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The “Dumb” Swede Becomes The Smug Swede: Immigrant Riots Ensue

In the old days, before political correctness, an American was seen in Europe as a brave cowboy; in turn an American could work through Europe with a short hand of nationality stereotypes. The Dutch were dull; the French-rude, the Germans-tidy and efficient, the Russian-emotional, the British-fun, the Belgians-corrupt closeted the bourgeois, the Spanish-proud, the Norwegians-ethereal, the Danes-energetic, the Finns-tough, the Poles-courageous, the Italians-passionate. And the Swedes- the Swedes were “dumb”, nice but dumb. So dumb, that their Royal Family came from a French peasant who happened to be a French Napoleonic Marshal. The Swedes had been good soldiers, under the Vasas, but that was three centuries ago. One of them did invent dynamite then felt so guilty he financed the Nobel Prizes. Sweden turned out beautiful and sexy women, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Gunnel Lindblom, Ulla Jacobsson, Liv Ullmann but the word association with Swede was dumb. Then the Swedes discov