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The proposed update to Switzerland’s Ordinance on the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications Traffic (VÜPF: Verordnung über die Überwachung des Post- und Fernmeldeverkehrs) represents a significant expansion of state surveillance powers, worse than the surveillance powers of the USA. If enacted, it would have serious consequences for encrypted services such as Threema, an encrypted WhatsApp alternative and Proton Mail as well as VPN providers based in Switzerland.
You’ve not heard of shady banking, Nazi gold, reluctance to stop dealing with Russia, women not being able to vote until the 70s, and Nestle?
Switzerland gets aggressively simped for online, and there’s certainly some nice things about them, but there’s also some pretty awful things.
Switzerland is beautiful, but I have never met a more insular/racist group of people in my travels than in the swiss countryside. Skin colour and language can match, but if your accent is off you might be labelled a dirty foreigner and be treated accordingly.
Can you name examples?
We did always implement all the EU sanctions afaik.
In case you meant us not using Russian assets to help Ukraine like the EU does, iirc they’re using interest, not the actual assets, for that. Which I remember reading (but don’t have a source right now) isn’t possible for Switzerland due to how they are stored in commercial banks rather than central repositories. And just seizing them would be illegal. It’s not like we don’t want to (though that’s probably a factor too), but more like we can’t.
Shady banking: happens everywhere
nazi gold: happened a long time ago
women not voting until 70s: happened everywhere
nestlé: american company with swiss roots
Those are all very bad, but on the other hand their flag is a big plus.
It’s also a big red flag.
But on the minus side, it’s a cross
on the minus side we have austria
Yeah, the whole “private banking” history thing the EFF seems to lionize in the article was 100% just for serving lucrative international robber barrons and other criminals. It was never about protecting regular citizens privacy.
Hold up now! I’ll have you know in some parts of the country women couldn’t vote until the 90s! Also unmarried cohabitation was illegal in some cantons until the 80s and paternity leave as a concept only exists in Switzerland since the 00s.
US is still lacking that last item…
I think someone like you, Grand Nagus, would admire the Swiss over most of that ;)
Strong means attractive. Not getting pummeled in WWII and making some profits, being complicit in some crimes (turning back Jews), and in general being on top for many decades make you look strong.
I meant current times, not in the past. Sorry, I assumed that would be obvious. There are also some things I like about Germany, though they have a pretty terrible past.
The Nazi gold is still very much a thing. And the descendants of Jewish people who died in concentration camps are often unsuccessful in reclaiming any wealth that was stored in Swiss banks, because they don’t have death certificates and what not. Switzerland is incredibly stubborn and selfish when it comes to anything that would tarnish their neutral stance in banking and politics.
The Nazi gold was given back. It’s very much not a thing anymore. And back to the jews I mean, not Germany.
Nazi gold didn’t disappear after the Nazis fell. They still pocketed it all, despite knowing where all that wealth came from, and did fuck all to help rebuild Europe.
Other things like their appeasing attitude towards Russia, reluctance to allow weapons exports to Ukraine, and willingness to export weapons to awful regimes are all unambiguously current.
Huh. On the surface, they don’t sound very neutral on the weapons stuff 😕. TIL. I wonder what their underlying reasoning for this is
Money, it’s always money…
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Reluctance to stop dealing with Russia is a single positive in the list.
Oh look, one of Lemmy’s many resident tankies.
Oh look, another one who’s brain has been melted by propaganda.
Imagine simping for a foreign threat actor