Contributor. Noted by DN's readers on October 19th

OPINION. The readers of Dagens Nyheter share their views on the situation in Sweden and the world and DN's content on Monday, October 19th. A reprint from Dagens Nyheter, 2026-10-19 22:38 Original address of the article: https://www.dn.se/insandare/noterat-av-dns-lasare-den-19-oktober-2/ Opinion. Noted by DN's readers on October 19th Get more from DN as a logged-in Do you know you can create a free account on DN? As a logged-in user you can access several smart features. - Follow your interests - Newsletter Vladimir Putin proposes a separate meeting between himself, Donald Trump, and Xi Jinping during the next meeting with the Asian cooperation organization APEC in Shenzhen in mid-November. North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un will be at APEC. The meeting will discuss the end of the "conflict" in Ukraine. Doesn't it smell like the Yalta Conference? Then think that the next G20 meeting will be held in Florida in December, where Trump has invited the war crime suspect Putin. Xi will be there. Where is Ukraine in this? Where is Europe? Since there is no agreed agenda, Swedish media report this only in the ongoing news flow as rumors resolve. What if it isn't? What if it is serious? Per Sten, pensioner The Russian bear scares the shit out of all our powers. Billions have been invested in advanced weaponry. Does rubbing up fear with stronger weapons make us safer? Berit Dreyfert, Noble I assert that Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is fascist, more precisely 'techfascist'. Some claim that he controls President Donald Trump remotely. Whether that is true or not, the clear fact is that Trump changed his line and ordered that all sanctions against Russia (read "Putin") should be temporarily lifted in any case (DN 18/10). At the same time, reports from the war in Ukraine (DN the same day) state that the Musk-owned satellite services Starlink and its military equivalents allow Ukrainian military drones to fly up to 160 km per hour and become largely unusable. The advantages Ukraine has gained are rendered void. I usually defend myself from conspiracy theories, but the fact is that Elon Musk owns Starlink and its military equivalents and that Starlink's sudden speed restrictions reverse the odds for a Russian loss and a Ukrainian victory. A conspiracy? Yes! Göran Djurfeldt, Professor Emeritus, Lund University The center for no talks with a party that systematically abuses IT for mass production of anonymously politically blue-shifting. How can one act differently? The parties (M, KD, and L) that are playing along with these scum, how can they get a single voice among the people of Sweden? This "people of noble stock" that the so-called Sweden-lovers pretend to represent. Is it noble to run a troll factory? No, it is villainous to us voters. Hakon Malmborg, Bromma Democracies can start to crack if their leaders cannot handle emerging situations for a long time. French politics has locked itself into three blocs that do not want to compromise with each other. Sweden is on the verge of a similar situation. But to view compromises only as betrayal is connected with authoritarian ways of operating, where V and C seem to have ended up now, at least temporarily and partially. In that case, the own position is the only thing that counts, forever. Loyalty is everything. As the SD has shouted: Win or die! But the antithesis of unwavering loyalty is objectivity, which, instead of the rhetorician's simplified world, sees a highly multifaceted reality, where there are different types of compromises that can be made. Does anyone in the party leadership see this and dare to talk about it? Here lies the spirit of democracy. Håkan Lennerstad, Karlskrona We are now in the second 48-part of the current government period. May this vacuum continue with the prevailing distribution of mandates. Per Broängen It is argued that the Left Party must be in the government, as there are congress decisions on it. V:s party congresses are full of stubborn decisions. In the name of consequence, one must assume that these must also be implemented. The same reasoning applies to MP. Furthermore, there is a great risk that center-right wildlings can switch sides. It only takes two traditional Riksdag members from C, who despise V, to switch sides. Anders Oskarsson Commentary on all complaints after the election: Opinion polls help tactical voters get small parties into the Riksdag. But it is probably not the tactical voters who complain that the government formation is slow. Or? Rickard Nordström Alex Schulman writes today: "We were 6,834,413 adults who voted in the parliamentary election." I am not sure that all of these were adults in their role as voters. Voting based on opinion poll daily notes instead of the presented politics is convenient, but not very mature. To first tactically vote in some small parties and then complain that they are complicated is not very mature either. Being "hiadann" (intolerant) belongs to children, however. So regardless of our mental age, we should probably wait patiently for time to pass. Other countries with many small parties have done this too. Rickard Nordström, Högsjö For a relevant reason, I just want to clarify that I have not given Alex Schulman permission to in any way present my views regarding a possible new election to the Swedish Riksdag. Ulf Molin in Bredäng The danger of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide in the air is most noted as a risk for climate change and the natural disasters it brings. It doesn't seem to be enough for many people to want to buy a new car. In September, new car sales increased and more than one in four was a fossil car. What were the buyers thinking? Can the statement from Läkartidning about how carbon dioxide enters the body and changes the blood be more frightening? The one who starts their new car and tells the children to get in while the emissions waft around them, perhaps thinking about their blood, might wonder if a fossil car was such a wise choice. It contributes to increased levels of carbon dioxide for many years. But it is clear that research only knows what and how the blood is affected but not yet the full health effects in the long run besides eventually dying, so for a while we can wait and see, right? Elisabet Näsman, Uppsala Notes that Henrik Landerholm is sentenced to 80 days' fines of 650 kronor each. Think that such a high-ranking person does not have more than 19,500 kronor a month in salary, gross! Poor him! Mats Högblom, paper subscriber in Hisings Backa The Swedish business world is whining as usual about hostile foreign competition and the internationally comparable high labor costs in Sweden. They have a wet dream that workers should be both secure, well-educated, grateful, and work for free. Such a good working life and business climate as we have in Sweden, one does not find in all countries. Roland Ingemarsson, Hellvi 499 researchers warn. At the same time, our own municipalities stumble over their shoelaces in their haste to invite the same greedy criminal companies to establish giant energy-consuming data centers both right and left at home so as not to mention our police and military fondness for the supreme cults Palantir and NSO Group. We are then shamefully slow learners. Allan Mutén It is hardly surprising that Hans Bergström speaks so strongly against a participatory democracy (DN Debate 17/10). As the owner of the International English School, he has amassed enormous sums at the taxpayers' expense, partly thanks to the systematic weakening of participatory democracy that has followed decades of neoliberal politics (for more on this, Johannes Klenell's book "Banana Republic Sweden"). But democracy came through the participation of those whom Bergström so detests ordinary people. The engagement of citizens in the labor, temperance, and free church movements is what laid the foundation for Swedish democracy, not the use of neoliberal thought currents. That democracy in Sweden has developed into a service industry that is favorable to Bergström was never given. What Bergström describes as a changed view of democracy is actually just taking the words of the constitution seriously, that all public power emanates from the people. The changed view of democracy is rather what Bergström himself expresses: that all public power really emanates from the power holders. We should look for a clearer, more dazzling, and yet more straightforward democratic practice, so I must still raise my hat for that sincerity from Bergström. David Sillén, Stockholm The residents on the West Bank are state-supported terrorists. As long as this continues, Sweden should have no trade relations with Israel. Sara Pargell, Gothenburg For decades, the violence from the Israeli so-called settlers, that is, illegal occupiers, against the inhabitants of the West Bank has been allowed to continue without the outside world reacting with anything other than vague condemnations. In the latest incident, an American journalist was injured, which is highlighted by the media as particularly serious. At the same time, the people who have lived there for generations and their living conditions, houses, livestock, olive trees, orange groves are burned and killed daily and systematically. All under the protection and justifications of the Israeli army. As if the Palestinians "provoked the settlers" when they went out to harvest their olives. Israel's current government has had decades to curb its violent religious fanatics. But on the contrary – even the police minister backs them! No other civilized country should be allowed to exercise state-supported violence on the territories of other countries. For the same reason that the outside world has classified Iran-supported Hamas as terrorist, it is highly appropriate to classify the Israeli "settlers" as terrorists. The next government should work in cooperation with other European progressive countries to make this happen as soon as possible. Lars Wengrud, Bromma Regarding Sunday's DN article about the new China: One should always distrust a nation if its soldiers in a parade march are the same length. Christer Gerlach, Ekerö What an excellent suggestion from Gun-Mari Skrader to move the Nobel Center to Vinterviken! Much remains after the Nobel on the site, so it is most natural that the museum is also there. We avoid more large buildings at Slussen and can enjoy a nice trip to the museum in Vinterviken instead. I hope more residents think it is a good suggestion! Lena Walter Has a suggestion regarding table tennis: Install two panels under the table surface on the sides of the table where the players can store their towels, so we don't have to run to the referee to dry themselves. Kurt Lindblom Opinions on DN Even on October 17th, one met "Gaza/West Bank" in the picture and the largest possible text size on the front page of DN and four additional full pages (Culture included). Other, for us closer and larger conflicts like the destruction of Ukraine to mention one, are very sparsely covered by DN regarding the Palestinian issue (if you count the number of columns). One wonders if DN has gone from a newspaper to an opinion maker for Palestinian activists. Until DN dedicated the entire front page and two full pages on Gaza on October 7th of this year—which completely overshadowed a "column" for remembrance of the victims of Hamas's indiscriminate killing of children and the elderly, rape and mutilation of young women that they filmed and posted on social media—I didn't think much about this. DN's "news coverage" about schools in Gaza on October 7th can only be seen as a mockery and belittling of the suffering of the Jewish people of Israel and the approximately 2 million Christians, Druze, and Arabs of Israel. Everyone became as much of a victim as the Palestinians when Hamas, very aware of the consequences, added its voice to the peace process. Saudi Arabia was just days away from ending a peace treaty with Israel. Unfortunately, in DN, even after a ceasefire, a clear pattern in news coverage is visible. Where has DN's proud motto "for an enlightened world" gone? Andreas Körösi, with 35 years of travel in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel/Palestine, the last nine years as a mediator and referee in the tourism industry with responsibility for the entire Middle East Do you also want to submit short texts (under 1000 characters including spaces) and pictures or photo submissions to the "Noted by DN's readers" vignette? Email insandare@dn.se! A smaller selection is published on the opinion page in the newspaper Tuesday–Friday and a larger selection on dn.se/insandare on weekends Monday–Friday. You can read more about how to write opinions in DN here.