#voting rights in Sweden

[filosofablogger]

Worth Fighting For ...

Sweden, unlike the United States and other more restrictive nations, believes that every person over the age of 18 has a right to vote for the people who will make and carry out the laws of their country.  Elections are held on Sunday (the 2nd Sunday in September), and every citizen is automatically enrolled (registered), with proof of registration material sent to the homes of every eligible…

[obituarybug]

Everytime I tell someone I'm independent/no party and they immediately start spouting bullshit to me about the importance of voting and why I should vote and that "a vote for third party is a vote for x" an angel loses its wings

Like sorry I wasn't aware that only Republicans & Democrats are allowed to vote for their respective parties and independents can't and that if they see you're registered independent they fucking rip up your ballot in front of you and don't count it

I AM STILL GOING TO FUCKING VOTE SHUT YOUR BITCH ASS UP.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[YNet is Israeli Private Media]

Britain, France and Canada issued an unusually strong joint statement Monday, warning they are considering imposing sanctions on Israel over the "intolerable level of human suffering in Gaza." The statement, released by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, called for an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in the Palestinian enclave and the unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid.

“We call on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. This must include engaging with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles,” the leaders wrote. The statement also demanded the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas. The leaders accused Israel of failing to provide essential aid to civilians, warning this may constitute a violation of international humanitarian law. They also condemned statements by Israeli Cabinet ministers suggesting the forced relocation of Gaza residents, calling such remarks a breach of international law.

While acknowledging Israel’s right to self-defense, the joint declaration criticized the scope of the latest IDF campaign, known as Operation Gideon’s Chariots, as “wholly disproportionate,” and said their governments would not remain passive. “We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions,” the statement read, noting that targeted sanctions are among the measures under consideration.

The three countries also addressed developments in the West Bank, urging Israel to halt settlement expansion, which they labeled illegal and a threat to the two-state solution. They vowed not to hesitate in taking further action if necessary.[...]

The criticism comes as 25 Western countries and major humanitarian organizations issued a joint statement Monday urging Israel to immediately allow the resumption of large-scale humanitarian aid to Gaza. The statement, released by the UK Foreign Office and signed by foreign ministers of Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Sweden, Italy and others, warned that more than two months of aid restrictions have caused acute shortages of food, medicine and essential supplies, raising fears of mass starvation.[...]

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that senior Trump administration officials reportedly warned Israel that continued military operations in Gaza could result in the U.S. withdrawing its support. A source familiar with the matter told the paper that American pressure on Israel has intensified in recent days, particularly following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza without a Cabinet vote, after months of restrictions.

19 May 25

[carorobb]

the entire europe has been obsessed with kaj and their silly little song for months and they didn't even get 200 points? while israel came second? also estonia had more points than sweden somehow? (i love espresso macchiato but cmon) norway and iceland ridiculously underrated? Cmon now. this whole voting was extremely ridiculous. only right thing was JJ winning and therefore singlehandedly saving eurovision

[jorindasfate]

My university history course literature includes a book on women's history. Entirely written by two men. It has a whole chapter on "transgender history". The first person they bring up is Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar, a swedish woman from the late 17th- early 18th century who started dressing as a man and took a male name to marry her wife Maria Lönman. After ten years or so she started presenting herself as a woman again. These men are SO confused as to why. Why would she ever stop living as a man? And if she was a lesbian, why bother living as a man in the first place, considering female homosexuality was never formally outlawed in Sweden? The entire time they refer to her as a trans man.

Why oh why could a woman in the 18th century possibly be uncomfortable living as a woman? Why oh why would a woman in the 18th century not just live openly as a lesbian? What reason could she POSSIBLY have had to pretend to be a man? Nah, no critical thinking here. She was obviously a man all along, that's the only reasonable explanation. This is what they're making university students read for history.

Stop discrediting these brave women. I know you think you're being inclusive and progressive by imagining they were Actually trans, but you're not. All you're doing is perpetuating the myth that all women are and were submissive and content in their role as second class citizens (if even that). If every female person who was gender nonconforming in the Olden Times was actually a man all along then the actual women didn't have it that bad, right? They never rebelled against their societal roles before the women's voting right movements, right??

[useless-catalanfacts]

Sweden saying they'll vote against allowing the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the European Union Parliament because "there's lots of minority languages and we can't allow them all" is so funny because CATALAN HAS MORE SPEAKERS THAN SWEDISH

Catalan is the 13th most spoken language in the EU. It has more than 10 million speakers, which means it has more speakers than other languages that are already official EU languages like Maltese (530,000), Estonian (1.2 million), Latvian (1.5 million), Irish (1.6 million), Slovene (2.5 million), Lithuanian (3 million), Slovak (5 million), Finnish (5.8 million), Danish (6 million), Swedish (10 million), and Bulgarian (10 million).

Neither Galician (3 million) nor Basque (750,000) would still be the least spoken languages to be allowed in the EU representative bodies.

But even if any of them did, so what? Why do speakers of smaller languages deserve less rights than those of bigger languages? How are we supposed to feel represented by the EU Parliament when our representatives aren't even allowed to speak our language, but the dominant groups can speak theirs?

It all comes down to the hatred of language/cultural diversity and the belief that it's an inconvenience, that only the languages of independent countries have any kind of value while the rest should be killed off. After all, isn't that what Sweden has been trying to do to the indigenous Sami people for centuries?

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Kelis - Milkshake 2003

"Milkshake" is a song by American singer-songwriter and chef Kelis, released as the lead single from her third studio album, Tasty (2003). It was written and produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, known collectively as the Neptunes, and was created when Tasty was chosen as the album's title. When making the song, Kelis "knew right away that it was a really good song", and she wanted it to be the album's first single.

"Milkshake" received critical acclaim upon its release, both for its production as well as Kelis' vocal performance. It peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 in December 2003, becoming Kelis' highest-charting single to date. Elsewhere, the single topped the charts in Ireland and peaked inside the top 10 of the charts in Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in 2004. In 2023, Kelis released "Milkshake 20" (Alex Wann Remix), which she co-produced.

The Observer named the song the best single of 2004. On Pitchfork's list of the top 50 singles of 2003, the song got listed at number eight. In 2005, Pitchfork made a list of the top 100 singles of 2000–2004, listing "Milkshake" at number 21. Stylus Magazine named the song the 13th-best single of 2000–2005. In September 2011, VH1 ranked the song at number 61 on its list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the '00s. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 136 on its list 150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years.

"Milkshake" received a total of 64,9% yes votes! Previous Kelis polls: #175 "Trick Me".

[carbonalchemy]

Important for the US trans people

Important to know: under EU law, individuals who face persecution based on their gender identity or sexual orientation can be eligible for asylum.

The EU Qualification Directive (2011/95/EU) says that persecution due to sexual orientation and gender identity can be grounds for refugee status. We've already received LGBTQ+ refugees from Russia for years.

So, if policy proposals such as Project 2025 come to be in the USA as they're now presented, transgender individuals from the USA could seek asylum in the EU. And I underline, not by finding a job and getting a visa first but as an asylum seeker.

The asylum process requires applicants to demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country. Each case is assessed individually, considering the specific circumstances and evidence presented, so if anything starts happening, document everything. The more, the better.

The LGBTQ+ right recognition varies between the member states so it's the safest, if things come to this, to look for the countries that have higher established protection for LGBTQ+ people (ie. Malta, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Germany, France). The local LGBTQ+ organisations often have legal resources and can consult as to what is required.

I know this is a horrifying situation and no one wants to leave their country and home and start new in a country where they possibly don't speak the language or have any support network, but if things come to this, the EU should be mandated to offer asylum.

For people in the EU, remember that your vote can help people in the USA. If you vote against refugees, you're also voting against people in situations like this.

[rice-crackerz]

Not Måns being salty AF at his loss:

After it became clear that KAJ had won by just 8 points, Zelmerlöw suddenly disappeared. When he returned, the reason became clear:

"I was a bit annoyed. I kicked some stuff," he told Expressen.

He says he is shocked by the outcome of the evening and that the jury gave the group KAJ such high scores.

"Now it sounds like I'm an incredibly sore loser, but we'll see in May if the international jury made the right choice."

When asked if he would return to Melodifestivalen after finishing second, he replied that he couldn't see that happening.

It also seems that Zelmerlöw won't be attending the afterparty tonight. When Expressen asked if he was going to the party, his response was short and blunt:

"I have no fucking idea."

Måns' statement (translated from Swedish):

Dear narrow-minded haters. My disappointment with the result is JUST a sign of health, right? Have you ever seen an athlete come in second and say they are very happy? I wanted to win. That must be okay, right? It is a competition! I am genuinely SUPER HAPPY for KAJ and we have had the most fun together during this journey. I have congratulated them personally several times. and have NEVER belittled their contribution, on the contrary! They will make us proud in Basel! But this unfiltered anger from you. This bizarre overreaction. Thinking it is okay to hate someone in the comments because he wanted to win a competition that we all love and because I wanted most of all to represent Sweden again in ESC? HOW can that be wrong? Isn't that why we are here? How can that make me an asshole? That I cried when all the pressure was released, not just the one I experienced in the competition, that is okay, right? Again. A HUGE congratulations to KAJ! I love Kevin, Axel and Jakob! And to all of you who DON'T hate - a phenomenal big thank you for all the votes and all the support during this journey!

Sources under the cut bc this post is getting long:

Translations from u/mindraven on this post on the Eurovision subreddit.

Original article: "Måns Zelmerlöws ilska efter förlusten i Melodifestivalen," Expressen.se.

More sources:

"Måns Zelmerlöw stormade ut," Aftonbladet.se (paywalled).

"Efter en fantastisk @/melodifestivalen final..." by @/nannegronvall on Instagram.com.

Translation for @/nannegronvall's post by u/westerling on r/Eurovision in "Former Melfest winner Nanne Grönvall speaks out in support of KAJ and criticizes the elitism in the swedish music industry," Reddit.com.

Måns' statement:

"Kära trångsynta hatare..." by @/manszelmerlow on Instagram.com.

Translation of Måns' statement by u/Outrageous-Rest-8139 on r/Eurovision, "Måns Zelmelöw - Statement in response to his frustration yesterday after Kaj won," Reddit.com.

[beesgobzzzing]

Käärijä's life after Eurovision - almost burned out

Translation under the break!

Käärijä came, saw and conquered - kind of - in Eurovision 2023. After having almost burned out he's now back with new music and a clear statement: - I love Sweden, really, he tells Expressen.

Käärijä was on location in Luleå on Saturday for the first semi of Melodifestivalen, where he made up an interval act together with Hooja.

After Eurovision I got a lot of Swedish fans, I love them and want to say thank you for everything they do for me. In Eurovision 2023 he almost won. He came in second, after "Tattoo" by Loreen. A loss that stung, both for him and for Finland, since he got the most public votes, but not enough jury votes. - I've moved on. Life has moved on, you can't get stuck on it. It's just a competition, it's a big thing of course, but it doesn't matter who wins.

Are you doing okay? - I'm okay, but I think some Finns are angry. But I think they need to move on, Loreen is a fantastic artist and a loveable person and it's not her fault that she won - of course it's her fault - but people voted, then she won.

What have you been doing since Eurovision? - Of course a lot of things have happened since Eurovision. Good things, bad things. I've made a new album, done a lot of gigs, gotten new friends from other countries, not just Finland. I've started speaking more Finnish, he says and laughs.

How was everything right after the success of Eurovision? - If I think back on 2023… It was hard. People recognized me everywhere and I couldn't leave my house. It was a happy but also sad time. My life changed, over night. - I'm still waiting until I can take a month or two off. After Eurovision I had a week off. A week! It doesn't matter what you do - it's not enough. I'm still waiting until I am able to take more time off. I love my work, but you have to be able to rest.

Did you get over worked? - Kind of, yes. You get to a point where you do a bunch of different things - and you get paid for it. Everyone wants to work when they get well paid for it, that's the truth and that's what it was like for me too. But now, I can say no if I don't want to do something.

Because you're rich now? - Yes, exactly, he laughs.

On Friday he released "San Francisco Boy" together with Hooja. - It is not a Käärijä-song, or a Hooja-song. It is what happens when you put three crazy guys together, that's when you get this kind of song. For me it's about being the person you want to be. You can be a disco boy, a party boy - or a San Francisco boy.

The trio got into contact in 2024 and started collaborating. - The boys came to Finland and we hung out in the studio for a couple of days, we made a few songs.

A few? - Maybe a few, but we don't know if we're going to release the others. You never know. But "San Francisco Boy", everyone liked it. We'll see about the others.

What is happening next for you? - I am not doing as many gigs this year. There are a few summer gigs. But now we're making music, a bunch of new music and I'm spending a lot of time in the studio, working, after that we'll see what happens.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Yonah Elias

Well, well, well.

Look who’s waddling into the dustbin of history, wearing a €700 Gucci belt and a smug little smirk: Europe—that pompous, wine-bloated has-been of a continent that used to dominate the globe and now can’t even dominate a kebab shop in Malmö.

Once you ruled the seas. Now you’re ruled by street gangs who think Beethoven is a kind of goat cheese.

Let’s be real: Europe colonized the world for spices and now needs a safe space because someone brought too much cumin to the lunchroom. You used to draw maps. Now you can’t even draw a border without crying about “inclusivity.”

Welcome to Postmodern Al-Andalus: Now with Free WiFi and Gender-Neutral Ablution Stations

Let’s look ahead. Here’s a brief preview of your glorious future:

• 2029, France: The Louvre is now the “Museum of Islamic Contributions to French Surrender.” The Mona Lisa wears a niqab. She’s still smirking. You still can’t arrest her attacker—he claimed PTSD from colonial trauma.

• 2032, Sweden: Stockholm’s Pride Parade is banned for cultural sensitivity. Replaced by the “Annual March Against Zionist Infidels and Climate Offenders.” Sponsored by IKEA and Al Jazeera+.

• 2034, Germany: Oktoberfest becomes “Oktobarakah”: alcohol-free, meat-free, joke-free. The only thing that gets high is the number of social workers needed per family. Lederhosen outlawed as “cultural violence.”

• 2036, UK: Buckingham Palace is now the “London Ummah Center for Heritage Reparations and Dhimmitude Studies.” King Charles is rebranded as Emir Charles the Apologetic. His royal motto? “Inshallah and Carry On.”

• 2040, Brussels: The European Parliament finally votes to dissolve itself after accidentally misgendering a halal baguette. The final vote is 751-0. Applause breaks out. Then mass arrests for the applause—clapping is now microaggression.

Oh Europe, You Decaying Artisan Cheese Platter

You held the Renaissance, birthed the Enlightenment, and now you’re being lectured on “civil rights” by guys who think marrying nine-year-olds is progressive. You once sent explorers across oceans. Now your idea of bravery is asking if bacon can be served in school without triggering a hate crime tribunal.

Your leaders wear scarves of surrender. Your intellectuals write love poems to the hijab. Your citizens get stabbed on trams and light candles as a response. It’s not a society anymore—it’s a death cult with Instagram filters and a strong emphasis on recycling.

[therealvinelle]

Thoughts on Bara Bada Bostu?

Anon is referring to Sweden's surprise Eurovision entry of 2025, Bara Bada Bastu ("Only Bathe Sauna").

Why this is a surprise

Eurovision, for those not familiar with it, is a historic song competition where each competing country contributes an original song of 3 minutes length or less. Initially a very serious competition where contestants had to sing in their country's national language and they were judged on such criteria as lyrical and vocal quality, the event has since gained infamy for being more of a cultural continent-wide party with celebrated and observed traditions and peculiarities than a song contest.

One peculiarity is the way you know what to expect from the entries submitted by different countries, and regions. Moldova is often fun and wacky, the French are fiercely French, the Brits and the Germans compete for last place, and on a wider basis you can count on the different regions of Europe to submit entries that feel culturally rooted. Also worth noting that Moldova can and will submit ballads, the French will debase themselves with dubstep the same as the rest of us and the Brits and Germans can deliver good songs, but these are stereotypes and expectations that linger.

One such expectation that has seemed particularly true, however, is that Sweden will always, every year and without fail, deliver a pop song that is sung in English, does well with the jury, and that lets your mind drift away to thoughts of David Guetta or Imagine Dragons.

A quick look at Sweden

I admit I am a Sweden hater where Eurovision is concerned, in no small part because in 2023 they sent one of their old winners, Loreen (here is her winning song from 2014), let her do a song that I and many others found uninspiring (you may decide for yourself what you think), and then, in arguably the biggest jury steal in the competition's history, she received such an overwhelming portion of the jury vote that the runner-up would have needed over 90% of the total audience vote to win. Bad on paper, much worse when the runner-up was a huge audience favorite that people felt strongly about.

In other words Sweden, which already had the second highest number of Eurovision wins, sent one of their past winners with a jury-tailored song that went on to win in a way that left many with a sour taste in their mouths.

(More to the point, Sweden had cemented that they will always, invariably, compete with English language songs like Loreen's that have very little to do with Sweden as a country, culture, or language, and the juries will never stop being impressed by Sweden playing it safe.)

It appeared they had learned little from this, or at least that Måns Zelmerlöw (Swedish winner in 2015. For no particular reason I'm also going to link to David Guetta's Lovers on the Sun.) did not read the room as he, a loud and proud Eurovision enthusiast and former winner as well as host, thought he should do exactly what Loreen did and sign up to represent Sweden again, on what would have been the 10-year-anniversary of his victory.

He thus signed up for Sweden's Melodifestivalen, the competition that would nominate an artist to represent Sweden in this year's Eurovision.

The upset

He was favoured to win with his inspiring song Revolution, which was about revolution.

He instead lost to the Finnish band KAJ who had written a Swedish and Finnish language song about saunas.

This will be the first time Sweden submits a non-English language song in over twenty years, and coincidentally is the first time as far as I can remember that they've sent something fun, catchy, and actually connected to Swedish culture.

The fallout

Hopefully, this can be the beginning of something new for Sweden. I don't know if I want the song to win: it's fucking fantastic, and it would serve the Swedes right to have this song win and make it impossible for them to forget about it next year, but I also want other countries to get a chance.

So far however, KAJ are a massive favorite in the odds but one critic I read blamed TikTok for the silly derpy song winning over Zelmerlöw's serious quality song, which makes me fearful we might be back to normal next year.

Alas, one can hope.

(And to be clear: I don't think Eurovision should be a wacky lulzfest, that's not what I want at all. I do however think the juries sometimes appear to have watched a different show than the audience did, and it is often difficult to understand how their criteria informed their voting choices.)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 2, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 03, 2024

Today is the one-hundredth anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act, which declared that “all non-citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided, That the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.”

That declaration had been a long time coming. The Constitution, ratified in 1789, excluded “Indians not taxed” from the population on which officials would calculate representation in the House of Representatives. In the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, the Supreme Court reiterated that Indigenous tribes were independent nations. It called Indigenous peoples equivalent to “the subjects of any other foreign Government.” They could be naturalized, thereby becoming citizens of a state and of the United States. And at that point, they “would be entitled to all the rights and privileges which would belong to an emigrant from any other foreign people.”

The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, established that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” But it continued to exclude “Indians not taxed” from the population used to calculate representation in the House of Representatives.

In 1880, John Elk, a member of the Winnebago tribe, tried to register to vote, saying he had been living off the reservation and had renounced the tribal affiliation under which he was born. In 1884, in Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court affirmed that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution did not cover Indigenous Americans who were living under the jurisdiction of a tribe when they were born. In 1887 the Dawes Act provided that any Indigenous American who accepted an individual land grant could become a citizen, but those who did not remained noncitizens. 

As Interior Secretary Deb Haaland pointed out today in an article in Native News Online, Elk v. Wilkins meant that when Olympians Louis Tewanima and Jim Thorpe represented the United States in the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden, they were not legally American citizens. A member of the Hopi Tribe, Tewanima won the silver medal for the 10,000 meter run. 

Thorpe was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, and in 1912 he won two Olympic gold medals, in Classic pentathlon—sprint hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put, and middle distance run—and in decathlon, which added five more track and field events to the Classic pentathlon. The Associated Press later voted Thorpe “The Greatest Athlete of the First Half of the Century” as he played both professional football and professional baseball, but it was his wins at the 1912 Olympics that made him a legend. Congratulating him on his win, Sweden’s King Gustav V allegedly said, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.��  

Still, it was World War I that forced lawmakers to confront the contradiction of noncitizen Indigenous Americans. According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, more than 11,000 American Indians served in World War I: nearly 5,000 enlisted and about 6,500 were drafted, making up a total of about 25% of Indigenous men despite the fact that most Indigenous men were not citizens. 

It was during World War I that members of the Choctaw and Cherokee Nations began to transmit messages for the American forces in a code based in their own languages, the inspiration for the Code Talkers of World War II. In 1919, in recognition of “the American Indian as a soldier of our army, fighting on foreign fields for liberty and justice,” as General John Pershing put it, Congress passed a law to grant citizenship to Indigenous American veterans of World War I. 

That citizenship law raised the question of citizenship for those Indigenous Americans who had neither assimilated nor served in the military. The non-Native community was divided on the question; so was the Native community. Some thought citizenship would protect their rights, while others worried that it would strip them of the rights they held under treaties negotiated with them as separate and sovereign nations and was a way to force them to assimilate. 

On June 2, 1924, Congress passed the measure, its supporters largely hoping that Indigenous citizenship would help to clean up the corruption in the Department of Indian Affairs. The new law applied to about 125,000 people out of an Indigenous population of about 300,000.

But in that era, citizenship did not confer civil rights. In 1941, shortly after Elizabeth Peratrovich and her husband, Roy, both members of the Tlingit Nation, moved from Klawok, Alaska, to the city of Juneau, they found a sign on a nearby inn saying, “No Natives Allowed.” This, they felt, contrasted dramatically with the American uniforms Indigenous Americans were wearing overseas, and they said as much in a letter to Alaska’s governor, Ernest H. Gruening. The sign was “an outrage,” they wrote. “The proprietor of Douglas Inn does not seem to realize that our Native boys are just as willing as the white boys to lay down their lives to protect the freedom that he enjoys." 

With the support of the governor, Elizabeth started a campaign to get an antidiscrimination bill through the legislature. It failed in 1943, but passed the House in 1945 as a packed gallery looked on. The measure had the votes to pass in the Senate, but one opponent demanded: "Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?"

Elizabeth Peratrovich had been quietly knitting in the gallery, but during the public comment period, she said she would like to be heard. She crossed the chamber to stand by the Senate president. “I would not have expected,” she said, “that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.” She detailed the ways in which discrimination daily hampered the lives of herself, her husband, and her children. She finished to wild applause, and the Senate passed the nation’s first antidiscrimination act by a vote of 11 to 5. 

Indigenous veterans came home from World War II to discover they still could not vote. In Arizona, Maricopa county recorder Roger G. Laveen refused to register returning veterans of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, including Frank Harrison, to vote. He cited an earlier court decision saying Indigenous Americans were “persons under guardianship.” They sued, and the Arizona Supreme Court agreed that the phrase only applied to judicial guardianship.  

In New Mexico, Miguel Trujillo, a schoolteacher from Isleta Pueblo who had served as a Marine in World War II, sued the county registrar who refused to enroll him as a voter. In 1948, in Trujillo v. Garley, a state court agreed that the clause in the New Mexico constitution prohibiting “Indians not taxed” from voting violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments by placing a unique requirement on Indigenous Americans. It was not until 1957 that Utah removed its restrictions on Indigenous voting, the last of the states to do so.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act protected Native American voting rights along with the voting rights of all Americans, and they, like all Americans, are affected by the Supreme Court’s hollowing out of the law and the wave of voter suppression laws state legislators who have bought into Trump’s Big Lie have passed since 2021. Voter ID laws that require street addresses cut out many people who live on reservations, and lack of access to polling places cuts out others. 

Katie Friel and Emil Mella Pablo of the Brennan Center noted in 2022 that, for example, people who live on Nevada’s Duckwater reservation have to travel 140 miles each way to get to the closest elections office. “As the first and original peoples of this land, we have had only a century of recognized citizenship, and we continue to face systematic barriers when exercising the fundamental and hard-fought-for right to vote,” Democratic National Committee Native Caucus chair Clara Pratte said in a press release from the Democratic Party.

As part of the commemoration of the Indian Citizenship Act, the Democratic National Committee is distributing voter engagement and protection information in Apache, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Navajo, Paiute, Shoshone, and Zuni.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

What's to note about Sweden in Eurovision is that, for a lot of people when they're picking out songs to send, they don't care what Europe actually wants - they think about the song that has the highest chance to WIN.

And thus, we've reached a dilemma.

The most TRENDING melfest song right now, is this one

It has everything Eurovision WANTS us to send.

It's in swedish! We haven't send anything in Swedish for over 2,5 decades! And when we HAVE, the artists have chosen to sing in english once they reach eurovision even if they sang it in swedish in melfest

It's catchy! Easy to dance to!

Good time!

It's the top 1 trending song in Sweden AND in Finland

It shows a culture not too often represented: Finno-swedes! Sometimes people IN SWEDEN are not aware there is indeed swedish speaking finns, just like there is for example french speaking canadians. And they have their own dialects, phrases and culture.

YKSI KAKSI KOLME SAUNA

However?

It will not win Eurovision (probably)

Some snobby elitist melfest fans (SORRY TO YOU GUYS BUT YOU ARE) thinks if we send something like this we will "embarrass ourselves". And we can't do that! We need to "show the world that Sweden is the biggest music export by getting good scores all the time!" (to which I say yes?? but we can also show some DIVERSITY in our songs???)

And there is the song that people think would most likely WIN the whole esc if we send it:

It's Måns Zelmerlöw, so we know he's good at what he's doing!

The performance is nicely done!

However:

Is the song that good??? Do you remember the song, like, at all? No, you get fooled by the STAGE PERFORMANCE. And sure, it does elevate the song, but not so much that I personally would want to vote for it.

Does my fellow Swedes honestly to god not know that esc people are tired of Måns Zelmerlöw? He kept showing up year after year in esc somehow, either as a middle act or as a sketch or something. He was always there.

If he wins melfest I'm honestly gonna be scared every time time he gets a good score in esc. I don't wanna live through that again. People say "don't care about the haters just enjoy your country winning" and I'm sorry but I CAN'T enjoy it if I know everyone else is mad - I also can't enjoy it when I know I didn't even vote for them to represent us. THAT to me is more embarrassing than sending a more "fun" entry that might not get as high of a jury score.

Personal opinion: I already think there's better songs in esc I think should win

Personal opinion: I do not agree that Måns' entry is better than anyone else this year. There are better songs in MELFEST already that I will vote for in the finale. Not only KAJ, but several others too.

Personal opinion: I'm not a fan of Måns' song and I don't get fooled by the "cool effects". It worked with Heroes, because he did something new with that little animated blob. It doesn't really work here for me. At all.

I do not want to experience 2023 again. Now 2 years later I feel like... fine. Loreen is Loreen. She's an icon nonetheless. MÅNS... is not her. He's more like Charlotte Perelli, Alexander Rybak or Carola: Appreciated as artists, but it definitely did not go as well for them when they came back to esc after already winning once. And I HOPE this is the fate Måns also would face.

Personal opinion: I think Sweden should chill with winning :) That was NOT a popular opinion when I said so on instagram, another Swede told me that I needed to understand that this was a COMPETITION and that we need to strive for the BEST all the time.

My thoughts on this is NOT so much that I've "fallen for the haters who hate Sweden and its success". It's the fact that during the last ten years, I've only liked TWO melfest winners. The rest I did not want to win, and thus I AGREE with Europe when they think we send generic pop songs, and I don't like them being rewarded because I didn't like them in the first place. And I want my country to send something different and FUN for ONCE, but we DON'T. The closest we got was Cornelia Jakobs in 2022. She was a LITTLE different, and I genuinely liked that. And I mean... Loreen IS Loreen, even though I did feel already in melfest that it was a little unfair because I did like some other songs more.

And so now, we have two teams here in Sweden: Those who think Måns absolutely is the only choice, nothing else will do, and we will win esc with him again. Best produced song, nothing else can top it. These people can sometimes come off as snobby and even sometimes a bit elitist in some extreme cases, even though a lot of them only are normal people who had been driven into this mindset.

And the other team is more like me: We should send something like KAJ! Or another little "different" that's already in our finale! Because we AGREE that we for once should see what EUROVISION wants rather than what the JURIES wants. No one likes the juries anyway. They didn't let Yohio win melfest in 2013 guys. Come on. It was their fault we didn't send a visual kei guy to eurovision and instead sent boring Robin Stjernberg.

Even NEWS SITES and podcasts has started discussing this. How the Swede is so predictable and rather wants to send the "safe card" than trying something new.

It's 2 weeks left until we have a finale. And I personally would not send Måns. But the songs I often want to win never win. And I think we keep sending generic pop songs because IT WORKS. It's not so fun for for the esc fans, but it works competition wise. And Swedes have sadly taken this competition too seriously, and forgotten to have fun. And maybe I am a part of that, since I seem to care so much about this I'm being so negative.

But, I will say: In 2023, the whole country was pretty much in agreement that Loreen will win melfest, the end. This year... I feel like we're more divided about this. And I think a bigger part of us will be disappointed to see Måns win melfest, both due to how we know Europe will react, but also because we genuinely don't think this song is that good. And it's a SONG contest at the end of the day, even though some argue "Well! But it's nicely produced!!!! Isn't the staging cool???" Yeah. But the song is the one you're gonna listen to, and... the song I think most people would rather LISTEN to is Bara Bada Bastu. But many people also think "they won't win anyway", and that can sadly also stop some people from even voting. "Why vote, when they won't win anyway? I don't want Måns to win but he's probably gonna win anyway, whatever :/" Not if we try to vote for others!!!

I myself in the finale will vote for Klara Hammarström, Greczula, KAJ, and if Scarlet comes to the finale this time, which I think they will, I will vote for them too. I think I'm even gonna give some few votes to Maja Ivarsson and Annika Wikihalder. There's PLENTY of other people in the finale I'd be perfectly fine and not too disappointed with if they won - especially if they NEVER HAVE WON BEFORE.

I won't vote for Måns. Both because, he's probably gonna get votes anyway, he doesn't need mine :/ And also because I just... don't like the song. Everyone can have a good scene performance with cool effects, smoke, blah blah... but that can't ONLY be it. I've seen that so many times and I'm not fooled by it.

If Måns wins melfest, it's up to Europe what to do. We can't vote for our own country in esc. So it's just up to you then to vote, or NOT vote. Remember the semifinals are all televote. You can choose to feed our ego again so that we keep sending the same thing again because it works, or you can decide not to.

[crystal-methionine]

Alrighty. Time for my annual pilgrimage back here to give you my thoughts on Eurovision. Here are my thoughts on the 36 countries that participated.

1. Finland 🇫🇮 Erika Vikman - Ich Komme: Girl, she came and so did I. I have no notes for this song and performance. Erika is such a performer and that song has never gotten old for me. The fact she didn’t make top 10 is criminal. My winner since UMK songs were released. 10/10

2. Latvia 🇱🇻 Tautumeitas - Bur Man Laimi: Before the performances this week, this wasn’t as high on the list for me. It was mid-teens bc I loved the atmosphere it created. But the staging of this brought it to life and I was loving every minute. I never blinked and lost interest. That is how you stage an ethnic song, everyone take notes. 13th is respectable, but honestly should be higher 10/10

3. Albania 🇦🇱 Shkodra Electonike - Zjerm: Albania has become a powerhouse in my eye over the past few years. When the favorite doesn’t win at their national final, it’s for a good reason bc you get this. I normally love their entries and then it falls off on me bc it’s been months. Zjerm only grew higher and higher for me. As each other song came out, it stayed solidly at my top 10. What a great year. A deserved top 10 finish. Would have been happy if they won. 9.9/10

4. Austria 🇦🇹 JJ - Wasted Love: absolutely was fighting for my life during the televote sequence. I was begging Europe to please give him more points in the jury just in case, but we made it. A deserved winner for sure. The staging was so good and he sounded good every time. The pattern of Sweden -> Country with red base and white cross host -> all Nordics qualify -> Austria win was right. Sweden will be mad next year if they don’t win again… 9.8/10

5. Italy 🇮🇹 Lucio Corsi - Volevo esse un duro: At first, I was put off after it was announced Lucio would get a shot at Eurovision after the first guy said no, once I saw his makeup. The more I listened without seeing the visuals, I liked it more and more each time. Then it all clicked when I saw the first semi and his place in my top skyrocketed. I was so scared Europe was going to write him off, but I was pleasantly surprised he got a top 10 place. Well deserved. 9.5/10

6. Portugal 🇵🇹 NAPA - Deslocado: I felt like I was one of the only ones (besides the Portuguese) who loved this song. I didn’t have the time to keep up with their national final this year so I just listened after it was announced they would represent Portugal. It rose up to my top 10. Then I saw the reactions and everyone putting them 35th for the most part. I screamed in joy when they qualified. I didn’t care if it was barely or anything. They created such a calm vibe that was missing. 9.4/10

7. Poland 🇵🇱 Justyna Steckzowska - GAJA: Another song that was always high in my top from beginning to end. This woman is mother. 52 and doing all that stunting and never faltering vocally. She could have had the worst staging and I still would be living and in awe. She deserved so much more than she got with the jury. Glad she got a ton of televote points. Should have been top 10. 9.3/10

8. Switzerland 🇨🇭 Zoe Me - Voyage: Many songs this year didn’t take me on a journey. This one did though. I think if this had been from France and not hosts Switzerland, it wouldn’t have gotten 0 points from the public. But also how did this get on par results in the televote as UK???? Glad the jury gave her love. 9.2/10

9. Germany 🇩🇪 Abor & Tynna - Baller: I was shocked that Germany didn’t mess up the national final voting. I actually liked a song from Germany for the entire season??? I think the performance was good. Definitely the most fun entry Germany has sent out in a long while. Loved it was in German. 9/10

10. France 🇫🇷 Louane - Maman: France never fails to put out one of the most interesting stagings and the streak continues. The song itself was also a powerful anthem. I’m not normally a big ballad person, but clearly this year I am bc a lot of the top 10 are ballads. 9/10

11. Lithuania 🇱🇹 Katarsis - Tavo Akys: I definitely have a still-going emo phase and with this being the only emo-like song this year imo, I was immediately drawn to it. But also vocals!!! Katarsis sounded good every single time without fail. Plus the song was pure emotion and I could feel every minute of it. I loved it and am probably the only one. I wish they had been closer to top 10 because it was deserved so. 9/10

12. Sweden 🇸🇪 KAJ - Bara Bada Bastu: I loved this song so much, especially the Swedish language (finally!!). While it was a strong entry and I probably would have been fine with it winning like the odds showed, I am glad that we get to see someone else besides Sweden win. I think people might say Mans should have gone bc he probably would have won, but I’m glad we got new people from Sweden and they deserved the place they got for sure. 8.9/10

13. Norway 🇳🇴 Kyle Alessandro - Lighter: Such a bop. I still got goosebumps at the riffs at the end bc Kyle can sing. He is such a charismatic performer. I think the song was ok, but he’s what made the whole package great. I do think he should have been higher at the end of the night, but I’m glad he qualified as I was nervous for Norway given the quality of the rest of MGP this year. 8.8/10

14. Denmark 🇩🇰 Sissal - Hallucination: Queen of Eurodance this year. Sissal was one of the few I kept up with on socials and she is hilarious. And she can sing! Like sing sing. I don’t think she ever faltered. While the performance wasn’t as high energy as the song, I still had fun listening and watching. I think that’s what dinged Denmark on points, but I know she had a lot of fun and it made me have fun. 8.5/10

15. Greece 🇬🇷 Klavdia - Asteromata: For a while, this was higher for me. Then I got tired of the song. It raised a bit more this week bc her performance of it was truly captivating. Vocally on point and emotional for sure. I’m glad she got a good result overall. 8.4/10

16. Iceland 🇮🇸 Væb - ROA: This song is fun. And in Icelandic to boot. The vocals were eh but when you’re having that much fun, it’s easy to ignore. Unlike the Minecraft octo-pussy they had pop up on screen at one point. Glad they qualified 8.3/10

17. Malta 🇲🇹 Miriana Conte - Serving: I honestly KANT believe it got such a low televote score. Jury, sure, but the public?? I’m glad she was able to bring Malta back to the final and have as much fun as she did. It was never really one of the songs I listened to a lot of, but I rarely skip it. She sounded great vocally and the staging was interesting for sure. 8.1/10

18. Armenia 🇦🇲 PARG - Survivor: I was genuinely shocked this actually qualified. Before the staging, I was borderline but after watching the semi, I was convinced this was going to do well bc shirtless man running and sounded vocally good. I also do like Imagine Dragons’ old albums and this gave me those vibes. 8/10

19. Slovenia 🇸🇮 Klemen - HMTDWHLT: I am not spelling the title out. Hear me out. I too was on the train of solid non-qualifier. Never managed to get through the song on Spotify bc bored. Then I watched it in the semi. It clicked. Maybe it’s that I have lost 2 family members I was close to within the past month. Maybe it’s actually the song is good and you just hate ballads. 7.8/10

20. Netherlands 🇳🇱 Claude - C’est la vie: I’m still kinda confused why he chose to sing the song mostly in frenglish. Pick one?? The vocals in rehearsal were awful with an immediate drop in my top to NQ. I never really got into the song like others did. Not sure why…but still better than some. 7.5/10

21. Australia 🇦🇺 Gojo - Milkshake Man: Look, I love joke entries, but I do pick one and stick to it. This wasn’t the one this year. That being said, I did usually not skip it. I’m not shocked it NQ’ed. I don’t agree with it, but I am not shocked. He was a bit off vocally for me. Staging was hilarious though. But how can he be mostly naked with a large codpiece and Erika has to cover up??? 7.5/10

22. Belgium 🇧🇪 Red Sebastian - Strobe Lights: I was shocked this NQ’ed. Like genuinely. I felt bad, but was glad to have Portugal and Iceland, which I believed were lost causes. I think it came to so much red and a lot of the lower register struggling a bit vocally. I genuinely don’t know but should have been in over some. 7.2/10

23. Czechia 🇨🇿 Adonxs - Kiss Kiss Goodbye: I wasn’t sure about this from the start. It seemed like a solid Q. Then watching it back, I see some flaws here and there. I like his lower bass register than his breathy tenors. Maybe that’s what got him a NQ. I think he good, just not outstanding. 7/10

24. Spain 🇪🇸 Melody - Esa Diva: I normally love Spain. This year was an anomaly. I really didn’t vibe with the song ever, esp before the revamp. I think Benidorm was really weak this year and it showed. Hopefully Spain will be better next year. However, not the lowest of the Big 5. 6.9/10

25. Ukraine 🇺🇦 Ziferblat - Bird of Pray: I don’t think Ukraine deserved to NQ, but they certainly were not top of the class. I don’t think they earned their top 10 either. The song is good. I had it higher up early on, but the staging of this was so middle of the road and confusing. Why the bad camera angles and costumes? I understand sticking to the 70s theme, but there are better ways. 6.5/10

26. Luxembourg 🇱🇺 Laura Thorn - La poupee mont le son: You can’t read the doll…baby, yes I can. The final result of the staging and costume was fine, but it still seemed too childish. I understand it was about breaking out of the dollhouse and being independent or something like that, but I just never got behind this entry. Visuals got it this high tbh. 6/10

27. Cyprus 🇨🇾 Theo Evan - Shh: A pretty loud track for hushing people. I didn’t like the song lyrically. I did like it musically. I loved the staging. I didn’t love the vocals. It was a bit of a struggle. I see why it NQ’ed barely, but agree it could have easily been in the final over San Marino. 6/10

28. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 Mamagama - Run with U: Hear me out. Live, vocals were extremely questionable. Musically and lyrically, I actually really like this. I listen to the studio cut all the time. It was tragic that the vocals live were so bad. I want to rank this higher, but I can’t. 5.9/10

29. San Marino 🇸🇲 Gabry Ponte - Tutta L’Italia: of the 3 Italian songs, it was the middle for me. While I can listen to it every once in a while, I just get bored. Live, I think it faltered big. DJs without a “featuring” have no place at Eurovision tbh. Give singers credit or don’t participate tbh. 5.5/10

30. UK 🇬🇧 Remember Monday - WTHJH?: Indeed. What the hell did just happen? It was like 3 songs in one. I hate fast verse, slow chorus songs. I don’t know why but they irritate me. I like certain elements but then they would jam a new time signature in after it was getting interesting and throw me off. 5/10

31. Croatia 🇭🇷 Marko Bosniak - Poison Cake: What a downgrade from last year tbh. It started clicking during the live show, but not enough for me to keep interest and want a Q from it. 4/10

32. Ireland 🇮🇪 Emmy - Laika Party: I genuinely don’t know if the songs is annoying me or if the Bobbi Arlo rage took hold of me. I don’t get this song as others may have. Emmy was good in Witch Woods. I don’t think this is her genre of song. 3.5/10

33. Montenegro 🇲🇪 Nina Zizic - Dobrodosli: Ah, the annual Balkan ballad from a former Yugoslav republic. It just didn’t stand out unfortunately. I felt so bad for the voice crack bc I saw how good vocally Nina is normally. 3/10

34. Serbia 🇷🇸 Princ - Mila: The other annual Balkan ballad from a Yugoslav republic. Just not the highest in my ranking. I think like Nina, it didn’t stand out as a song. He can sing and is very well-looking, but the contest is about songs, not looks. 2.9/10

35. Estonia 🇪🇪 Tommy Cash - Espresso Macchiato: See previous comment about joke entry. If you’re gonna do a joke, at least be able to sing. 2/10

36. Georgia 🇬🇪 Mariam Shengeli - Freedom: I didn’t know about her politics because I didn’t even listen to the song in full til the semi bc I physically couldn’t get through it.

If you ask where a certain country is, I’m sure you can think of the answer as to why it’s not here. They shouldn’t have been there to begin with due to the same reason Russia isn’t allowed. I hope they really do allow for discussion amongst broadcasters before Austria next year. It shouldn’t be this hard to put the values of the contest into effect.

[mariacallous]

Evidence is mounting that Europe’s far right will score better than ever before in the upcoming European Parliament elections on June 6 to June 9—and that the continent’s young voters will fuel its ascent. The young adults now gravitating to far right aren’t Nazis or xenophobic racists, but they may have a hand in an outcome that will, at the very least, shift the European Union’s priorities and accents to the right. A particularly solid right-wing finish—and cooperation across the hard-right spectrum—could rattle EU unity and throw a wrench into the bloc’s workings at a time when it is confronting acute crises on several fronts, not least the war in Ukraine.

Since new laws mean that even people under 18 will be eligible to vote in some countries—16-year-olds in Austria, Germany, Malta, and Belgium, and 17-year-olds in Greece—there had been hope that these new voters would put a brake on the populist surge engulfing Europe. The idea behind giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote was partly based on their long-term investment in politics. The policies designed today will affect them for many decades, in contrast to their grandparents.

And in the 2019 European Parliament election, young voters showed great promise by turning out in record numbers, a hopeful sign that reflected their enthusiasm for the common European project. With the climate movement rocking the streets, their votes went disproportionately to green parties that championed strong climate protection and deeper EU integration—two sets of long-term interests. This landed green representatives from Portugal to Latvia in the Brussels parliament and prompted the EU administration to approve the European Green Deal in 2020.

But the democratic exuberance of voters in their late teens, 20s, and early 30s could boost a very different trend this June, as growing numbers of younger voters are siding with far-right populist parties—the very ones that want to scupper the Green Deal and rein in the EU. In recent national votes conducted in Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Finland, and France, young people voted in unprecedented numbers for extreme nationalist and euroskeptic parties. (Though some observers have argued that reporting about these trends is incomplete or oversimplified.) And surveys in Germany show the youth vote becoming ever more sympathetic to the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party that has undergone a radicalization that makes it among Europe’s fiercest, hard-right electoral parties.

“There’s no doubt that these parties have been making inroads to younger voters,” said Catherine de Vries, a Dutch political scientist. “The parties don’t look so extreme anymore, as they’ve been around for a while now. And young people think that the mainstream parties have had their chance. The system still doesn’t work for them, so let the other guys have a try.”

A German study published this year by a team led by youth researcher Simon Schnetzer showed that a full 22 percent of the young people (in this case, ages 14 through 29) surveyed would vote for the AfD if German elections were held today—twice as many as just two years ago. The tally for the Green Party fell by a third during that time frame. A full quarter of those asked said they weren’t sure who’d they vote for—another all-time high result.

The grounds for the pronounced shift are vague: Researchers tend to cite a general unhappiness with the post-pandemic economic and political conditions. “It seems as if the coronavirus pandemic left [young people] irritated about our ability to cope with the future, which is reflected in deep insecurity,” wrote the study’s authors. The issues described by participants that most impact this insecurity included their personal finances, professional opportunities, the health sector, and social recognition. They expressed less concern about the climate crisis and more about inflation, the economy, and old-age poverty.

“We can speak of a clear shift to the right in the young population,” said Klaus Hurrelmann, one of the study’s authors and a professor at the Hertie School in Berlin. The AfD’s foremost campaign priority of stopping immigration and refugee relief plainly struck a chord: Compared to a separate study conducted five years ago, about half as many (26 percent) of the young participants (26 percent) in the 2024 study said they were not in favor of taking in refugees. But just as important as the content of immigration policies, the authors underlined, was the idea that young people feel unheard or involved in the political process.

The change in sympathy in many young Germans reflects survey results, elections, and the statements of other young people across Europe. In the Netherlands’ elections last year, the most popular party among people under 35 (at 17 percent) was the Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, a far-right populist with a long record of EU-trashing.

The explanation provided by many Dutch experts: It’s all about bestaanszekerheid, a Dutch word translated as “livelihood security.” This refers to having a decent and regular income, a comfortable home, access to education and health care, and a buffer against unexpected problems, de Vries told the Guardian. Young peoples’ leading concerns in the Netherlands are housing, overcrowded classes, and struggling hospitals, she said, which Wilders addressed in his campaign.

In Portugal’s March legislative elections, the far-right Chega party, which prioritized courting young people, raked in more of their votes than any other party. The meaning of chega, which can be translated as “that’s enough,” accurately describes many young voters’ motive for supporting it. Their gripes: “a very low average wage and an economy that cannot absorb educated young people,” according to political scientist António Costa Pinto in an interview with Euronews

“In the past, right-wing sympathizers accused immigrants of taking their jobs,” said Eberhard Seidel, the managing director of a Berlin-based nongovernmental organization called Schools Without Racism. “Now there are enough jobs but not enough housing for people who work. They still have to live with their parents.”

Observers say that the far right has excelled at grabbing the youth’s attention, not least with the social media platform TikTok. The recent German study found that 57 percent of young people imbibe their news and politics through social media. More than 90 percent use messaging service WhatsApp, followed by Instagram (80 percent) and YouTube (77 percent). TikTok stands at 51 percent; more than half of all 14- to 29-year-olds now use the app regularly, compared to 44 percent last year. The epiphany prompted an immediate response from German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who on declared in his first video on the platform, posted on March 19: “Revolution on TikTok: It starts today.”

Other opinion surveys show that young voters are diverse, divided, and undecided. A YouGov poll conducted in August 2023 showed that young Europeans are overwhelmingly concerned about the climate crisis and its likely effects, and more willing than older people to change behavior to mitigate those effects. Another poll, conducted in Germany, showed human rights violations at the top of younger people’s lists, followed by climate change, sexual harassment, and child abuse.

Younger voters still aren’t the drivers of xenophobia in the way that their parents’ generation was, Seidel said. A vote for the AfD doesn’t necessarily mean that they favor expelling immigrants from Germany or exiting the EU. “They take the basics of democracy and the social system for granted,” he said. “And they’re not fully aware of the implications of a rightward lurch in their political systems.”

Neither were Brexit’s voters, Seidel noted. And they found out the hard way.