In Saami mythology there’s a large-but-not-too-bright monster called Staalo, which was made from a log, lichen and a few incantations. If we look at the recent rise of intolerance in Finland and Europe, social media has breathed life back to many Staalo-like political Frankensteins.
Staalo is a monster found in Saami mythology. Source: Tajukangas.
In the case of Finland, you need a political party with some credibility among voters, like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), to ensure success that your Frankenstein will work.
One political Frankenstein creation of social media is PS MP James Hirvisaari, who is so hard up for publicity these days that he seeks publicity in the tabloids by raising issues like fecal skid marks found on the toilet bowls of parliament.
Another social media creation is PS MP Juho Eerola, who admits liking fascism and claimed the recent Jyväskylä attack by neo-Nazis as a publicity stunt by the Left Alliance.
Letting off the hook other parties in Finland by blaming only the PS would be too simple. You can find these types of political Frankensteins in all of the parties. None probably have so many as the PS.
Dutch football master Edgar Davids wrote about racism in a recent column. He compared such people to sheep without backbone.
Racism exists because still too many people don’t take it seriously. Such people rarely see matters from the victims’ point of view but from their white comfort zones.
Writes Davids: ”How can you know what racism is like if you have never experienced it? It’s very difficult to imagine.”
When more people start raising their voices by saying no to this social illness, matters will begin to change.
Dan Koivulaakso, one of the three authors Äärioikesto Suomessa’s (Far right in Finland), asks on a Kymen Sanomat column why Eerola reacted the way he did concerning Jyväskyä.
The answer is simple: Intolerance and society’s indifference to the far right and racism help keep alive these political Frankensteins.