I'm Norwegian, not Swedish, but there is this lutheran/protestant culture that's very deeply embedded in the Scandinavian/Nordic countries that have one hand contributed to the success of things like criminal reform and welfare, because those areas happened to unite a lot of Christians and a lot of liberals and left wing people around a shared belief of how to treat people with decency and compassion, but which at the same time can be very paternalistic when applied to other areas.

You see this in terms of policies on things like alcohol and drugs in particular, but also areas like prostitution, where the attitude is often that the people involved are sinners who both need help and punishment, and where there is an attitude of "we know best" about legislation and treatment options.

The Nordic countries often looks liberal on the surface, but while they have secularised rapidly there is still an undercurrent of Christian moralistic ideas that have had a very firm grip in many areas, aided by the long lasting state churches (e.g. the Norwegian Lutheran church was a state church with the government appointing key people until 2012).

I can echo the same is very valid in Finland. Certain behaviors that are very stereotypical here are Protestant/Lutheran by nature. It's also a bit amuzing as mostly people don't recognize that and are typically very anti religion or atheist.

Here are some topics that have actively not been a topic for political discussions for at least the last 15 years: The immigration, the housing bubble, the failed city planning on all scales, the inefficient patchwork of regional authorities (Kommuner) in the large regions, the overinflated financial system, the deindustrialization, and the drug politics.

All of them are rather urgent, but instead we get virtue signalling and distancing from the nationalist party, pseudo debates about tax-levels (55% or 54%) and endless mantras regarding "healthcare" and "schools" while ironically those systems are still good but are slowly deteriorating due to New Public Management, unhinged privatisation and a good deal of incompetence. None of which is discussed except maybe the last few weeks when a properly virtue-signalling but spectacularly incompetent General Director managed to outsource classified information to Serbia of all places.

It's obvious that the drug politics has failed. The only thing we need to do is to look at the facts (almost worst in EU), think and discuss, and then modify. But no.

Right now we are just feeding the criminal gangs earning money on lighter drugs such as cannabis where there is an unstoppable demand, while coming down so hard on the heavier users that they literally die on the streets. One mistake or relapse while on a program - and they are kicked out on the street again.

But why? I honestly don't know. Swedish government bodies seems to have a very hard time changing their position, especially when it involves admitting that they have been wrong. Swedes are also very conformist - almost like a big insecure high school class where everyone say the same thing, wear the same things, and bully anyone that sticks out even just a little bit, so it could be hard to discuss sensitive topics.