Matt Yglesias

Sweden is Neutral, O’Reilly is Stupid

Here’s a funny story. It seems that Jessica Alba observed in an interview that Bill O’Reilly is “kind of an a-hole.” O’Reilly retaliated, noting that Alba had also referred to Sweden as a neutral country. He mocked her, viciously, and described her as a “pinhead” for confusing Sweden with Switzerland. And I can tell you from first hand experience that there’s nothing the Swiss like less about Americans than our habit of confusing Sweden with Switzerland. But of course Sweden is also neutral—like Switzerland, they stayed out of the two World Wars, didn’t join NATO, etc.