I've heard the last two about just about any country where E2EE is still legal, on any continent.

It sucks that the golden age of private communications seems to be drawing to an end, but it's far from a Swedish problem.

doesn't sound very nice tbh. yet people complain about just about any other country and somehow western Europe is idolized.

It shouldn't be idolised. Engineering people to love government is not a good thing. Americans are more free in practise than Europeans. The simplest way to see this is gun rights - Amrericans are allowed guns whereas the only corrective mechanism europeans have is to expound on how benign the governments are. Which is akin to the Chinese or N. Koreans expressing love for their 'dear leader'. But somehow, most europeans look down on the Chinese and US model.

Sounds like they're stealing ideas from the UK playbook.