Just a remark on your thoughts on socialism. I live in Norway which has a long socialist tradition going back much further than Karl Marx. The same goes for the rest of Scandianvia.

I must say it is a bit tiring how foreigner attempt to lecture us on what socialism is, and that it can only be what the Soviet Union did.

No Scandinavian country has a socialist society, but neither did the Soviet Union. However both the Soviet Union and Scandinavian countries pursued socialism using their own traditions. In the Soviet Union this led to an oppressive dictatorship and command economy.

However Scandinavian socialism was always very democratically oriented and grass roots oriented. That is what the pursuit of socialism led to social democracy which is a sort of end station between capitalism and socialism.

I know Anglo-Saxons love to dispute this and claim it has nothing to do with socialism, which is why I specifically wrote this story which gives you the history of socialism in Scandinavia as well an introduction to the various socialist parties in Scandinvia and their political programs and policies:

https://erik-engheim.medium.com/what-is-modern-scandinavian-socialism-504e70de93f4

All I ask is that before attempting to lecture a Scandinavian about their history and political/econmic system, at least listen to what they have to say themselves. We live in this system and are part of it. I have been member of the Norwegian social democratic party. The same party that right-wing terrorist Anders Berhring Breivik tried to erradicate with his massmurder on Utøya and blowing up the government HQ. I have spent summers when I was young on the same island that 70 people go murdered for merely believing in democratic socialism. So we don't like being judged.

I come from a family like many other Norwegians who have been steep in the labour movement and where the Social Democrats have meant a lot in their lives. People who have been either union representatives or union leaders. For them socialism was not a swear word as it has turned into especially in America.