Could someone fully explain the mullvad controversy. From my knowledge so far it seems like the cofounder donated to an alt right party and it’s probably a bad sign for the company. Anything I’m missing?
One of the co-founders/co-ceo’s almost single handedly funded a racist political party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Örebro_Party that wants Sweden to manufacture weapons.
The other co-founder/co-ceo stated he did not agree with it, but also doesn’t really care because ‘free speech’
Mullvad stated that users who were not happy could apply for refunds. some have, some haven’t.
Lemmy, and other social media platforms have multiple threads about this, including very obviously biased threads designed to mislead people into believing it was the company who made the donation, or that there is only one ceo.
Paying mullvad does equal funding that political party.
The Örebro Party (Swedish: Örebropartiet, ÖP or ÖrP) is a political party in Sweden. The party was initially only a local party in Örebro, Sweden. Markus Allard is the party leader. According to Allard the party cannot be placed anywhere on the traditional left-right spectrum. The party has been variously characterised as left-wing and right-wing, as well as populist, nationalist and conservative.
Some key issues for the Örebro Party locally include strong secularism, a 30-hour workweek with retained pay, lowered wages for politicians, expanded social housing, abolishing preschool-fees, making public transport free of charge,[3] ending taxpayer funding of what it sees as wasteful sculptures, monuments and art and introducing free dental care.[4][5] Nationally the party has set out large-scale remigration, closing the Swedish borders to immigration, a stricter assimilation policy and ending taxes on energy and fuel as some of its key issues.[6][7]
Don’t see anything particularly racist. And since when domestic weapons manufacture is the problem?
I’m sure you can hand select passages about hitler that also suit your stance while making him seem like kermit the frog.
Since when are weapons not a problem?
These are literally the first passages from Wikipedia.
What country doesn’t have domestic weapons manufacturing? Is it a problem when US or France do it?
Yes of course it is a problem when the usa, france, russia etc do it, it obviously makes them evil countries. Weapons exist to kill.
The usa is responsible for approximately 42% of the global arms market. 1 country, 42%, clearly not the good guys.
The party isn’t properly alt right in any way that an anglosphere dweller would recognize.
It’s not a bad sign for the company in any way. Remember that mullvad was the vpn of choice for pedophiles distributing csam until it wasn’t.
Mullvads recent statement is also extremely carefully worded to avoid taking what the state would call a political stance. While we may recognize that not condemning the donor is political, what the state considers political is support or detraction from some party or of some speech. If mullvad were to make such a political statement it could be subject to a whole different kind of law.
They are nationalist racists trying to cloak themselves with populist leftist ideas. This is the leader of that party:
https://www.friatider.se/markus-allard-om-andra-generationens-invandrare-de-ska-ocksa-ut
Örebro Party leader Markus Allard goes to the election on expulsions. He opens to withdraw citizenship and also expel second generation of immigrants – even if they were born in Sweden.
“I’m prepared to cross corpses,” he said.One suggestion that he has is that citizenship and permanent residence permits can be torn up – with reference to “Sweden is the country of Swedes”.
In a section of Yoshi’s Podcast, Allard develops his view on expulsions and explains that he prepared to “go over corpses” to bring home unwanted immigrants. The host notes that there will be no beautiful sight when, for example, immigrant mothers who have been on maternity leave for 15 years are to be deported together with their children. “It’s not going to be pretty to send these people home,” he said. Markus Allard agrees, but says: I think you can handle that optics. Even the children will need to be deported, he explains.
He further explains that many of the problems relate to second-generation immigrants. They are going out too. Even if they were born in Sweden, because they have no natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedes. They have not become Swedes. It says Sweden in the passport, but they have not been interested in becoming part of Sweden. There’s a difference. It’s a qualitative difference," Allard said
Remember; the Nazi’s did the same thing by strategically calling their party the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, despite them not being socialist nor a working class party. This was chosen because Socialism was gaining popularity, and thus the Nazi’s thought it would help their chances of getting votes and public support.
