Learn Swedish: Han avskydde inledningen, men det gjorde inte vi. - He loathed the introduction, but we did not.

It stands in for the entire action from the first clause: avskydde inledningen (loathing the introduction). In Swedish, when you contrast or repeat an action using göra (to do), you use det as a pronoun to represent that action.

In English we just say "but we didn't". Why do we need both det and gjorde here?

English allows auxiliary verbs like "didn't" to stand alone. Swedish does not. To mirror "we didn't", Swedish requires the verb göra (here as gjorde) to act as a stand-in for the main verb, plus det to represent the specific action being replaced.

Why is the word order det gjorde inte vi instead of vi gjorde inte det?

Both are grammatically correct, but putting det first emphasizes the contrast (He hated it, but THAT is something we did not do). When det moves to the front of the clause for emphasis, the V2 (verb-second) rule kicks in, forcing the verb gjorde to come before the subject vi.

The verb avskydde looks a bit unusual. What is its infinitive form?