In Switzerland (where niqab is already banned in Ticino since 2013), the German-speaking newspaper SonntagsBlick recently cited a survey saying that 62% of the Swiss population would be in favor of a burqa ban.
This is shockingly low. Just 62%? And what about the rest? They all despise women?
This is just sad. Civilizational advances are slow.
Clarissa's Blog 
Advances tend to reverse. Apparently ineptitude is considered a sign of moral superiority by most of the liberal left. They act as though to act in accordance with reason or their own interests leads directly to Auschwitz. It’s a postmodernist creed. Westerners have a sinful nature. They caused the genocide. Therefore, we are not to act according to our perceptions, our desires or our cultural needs.
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“ineptitude is considered a sign of moral superiority by most of the liberal left”
Okay, that goes in the top five things you’ve ever written.
“They act as though to act in accordance with reason or their own interests leads directly to Auschwitz”
My favorite in this regard remains Cass Sunstein who apparently is so terrified of non-Jews organizing that he sees PTAs and bowling leagues as an express train to Treblinka (to give the A-word a rest).
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Yeah, I was drawing my term from Lyotard.
I really don’t care if non-Jews or Jews organise. These terms seem wholly redundant to me. (Sorry to those who consider otherwise.) I just don’t care.
There was a T-shirt that came out in the post-war liberation days in Zim, that was as offensive as possible. It said,
“Settle-munt? Let’s slot floppies.”
In military and colloquial speak that meant, “Settle-person of the African race? Let us put a bullet into bodies and see how they flop.”
That’s very offensive, but I condone the refreshing honesty of this post-war sentiment and not its racism.
Perhaps honesty is really all that is missing nowadays.
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This is why I left my union years ago. It became obvious that we were not defending the rights of workers but the rights of underachievers. That was extremely disappointing to me.
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I downvoted it since I’m unfairly not allowed to give it more than one upvote.
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I consider the downvotes a sign that I am on the right track….
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This is a “the glass is half …..” kind of thing and, unusually, I’m seing the glass 62% full.
If you keep in mind the following
“tolerance” has been enshrined as the ultimate value in western europe for the last 50 or so years, people are terrified of being called racists since it equals social death,
Europeans are constantly being preached to about how they shouldn’t judge the behavior of muslim immigrants (an election was just called off in Sweden so that voters could not voice their disapproval of completely unsustainable levels of immigration fueled by political and cultural dysfunction in the middle east),
Given the suffocating PC atmosphere on public debate in Europe on this and similar issues, I’d say that 62% is pretty good.
Finally, it doesn’t say if the survey is face-to-face or anonymous (if it were face to face 62% is pretty great and you could confidently add another 10 to 20% to those favoring a ban).
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I like the positive perspective! Let’s hope the numbers improve.
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“an election was just called off in Sweden so that voters could not voice their disapproval of completely unsustainable levels of immigration fueled by political and cultural dysfunction in the middle east”
The revolting global inequality and the usurpation of resources on behalf of the West is what is “completely unsustainable”, immigration is a reasonable consequence of that. Although that’s not why Western governments don’t do anything significant about immigration. The real reason is that their countries heavily depend on immigrants. Their consumerist voters refuse to do about the half of the jobs in their native country (blue collar jobs, medical jobs, nursing jobs, elderly and child care, engineering jobs, etc. – jobs that are hard to do). Their consumerist voters also expect a HUGE social welfare state. And in the Western-European social welfare states the immigrants are the only social group who pay more taxes than receive in benefits. Public whining about the malevolent immigrants won’t change that. If the Western voters want a comfortable, consumerist, resource-wasting lifestyle without real hardships and with a nanny state that helps them remain perpetual kids, they also have to accept the consequences like the “completely unsustainable levels of immigration”.
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I’m not sure what this is in reaction to. I was a little sloppy in termnology since I was writing about asylum seekers (who are mostly economic migrants) rather than dissatisfied people looking for something different.
If you follow Swedish politics (which I kind of do) the following is common knowledge (keep in mind that the populations of Sweden and Hungary are similar in size). Also keep in mind that Sweden bears no responsibility for the perpetual dysfunction of the middle East and Africa.
Swedish policy towards asylum seekers (who are mostly economic migrants) is essentially insane. In the last three years they accepted something like 160,000 people (that’s the city of Szeged) and are estimating they’ll take in about 100,000 in the next year (add in Szekesfehervar). In other words over twice as many per capita as any other country in Europe (over ten times as many as the UK)
Virtually none of them arrive knowing the language which means there is a long period of adjustment before they can even hope to be an economic asset (plus, Swedish language programs are not very good and many arrivals resent having to learn the language).
The government has cut back on some social services to redirect it towards providing room and board for asylum seekers.
Especially muslim immigrants (and their Swedish born descendents) do not really pull their weight economically. The women don’t work (although girls do a lot better at school) and the boys mostly don’t do well at school which limits the jobs they can do.
There are at last count over 50 areas where the Swedish police no longer go and control of which has been more or less officially ceded to criminal gangs (mostly second and third generation non-Swedes).
The prime minister specifically said that Sweden is big enough to take in many, many, many more refugees.
The single political party that thinks any of this is a concern is regularly labeled ‘neo-nazi’ for their efforts (they’re not).
Elections had been called and then cancelled because the Swedish political establishment is afraid of electoral gains by the party that wants to dial back the open borders a bit.
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I know that Sweden tried to lure in immigrants in a variety of inventive ways but ultimately failed. The reasons for the failure are mostly two: the language and the closed, snobby, supercilious culture. Sorry, Swedes, but I’m hearing you are very unwelcoming towards visitors.
Since normal immigrants refuse to come on these conditions, Sweden is forced to bring in “refugees”. The only way to attract them is through payouts. And the result is what you described.
Sweden is a country I’d never consider emigrating to because of the hatefulness of the locals and the system that is specifically set up to prevent talented, resourceful people (as opposed to rich, lazy locals ) to succeed. I have no interest in working as a dog only to keep the locals in their ridiculous social handouts. And that is the only reason why Sweden even wants immigrants: to take and take and take from them to keep afloat a system that is not working.
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“Especially muslim immigrants (and their Swedish born descendents) do not really pull their weight economically. The women don’t work (although girls do a lot better at school) and the boys mostly don’t do well at school which limits the jobs they can do.”
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That doesn’t actually make any sense. If they’ve already banned the niqab (in which you can see the wearer’s eyes) why wouldn’t they ban the burqa (which completely covers the eyes)? My un-politically correct feeling is that your face is not genitalia, and not being able to see someone’s face dehumanizes them.
Maybe some of the respondents were confused as to what they were? It’s not like I knew the difference instantly. People tend to use the terms burqa and hijab interchangeably in the west.
Another thought: maybe somebody was thinking of all those Swiss bank accounts rich Saudis have.
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“My un-politically correct feeling is that your face is not genitalia, and not being able to see someone’s face dehumanizes them.”
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From what I understand, the niqab is only banned in a single canton.
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As much as I don’t like niqabs I’m scared of goverment intrusion. Allowing them to ban them opens the door to ban anything that fits the political agenda of themoment. And if it has extended as far as clothing… I’m not sure there’s a limit. Perhaps the rest of the poll participants share the same line of thought.
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You are already not allowed to walk around naked or come to class in a swimsuit. This is not any sort of a new development.
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Im actually ok with individual institutions / companies allowed to define this at their discretion but not msndated by government. There’s always progressive institutions. I happen to have studied in one of them… I never tried swimsuits but some girls were on the borderline in this respect.
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Let’s not worry about government. It is rapidly divesting itself of functions. We will soon beg it to come back and do something for us but in vain. Why not let it do something for women’s rights on its way out?
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I would be less against them if wearers didn’t mind acting like normal human beings and showing border guards or police their faces when requested, but that’s not what happens.
And I’ll mention some of the most negative things I’ve heard about face covering came from female muslims.
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Border guards can choose not to be border guards, so their plight is of little interest to me. It’s the insult to women that this practice carries that I’m concerned about. Nobody is expecting Jews to live amidst swastikas in the street, workplace, school, etc, right? Why should women be ok with the equivalent,
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They are expected to live with swastikas. It’s not illegal to get a swastika tattoo or to display one on your property. I think I’m misunderstanding the word ‘ban’. Of course I would be in favor of banning children in public school from wearing burqas, but the way the word ‘ban’ is used in this context sounds more broad than that.
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Everybody can do whatever they want at home. This is just about public spaces.
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“Border guards can choose not to be border guards, so their plight is of little interest to me”
Huh? This makes no sense. I was referring to the idea that face covering would be less offensive if face coverers did show their face to civil authorities when requested. But they don’t – the whole point is to signal their rejection of civil authority in favor of “religious” convictions (never mind that there is no religious requirement for face covering and it is in fact prohibited during the Hajj).
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That’s the entire point. As women, they’re not supposed to be out and about or have any individuality in public. It’s supposed to be this great sacrifice to even be out in public instead of closeted in some purdah with their family and men. It bugs the shit out of me to be honest. It’s this extreme outcome of the idea that men are slavering beasts with no control over themselves and it’s all on the woman to protect themselves and maintain peace through their dress and behavior.
This is barely parodyWoman in Burqa Condemns Woman in Chador
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Ticino is Italian Switzerland, home to former heads of the Swiss military; SonntagsBlick is German Switzerland (Zürich) …
Keep in mind that Appenzell (part of German Switzerland) only introduced women’s suffrage at the cantonal level in 1980 at the order of a Swiss federal court, and that Jura always had it since it broke away from Berne. Before you start congratulating the people of Jura, keep in mind that this momentous date was in 1977.
Switzerland operates at its own speed and with its own inconsistencies, with the only thing that the diverse Swiss can agree on being that the bridges and roads must be rigged with explosives to ensure their neighbours can’t invade.
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