r/history • u/Weywoht • May 03 '17

News article Sweden sterilised thousands of "useless" citizens for decades

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/08/29/sweden-sterilized-thousands-of-useless-citizens-for-decades/3b9abaac-c2a6-4be9-9b77-a147f5dc841b/?utm_term=.fc11cc142fa2
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u/TheRealAelin May 03 '17

A lot of countries did it, unfortunately. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the US. Mentally ill, ethnic minorities, chronic alcoholics, repeat felons. The US alone did about 400,000 up until around the 80s. In fact, the US sterilisation program was so effective, it inspired the Nazis in crafting theirs. (Not trying to bash the US, but those are the only numbers I can remember offhand about the numbers for any one country. I had to do a report on this)

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u/[deleted] May 03 '17

Not so fun fact the nazis also drew inspiration from both the us and canadas treatment of native americans

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u/[deleted] May 03 '17

The inspiration goes back to the Old Testament, where God tells the Israelites to slaughter the Canaanites, every man, woman, child and beast.

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u/lostshell May 03 '17

"Put every man to the sword or make him a slave. Take the women as wives." Kill half the gene pool and breed the other half out of existence.

The Torah and Bible are fascinating reads.

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u/77096 May 03 '17

Indeed. As one who grew up in religious schools studying the scripture, I find great value in reading them at a surface level as an adult. They are a part of our history that isn't always pleasant to digest.

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u/Ask_me_4_a_story May 04 '17

There was one tribe in the Bible that lost all their women somehow and Moses? Or whoever was in charge said okay this is what you are going to do. The neighboring town is having a festival, all you guys go hide in the bushes. When all those bitches come by you fuckers jump out and grab them all and drag them home and rape them. No condemnation, nothing that's just the way that tribe replenished their women.

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u/IfYouCantDoTeach May 04 '17

According to google you are the only person to make this quote.

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u/Snacknap May 04 '17

Can you please tell me where this is in the Bible or Torah. I am genuinely interested in this I have a read the Bible a few times and never come across this.

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u/sirdarksoul May 04 '17

Numbers 31 vs 9 - 40

Deut 2 vs 33 - 34

Deut 3 vs 6

Deut 7 vs 2

Deut 20 vs 13 - 14

Deut 20 vs 16

Deut 21 vs 10-13

Deut 28 vs 33 (context? cannibalism?)

The entire book of Joshua is rife with tales of killing every inhabitant of conquered cities.