘of unsound mind’ — a simple procedure — or was subjected to irresistible pressure. Sign this or we’ll take the children, sign this or there’ll be no social benefit, no flat, no leave . . . and so on. Sweden went furthest in the way of legalized blackmail . . . .

That just blew my mind! This is something that really is hardly talked about in any shape or form. I was over there with multiple guidebooks, each of which had extensive, in-depth histories of Sweden from ancient times until now, discussing every last tidbit of Swedish culture. I went to many historical museums while there, and no mention of this. Apparently it’s still a very touchy subject there, much like slavery is among some southern whites today in the United States.

And think about it, 1976 is quite recent, and the sterilization program went on for decades. For many it was a requirement to receive welfare. I wonder if it plays any role in why Swedish people seemed to look so damn good. 40 years of weeding out “undesirable” genes? I’m not saying that this 40 years turned them from a homely people into supermodels overnight, but just that maybe it bumped them up a few notches from just good looking to ridiculously good looking. Okay, that last part is a stretch, I admit…

When to Visit Stockholm

I learned to interesting tidbits of info when I was talking to people from Stockholm. First, people get paid once a month, and everyone gets paid on the same day. If I remember correctly, that day is the 24th of every month. It comes into the bank accounts at midnight. On the days leading up to payday on the 24th is when people have the least money and are the most broke, but on midnight of the 24th when that money hits the bank account people will be flush with cash and drinking and partying even harder.

Also, the weather for most of the year can be pretty drab in Stockholm I was told. People will stay inside more during winter months, and there few daylight hours. So when May rolls around, it’s like coming out of hibernation. People have months and months of pent up partying in them, and I was told that as crazy as Stockholm was in August when I was there, it pales in comparison to Stockholm in May when the summer just starts. The streets are even more packed with people and the partying is even more rambunctious.

So putting these two pieces of info together, it seems to me that the best time to visit would probably be May 23, the night of the first payday of the first month of summer. Damn I’m brilliant. I have to jump back and kiss myself sometimes for the shit I come up with.

Swedish Rap

I went to a outdoor free concert thrown by the local urban radio station there, The Voice. Man was it a blast. I met some people from Gothenburg who were in Stockholm for the day just to attend the concert, and they took me with them. (Gothenburg people were by far the nicest people I met in Sweden, and when I go back I will definitely spend a few days in Gothenburg as well as Stockholm) The main act was American rapper Flo Rida, but almost all the opening acts were Swedish rappers. A few of them were wack, but two were quite good. One guy’s name I don’t know because everything he said was in Swedish, but the other guy, although a native of Sweden, rapped completely in English, so I was able to get his name and the names of his songs. His name is Adam Tensta, here’s his Wikipedia entry, here’s his Myspace and his videos are below. He raps totally in English with very little hint of a Swedish accent over hot electro beats, very much like N*E*R*D or Timbaland when they are on their A game and not phoning it in, or Kanye with better rhymes and less obvious samples:

I hope the dude makes it big in American music circles, but then again if that happened he’d probably start making duets with Justin Timberlake and sucking immediately, so maybe not.

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Partying:

Here in NY, most clubs are open until 4 or sometimes later, but by then it’s usually dead. Only the really hard partiers or desperate losers trying to mack on whatever is left are still out at 4. A bulk of the party is already out the door before closing time hits, except for a few stragglers, unless it’s just an exceptional party.

In Stockholm it’s different, almost everyone stays until closing and parties hard until the end. At the clubs that are open until 5 AM, when 5 AM hits the club is as full as ever, and may even be at peak capacity still. And no one budges. The music stops, and people just stand around and some people even try to go back to the bar for a last drink. The bouncers have to force everyone out, and reluctantly they leave, but they just stand outside continuing to drink, smoke, continue conversation and maybe do some last minute macking outside. Some people move on to find an after hours party, where I drew the line since I still wanted to get some sleep and actually do daytime sightseeing too.

I found the nightclub hip-hop to be way better in Stockholm than in NY. In NY, some parties still play some great hip-hop, but overall the more mainstream, trendy places play predictable, low-risk boring stuff. It’s usually only the latest and biggest hits, with some really played-out old school rap. A hip-hop party in NY usually plays the same 12 old-school hip-hop songs, unless you are checking out a backpack underground hip-hop party where someone like Stretch Armstrong is spinning. In Stockholm, the range of hip-hop music had a lot better range, from stuff you’d hear at an underground hip-hop party to the really good new mainstream club-bangers blended seamlessly together.

My favorite club there was F12, which wasn’t in the Stureplan area so I didn’t need to have booked a Paris runway show or sell my firstborn child and left testicle to get in, yet it was still stylish, plus the crowd was still beautiful but much more down to earth and the music was great.  You can see a picture of it below:

I heard an incredible house track get blended seamlessly into 50 Cent’s “I Get Money” immediately followed by the old school ultra-obscure gem “We Rap More Mellow” by the Younger Generation, which you can play below, and made it work:

My theory is that many of these European DJs learn hip-hop better than their NY counterparts and try harder to think about making a really deep and eclectic playlist out of an inferiority complex. Every hip-hop fan I met there kept telling me how I must be so disappointed by the DJs and hip-hop I hear in Sweden and how much more progressive and eclectic the hip-hop I hear in NY clubs must be. I didn’t have the heart to tell them the truth.  They try harder because they imagine things to be so much better than they actually are in places like NY, the so-called Mecca of hip-hop.

I made sure to befriend a ton of Swedish people, both guys and girls, so that I’d have people to take me out sightseeing or for early evening drinks in the following days. One of the first things you should do, and that I didn’t figure out until a few days in, is to get a prepaid phone or prepaid SIM card to put into your existing phone, so that you’ll have a local number to make calls on and text people you meet. Having people call you at your hotel is unreliable and it’s not a good idea to give people an international number to call you at since it will end up being expensive for both of you. Get a prepaid phone as soon as possible and give out the number to as many cool people as you can and make them your tour guides in the city. These people were also helpful because they filled me in on Swedish culture (that’s how I found out about Systembolaget) and got me on guest lists at the more exclusive clubs. This tip worked so well that I’d recommend it to people on all vacations. Get a local cell phone number to give out as soon as possible.

Even better is if you can befriend people who live in Stockholm but aren’t originally from there but are instead from a nearby city like Gothenburg or the “boonies.” These type of people are great because they will know Stockholm well and often be just as savvy as a Stockholm native, but way friendlier and down-to-earth, which is saying a lot because I already found Stockholm people to be nice, at least to tourists.

Thanks to people I met and kept in touch with, I was able to get into more exclusive clubs like Berns hotel and Village, both of which were packed to the gills with beautiful people, almost to the point you couldn’t move, and had great, GREAT music, with people drinking and dancing up a storm. And really, REALLY drinking. Everyone I was with, even the daintiest girls, were drinking faster and more than me and pushing me to keep up. In no time at all the party would be all tore up.

I think I realized another reason people drink so much when partying in Stockholm, which I’ll describe in the next section below.

Swedish men and women on the make:

A reader Helena asked me on a previous post, “Dude, you have female readers – what are the guys like physically? Is that 6ft+, blond Adonis stereotype that’s making me particularly eager about my upcoming tour of N.Europe true?” Well, yes and no. I expected to see a Viking stereotype in Sweden of huge, blond giants. The guys were not quite as tall as I expected (Amsterdam fit that look more actually). But they were as good-looking as rumored. So many people had incredibly chiseled features and great cheekbones. Lookswise many of them hit the genetic jackpot, and they all dress with a high level of Euro trendiness, like a Zara or H&M mannequin come to life. Great looks, well-tailored clothing, very metrosexual air about them…but they may take it too far for your tastes depending on what kind of woman you are. For example it’s not uncommon for guys to be so vain they wear men’s makeup. And I was told by some women that it’s trendy now for straight guys to make out with other guys while out drinking. A woman told me about her straight friend that would go out with her, get smashed, make out with a guy, and still swear he was straight afterward.

When I got my first taste of Stockholm nightlife, I was shocked at how shy Swedish men seemed. The women there were absolutely stunning, and the guys seemed to just stand in the corner with their friends, stare inappropriately and just drink without uttering a word or making a move. By 2 or 3 AM though, it would be a totally different story.

The guys would drink to get liquid courage and then turn into total sleazebags. It was like Jeckyll and Hyde. They’d come up behind girls, looking visibly drunk and dancing horribly, and start grinding and thrusting on their asses. I heard guys actually open a conversation slurring things like “Hey baby, wannaaaaa fuuuccckkk…” and other off-the-wall things. They’d drink to get courage, but overdo it and just get sloppy instead, and sloppiness combined with total lack of game is a disaster.

I also saw guys use pickup lines, but not to be ironic or funny, but dead serious, like “Is your daddy a thief? Because he took the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes.” Keep in mind, it wasn’t bad on purpose to be cheeky or get a laugh, it was said in total earnest. Some Stockholm women I met set it wasn’t uncommon for them to be horny, break down and give a Stockholm guy a chance, and bring him home only to realize he couldn’t even get it up because he drank himself into oblivion (another way the liquid courage thing can backfire). So even though many Swedish guys are great-looking, their horrible lack of game often outweighs any benefits their looks give them. A female tourist even said to me “I find these guys so good-looking but they never approach and when they do the conversation is so revolting.”

Something else this trip made me realize. Growing up, we black people used to always joke about white people and their inability to dance. Especially during the late 70s and early 80s whenever we saw them try to dance to old-school hip-hop music and the R&B of the era. But now that we have generations of white people who have grown up exposed to hip-hop or have been around it for multiple decades, I have to amend that statement: white MEN on average can’t dance. I saw Swedish women doing everything to hip-hop from two-stepping, booty shakes, grinding like a stripper on a pole, the works. I already noticed the phenomenon here in the States with white women, but now I’m convinced it’s international. Apparently enough exposure to hip-hop brings out the skanky dancer in any woman, regardless of race or culture. White guys on average however, except the exceptionally cool ones, still don’t get it. They either don’t dance, dance ironically for laughs, try to dance seriously and can visibly be seen to count steps in their mind while biting their lip hard thanks to the excessive concentration, or worse, drink a bunch to get enough nerve to dance and just end up really making asses of themselves once they lose both their inhibitions and their motor coordination at the same time. If I had to give some advice to white men worldwide, it’s this: learn a simple two-step rhythm. Just learning something so simple can go such a long way and fill up a huge gap in your game.

The people I met while partying would be the same people who I hung out with during the day, so I made several groups of friends that I’d hang out with throughout my time there. They were a great resource of information as they explained Stockholm interactions to me. Just like the Swedish men are reserved and need to drink up to get courage, the Swedish women are similar, except due to the fact that they’re beautiful women it doesn’t really exhibit itself as social awkwardness the way it does with men. But Swedes would tell me that it wasn’t uncommon for a Swedish woman to be drunk and touchy-feely at the bar or club, but she would likely be shy to meet up with you again sober in the daytime the next day. She’d instead most likely tell you were she was going to be that night, and you’d meet again at night and continue where you left out, with both of you drunk and uninhibited. Eventually it would move on to daytime dates. Despite how touchy they can be when drunk, they are a very hands off people when sober. They are not as comfortable touching strangers the way Americans are.

Stockholm men, according to women I spoke to, are very judgmental of a girl who approaches a man, or a girl they see making out with a guy or getting a phone number. It is very easy to get labeled a slut there, and supposedly guys will waste no time spreading bad things about a girl. One girl even told me how she hated this, because she’d think a guy would appreciate having the burden taken off him to approach women all the time, but alas, that isn’t that case. So despite the reputation for Swedish women being among the most progressive feminist women in the world, there is still a stigma about women approaching a man first there, unlike here in the States where women can publicly be as sexually aggressive and forthcoming as a drunken sailor on leave and still suffer little in terms of reputation.

So it seems that both genders there use drunkenness to unleash inhibitions and do things they normally wouldn’t feel comfortable doing even more than we Americans do. Since they are more inhibited when sober, they have to get more drunk to counteract it when they hang out. I could be wrong about this theory though. Two Swedish women also told me that Stockholm girls, when on vacation as tourists, suddenly become as aggressive as the Stockholm guys back home. They said it’s due to the fact they can’t be as aggressive back home for fear of ruining their reputations, and also because when abroad in America in places like New York they know they’re hotter than all the natives and it makes them go crazy. (They claimed in America only L.A. gave serious competition)

This aversion by Swedish guys to being approached by women wouldn’t be so bad if they themselves seemed to have a clue what they were doing when they approached women, but on average they were horrible. Not only would they do those cheesy pickup lines I mentioned above, they’d also do things like “How you doin’?” like Joey from Friends. And keep in mind, this is delivered totally straight, not the least bit tongue in cheek. Apparently even though Swedish people like speaking to each other in Swedish, when it comes to pickup lines and curses they think it sounds cooler to deliver them in English (it doesn’t).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="201" caption="Some catchphrases don't translate abroad"][/caption]

And it only got worse from there. Some women asked me if I ever heard of The Game. I asked them why. Apparently the pickup culture is huge there. Huge. Neil Strauss’s book is a huge phenomenon there, but they follow it too literally. They just learn it like a script and run around doing opinion openers (a trick Neil Strauss used where a man starts an interaction by asking a female her opinion on some random topic). The women were laughing about how Stockholm men have been going crazy about the book and all using the exact same routines from it verbatim, asking opinion openers left and right. And now that Strauss’s next book is coming out soon over there, the women were worried about all the new bad routines they’d have to deal with soon. Even girls who didn’t specifically know about the book The Game felt something was up. For example, two non-Swedish European tourists asked me in a nightclub, “Why is everyone here asking our opinion about stuff?” I left a party with one guy to go to another party that was open until 5 at a club called Village. When we got there he asked me “Do you know a book called The Game?” Then he started talking about opinion openers, and how they just don’t work when said in Swedish. (I think the gist of what he was saying is that the Swedish language makes them even more long-winded than usual)

He also told me about his time in New York, and how he was surprised at how the people there, especially the guys, weren’t dressed anywhere near as well as he expected, and how the quality of women were disappointing. I told them that contrary to popular belief, while New York has some of the most stylish and beautiful people in the world due to sheer volume of population, per capita there wasn’t as much hotness and style as people I met in Europe seem to think. The average New Yorker, while maybe more stylish than a local yokel in smalltown America, was not a fashion plate.

Another thing that surprised him was how much muscle was valued in men in America. He said he hated American men and their muscles and how that made them a big deal with women in New York while he was there. (He was super-lean, like a top model) Apparently Stockholm women don’t like big muscles. One Stockholm woman told me they’re even afraid of big muscles. I met another Stockholm guy who had a great physique, and he told me he couldn’t get dates because of his muscles, to the point where he wanted to move because he loved working out and didn’t want to get super-skinny just to get girls. You can be slim with lean muscles, but mass is a no-no.

A girl told me that Stockholm guys watch what they eat more than the women and that it’s not unusual for them to starve themselves to stay skinny; they can be downright neurotic about it. I wonder if there’ll be a public campaign there about eating disorders for men the way there is here for women. That being said, as a man who is horribly obsessed with his own weight, I had to give them props on their incredible thinness. I was a little envious at their lack of body fat. I mean I’m considered a slim guy and I felt pretty fat there.

All is not lost though. There was a sizable minority of Stockholm guys with a strong cocky swagger, an alpha male vibe and good natural-seeming game. These guys were very smooth and laid-back and had great social skills. These guys were extremely cool and seemed to do really well in Stockholm. So don’t think the picture I painted above describes 100% of Stockholm men I met. The beauty of the bad game of a majority of Stockholm guys is that it gave a huge advantage to the minority of Stockholm guys (and tourists) who were smooth and had good game. Just being able to hold a conversation without being sober and intimidated or drunk and crass was huge to the women there.

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More stuff on Stockholm:

Drinking:

Liquor is extremely expensive there.H ard liquor drinks came out to about $20 USD a pop or more, beers came out to $10 USD. It’s not just a currency exchange thing either, I think even for Swedish people it’s not exactly cheap. If you’re American and are dealing with the shitty state of the US dollar, the problem is even worse.

My solution was to buy bunch of liquor for the hotel so that we could “pregame.” I’d spend all day walking around Stockholm sightseeing, expecting to spot a liquor store at some point and buy liquor then. I never saw one. By my third day, after two nights of spending a lot of money at bars and nightclubs, I asked someone, and he explained it to me. The government has a monopoly on the sale of alcohol, so you can only get it from the nonprofit, government-run liquor store Systembolaget. There are only a handful of them in the city. From Systembolaget’s own website, in their own words, this is their mission:

Having a monopoly is a good start. It means we can maintain a more comprehensive product range, more rigorous.

One reason only
The retail monopoly exists for one reason only: alcohol related problems are reduced if alcohol is sold in the absence of a profit motive. Our mandate obliges us to help limit the medical and social damage caused by alcohol and there by improve public health. Total alcohol consumption levels shall also be kept low by limiting availability by steering the retail outlet network and opening hours. Systembolaget also differs from other companies in that we are brand-neutral and do not engage in active marketing in an attempt to boost sales. Systembolaget also provides information on the risks associated with alcohol consumption.
Our responsibility
Systembolaget’s mandate is based on consideration for public health. Our goal is to establish a healthy drinking culture, whereby everyone can enjoy Systembolaget’s drinks without harming either themselves or other people. Systembolaget shall use its
expertise to inform customers both about the effects of the various drinks on people’s health and about their taste characteristics. Systembolaget shall inspire people to take an interest in what they drink and to adopt a healthy attitude towards alcohol.

Our mandate
Systembolaget’s mandate is to limit the medical and social damage caused by
alcohol and thereby improve public health. For Systembolaget, this means:
- restricting availability through
- the number of stores
- opening hours
- retail rules
- not attempting to maximise our profit
- not promoting additional sales
- being brand-neutral
- providing a high standard of customer service
- being financially efficient

Our vision
Systembolaget shall establish a healthy drinking culture, whereby we can enjoy
Systembolaget’s drinks without harming either ourselves or other people.

It sounds good, but I’m kind of skeptical on any law that exists to protect people from themselves. After finding out about this law, a lot of Swedish activity I noticed previously suddenly made sense to me. I remember reading about how during the Prohibition in America, public drunkenness was worse because people had to do most of all of their drinking at the public speakeasy. Drinking at home was difficult, and access to liquor was almost impossible except through illegal means, so when people went to the speakeasy they would hit the liquor hard because it was too difficult to drink any other time of the day or at any other places, then stumble home stinking drunk.

An anonymous commenter at a Swedish blog describes the situation as thus:

I don’t agree with Systemet one bit. For those living outside Sweden who think it’s a good idea try living with it before passing judgement.

Try living with the fact that if you decide at 5pm on Saturday to have guests over for dinner and wine that Systemet already closed at 3pm. Forget about buying anything on Sundays, Systemet is completely closed. Unlike in the US where liquor stores are typically closed on Sunday, usually wine or beer can be bought at grocery stores, convenience stores (ie 7-11), beer stores, and wine stores.

Oh, and want to try out that tequila you had in Mexico that was so good? Forget it. You have to choose between the two or three that Systemet imports (and Systemet imports the most vile crap I’ve ever tasted). Getting anything special has so much red tape that people just avoid it.

What about that draught beer machine you saw in Denmark that’s also available in the rest of the EU? Forget it. Unless Systemet has approved it you can’t buy it here, and the company who makes it will refuse to ship it to Sweden (and any beer that’s made for it).

Since you’re from the US here’s an example of where this breaks down? You know all of those very good wines from California and Washington State? Unless it’s a huge wine company (ie Gallo) you won’t find them here, and when you do you have to pay a lot more than usual for mediocre wine.

Government involvement and regulation is perfectly fine with me, but Systemet is not the correct answer. The correct answer is to license individual stores/outlets for the sale of alcohol (this includes online). Don’t decide what is imported nationwide, let the individual businesses decide based on their clients. If the business is located outside of Sweden but still within the EU then the sale should be governed by EU law, not Swedish law.

While the Systembolaget monopoly is not the same as an all out prohibition, it does really restrict how and when you can get drunk, which is why I think when people in Stockholm get a chance to drink at a bar, restaurant and nightclub, they are really overboard with it. At a party here, you see at the end of the night people who are drunk off their ass, people who are just moderately drunk, people who are just tipsy, and people who are sober. In Sweden almost everyone at the end of the night was seriously wasted. And since very few people drive to parties, there’s no need to worry about designated drivers.

So I’m not really sure how this monopoly goes toward promoting safe drinking. Maybe Sweden was just that much worse before the monopoly, and what I’m seeing is the improvement, but currently they are still some hard drinking motherfuckers. Even the classiest, ritziest looking people were drinking until sloppy drunk. I remember partying at the Berns hotel (ridiculously awesome spot, if you can get in. Highly recommended.), and when it hit 3 AM, watching the partygoers try to navigate themselves down the stairs at once. It was comical to see hundreds of people who drank themselves into oblivion try to all walk down a narrow outdoor staircase at once when they’re unable to even walk a straight line.

The public drunkenness is outrageous. Walking back to my hotel, I’d just see people straggling drunk in the street all over the place. A block from my hotel as the sun was rising I had to step over two decked out girls laying on their backs laughing and screaming hysterically, unable to even stand up and walk. They just laid on their backs, cackled, and screamed at the sky, then made a futile effort to stand up before falling back and cackling all over again. Apparently no one is afraid of getting raped there.

My recommendation would be to get as much liquor as allowed from duty-free at the airport before getting to your hotel, and after arriving, map out the Systembolagets in town, find the closest one to you and re-up there periodically, so that you don’t have to depend strictly on the bars and nightclubs to get drunk.

Part 3 about Swedish partying and Swedish men will be up in a few hours

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