On this date, the Swedish parliament passed a law that enables full-scale surveillance of any and all data traffic that "passes the Swedish borders" — which to anyone familiar with the workings of the Internet is more or less equal to "any Swedish data traffic".

Despite immense criticism from places like SÄPO (Swedish Security Service), the Justice Department and the national police, as well as a united press and international opinion, the ruling bloc bulldozed all opposition with appalling arrogance, to the point of threatening its own hesitant representatives to fall in with the top-down party line. The greatest irony is that this ruling bloc claims "liberalism" as its guiding star, and all its constituent parties have previously made very clear statements on the importance of privacy and the standing of the individual with respect to the state — but when push came to shove, they all decided to trample on the Swedish constitution, and the United Nations declaration of human rights. "Hypocrisy" does not even begin to describe it.

Right up to the end there were a handful within the governing parties who purported to stand up for their personal views on privacy, but then they allowed themselves to be bought with an extra layer of bullshit under pathetically theatrical pretense. In the name of unity, they betrayed their own values, and they betrayed the masses who voted for them personally. Just remember: no one will vote for a traitor again. There was only one of the so-called liberals who actually came through as a liberal and had the guts to be true unto herself by voting nay: Camilla Lindberg. You — and you alone — deserve to be honored. The rest have forfeited their right even again to call themselves "liberal", or to claim championship for personal privacy and individual rights.

We shall not forget.