Eivind Berge, the Norwegian Men’s Rights blogger who was arrested after making repeated death threats against police on his blog, has been released from jail. The country’s Supreme Court has ruled that his comments – in which, among other things, he talked about how killing police was on his “bucket list” – are not illegal. His property will be returned to him and he is evidently entitled to compensation for his time in jail.
As far as I can figure it from the Google-translated articles I’ve read, the Supreme Court has ruled that statements on the internet are not “public” and therefore his threats don’t count as “incitement” under the law. Here’s what one article says:
Supreme Court’s Appeals Committee believes statements Berge has made on his blog are not covered by the Freedom of the definition in the Penal Code. incitement to violence and murder of police officers are therefore not presented publicly in the legal sense and therefore is not criminal, says the Supreme Court.
Apparently the issue was a fairly narrow legal one. According to the same article, the law under which he was prosecuted (written long before the birth of the Internet) “operates with a public safety and publishing concept that … do not take account of electronic publishing on the Internet.” The majority on the Supreme Court, the article goes on to say, felt that “the indictment includes actions that are clearly worthy of punishment,” but that existing law does not allow punishment for statements made on the Internet.
If anyone here knows Norwegian, let me know if this is correct. Here and here are several more articles in Norwegian, translated by Google. Here’s an article in English, written before the Supreme Court rendered its judgment, that spells out the issues a little more clearly.
On his blog, Berge celebrates his victory in the courts:
My blog is legal after all. The police had no lawful basis for pursuing criminal charges against me. This means the case has collapsed for the prosecution and I will be entitled to compensation for the three weeks I spent in prison. I was arrested and jailed for speech which the Supreme Court has ruled is legal, so obviously the entire prosecution was utterly baseless.
He considers his release a giant victory for Men’s Rights:
Being a political prisoner provided a welcome boost to my activism. … The entire process has been tremendously empowering for the Men’s Rights Movement. This spectacular prosecution of an MRA sparked debate and demonstrated to the horror of the feminist establishment that there are more antifeminists out there than they knew. I am not some kind of extremist easily dismissed, even though some of my writings may appear somewhat ungenteel. While my kind of violent rhetoric is legal, it is no longer needed. We are strong enough to fight feminism in more elegant and subtle ways now.
I will highlight some of Berge’s “ungenteel” opinions in future posts.
See here and here for previous posts of mine on Berge, which include many examples of his “violent rhetoric.”
I didn’t have sex til I was 26. This was not the state of affairs I wanted. I’ve never contemplated mass murder.
What a whiny, entitled shit.
>>>What sort of expectations do I have? To be able to get into relationships like most guys my age do, maybe?
Congratulations, you’ve already fulfilled those expectations!
Thus proving that pathetic unhappy guy + woman = pathetic unhappy guy in a relationship. Your problem is not incel, your problem is being pathetic, whiny and unhappy, and a relationship won’t fix that.
>>>I don’t know what to say to this guy. Normally “go see a therapist” makes sense, but.. yeah..
At this point I don’t so much think he needs to see a professional but that a professional needs to see him, if you catch my meaning.
Dude… mourning over a two-week relationship is NOT HEALTHY… and it isn’t because everyone else has “lower testosterone”.
24… been laid. Had two relationships (or maybe three, it’s hard to say… was it one for a couple of weeks, and then one of eight months, and then the one with the sex; or was it one of eight months, then one for a couple of weeks, in which there was sex)?
That’s not bad. But somehow you are being murdered because of how much action you aren’t getting. It’s not your fault. You talked to a therapist, and when that didn’t immediately fix it you begged her to fuck you, and she tried to kill you by saying no.
Creepy dude, really creepy.
Actively committing manslaughter by doing nothing.
Active, does not mean that.
And not getting laid, won’t kill you. Honest. I had a bad breakup when I was 27, I went like a year before I had sex. The beginning was because I was depressed, the middle was because I wasn’t in a good headspace, and it probably made me less attractive. The tail-end, I was just unlucky.
Didn’t kill me.
We need a “George Sodini” bingo square.
What you’re talking about is depression. Not lack-of-girls-ession. A girl cannot cure your depression.
Work on your depression, and you may get a girlfriend or not, but either way you’ll be free of thinking that you’re DOOOOMED if your love life isn’t perfect. And that feels better than any sex, trust me.
I think at this point we need to move on from static bingo squares and have like computerised ones where it just fills the squares randomly from a big list when you load it up.
24? REALLY?
*Just* of the people I’ve slept with, I know nine people whose situation is as crappy as yours. Oddly, none of them are to my knowledge posting on the Internet about how their parents ought to be murdered, and I don’t think it’s because my vagina has magic powers.
And seriously dude. My boyfriend got his first kiss in college; now he has two girlfriends and is engaged to be married. Sexual unsuccess– even a long period of it– doesn’t mean *eternal* sexual unsuccess, unless you become bitter, pathetic, and whiny over it.
BlackBox, somebody who entered one short relationship in 2007 and one in 2009-2010, not getting anything between or after is not somebody who can enter relationships as any normal guy.
You’re also forgetting that I was in a SEXLESS relationship AGAINST MY WILL. And even then I was a lot happier than now, as I had constant access to cuddling, a nice girl and a hope of sex. I wasn’t miserable at that time. You’re making things up.
!”Dude… mourning over a two-week relationship is NOT HEALTHY… and it isn’t because everyone else has “lower testosterone”.”
I was 19 and it was the first girlfriend I ever had after years of waiting. It was also my last kiss in the next two and a half years. That’s the result of incel. Incel isn’t healthy. If I could find somebody else I wouldn’t be mourning a two week relationship. It had nothing to do with testosterone, it had to do with the fact I couldn’t find somebody else. If I didn’t find that girl I was with 8 months after her I’d still be mourning that relationship that lasted two weeks.
pecunium, I’ve been laid twice this spring and it lasted not longer than a minute. It will probably be the last time I ever will be. I’ve been craving for sex for 9 years. Your one year without sex is nothing to me.
Dude.
Robert.
This is not helping you. This whole belief in “incel”…it’s hurting you. Demanding that the world cater to you at every whim is not helping you. And trying to hold US and other people hostage over this is a shitty thing to do.
Listen, I’ve just broke up with someone after 2 weeks. Felt bad, and even ashamed because I was told that I was “pushy”. Felt bad that despite being told that they would like to see me…that I made things go sour. That I fucked up bad, or that the person lost interest in me…I honestly don’t even know, and I’m scared to even try to ask.
But you know what? Even when relationships go awry, the best thing to do is to accept that you mess up, look yourself in the mirror, and try to fix yourself. You can’t demand that the world praise you, give you what you want or anything like that…unless you take some self-awareness. Besides, you have a lot of years ahead of you, so please see some help. I was told by someone once that people fuck up in more ways than I have..
Plus, Therapy is not about temporary “fixes” like getting laid by the same person you’re seeing, it’s about about addressing deeper issues, about getting to the root of the problem…which many times, is all about how one SEES things, not just the circumstances themselves. So…yeah. If what you’ve said about begging your therapists to fuck you is true…you’re doing it wrong. I say this as someone who has only gone to therapy a few times in my life, and am currently slow with things as I go through CBT and some self-help as suggested by friends/some people I’m seeing.
…I don’t know if you’re going to actually read this, but really, man…get help. Or at least recognize that it’s not the fault of your parents or anyone else that you’re currently out of a relationship.
You do realise that this whiny self-pity is completely counterproductive, don’t you?
“Years of waiting”? This means you’ve been obsessing about having sex since before puberty?
“Victim”: There is no such thing as an “ultimate soulmate”. Incidentally, your ultimate soulmate isn’t actually trying to murder you through the active act of not existing.
What you do is act like a decent human being. You do your level best not to look like a slob. You avoid going into controlling freak mode when a woman shows interest in you. If you follow those simple guidelines, you’ll get some dates. Not dozens per week, and not all with supermodel-looking-women, but you’ll get some dates. Not all of these dates will lead to sex or anything else. You will also get some relationships, most of which will end in breakups. Then eventually, you will maybe meet someone that you are comfortable with, and that you can spend long periods of times with without feeling trapped or bored. If that woman feels the same towards you, you’ll spend a lot of time in each other’s company and grow to trust each other, to the point where it will be difficult to imagine dating anyone else or being alone — not just unpalatable or unpleasant, but difficult to imagine. That’s as close as most people get to having an “ultimate soulmate”. And even then, there is never any guarantee you won’t break up in the future. But before you anywhere in relationships, man, you’ve got to access your uncrazy side, and stop equating celibacy with murder.
Uh, yes it is. It is *perfectly* normal. Two relationships is perfectly ordinary.
Dude, you are 24, you have *plenty* of time to have sex. Even if you only have sex once every nine years that’s 6.22* sexytimes in your life! And at least some of them will be repeat business.
Most people get over a relationship *even if* they don’t get in another relationship.
Jesus. I’ll fuck you if that’ll shut you up.
*I am not sure what a quarter of a sexing is.
Cliff, that’s nonsense. I wasn’t depressed when I had a girlfriend.
To say that I mourned a fantastic chance that I will be given once in a million years because of depression is just…. stupid. I mourned that chance because I knew I will never be given another one like that. And I wasn’t.
I did find another girlfriend 2 and a half years later but she was very shy and we never had sex- that would have never happened with that girl in 2007, who was planning to have sex with me when I screwed up.
no you werent! you could have left her any time!
oh, you mean you weren’t being allowed to fuck her against your will? that is rapey as fuck!
“and the obsession grew and grew. ”
That’s part of your problem, you know that?
” In the end I tried to kill myself because of her.”
No. She’s not responsible for your suicice attempt by not being/sleeping with you.
Two relationships in three years is extremely normal.
What exactly do you think everyone else is doing?
…You’re backdating your terrible lack of sex to when you were fifteen?
I admire your restraint in not going all the way back to your birth, but sheesh.
Leaving aside your hilariously inappropriate use of “AGAINST MY WILL” to describe other people having wills too–you said you never tried to initiate sex at all. So you probably could have had sex, if you’d willed it, actually.
The only thing your girlfriend did AGAINST YOUR WILL was not read your mind and know that you needed her to initiate sex and take total control of it.
“Access to cuddling.”
You’re such a romantic.
What’s the chance of a once in a million years chance happening in the nine years you’ve wanted sex? Seriously. A million years is a long freaking time.
Seriously, dude, your happiness should not be dependent on whether you have a girlfriend. Girlfriends are awesome! (Mine is particularly so. :P) But they are neither necessary nor sufficient for a happy life. Ultimately, you have to find your happiness within yourself from things that are under your control.
I mean, seriously, if I can have a happy life despite occasionally being so suicidal that I can’t leave the bed, you can have a happy life despite not having a girlfriend.
…for the record, it was probably stupid of me to use myself as an example, even if I’ve never really been in a relationship before, and I’ve had…issues when I was growing up, abuse and all. So, while I do have issues with self-esteem/depression, I’m not sure if my circumstances are like what you’ve stated.
My point is: Reach out to someone for help, not just for, “I’m celibate against my will, HALP!” because by your standards EVERYONE is “celibate against their will” sometimes in their lives. Address the problematic beliefs and attitudes that you have, most of your belief in “incel”. Because believe me, that bullshit is not empowering you in any way, shape or form, it just makes you a bitter asshat, and no one wants to be around a bitter asshat.
I was pretty desperate for sex when I was fifteen… Of course, I was also *fifteen*.
When I was 24, I’d had one six-month relationship (mostly long-distance, since she was at university, so minimal sex), a couple of brief flings and a number of very close but strictly platonic friendships with women.
In fact, come to think of it, I was approaching the end of a two-and-a-half year period of no sex at all.
But instead of whining about it and blaming everyone else, I used this time to take a long, hard, forensically self-critical look at myself – and I didn’t like a lot of what I found. In fact, I was retrospectively very grateful to my various partners for putting up with my bullshit at all.
So I did something about it.
And my next relationship lasted eighteen months. The one after that lasted seven years. I married the one after that, we’ve been together since 2001, and she’s still my best friend: in fact, only just this last ten minutes we both cracked up simultaneously at an unintentional innuendo from one of the BBC’s Olympics commentators.
Because I can get away with being gleefully immature now that I’ve actually grown up.
In that kind of headspace, who the hell would want to risk their life by going out with you? What happens if things don’t work out, will you stalk the poor girl and maybe kill her? I’m being serious here, not sarcastic. Your parents and the government employees you wrote to were and are doing the women of the world a HUGE favour, but what they should be doing is getting you somewhere where you can hopefully get help (and I DON’T mean by setting you up with a partner) before you actually DO kill someone.
Avictimofmurders – I do recommend that you seek some form of therapy. I acknowledge your pain; though I have not suffered overmuch from Incel, I do know men who have, and I have seen firsthand the contempt they receive from women and our misandrist society. Nonetheless, I also believe that your reaction is above and beyond what is normal. You aren’t thinking clearly, and if you aren’t trolling, I think your attitude could be outright destructive. I urge you to contact someone who can help. I can be reached at [email protected], if you want someone to talk to.