Last month, The Opinionated hosted its first-ever in-person event: a debate with multiple youth parties in Sweden. I sat down with our founder and executive director, Hilda, to discuss the process of planning the event, the debate itself, and what she learned from the entire process. Here's our conversation:
Hi Hilda, thanks for sitting down with me today. I just wanted to ask you some questions about the recent debate you held in Stockholm for The Opinionated.
H- Of course.
Let's get started. Can you give our audience some insight into Swedish politics, first?
H- Absolutely. To give some background information, the Swedish system of democracy is built on a parliamentary system, so there are about eight parties in parliament. Each party has youth parties that are very established and have been up and running for decades. They have thousands of members and are the ones in charge of recruiting high school and university voters. So, during campaign seasons, they are out talking to thousands of high school students eligible to vote, debating in front of them, etc. It's a very established network.
However, what often tends to happen is that these youth parties act like their 'mother' parties, in that they are constantly fighting each other and not really getting any effective debate done, especially in times of campaign. When they are debating in front of hundreds of high school students, they don't really care as much about creating effective debate and getting good opinions out there, or rather their own opinions out there, they're more trying to get voters, right? They are trying to collect votes and new members, which makes sense, but it also doesn't lead to very fruitful debates as it is more about attacking other parties and boosting your own, than talking about politics.
Gotcha. Thanks for the quick lesson on Swedish political culture! I'm wondering, can you give us a bit of an overall summary of the debate?
H- So, as the executive director of The Opinionated, I wanted to try out some in-person impact. We recruited four debaters from four different youth parties, got them together in a room, and tried out a new debate format where they were not allowed to mention any other youth party. Mind you, these are experienced debaters who are very used to talking in front of high-school students and trying to boost their own party, so we made it that you couldn't even really talk about your own party, really. It was just an opinionated debate.
We also let the audience- we had a small audience- after every debate vote on who had the strongest arguments, and the audience could also intersect... [the debate] if they had something to add to what one of the debaters said, or could pose a question, or say 'I don't agree'. They were free to do that.
So, it was a very new debate format [for them]. That was pretty much the idea, that it was purely opinionated debate based off questions that I asked, and yeah, it was fun!
It sounds like it went great! One thing I wanted to know was your main goal. What was the main objective you wanted to accomplish by holding this debate?
H- Well, I think... out of an executive director's point of view, it was testing out in-person impact, and seeing, you know, if we get to talk face-to-face with young people that are already interested in politics about The Opinionated and about what we're trying to do, can we get anyone hooked?
So, it was that, but it was also something I thought about for a while, doing a different type of debate. So, what I also wanted to see, from more of a like 'politically nerd' point of view, is to see if we could try a new debate format and if it would be appreciated by, again, young political activists. In that case, if we could try to expand it to a larger scale... because it was a very small audience of, like, 20 people. It was a very good intimate place to start because we could try it out on a smaller scale and really make sure to get everyone involved.
What I did see, then, is that it was appreciated and that sort of led me to conclude that yeah, we can try to do this on a more large scale, potentially in the U.S. as well. That was sort of what I wanted to check, is this new debate format that hasn't really been tried before gonna work? Is there interest for it? What would happen if we talked directly face-to-face- with people about The Opinionated?
I wanted to ask because you said the audience could get involved, was there any moment when they got involved that maybe you wanted to mention, or you thought was particularly interesting?
H- Well, I think, I mean all of the audience members, except for like two people, were in a youth party. So, they already have pretty established opinions. It was very interesting- although I have to admit, I was pretty horrible in actually seeing if anyone [from the audience] wanted to say anything because I was constantly keeping track of the debaters, and whenever someone wanted to say something they always went like that [raised hand] so I had to keep track in my head whose going next, I had to look at the time, and so to look out at the audience to see if someone was raising their hand was pretty difficult, so I had to get some help from other people to keep track of that. It was interesting to see, I think, it wasn't as much as I hoped [audience involvement], but at the same time, these are people who are used to watching debates, but never used to participating in them. So, trying to get them- or trying to push them towards that- I guess, in the future, I have to put a little bit more effort in really getting people comfortable to do that, because there was really only maybe two, or three, that did [participate] throughout the debate.
Although, when I was talking to people- like my sister was there who is very politically interested, she said 'Oh, I had so much to say!' and I was like, 'Well, didn't you raise your hand to say anything?'. She was like, 'No, I couldn't do it!'.
So, I think what I learned from that was that, maybe, with this new debate format some people might need a little bit of a push to really take that initiative to say something. Most people have something to say, they just really need to make sure that it's okay to say it, you know? Even though I say it's okay, I think I needed to push them a little bit more.
E- I think it's hard to get comfortable in expressing your opinions so openly, and that's why The Opinionated is great because it encourages young people to come out, say their opinions wholeheartedly, and we give them that platform.
Now, I want to learn more about your planning process. Can you walk us through how you came up with the idea? Touch on if the planning process was hard, or easy, too.
H- I think, you know, I sort of went into it a little bit naive perchance? I hosted something previously with the youth parties but that was in a completely different place, and a completely different time of year. When I initially wanted to plan this, I was just like, we'll just do a debate because the youth parties are also not used to debating each other outside of high school or university environments nor are they used to meeting each other outside of those kinds of campaign events.
What I did last time was about women's roles in politics, that was incredibly successful, but it was also a different time of year, so now, when I was planning it [the debate] for November/December, I didn't, maybe, take into account that a lot of youth parties have a lot of other events this time of year, some of them have their yearly get-together, some of them are out of the country, or have a lot of meetings specifically on Thursdays, which is when we hosted it. So, in terms of planning, maybe I should have taken that more into account. But, again, I'm not disappointed that we did get a very small turnout because I think it was really, really nice to test it out like this- and to see if there was interest- and there was interest from the youth parties that were there. They thought it was a cool format. So, we could have that knowledge that we could have it at a bigger scale later in the spring when there is more availability.
When I initially pitched the idea to my contact, who was one of the debaters, I didn't really have it all planned out and how the debate would be different from what it typically is. It sort of came as I was planning, like: how can I make this more attractive, how can we twist this in a way that fits our mission and it isn't just one 'those' debates. With the audience being able to vote who they thought was the strongest, and overall the debate being interactive, came as I was planning. As I was thinking more about it, again, it had to stick to our mission and we had to make sure this represents all youth voices and not just the ones typically being heard.
It was a gradual process, but at the end of the day, I think there's a lot to learn from the planning and things that went wrong. I also learned where there is interest to do this in the future and to put it on in a bigger scale.
A little bit messy, maybe I didn't take everything into account, but I still like how I sort of thought about it and came up with new things as planning went on. I'm excited to see where this could take us, you know, since now we have some collaborative partners on board.
E- I think you did a great job, especially doing this primarily by yourself. It's a great learning lesson, even if little things went wrong along the way, I think it only gets better from here, and it sounds great [the debate structure].
I want to focus on the actual debate, now. We have an international range of followers so not everyone could attend nor could they understand due to the language barriers, but there is a significant interest in learning about what the debaters discussed. Could you maybe give us one or two of the topics you discussed?
H- Absolutely. I tried to tailor it to what the debaters wanted to debate. I feel like the more passionate they are about it [a topic], the more interesting it's gonna be. Keep in mind, everyone who was there was a very experienced debater, so they know how to make things sound very professional and maybe less personal.
We discussed climate change, you know, what needs to be done in regards to that perspective. We discussed- well over the past 10-15 years we have had a really alarming rise in gang violence- so we discussed things to do with that, what things sort of need to be changed.
We discussed education because we have a special school system where some schools are owned privately but still get state funding, so in some parts, the parties are very split on whether those should be allowed to exist. There are a lot of studies on that, actually, with the school system, because Sweden is the only country in the world, essentially, with that type of school system, and there's a lot of debate on whether it's actually helped or harmed us and whether that has helped or harmed gang violence, as well [in terms of corelation].
Then we discussed Israel and Palestine, a little bit, as well. We actually finished off with talking about how Trump is gonna affect the next four years in America, every debater got to say their predictions.
So, those were some of the things we discussed. I tried to tailor it as much as possible to what I knew was usually interesting in Swedish politics, and also to what the debaters themselves were pretty interested in.
That's great, you covered such a wide range of topics that really anyone could get involved and have an interest in. While we are on it, were there any moments of heated debate that occurred?
H- I think in general they were pretty agreeable to each other. Climate change is definitely the big one because we had the Green Youth Party, and then we had the current conservative ruling party- not the most right-wing- but typically fiscally conservative and also a bit more socially conservative, so that's the prime minister's party.
There's a lot- a lot- of disagreement between the left and right on how they'd handle the climate crisis and the responsibility Sweden has on handling the climate crisis. Also, one of the other parties that were there is more of a middle, center party, but very fiscally conservative, very pro-capitalism, but socially very progressive-all that good stuff- so they talked about their views on forestry and deforestation that the Green party didn't share, so that was quite an interesting debate.
Something I also incorporated very last minute to the debate was to do a debate on something non-political. Just to encourage opinions in general, just to correlate it- because sometimes when people think of politics they think of something they can't relate to, but at the end of the day it's all about opinions, right? So I tried to make a connection to opinions in general for people because I feel that bridges the gap a little bit. So, the first thing we did before we debated on anything else was debating the topic of when is it okay to put up Christmas decorations- it was the very first thing we talked about.
That created the most debate, I would say, and also because it was the first thing, it created a very relaxed mood. It was something so ridiculous but showed this opinion is- in theory- no different than having an opinion on climate change, although, it obviously is but, that was probably the most heated, people got aggressive on when to put up Christmas decorations.
E- I think it's a very polarizing topic. I'm definitely a right after Thanksgiving [in America] girl, like last Thursday in November, the tree goes up the next day. Honestly, my family has put the tree up before Thanksgiving before, it's pretty hardcore.
H- It's radical.
Was there any moment that surprised you during the debate?
H- Hmm, I was positively- I wouldn't say surprised- rather a little bit relieved that were was so much of this, so, right after a debate topic was finished, I put a slide on in the background with a QR code that sent everyone straight to the poll to vote for whose opinion- or rather argument- was the strongest.
As soon as I did that, everyone just pulled up their phones quicker than anything else. It felt like the exact moment we put up the QR code everyone's phones just went up to scan it. That was fun to see because it sort of felt like maybe people didn't have the courage to say something directly. Two of the debaters were also leaders of their youth party, so that might be a little scary to confront sometimes because they are very experienced debaters.
So, I think the polls being anonymous were a way for people to get out any emotion they had, you could sort of see the engagement in people when they pulled out their phones to scan the QR code, so that was a positive relief- like, 'okay, people had actually something to think about the debate'. Maybe they didn't want to do it in front of everyone- but they were thinking about what was being said.
E- That's awesome. It's definitely a way for them to use their voice, maybe if they are shy. It's a smart idea. I didn't know you did that, I really like that idea.
Okay, now my last question for you. You know I gotta bring in the American politics side shamefully, but since you have experience in both Swedish and American politics, do you find that Swedish politics allow more room for youth involvement?
H- To be honest, I'd like to say- well, I think so. Looking from my own perspective as someone who got politically involved at like, 13, it was way easier for me to find a way to do it in Sweden. All I had to was- well, I come from a biased perspective because my parents, while they're not involved in politics, they know a lot about it, so they knew that youth parties were a thing- so when I felt like it was time to get involved, all I had to do was pick a youth party, register as a member, and then I could start coming to meets. So, that's where I got my start.
Most high schools at one point or another do have youth parties visiting them, so that's another way to get that face-to-face, or straight, contact between youth and politics in a way that I don't think they have it in America. I mean, if you do have students getting involved and face-to-face contact with politics in high schools it's mainly nonpartisan, right? It's encouraging people to go vote, even in universities I would say it's quite limited, so I would probably say it's easier to do it in Sweden than in America. It might also be more engaging.
However, I guess you have to look at it from the perspective that in Sweden, it's all very established in that sense, as well, the youth parties have been around for a while and are legit organizations, a lot of current politicians come from the youth parties. So, it's maybe a little hierarchial, maybe, a bit structural, in that sense?
I don't know if there's a better alternative in America, because in America I feel like a lot of youth politics is to just to get into universities, perchance, and then after that, if in university, you might get involved. I don't know, maybe in Sweden there is a more direct path to politics, but in America, there are more options. There are so many options, but youth get less exposed directly to politics in America.
I mean, I don't know. It's a difficult question to answer- a good question- but a difficult one. I look at it from a very privileged perspective because I have always been told about politics- talking about it from the kitchen table, so it's always been a constant for me. I don't know If I am the best person to answer from an everyday perspective.
E- I think it's a great answer. To go along with what you were saying, America does not have youth parties the way that Sweden does. I mean, the only one I can think of that has really an established, like, youth party, would be Democratic Socialists, where you can register and become a member. The Democrats and Republicans don't- they just have outside chapters, but no official 'youth party'.
I think that Sweden like you said, offers more of a direct path to getting involved- or rather an easier way- whereas the United States is filled with thousands of options that may not necessarily be directly correlated to a specific party, especially when you are younger.
H- I joined the Green Youth Party, which is one of the smallest ones, so it might be easier to rise up in the ranks over there over the bigger ones. I joined right before I was going to turn 14, and I had my first debate with like, grown-up politicians in front of hundreds of high school students when I was 15. It's a very quick turnaround. It's a really good learning curve but not everyone who is interested in politics wants a career in them, so it might be a bit difficult and might be a little too real in some cases in youth politics in Sweden.
E- That makes sense.
That's it for me. Thanks for sitting down with me. It was great to learn more.
H- Thank you for having me! It was exciting! Thanks, Emily.
H= Hilda
E= Emily
Comentários