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So, there was a local news story in Iceland that went: a local police force used AI to make some images for a public notice, and the cop in the image had a holstered gun, around children. This was obscene to the Icelandic public. Why would you carry a gun of any sort around children???
This was obviously because of US bias in the training data, and design of the model. (Don’t pretend like they’re ensuring German or Finnish police are fairly represented).
Iceland has a complex history with violence, which leads to this sort of response.
Iceland used to really really bad
So so so violent. Iceland was settled in the 800s by Vikings, largely 2nd-generation Vikings from the British Isles (so they were Viking-Celts), and a lot of their (Celt) slaves. The slaves were all freed by 1000 when chattel slavery was outlawed in iceland. So, the Icelandic population is descended from Vikings and their slaves.
The Althing, that proto-parliament, was not a proper democracy; you simply assessed which side, for or against, a proposal was more likely to win (so having a noted sociopath and mercenary on your side was a good thing!). Recounts or challenges to this meant doing the actual combat.
Eventually, everything was so violent and dysfunctional that Norway easily took over in 1262-4. Then the Norwegians lost their independence to the Danish, who ran monopoly and starvation policies in Iceland. The Danish governors were permitted to loot their regions at will, and they directed violent massacres of people they didn’t like (google “Slaying of the Spaniards” - wow, icelandic history is fucking wild).
Heck, these regional governors maintained massive power all the way until the 1980s, until the EUCHR said “wait you have regional governors with executive and judicial powers, and no checks or balances? Hell no.” (the violence had mostly stoped by then tho)
Additionally to the random violence, looting and starvation policies, 25% of icelanders were slaves; serfs. The highest proportion at its time in Europe.
Add all that to a lot of natural disasters, and a major lack of infrastructer — icelanders died so much.
Most children (source??) died before they reached the age of 5, most of the rest died before adulthood. This is why all the children had the same name, so at least one instance of that name could survive.
In most cultures with high infant and child mortality, if you survided that gauntlet, your life expectency was pretty alright. Not so in Iceland, most people died before middle age. There are diaries of people in their 40s writing about how they’ll die soon.
When they dig up graves to build roads or whatever, they find signs of malnutrition in every bone, all the time, even amongst the collaborators with the Danish.
(This is all in like the 1800s by the way).
So, in light of everybody dying all the time anyway, the icelandic independence movement was non-violent. And when they got self-rule, and their own constitution, they maintained pacifism and neutrality.
Iceland has been invaded a couple of times; by the British in WW2 (so the German’s couldn’t), and by the Americans afterwards (usual American military colonisation stuff). Both times they sort of just keeled over and didn’t resist violently. They resisted a little bit, non-violently. It was mostly cooperation tbh, they just weren’t happy about it.
Iceland has a lot of problems: - poorly funded institutions, - near-continuous right-wing rule - so much corruption - police corruption (serving fishing oligarchs) - xenophobia, racism, fascism - eugenecist healthcare policies
So on the whole, Icelanders are extremely intollerant of violence, but are fine with others commiting it, as long as it isn’t there. They find violence shocking, especially from modern societies.
Icelandic police are firearm trained and have controlled access to them, but they are primarily considered life-savers. Trained to shoot to disable, if forced to return fire. Icelandic police have only once shot and killed someone, and that was after he fired a shotgun into the torso of a different police officer.
This means there are many examples of Iceland seeking non-violent solutions to people resorting to violence, which is cool. I would like to see more discussion these and why they worked, please!
My takeaways:
- Gosh, icelandic history is fucked up!!!!
- did not know the British invaded Iceland during WW2
- Having such a strong national sense of non-violence is really cool. I wish British national pride was also wrapped up in non-violence.
- Yes, I knew about all those problems with Iceland. Thanks for reminding me.
- Would be nice to have more discussion about concrete policies this non-violence is applied and why/how it works. Though the history behind it is interesting enough, and I get that’s not his expertise.