Living in Norway, I’m compelled to cough up cash every year to fund NRK, the state-run media entity whose many TV channels and radio stations, funded to the tune of a billion dollars a year (in a country of five million people), proffer massive daily doses of its own pro-welfare state, pro-immigration, pro-Islam agitprop (critics call the network ARK, for “Labor Party Broadcasting”) as well as imported material that also serves its own propaganda purposes. I rarely watch NRK, but I did put it on last Thursday night to watch a live “town hall” in which the three leading candidates for prime minister — national elections are scheduled for September 13 — took questions from a studio audience in Trondheim.

As it happens, I’ve been so distracted in recent months by the spectacle of Joe Biden destroying America that I’ve almost totally neglected Norwegian politics; this was a good chance to catch up. Before the big event itself got underway, one of the hosts interviewed a pollster who explained that the issue today’s young Norwegians are most worked up about is climate: they like the government’s COVID restrictions on travel and other activities, and want to see similar rules introduced to tackle climate change. They’re also passionate about “anti-racism”: they’ve “seen strong films about racist acts, especially from the U.S.,” that have “fired up their commitment” on that score. Finally, they care about “equality for people with different gender identities.” Briefly put: at least when it comes to the younger generation, NRK brainwashing has plainly done its job.

On to the “town hall” itself. One exchange alone made me glad I’d tuned in. When a girl in the audience criticized the massive size of the national budget, Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre explained that the budget can’t be reduced because it pays for all kinds of welfare goodies. But don’t dare suggest that this means some Norwegians are getting a free ride on other Norwegians’ backs. As Støre explained, “In Norway we don’t live off of others’ work, we live off of one another’s work” (“Vi lever i norge ikke av andres arbeid, vi lever av hverandres arbeid”) — to my mind, a brilliant bit of socialist wordplay! Got the difference? The mistake is viewing people as individuals, some of whom pay taxes to the state and others of whom get supported by the state. No, no, no. We’re all part of a collective, see? (As a great man once said: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”)

During the “town hall,” there was lots of hand-wringing about climate change. It’s always struck me as funny that people living in a country defined by its icy climate and mountainous landscape are terrified by the prospect of average temperatures rising a degree or two and sea levels climbing by a couple of centimeters. In fact, living in the far north of Norway is so unpleasant for most people who weren’t born into a tribe of reindeer-herders that there’s a host of government incentives — from lower tax rates to breaks on student loans — designed to encourage people to relocate. Still, a young lady at the “town hall” had a question for the pols: how can the far north be made more attractive for people who move there to work? Of course, the answer was clear: climate change!

Then another woman in the audience stood up and identified herself as the mother of a “non-binary” child, and asked why a third sex option — “hen” — can’t be added to passports and other official documents. Støre, unsurprisingly, said he was all for it; Conservative Party Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she was thinking about it; Center Party leader Trygve Vedum, rather gutsily, said no. What was entertaining here was watching the mother herself struggle to get her kid’s pronoun right. Replying to the pols’ answers, she tried to be forceful — “It doesn’t matter what you think. My child exists!” — but then, instead of saying “hen,” she said “henne,” which means “her,” and, visibly flustered, stopped talking mid-sentence and sat down.

Toward the end of this extravaganza they showed a video of a tearful Afghan woman speaking into the camera, explaining in broken Norwegian that she and her family came to Norway years ago as asylum seekers only to be denied asylum and sent home. She asked that they now be allowed to come to Norway to stay. I was actually impressed by the strong negative replies from all three candidates, who held their own even though one of the TV hosts tried valiantly to guilt-trip them over the family’s fate. The sense of tragic urgency was diminished somewhat when it emerged that the family is actually not in Afghanistan at present but in Athens.