The Individualist Populist

Or how one Facebook post could end the Norwegian government

Oslo today — the fjord is frozen.

We live in divided times — this is not the least emphasised by the revelations coming out these days in the Cambridge Files, with jucy details about the role data collection and Facebook has played in recent elections.

Amidst all of that there is Norway, atiny, cold place with barely 5 million people up close to the North Pole. It’s a strange place. I was born there. In Norway the minister of justice posted a thing on facebook a bit over a week ago — tomorrow that might lead to the collapse of the current government.

One — measly — tiny — little — Facebook Post

With enormous consequences.

I’ve ventured out of the Swedish woods, in part to observe this up close, and to write about it.

The facebook “meme” on the ministers profile — loosly translated: The Labour Party thinks the rights of terrorists is more important than national security.

This is the story of how a tiny country stands up to the blue giant of social networks, to the powerful colossus that Facebook is. How a people rejected their influence on politics and said enough is enough. That Facebook, and the rampant individualist populism displayed by our minister will not, and can not take root here, it…