Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

det.social

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

891–900 of 1001 posts

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#891

Post by zombot »

kfreds wrote: post #118

Hi, Mullvad has two owners, founders, and CEOs - Daniel Berntsson, and me, Fredrik Strömberg. All posts I've seen yesterday and today, including the newspaper articles, talk about Mullvad as if Daniel is the single owner, founder and CEO. It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission. If you have any questions, comments or concerns you're welcome t…

> We fight for freedom of speech, freedom of information and the right to privacy.

OK, but the far right, like all totalitarians, has an agenda that is thoroughly opposed to this. That leads to the tolerance paradox: You must be intolerant to agendas that would put an end to tolerance.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#892

Post by peterfirefly »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #706
kfreds wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. It matters to me. In fact, most of my political opinions have atrophied, or rather I have self-censored. Daniel believes that is not the right trade-off to make in this case. I understand his point of view, and disagree.

And to be sure, I agree Daniel is entitled to his opinions and the right to do with his money as he pleases. Of course there may be business consequences for doing so in terms of how the user base reacts. I think the bigger problem -- and I don't know the rules for political donations in Sweden -- is that any individual is able to pour millions into a political party of any persuasion. In the US this situation is mad…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_finance_in_Sweden

> is that any individual is able to pour millions into a political party of any persuasion.

It's an even bigger problem that political parties are heavily subsidized by the state, which favours the establishment.

This goes beyond purely monetary subsidies. Some people employed by the state have an essentially political function or have a large political influence over the population and they have been hired (and incentivized) by the established parties over decades.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#893

Post by peterfirefly »

kgwxd wrote: post #405
kfreds wrote: post #118

Hi, Mullvad has two owners, founders, and CEOs - Daniel Berntsson, and me, Fredrik Strömberg. All posts I've seen yesterday and today, including the newspaper articles, talk about Mullvad as if Daniel is the single owner, founder and CEO. It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission. If you have any questions, comments or concerns you're welcome t…

> This is what allows us to advance our common causes. Being in a tolerant and intellectually open environment is also liberating and promotes truth seeking. Nope, that is what will get you taken over by the assholes. Reasonable defense is necessary in reality. There ARE bad actors, they must be kept out.

> There ARE bad actors, they must be kept out.

There are very good (and well-documented) reasons to believe a large part of the recently immigrated foreigners in Sweden are exactly such bad actors.

Your arguments don't really work the way you seem to think they do.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#894

Post by throwaway85825 »

kfreds wrote: post #570
WhitneyLand wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fredrik, while acknowledging everything you said, the fact remains some of my money can end up empowering politics I find repugnant. If it were a small amount of money, it wouldn’t be an issue. If the politics at stake were less important, it wouldn’t be an issue. They’re not going to stop at immigration, look at other places in the world to see the future risk. Sorry, I was a paying and satisfied customer, and now I…

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not defending his choice, but consider reading Daniel's rationale in the Flamman article. There's also his blog [1], which explains some of his views. I know he doesn't share all of Örebropartiets views, but I should let him provide that nuance. As I said in another comment, speaking for myself, I don’t like that he made this donation and I know this view is shared by many of my colleagues…

>I don’t like that he made this donation and I know this view is shared by many of my colleagues.

Its a strange world now where everyone is expected to have a public opinion on everyone else's opinions to keep them in line. Very anti privacy, anti freedom, and against plurality of opinion.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#895

Post by vr46 »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #509
kfreds wrote: post #118

Hi, Mullvad has two owners, founders, and CEOs - Daniel Berntsson, and me, Fredrik Strömberg. All posts I've seen yesterday and today, including the newspaper articles, talk about Mullvad as if Daniel is the single owner, founder and CEO. It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission. If you have any questions, comments or concerns you're welcome t…

Fredrik, while acknowledging everything you said, the fact remains some of my money can end up empowering politics I find repugnant. If it were a small amount of money, it wouldn’t be an issue. If the politics at stake were less important, it wouldn’t be an issue. They’re not going to stop at immigration, look at other places in the world to see the future risk. Sorry, I was a paying and satisfied customer, and now I…

I am so so disappointed with Mullvad and this founder. I can’t believe I let myself get suckered and then paid up-front for the year again.

The only influence I have is with my money.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#896

Post by stefanfisk »

KaiserPro wrote: post #430
stefanfisk wrote: post #160

To be fair, Örebropartiet can also be called an extreme left party. It’s complicated… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party

Does it matter if they are left or right? The point is, they want to round up lawful citizens and turf them out of the country because they have the audacity to be slightly foreign, or worse born to someone foreign. that is the issue, not how much tax/spend big/little government.

I matters because a lot of people will only read the headline and then get a skewed view of the political landscape.

I did not post my comment to defend him or the party. All I wanted was for people to understand the situation a bit better than they would by just reading the title and post content.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#897

Post by gruelsandwich »

kfreds wrote: post #570
WhitneyLand wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fredrik, while acknowledging everything you said, the fact remains some of my money can end up empowering politics I find repugnant. If it were a small amount of money, it wouldn’t be an issue. If the politics at stake were less important, it wouldn’t be an issue. They’re not going to stop at immigration, look at other places in the world to see the future risk. Sorry, I was a paying and satisfied customer, and now I…

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not defending his choice, but consider reading Daniel's rationale in the Flamman article. There's also his blog [1], which explains some of his views. I know he doesn't share all of Örebropartiets views, but I should let him provide that nuance. As I said in another comment, speaking for myself, I don’t like that he made this donation and I know this view is shared by many of my colleagues…

Really fighting windmills with the hot takes about things that aren't true. "Sweden actually has a hidden wealth tax" and "The money supply is the real inflation!!"

Really in line with typical views of right-leaning people you see on X etc.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#898

Post by peterfirefly »

willmarch wrote: post #647
kfreds wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allow me to provide some nuance. I cannot speak for Daniel. I know there are some policies he likes and there are things he doesn’t like. Personally I am not a fan. This morning Daniel explained his rationale to most of the company. Speaking for myself, I don’t like that he made this donation and I know this view is shared by many of my colleagues. Speaking as the co-CEO of Mullvad, we will continue to protect the un…

Oscar: "Look it doesn’t take a genius to know that every organization thrives when it has two leaders. shakes head Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_consul

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#899

Post by therouwboat »

peterfirefly wrote: post #893
kgwxd wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is what allows us to advance our common causes. Being in a tolerant and intellectually open environment is also liberating and promotes truth seeking. Nope, that is what will get you taken over by the assholes. Reasonable defense is necessary in reality. There ARE bad actors, they must be kept out.

> There ARE bad actors, they must be kept out. There are very good (and well-documented) reasons to believe a large part of the recently immigrated foreigners in Sweden are exactly such bad actors. Your arguments don't really work the way you seem to think they do.

Recently? Some people have been saying foreigners are bad for 30 years.

Re: The CEO of Mullvad is the main financer of the Swedish Örebro party

#900

Post by hnben »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #509
kfreds wrote: post #118

Hi, Mullvad has two owners, founders, and CEOs - Daniel Berntsson, and me, Fredrik Strömberg. All posts I've seen yesterday and today, including the newspaper articles, talk about Mullvad as if Daniel is the single owner, founder and CEO. It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission. If you have any questions, comments or concerns you're welcome t…

Fredrik, while acknowledging everything you said, the fact remains some of my money can end up empowering politics I find repugnant. If it were a small amount of money, it wouldn’t be an issue. If the politics at stake were less important, it wouldn’t be an issue. They’re not going to stop at immigration, look at other places in the world to see the future risk. Sorry, I was a paying and satisfied customer, and now I…

I am sympathetic to the sentiment, but the argument does not hold water.

> the fact remains some of my money can end up empowering politics I find repugnant

are you paying taxes? are you using gasoline? are you paying for amazon?

Some ratio of your money will always go toward something you hate. The big question is: is for a mulvad subscription that ratio bigger than for the alternative? The next question is: how is the ratio for things you like?

Post reply on HN