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Worst Mass Shooting in Sweden's History & Elmo Makes it Even Worse with his Anti-Immigrant Lies [1]

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Date: 2025-02-06

This was briefly mentioned in the Overnight News Digest for Feb 4, but the worst mass shooting in Sweden’s history was made even worse by our newly unelected overlord when he falsely implied the shooter might have been an immigrant in Sweden, and that both European leaders and “legacy media” were supposedly ignoring the story for their own nefarious ends. From the Independent:

Elon Musk has been condemned for sharing lies about the global response to the Sweden school massacre. Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old recluse, has been named in Swedish media as the suspected gunman who killed 10 people at Risbergska School in Örebro, before turning the gun on himself. But as well-wishers paid their respects to the victims of the massacre online, X owner and member of the Trump administration Musk promoted a false claim that “no European politician” had mentioned the massacre. Posted by right wing account Inevitable West, the tweet also falsely claimed the “legacy media, as always, is silent”, despite widespread coverage of the tragedy in newspapers and on television around the world.

I won’t bother posting the original X-tweet here, but it’s in the piece from the Independent.

Stockholm University professor Christian Chistensen, from the US, was among those calling Musk out for his post. “Musk amplifying lie that mainstream media aren’t covering mass killing in #Sweden — falsely implying it’s because killer was an immigrant and woke media won’t say that — is a classic b******t strategy from the far-right. Basically: “They won’t tell you the truth…but we will.” Swedish journalist Gunilla von Hall added: “Elon Musk retweeting post that ”legacy media” in Europe has been silent about the shooting in Sweden. Pure lie. Has been massively reported in all major European news outlets.” And senior journalist at BBC Verify Shayan Sardarizadeh shared screenshot evidence of the widespread reporting on Sweden's worst ever shooting. Among the political leaders who have condemned the violence and offered their condolences are Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, French president Emmanuel Macron, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. In Örebro, police continue to hunt for the motive behind the attack, with Andersson described by relatives as a “loner” who “doesn't seem to like people”.

It’s actually quite clear what the perpetrator’s motives here were — the school he targeted was an adult-education facility that included Swedish language courses to help refugees and immigrants assimilate into Swedish culture, and most of the people he gunned down were originally from Syria. The Mirror has some absolutely chilling eye-witness accounts of how the whole thing went down:

A harrowing video taken during this week's school shooting in Sweden features someone screaming "Get out of Europe" before a volley of shots rings out. Student Hashem Shams recorded the terrifying moment while hiding in a toilet at Orebro's Risbergska adult eduction centre. Outside, the gunman was prowling the halls, picking off people at the facility, which offers language courses for migrants. In total, 10 people were killed. … In the video, Hashem Shams is sitting in the locked cubicle, trying to slow his breathing in the hopes of not giving away where he is hiding. At the same time, gunshots and shouting are getting closer and closer outside. It continues that way until he's actually standing outside the cubicle. Another shot is fired with the bullet casing heard ringing out as it hit the floor. He then climbed on to the sink so he wouldn't be shot through the door. Another woman says that the image of her children flashed before her eyes as the gunman in Sweden's worst mass shooting paced outside the room in which she was hiding. Hellen Werme hid in the classroom with five others as the perpetrator stood just metres away. The 35-year-old frozen in terror as they scrambled for cover, recounting how she feared she may never see her young children again.

The NYT also has a good article up on how the Swedish police responded to the horrific situation:

It was about 12:30 p.m. on a gray Tuesday in Orebro, Sweden, when gunfire erupted at an adult education center, with students and teachers in class. Minutes later, as an alarm wailed, the police charged into the center, Campus Risbergska, where they encountered a chaotic, smoke-filled scene. It would be hours before they gave an all-clear. “An inferno. Dead people. Injured people. Screams and smoke,” Lars Wiren, Orebro’s police chief, said Thursday at a news conference as he described the scene. ... When officers entered the school on Tuesday, it was filled with smoke from pyrotechnics, Mr. Wiren said. The police came under a hail of gunfire so intense that officers could not tell how many shooters were on the scene, he added. Through the smoke, officers saw a man approaching them and carrying what appeared to be a rifle. The man continued to shoot, emptying several magazines of ammunition. In the chaos, none of the 130 police officers chose to return fire, the police chief said. “You have to respect the situation. There’s panic among the students, the teachers,” Mr. Wiren said. “There’s smoke. The circumstances must be right in order to fire.” After about an hour, officers later found the gunman among the dead. Near his body were three weapons, including the rifle. Scattered nearby were at least 10 empty magazines and unused ammunition, Mr. Wiren said.

Meanwhile, it looks like Elmo’s assault on the Treasury and all of our personal data has run into a bit of a speed bump — from Business Insider:

The Treasury Department has agreed that it would not directly share the personal financial data of millions of Americans with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The agreement, struck between the Treasury and a group of plaintiffs representing government unions on Wednesday night, was approved Thursday morning by US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sits in Washington, DC. The judge had asked for language limiting the sharing during an hourlong court hearing on Wednesday, at which a government lawyer said only two Musk allies had any access to the data. Under the language agreed upon by the two sides, those two Musk allies would continue to have read-only access to Treasury records maintained by the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The two were identified in court as Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause and Marko Elez, who has worked at SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter. … Later on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elez, 25, had resigned from his government post after the paper asked the White House about a deleted social-media account that it reported was linked to Elez and advocated for racism and eugenics.

Yep, only the best and brightest for Elmo!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/6/2301987/-Worst-Mass-Shooting-in-Sweden-s-History-amp-Elmo-Makes-it-Even-Worse-with-his-Anti-Immigrant-Lies?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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