Sweden may be soon coming to a place regarding its rich and complex history that will seem all-too familiar to too many Americans.

Seems the Swedes are considering banning certain symbols from their historic runic alphabet, as well as selected symbols related to Scandinavian Norse mythology (including Thor’s hammer, mjolnir), because those things are apparently being abused by white supremacists as parts of their symbolism.

Rune script and Norse symbols have a long history dating back well over one thousand years, long before Nazis existed, and are deep parts of Swedish history and heritage. Across Sweden you can find ancient rune stones from Viking times with messages inscribed on them.

Neo-Nazi groups such as the Nordic Resistance Movement have been using in particular the letter “Tyr” which is part of the runic alphabet. This same symbol is used by other neo-Nazis as their logo.

But the potential ban could be in serious violation of religious freedom, as these Norse symbols are an important part of the pagan “Asatru” religion still practiced by some in Sweden.  

This creates a very complicated scenario for the Swedish government. In the definition of racism in Sweden it is included that any kind of oppression against a religion is considered racist — which means that banning runes would be racist and therefore against Swedish law. 

Practitioners of this ancient religion shared their thoughts on the potential ban:

“Our attitude is that prejudices and misunderstandings are best cured with knowledge and facts! It is not enough to try to replace the meaning of our symbols with their own prejudices or political meanings they lack. To forbid them would be to ban some of our own history.”

Another newspaper went even deeper into the controversy:

“It is possible to understand the frustration of the extremists’ kidnapping of Norse symbols. Their flag waving is certainly not a pleasant sight. But the freedom of speech is not always nice.

It is also not always practical to turn everything so that it becomes calm and comfortable. Speculation has already been heard that not only the Tyr rune but also other symbols that occur less frequently — or may occur — in extreme environments should be banned. 

This is an idea that is prime for derailment. One can ban the Tyr rune. One can ban the x-rune. You can ban the evening and dawn until they too are completely forbidden. The political forces you try to curb will immediately seize new symbols as soon as their present ones have been banned, if they respect the ban to begin with.

A child understands this. A child probably understands it even better than adults, as this is exactly how children behave when trying to sniff out obviously hollow rules.

What if Swedish Nazis suddenly used a red rose as a symbol —  what does the government do then? Ban roses? Or all the books, rune stones, or at all the contexts where those pre-Christian symbols are used without the Nazis even being part of the game — should they be provided with warning texts or eliminated? Where does it end?”

Another newspaper framed the issue as follows:

“To ban runes because they were being used by Nazis is exactly like banning the Christian cross because it was used by Ku Klux Klan in America or used in the crusades, or to ban the Arabic letters that are used by the soldiers of the Islamic State, IS/ISIS or Al-Qaeda.”

Of course, as one Swedish newspaper pointed out, neo-Nazis also drink water, but no ban on water has apparently yet been suggested. However, the newspaper also suggests perhaps just giving it a little more time and that may change, too.

Here in America, we are seeing huge chunks of our historical narrative removed from public view in the name of political correctness. For those of us who embrace the good, bad, and ugly of our story, witnessing as much is tantamount to insanity and a sad testament to our ignorance. 

To help illustrate just how ignorant we have become, consider the results of a recent survey posed by the polling company Civic Science. In it, 56 percent of Americans felt the teaching of Arabic numbers in our schools should be banned. 

For the number-challenged among us, Arabic numbers pretty much are every number we use. 

John Dick, the CEO of Civic Science, said that the “goal in this experiment was to tease out prejudice among those who simply didn’t understand what they were answering,” shared another survey question about what should or shouldn’t be taught in American schools. 

This the survey found that 53 percent of respondents (and apparently nearly 75 percent of Democrats polled) believed that schools in America shouldn’t teach the “creation theory of Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre” as part of their science curriculum.

Just as respondents to the Arabic numerals question apparently didn’t even know what “Arabic numerals” were, the respondents to this question probably thought that Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre’s “creation theory” referred to creationism. 

However, Lemaitre’s “theory of creation” was his explanation for the expansion of the universe, more commonly known today as the “big bang theory.” 

As I’ve said before, some of this stuff you just can’t make up. 

I guess if nothing else, seeing what is happening in Sweden should give us some small solace that ignorance may not be an American monopoly after all. 

Whatever that’s worth.