Imagine a world where everyday citizens get to speak… uh… tweet for their country. Well, it’s happening in Sweden right now. Seven months ago, in an effort to boost tourism, the Swedish government started giving individual Swedes control over the country’s twitter account, @Sweden. I’m sorry, but that alone is insane… and genius… and enough to make me wanna visit the native land of Alexander Skarsgård. Each week a different citizen is chosen to tweet for Sweden, and this week’s account holder is Sonja. Sonja has had a lot to say, and some of it involved the lyrics to Kelis‘s Bossy, which sorta made me an automatic fan… at first…
PITNBrs meet @sweden/Sonja:
If someone likes Justin Bieber in Sweden, we dont care. We let them. We dont call him “gay” if we mean “he sucks”. We say “he sucks”.
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Sometimes I just look at my children and think about the time when they had my vagina round their neck.
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Have to go. You can enjoy this video while I’m gone. I made it one day when I had a fever and nothin to do youtu.be/mgTpoBYOiac
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Now here’s where my relationship with Sonja gets complicated/my strange sense of humor will only take me so far and then I have to walk away from you:
I found some pics I’ve shopped on da computer. This pic I call “hungry gay with aids”.yfrog.com/ke3mfwej
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Then Sonja started tweeting questions– or what seemed like questions– about Jewish people. At first she seemed legitimately confused about the difference between Jewish ethnicity and Judaism as a religion, and some people were so kind as to explain the difference. But again, it was weird. And a lot of people were definitely offended:
Whats the fuzz with jews. You can’t even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises, and even if you do, you can’t be sure!?
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Once I asked a co-worker what a jew is. He was “part jew”, whatever that means. He’s like “uuuuh… jews are.. uh.. well educated..?”
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Where I come from there is no jews. I guess its a religion. But why were the nazis talking about races? Was it a blood-thing (for them)?
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
But here’s what she tweeted in her “defense.”
@katerussell You must have missed the point. Im not here to promote Sweden, Im here to tweet as myself.
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Im sorry if some of you find the question offensive. Thats was not my purpose. I just don’t get why some people hates jews so much.
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
I thought it was a good idea to ask the question when so many well educated people all over the world can answer. But no. Bad idea.
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
I should also add that, ever since Sonja has been given command of @Sweden she’s been tweeting like crazy and a lot of the stuff is not mean-funny or even funny-funny, they’re just simple things about her two kids and her life in Sweden.
What are your thoughts on @Sweden‘s decision to let their citizens tweet for them? Anybody’s interest in Sweden at all piqued? Like I said, the Kelis bit got me, and then things got weird. I should stop saying weird; it was more than weird. I know people have twisted senses of humor (I love me some Lisa Lampanelli) but gay AIDS jokes just don’t do it for me.
P.S. Here was my favorite response to Sonja‘s Jewish-related tweets:
@sweden Relevant Wikipedia articles: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism
— Irfon-Kim Ahmad (@twMaize) June 12, 2012
I think we should start responding to all internet ignorance with Wiki articles, LOL. No more ranting in the comments, no more bashing the ignorant– deserving though they be– just Wiki articles. Kudos to you Irfon-Kim Ahmad @twmaize !
#KnowledgeIsPower.
Kelis: Bossy
I don’t even know what to think about this. Can you imagine if random Americans were allowed to tweet on behalf of the entire country from time to time? It’s an interesting and altogether horrifying prospect. I’m literally shaking my head at all of this right now.
I can’t even begin to imagine what they would write. I bet it would be equal parts inspiring and embarrassing! But maybe the US should do this so we can finally look at that mirror and own up to who we really are.
Krissy & Trent– I think it’s such a cool, awful idea. But yeah Krissy, I think it would be pretty scary to see what the US looks like in 140 characters or less.
In Sonja’s own words, “But no. Bad idea.”*
The vagina neck comment has me in physical pain….the Jewish commentary gave me emotional agony…
I agree (and well phrased!)
LOL, Iris the vagina one was one of of my faves, sadly. It was just too weird and special not to be funny.
Let me Google that for you is the best website to link people who ask ignorant question to!
I also wouldn’t be comfortable with random members of the public tweeting for Ireland :S
Megan, from what I understand it’s kind of random, but the Swedish government also chooses these people (believe it or not). They get contacted via e-mail and are asked to tweet. Weird, huh? I think Sonja also had a bit of a youtube following or something.
i find this hilarious. . . i must point out that i have a sick sense of humor, tho i do see how some might find what she said offensive. i do love how she put the beer on the table in front of Freddie. he always had a Heineken on his piano while he performed. i LOVE me some Freddie!
Deirdre I hear you. I felt bad for laughing, it was weird. Glad you could find the humor in it all, lol. Are you playing We Are The Champions right now by any chance?
the whole thing is a sweaty, hot mess… but its got us talking about sweden, hasn’t it? although can’t the ministry of tourism just pin pics of Alexander Skarsgård and call it a day?
If they let random people tweet I think it would be the quickest way to make no one believe in the power of the american people to, theoretically, govern themselves
I think this is the kind of stuff that Sweden wants. They want to create a buzz. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing bad press.
I’ve been following @Sweden for quite awhile now, and I’ve considered unfollowing for the remainder of this week because Sonja’s tweets are just not worth reading. I think she’s going for shock value, but it’s just not enjoyable for me at all to read.