Editorials

Social media: The Government has no idea what it is embarking upon

The Støre Government seeks to be top of the EU class and proposes a 16-year age limit on social media. It is out of sync with the times. Støre will present it as “security”, but risks turning youth against him. A 12-year limit would be different; by 13, teenagers are asserting themselves and will not accept waiting until 16.

Why is it being concealed that two gay men are charged with killing 13-month-old Preston?

They could tell you about the killing, the injuries, and the grave abuses. But VG would not tell you who stands charged with having killed a 13-month-old baby whom they had adopted.

When the Labour Party is confronted with the Epstein case and reality

State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik (Labour Party), presents a glossy picture of Norwegian foreign policy in Aftenposten. There is no reason for that. The “peace diplomacy” was intended to strengthen Norway’s reputation, but achieved the opposite. If I were in his shoes, I would engage in self-examination and tread more quietly until the Epstein investigation has been completed.

Doctors Without Borders tried to get into the will of a man with a stroke

Targeted advertising on Facebook aimed at elderly people brought Doctors Without Borders into contact with a man weakened by dementia and a stroke. They wanted to be included in his will. Relatives stopped the process, but Doctors Without Borders contacted him again anyway. Now they call it a “human error” and apologise.

Radical Islam Net imam hired by Norway’s former conservative seminary – Embraced by academia

Since Document revealed on 7 March that an imam from the radical Islamist group Islam Net was hired as a researcher at Norway’s former conservative seminary, media coverage has exploded. One would have expected strong criticism of this historic theological school — conservative for over a century — employing an imam from one of Norway’s most extreme Islamic environments. Instead, the opposite happened.

Man is a frail, partially blind creature under a restless sky

Odd Nerdrum’s paintings show man embedded in an order he has not created. Instead of staging the sovereignty of the liberal individual, he reveals that humans confront something older and more inscrutable than themselves: earth, sky, time, guilt, fate, and tragedy. Nerdrum paints what our age prefers to explain away. Truth appears as sudden revelations — pictorial shocks that cannot be explained, only endured.

The Age of Predators

The Italian political scientist Giuliano Da Empoli teaches political propaganda at Sciences Po in Paris. He purports to solve the riddle of our time: our societies are being taken over by technology giants who seek to eliminate the old elite that stood for order and regularity. Empoli holds Trump in contempt, comparing him to the Borgias of the Renaissance: ruthless men of action. Contempt for Americans is soon the only thing well-educated Europeans have left—a meagre consolation on the way down.

Pope Leo has become a political football

If the Pope does not understand that some are trying to use him in a political game directed against the US president, it is not easy to help him. He appears to be walking straight into the trap and is using words and expressions associated with the left and woke ideology. Marxists are experts at using terms like “neocolonialist”. Why does the Pope have to use such words?

Trump wins – must be taken down

Every time Trump looks set to win, counterattacks claim he is actually losing. This time the attack comes from the Wall Street Journal: In its “Trump on the crazy train” series, it claims he rants for hours to staff and must be kept out of the Situation Room because he only causes chaos.

Democracy also needs limits

Democracy cannot be based on “truth”, since truth may shift with majority opinion, argues Nils Rune Langeland. Yet his understanding of truth is not Christian. Christian truth imposes normative limits on leadership. Today’s ideologues claim the right to stand above a higher, divine law, believing an action is good because they declare it so. For Christians, God is the centre of truth.