What’s the best way to overcome a possible enemy threat? To play on their weaknesses.

Recently, Sweden noticed that Russian submarines were getting a little too close for comfort, after they were spotted lurking around an archipelago in the Baltic Sea.

So rather than retaliating with verbal or physical threats, The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society took a different approach.

They decided to play on one of Russia’s main phobias — homosexuality — and dropped an animated sign into their waters that looks a little something like this:




The sign reads:

The singing sailor

WELCOME TO SWEDEN
GAY SINCE 1944
For those who are not familiar with Russia’s anti-gay culture, they have been persecuting their LGBT citizens (as well as foreign visitors) with harsh fines and even prison sentences.

According to the The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, which is in fact the oldest peace organization in the world:

“The purpose of the The Singing Sailor is to urge the Swedish government to think in new ways instead of falling back on territorial defense, conscription and rearmament – the world doesn’t need more weapons.”
Just to make things clear, this sign is more than an underwear clad seaman rocking his hips back and forth — it also sends out an ongoing stream of morse code to any ships nearby.

And what exactly does that code say?:



“This way if you are gay.”
It’s still unknown whether or not this tactic has worked, but one could assume that no news is good news, in this case.

 Vaktathi wrote:
While I would dispute the notion that weapons can't function as a conflict solving method, I do find this both amusing and potentially somewhat practical.

Lets any "visitors" know they're being watched with a lower potential of provoking a hostile response or triggering any self defense actions, while being amusing at the same time.

aw_man wrote:
Those moving hips are pretty mesmerizing.

I would love to see a huge light house sized version of one of these things.

The best idea/use for a kickstarter IMO.

 Ghazkuul wrote:
Or this could have the reverse effect and anger the Russians to the point where they feel they are being taunted....which they are. And in that case...This is Russia were talking about. They invaded Georgia and Ukraine because YOLO FFS!

Good luck Sweden, hopefully the idea of men pounding each others bum holes keeps the Russian bear at bay :-P

 Frazzled wrote:

 Ghazkuul wrote:
Or this could have the reverse effect and anger the Russians to the point where they feel they are being taunted....which they are. And in that case...This is Russia were talking about. They invaded Georgia and Ukraine because YOLO FFS!

Good luck Sweden, hopefully the idea of men pounding each others bum holes keeps the Russian bear at bay :-P

Sweden is a founding member of NATO. Invade Sweden and you'll get Peacekeepers up the Kremlin faster than you can say "multiple 20 megaton warheads on terminal vector inbound Comrade Putin."

 Sienisoturi wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Ghazkuul wrote:
Or this could have the reverse effect and anger the Russians to the point where they feel they are being taunted....which they are. And in that case...This is Russia were talking about. They invaded Georgia and Ukraine because YOLO FFS!

Good luck Sweden, hopefully the idea of men pounding each others bum holes keeps the Russian bear at bay :-P

Sweden is a founding member of NATO. Invade Sweden and you'll get Peacekeepers up the Kremlin faster than you can say "multiple 20 megaton warheads on terminal vector inbound Comrade Putin."

Frazz, I think you confused Norway and Sweden, Sweden is not, and has never been a member of the NATO, and most likely it won't be for a while. Therefore, as the Swedish army is quite small and has quite a many problems like a lack of proper AA, it would probably only take a few days for Russia to invade Sweden. Albeit the question then is that how would Russia get past Norway or Finland.

Also, this stunt that the Swedes did will only antagonise the Russians more against the west.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Uh, Frazz, I'm not sure if you quite meant that the way it sounds, given the context of what Sweden is doing in the OP.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Technically speaking, it was never proven who the submarine belonged to or indeed whether it was a submarine at all.






Just thought I'd point that out, everyone knows it's Russia anyway.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Technically speaking, it was never proven who the submarine belonged to or indeed whether it was a submarine at all.






Just thought I'd point that out, everyone knows it's Russia anyway.

It was never publicly proven, they likely have intelligence and technology that gives a much clearer picture than what they choose to release into the press. It's a shame they didn't catch or sink it and leave Russia with egg all over their face.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 Howard A Treesong wrote:

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Technically speaking, it was never proven who the submarine belonged to or indeed whether it was a submarine at all.






Just thought I'd point that out, everyone knows it's Russia anyway.

It was never publicly proven, they likely have intelligence and technology that gives a much clearer picture than what they choose to release into the press. It's a shame they didn't catch or sink it and leave Russia with egg all over their face.

I'm pretty happy we didn't sink a Russian sub because that'd mean all hell'd break loose. It'd hardly work to ease tensions, and it doesn't matter if one is legally in the right when one's actions only serve to increase tensions.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Passive Aggresiveness only works in High School

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sweden-suspected-foreign-submarine-turned-out-be-fishing-boat-n342036

Sweden: Suspected Foreign Submarine Turned Out to Be a Fishing Boat

Sweden's military said a mysterious object sighted in its waters was not a Russian spy submarine as initially suggested but rather a civilian fishing boat.

The Scandinavian country launched an extensive Cold War-style hunt last October after detecting what it described as foreign "underwater activity," claims bolstered by a grainy image circulated in the press.

Ola Truedsson, commander of the naval division of Sweden's armed forces, said Wednesday that it was now clear the Oct. 31 image was not of a submarine.

"We are doing this to clarify what was perceived to be a submarine in a photograph, but what we now know with certainty was a civilian working ship," Truedsson said in a statement. "What we are now making public is one of several parts in our analysis of the observations."

"It was not a submarine. We are completely sure of that," the statement added, but said it was "equally sure" there had been a submarine violation of Swedish territory "a few weeks earlier."

Sweden, a historically neutral nation, is a member of the European Union but not of the NATO military alliance — which has seen heightened tensions with Russia since the annexation of Crimea.

Russia's foreign ministry said the "unprecedented" hunt for one of its submarines had "thus proved to be nothing but a mindless waste of Swedish taxpayer money."

"This was done, as far as can be judged, to ramp up the anti-Russian hysteria and give a propagandist boost to the myth of a 'military threat' from the East," it said in a statement.



In the photograph taken on Oct. 31, 2014, there is an unidentified object which appears to be moving at speed through the water. The object is circled with a blue line. There is another ship, identified by the Armed Forces, circled with a green line. The same yellow reference lines as in Figure 1 are also inserted in Figure 2. Through metadata in the photograph, it is known that it was taken on Oct. 31 at 14.29:09 UTC.