weren't they the country that like got really into anti-vax shit before it was cool and brought back measles?
I have some extended family from Switzerland. like somebody I am barely related to married a swiss guy and lived in Switzerland for several decades.
they are batshit. they moved to one of the shittiest & reactionary states in the US after retiring and the guy claims to have an allergy to batteries, wifi and DC current. like he can't/won't ride in an electric vehicle or hybrid.
I don't know that they were antivax explicitly, but before there was a vaccine they espoused the whole 'contract it and develop immunity' idiocy
So not too functionally different
edit: mixed up Sweden and Switzerland, see rest of chain below
he can’t/won’t ride in an electric vehicle or hybrid.
But he probably has no problem riding in a gasoline car running on 30000 V electricity.
he's fine with AC current though? DC is fine as long as its reversing polarity at several thousand hertz?
I honestly have not drilled down into it with him. I live several states away. we aren't close relations. when I stay with my parents for like holidays in the same state, he doesn't come over for stuff because of his "allergy". he won't venture into their house (wifi). they exchange stuff in the driveway and visit briefly then.
the whole protocol is absurd and I don't participate. I would not keep a straight face.
no clue if they've gotten the covid jab, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're on the 5G train.
It is extremely common for Americans to refer to Switzerland and Sweden as the same place, often referring to them as one singular country. That's probably what's happening here.
Also common with Taiwan/Thailand, Austria/Australia, Iran/Iraq, and probably a lot of others. My coworker the other day was trying to remember the name of Poland and referred to it as "one of those Russian countries."
switzerland, swaziland, sweden, singapore. they're all the same to americans
I think this happens even more in Spanish speaking countries, for us it's Suecia for Sweden and Suiza for Switzerland. I've definitely met various people who didn't know they were 2 different countries.
How many Europeans know all 50 states? If not, why should we bother to learn the names of theirs?
This would be more like a European confusing California with Cambodia.
i'm canadian and i could draw the 50 state borders plus territories with my eyes closed, and i don't want to be able to
Damn, guess Israel needs to carpet-bomb Switzerland now for being so un-woke. :capitalist-woke:
can we just admit europe sucks more ass for once without deflecting to america
European dudes are waaay the fuck more rapey than american ones
sauce: Been all over both
I'm curious, why do you think that is? The only things I can think of is a) americans gave a greater idea of women's choice(doubtful), or b) europeans don't fear retribution as much.
Both tbh. Also American guys are less rapey because America's just more atomized in general. People like eachother more in Europe so they try harder for good and for ill
the idea that atomizing has this useful application, that americans have more respect for women despite fewer elected positions, it's very interesting, but also very backwards and weird to me. But, I'm happy you gave me your two cents.
Maybe it's just the ruling political class that's more conservative for whatever reason
To be fair, you can hardly expect them to tell the difference between two fascist-collaborator "neutral" countries whose names start with S.
100% chance these same people also think Angela Merkel is a great example of a pragmatic liberal politician.
Sanders's most mentioned countries were Denmark and Sweden. The only candidates you ever hear namedropping Switzerland have R's next to their names, usually the more Ayn Rand-obsessed people like the Pauls.
Funny enough, neither of those countries is socialist. Scandinavia in general is not what Americans think it is. They have such a simplistic view. Here's the reality:
Norway: I fought the Germans for 62 days, then our leader's name entered the English language as a synonym for 'collaborator'.
Denmark: I fought the Germans For 5 hours, then became a model Nazi province.
Finland: I invaded and annexed Soviet territory shoulder to shoulder with the Nazis, then created my own concentration camps in which I imprisoned civilians that I ethnically cleansed.
Sweden: I supplied the Germans with iron, without which their war effort would have ground to a halt.
All of us supplied volunteers for the SS.
then our leader’s name entered the English language as a synonym for ‘collaborator
This would only be some sort of argument if Quisling was already in power when the nazis invaded, which he wasn't. The nazis installed him as "our leader", not the norwegian people.
You're also conveniently leaving out the resistance movements who most definitely did not lay down arms after 62 days. But I suppose that they and all the people who supported them were all "collaborators" as well, including the communists.
Why's it so hard to condemn Nazi collaborators? I had no idea so many users were so defensive about their history. I would think that condemning them would be second nature, but no. You bring up American slavery all the time; how is this any different?
You’re also conveniently leaving out the resistance movements
Our resistance movement was called the Union Army and we had a civil war in which hundreds of thousands of us died to put an end to slavery. How's that compare?
Your "resistance" movement outcompeted the total industrial production of the south by almost an order of magnitude. The slavers never had a chance, as long as the North fought.
Norway put up a pretty decent fight, all things considered, held out and even advanced until the Brits abandoned them leaving them without air support or supply. The commander of their remaining forces committed suicide as soon as he was out from the Nazi's thumb.
Their government managed to escape and refused to surrender. And their resistance (40,000 strong) famously crippled the Nazi Nuclear Progam and forced a 300,000 strong occupation army to stay in place, crippling the Nazi's in the later stages of the war.
The entire population, save 15000 SS Chuds, maintained a consistent program of Civil Disobedience.
Yeah, Quisling was a Nazi shit, and he and his entire government died Nazi shits up against the wall. Lesser Collaborators were ostracised, literally. Many starved to death.
Meanwhile the USA was importing rocket scientists and packing NATO with Nazi goons.
See what I mean? Endless contempt for Americans, while excusing your own, far worse crimes. You people have a real problem with being defensive.
Norway put up a pretty decent fight, all things considered,
62 whole days! Hey, don't you ridicule the Poles for folding faster than Superman on laundry day? They held out for 40 days.
crippled the Nazi Nuclear Progam
That program never had a chance. There was zero possibility of them ever actually making a bomb.
save 15000 SS Chuds
How many Americans joined the SS? You see how easy this is?
And I love the anti-NATO sentiment. Trump could have written that himself.
No, I am criticizing them for being Nazi collaborators. I'm more than a little shocked at the angry denial of complicity in Nazi war crimes in this thread. Add to it words that could have been written by Trump, and I think I've had enough internet for the day. I'm gonna go outside and walk in the park.
I'm not European, and our crimes are...about equal to the USA, really. Yay settler colonialism.
62 whole days! Hey, don’t you ridicule the Poles for folding faster than Superman on laundry day? They held out for 40 days.
Poles underperformed in the initial invasion, it's true, they also had an army of 1 million to Norway's 50,000.
That program never had a chance. There was zero possibility of them ever actually making a bomb.
They didn't have the funding, but until 1942 they were pretty close to where the US was in technical capability.
How many Americans joined the SS? You see how easy this is?
At least several dozen, probably several hundred. When did the Yanks join the war again? Oh yeah, after the Nazi's declared war on you. It is easy isn't it?
What is this a pro-NATO sub now?
When did the Yanks join the war again?
Roosevelt was doing everything he could to get a war started. There was an undeclared war in the Atlantic. The American people had fled Europe, and were deeply suspicious of getting involved in the old country's problems. What more did you want him to do? He cut Japan off from its oil supplies and boxed them in to declaring war.
At least several dozen, probably several hundred.
Five. As opposed to the Scandinavians who happily volunteered to fill up entire SS divisions. SS Division Wiking, SS Division Nordland, you get the idea.
if Roosevelt gets compliments for the quasi-war in the Atlantic and giving material, then Norway and Denmark at least deserve credit for openly fighting, even if only for a while. If they only could last one day fighting back and did so, that would be as worthy of praise as if they lasted 100. The point is they did oppose the Nazis, and at that moment moreso than america
Poland is a laughingstock of Europe because of that. They charged German tanks with cavalry. That's how the story goes.
I'm no fan of the Second Polish Republic (grumble Warsaw grumble should have won), but The Charge at Krojanty (against a motorised infantry division with armoured cars) was a) successful and b) as glorious as war gets.
A country's allegiance 75 years ago aren't a very good indicator of whether or not they're socialist today, especially since half of them lost to the Nazis. Talk about social imperialism and capitalism instead of some shit which most people today won't care about
Wait nvm you're just accusing anyone and everyone on this site of defending Nazis lol
bad logic. yugoslavia was invaded by the nazis, does that make them fascist? you could just say that they're actually social democracies instead of using this shit. a lot has changed in central europe the last almost century
motherfucker where in my post did I defend nazi collaborators? A loooooot has changed in the last 75+ years in europe. Hell, Germans went from well, nazis, to metrosexual gay guys with skinny glasses who go to the discoteque to listen to der funkybeats when off work. using that scandinavia used to be part of the nazi empire as your go to example of them either a) not being socialist countries, or b) not being like the image Americans have of scandinavia, is both weird and does nothing to prove or disprove your thesis, when you could just say they still rely on capitalist resource extraction from global poor nations or something.
using that scandinavia used to be part of the nazi empire
No, no, no. I said they were Nazi collaborators. I don't get why this simple concept is getting such tremendous pushback. The fact that it's in the past has nothing to do with it. America doesn't get a break from slavery because it was in the past. Therefore the same applies to Scandinavia.
Oh, you don't like your crimes being brought up? Hmm, what a fascinating concept.
And just so you know, the idea that Germans will happily go back to Nazism is behind the vehement suppression of the far right in Germany. AfD is frozen out of the government, and for good reason. Germans are just champing at the bit to go back to Nazism. If you don't believe me, just ask one of them. Heck, Trump withdrawing US troops was seen as a threatening gesture, one likely to release the Germans from under the American thumb to become a threat to all Europe once again.
Why is it so hard to just admit fault, condemn your past, make amends however possible, and vow to never repeat the atrocities of the past.
Instead of focusing on the threats of the 20th century try looking forward to the problems we will encounter soon
Nice distraction!
Get over yourself. Nazis and Nazi sympathizers don’t deserve compassion. If you want compassion from the world learn how to put it into the world. If you can’t, you can’t expect it.
literally nobody alive from that time is around anymore lmao, you gonna get mad at what the Romans did to Carthage next?
literally nobody alive from the time of US slavery is around anymore lmao, you gonna get mad at what the Romans did to Carthage next?
You see how that doesn't work? America doesn't get to dodge its responsibility for slavery, and Scandinavia doesn't get to dodge its responsibility for collaboration with the Nazis.
And we don't mean soup nazis. Not spelling nazis. Not neo-nazis. We mean actual Nazis. The real deal, Scandinavians were no bullshit, assist the war machine to murder Jews and communists, collaborators.
Scandinavian nazis where Nazis, same as American Nazis where nazis, and Yugoslav nazis where nazis. Scandinavians are included among those Jews and communists.
Like how a ton of Norway's wealth comes fossil fuels polluting the earth.
I don't disagree necessarily, but don't diss Norway and Denmark's resistances. Norway put up one hell of a fight against the Kriegsmarine despite being outmatched. I don't have the time and its been too long to summarize from Craig Symonds' work but here is a surprisingly good Imgur post on the fighting put up in Narvik even before the British arrived.
https://imgur.com/gallery/VyJMU1x
As this was happening the Wilhelm Heidkamp had trained her torpedo tubes on the Eidsvold; when Gerlach left the ship he fired a red flare, a pre-agreed signal with the flotilla that the Norwegians were going to fight. Eidsvold immediately fired up her engines and with surprising speed rushed towards the Wilhelm Heidkamp and readied the port battery of 5.9-inch guns to fire. Startled and fearing being rammed, especially with 200 extra hands onboard, the destroyer unleashed four torpedos at point-blank range. Two of them went straight through the side of the old ship and hit the magazine, blowing the Eidsvold in half before she could even fire her guns. By 04:37 it had sunk, taking 175 of the 183-man crew with it, including Willoch.
Gotta respect that
Switzerland is a landlocked neutral banking utopia with no access to whales in contrast to Scandinavia which has whales and kills them
The consequences of the Mercator Projection have been a disaster for the human race
real Joy Ann Reid thinking Yugoslavia was a Soviet Republic containing Slovenia and Slovakia hours, who's up
Wait that dipshit mixed up three distinct socialist nations into 1? Fucking christ
It's more like we get endless lectures on how oh-so-superior Europeans are. All the time. Oh, if we were only more like Europeans, America could become a paradise.
In reality these are just elites with contempt for the commoners and an idealized view of Europeans as an attractive "other" that they project their dreams onto. You know how Xenophobia is an irrational fear of The Other? This is the opposite of that.
Europeans are gigantic removed who project their dissatisfaction onto America and then accuse us of everything they're guilty of themselves. The Swiss specifically are selfish assholes. They still have gold bars in their banks made from melted down teeth.
If you climb a mountain you move north, and the higher the mountain the more north you are. That's why Green Boots is actually the most Scandinavian corpse in history.
I don't even have to click the link. This is :chefs-kiss:. It reminds me of the great dog eating struggle session of 2021....35 years ago today.
Are you similarly squeamish about how your cat meat is prepared?
