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Comment by cjsthompson | Hacker News Reader

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cjsthompson·

No, actually it's the only place that's somewhat democratic.

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Make an image search for "swiss political billboards"

And what do you expect I should learn from this?

Nothing contradicting with your statement, Just gave some example of bullshit their cute democracy produces.

For one, you might find the bill boards from the SVP, that shows minarets (the tall part of a mosque) depicted as rockets, or the one where they show white sheep kicking a black sheep out of Switzerland. I think it is a good example of how 'direct' Switzerland can be if you are a foreigner there. (I still love the country though)

Well I agree that patriarcal culture (of which veils and minarets are symbols) has nothing to do in central/northern europe. I don't care about freedom of religion, I care about being freed from religion. And it sounds like the swiss do too. So if that was suposed to make me think that democracy as opposed to parliamentary regimes is a bad thing, think again.

Sorry, but the people opposed to the veils and the minarets are not opposed to them because they represent patriarcal culture, they're opposed to them because they're foreign.

In fact, patriarcal is more likely a good adjective to describe the anti-foreigner areas. For instance, one of the highest votes for a recent anti-immigration referendum[1] was in Appenzell Innerrhoden. That same (half)-canton only gave women the vote in 1990, and only because they were forced to by the Swiss Federal Court [2].

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiative_populaire_«_Contre_... (in French, but look for AI under "Par canton") [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_Switzerl...

> that patriarcal culture

Funny. Do you know anything at all about Switzerland? (hint: it's a very patriarchal society)

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