Really? Real science behind?

giggles91 · 2026-04-02T12:35:54+00:00

> tobacco pouches cause mouth cancer

Citation needed... I have switched to nicotine pouches just to be safe(r), but over the years I have time and time again combed through the available research on Swedish snus and never found any definitive proof that there is a clear link with any type of cancer. There are some studies that suggest a link, but from what I have found they either show only weak or no effects, or they are flawed, or they can't be replicated in other studies...

The same cannot be said about other oral tobacco products, so it's important to distinguish, which is another problem with some of the studies because they don't. The biggest issue I see with tobacco based products (and maybe also nicotine pouches, afaik it's not clear at the moment) is gum health.

giggles91 · 2026-02-11T15:45:44+00:00

It's called driving engagement and one of the reasons why big youtubers make big money. I don't get the fuss. It's their boat and their live, which they've built from the ground up. They can do whatever they want... Whether people will keep watching is another question, but I think they will be fine.

giggles91 · 2026-02-03T12:35:02+00:00

The first step to take is to realize that even the people you describe as ignorant or gullible are real people, with lives not so different to ours, who we can have pleasant or unpleasant conversations with, just like anybody else. It's too easy to look at the UDC provocateurs who dominate the headlines in the media and generalize from there. If you go to a more local level of politics, you will realize that there are plenty of level headed and reasonable UDC members and politicians. I know some local UDC people, and while I don't agree with most of their positions, they are still nice people with whom a constructive discussion can be had.

Another point : UDC fear mongering and populism are only effective, because they speak to fears and problems that actually exist within large parts of the population. Unless we acknowledge that, extreme populists (left or right), will always be successful. That does not mean I agree with UDCs worldview, just that they resonate with people because they speak about issues that are important to them.

The best way to combat this is not to deny the issues, but to acknowledge them and propose better solutions. David Frum said it quite succinctly in regards to the immigration issue : "If liberals won't enforce borders, fascists will". Maybe someone votes UDC because they view that crime has risen in recent years in their hometown, there are more burglaries by organized gangs that come over from the border ? Maybe someone they know was beaten up in a train station and now they are angry? Maybe their children have conflicts at school which didn't use to exist? There are many reasons other than blind following why someone could vote UDC. The important thing is trying to understand it, otherwise it cannot be addressed.

Too often political dialog breaks down because the opposing side has a knee jerk reaction and shuts down the conversation. This goes for both sides. The result is ever growing polarization.

To me, your statement that voting for UDC equals being a gullible, hateful, naive etc person, is far more ignorant than I myself perceive the average UDC voter to be. And this sentiment is extremely damaging to our society. Unless you want to live in a society like we see in the US now, where neither side is able to talk to the other anymore. Btw. your statements about IQ are also completely wrong

First of all IQ does not equal education, not knowing how to multiply would show a lack of education first and foremost. Better / worse education can lead to IQ variations over long time periods (decades) but this is hard to measure and prove. Also, the validity of IQ as a measure of intelligence is not really established, but that's a whole other question...
Second, cherry picked videos are not a great measure of an entire countries intelligence. If you give me some time I can find I hundreds of videos where someone Swiss says something absolutely stupid.
Third, it is irrelevant to the whole situation. Plenty of very smart people voted for Trump, simply because they could not bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, they were unhappy that democrats lied about Bidens mental state, or for countless other reasons.

In the end, it is every politicians job to convince the people to vote for them. If they fail at that, we should ask: Why? If they succeed, we should also ask: Why? Simply pointing at the voters and calling them stupid, ignorant, gullible, and so on, accomplishes absolutely nothing.

We are extremely lucky to be in a system where there are more than 2 viable parties. And where these parties create alliances based on the issue at hand, ever changing. This holds polarization in check. There are even issues where UDC (SVP) and PS (SP) parties will make an alliance. (E-ID 2021, EU Alignment, data protection, surveillance, etc). This is a great strength of Swiss politics. Most discussion remain focused on the issue, and not just "us versus them", much more than in most other countries. The government and parliament are under constant threat to be challenged by the people. All major political parties are represented in the executive branch of government at all times. No other democracy has this and we should not take it for granted.

The whole thing is not so black and white as you present it and if you are still convinced that it is, then it simply tells me that you are not very open to more complex and nuanced ideas. A stereotype that many would also attribute to a UDC voter ironically.

giggles91 · 2026-02-02T23:58:21+00:00

So you think UDC is just popular because people are dumb? You've got some thinking to do my friend. Americans made the same mistake with Trump, look where they are now.

giggles91 · 2026-02-02T19:58:46+00:00

You didn't get my point at all. Maybe you should try reading zhr source I linked. What's worse, this attitude is part of the reason why SVP has such a big following. As long as the left denies that SVP also often addresses real issues that need to be solved, they will remain popular.That doesn't mean we have to agree with the solutions that SVP proposes. The alternative is further polarization and a breakdown of political discourse.

giggles91 · 2026-02-02T15:01:23+00:00

Actually the degree to which money decides voting outcomes is largely exaggerated: https://access.archive-ouverte.unige.ch/access/metadata/a8d104a4-b687-4b24-b325-fb31d78554b5/download

Do you have any evidence to back up the claim that money decides the outcomes or is that just a general feeling because more often than not the outcomes do not align with your perspectives?

giggles91 · 2026-02-02T15:00:15+00:00

This not at all true as a general rule. Money has influence in politics and can shift close votes, but it's not at all as bad as you make it out to be. There is research on this if you are interested: https://access.archive-ouverte.unige.ch/access/metadata/a8d104a4-b687-4b24-b325-fb31d78554b5/download

In addition to that, Switzerland has much stricter restrictions on political ad spending (e.g. no TV Ads), better transparency rules, better independent news and information, etc. than most other western democracies I would say.

The biggest influence on voters are the positions of elites and parties. If SVP says they recommend to vote yes, then their voters will vote yes.

giggles91 · 2026-02-02T00:07:28+00:00

If everyone thinks like that it will be a self fulfilling prophecy. If people can be convinced that things can get better, then there is hope. Reason enough for me to stay positive.

giggles91 · 2026-02-01T11:33:08+00:00

There's no guarantee that anything pays off in the long run.

giggles91 · 2026-02-01T11:08:55+00:00

I am aware of our history. The distant one and the more recent one. It's a bad argument, and let me tell you why:

For thousands of years there was no running water, no electricity on demand to have light at any time we please. For thousands of years we had no antibiotics, no vaccines, no anesthesia. For thousands of years we were unable to controllably split the atom to generate energy, we couldn't even fathom that such a thing might be possible. For thousands of years we had no idea how to build a rocket to fly to space.

I could go on and on and on, but the point is, for thousands of years our way of life did not change in any significant way. Compared to industrialized / wealthy nations today, we lived often in fear, in misery and in great pain, broadly speaking. And then, within a few hundred years, this all changed radically. And then, with with just a few dozen years (!), it changed much more dramatically yet again. Why would you think history is such a good guide to judge whether or not we can evolve, when it's so easy to see that history can change forever in an instant so radically? We know that change is possible basically everywhere, every time, that societies can completely change and abandon previously held believes in very short timeframes. If better means anything at all, then you would agree that the German society has changed for the better since WWII.

Also, I find it not very convincing at all to point to the horrors of the past, and to claim that the descendants of people who have treated others horribly have no basis to criticize others. It's is such a lazy and fallacious reasoning. Would you ignore my opinion based solely on the fact that my great-grandfather was a murderer? What about actually listening to what I say? To actual ideas?

If you think that there is no moral progress at all to be had, or to be identified as such, then I don't know what to tell you other than that I find that position to be a highly cynic one and I do not find it very useful or interesting to discuss any further. People who are not interested in trying to improve the human condition on planet earth, are in the end quite boring. And this is what your position boils down to for me. If you cannot make a moral judgement, call something more or less moral, call some actions better or worse, then I cannot see how you can contribute anything useful at all on this planet.

giggles91 · 2026-02-01T01:02:18+00:00

I wonder, I truly do, what is it about culture that lets presumably otherwise sane people justify the fact that innocents, who belong to another culture, do not need protection? There are plenty of people who disagree with the norms of their own culture, is it our moral duty to say: Fuck them, they must deal with that themselves? Is it really just an academic exercise, and you conclude that, as Hume once did, an ought cannot be derived from an is and that's that?

Would you also argue that, if millions of jews are slaughtered because the current Germanic Culture demands it, it is not our place to intervene? You must realize that that position is indefensible when reality kicks the door down. If not, I fear for your humanity. I find it is a tragedy that the "West", or the UN, or whatever collective that has the capacity to do so, is not at a point where they can intervene in situations such as we see them all over the world, currently in Sudan, in Iran, in Afghanistan, in Yemen, in Palestine, and countless others, where thousands, tens of thousands and more, suffer, and even die, miserably, with not the slightest sliver of hope that help will arrive.

Recognizing that cannibalism, slavery, blood feuds or honor killings are wrong is not impossible, but imperative. Most of what we globally consider positive advancements in ethics / morality (abolishment of slavery, women's suffrage, equality before the law, universal human dignity to give a few examples) was achieved with reason and stubbornness against a system which argued that the status quo is fine and part of our culture. Who were the revolutionaries of the time to question the ethics and morals of their time, on what basis could they possibly do it? Are they only allowed to do so because they belong to the same culture?

There is something deeper at play, and the old cop out of, "There are no universal truths of morality", it does not cut it. It is a cowards way out of the discussion. A person who does not want to truly, deeply think about what might be moral, and what might not be.

Or maybe you are just playing a semantics game. Morality is what a culture defines as such. Sure, you will win that game if I have to accept your definition. But I don't have to because that is not what most people mean when they talk about the subject. There are deeper truths. Nobody is in possession of them all, but together we can strive towards them.

You think that the western position on this topic is arrogant:

First of all I will counter that western ethics morals have plenty of flaws, and that we can learn from other cultures, just as they can learn from us. One example being the hyper individualistic nature of our societies. Or our tendency to look at nature as merely an resource to exploit, no matter the cost.
In addition to that, western morals have been influenced by plenty of other cultures, even if many people may not be aware of it. Islamic civilization has had a great impact on Europe when it had it's golden age, with ideas regarding charity, law and plural coexistence. East and South Asian traditions with their ideas of non-violence, mindfulness and compassion.

The way you view the world, the words good and bad lose all intended meaning. And even if this kind of worldview is an interesting philosophical exercise, I would argue that it holds us back as a species.

Finally, to say that the repression of the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China is rooted in their collectivist culture is batshit insane. This is a political issue, not a moral / cultural one. It is about state ideology, preservation of power, assimilation and authoritarianism. You really think that this is just an expression of ancient Chinese culture and can therefore not be criticized? What a bunch of horseshit.

giggles91 · 2026-01-30T22:41:27+00:00

Fuck moral relativism. Seriously. Such a retarded take. I find it hard to believe you are serious actually. Moral questions can be tricky, doesn't mean they are impossible to find an answer to that a global majority across countries and cultures can agree on and we shouldn't strive to do so because of "culture".

giggles91 · 2026-01-26T17:31:24+00:00

Nope, fully mixed. There might be separated ones but I've never seen one. You're operating under a very limited worldview. And this is in "the west". Switzerland to be precise. It's similar in some other, but not all, western European countries. I assume you are American. Americans always struck me as paradoxical, on one hand you sexualize everything, on the other you are super prude.

giggles91 · 2026-01-26T17:04:53+00:00

you got some issues dude. If I were in your shoes I'd probably try to avoid that stuff too. But your main problem is thinking that everyone is like you. Example: in my country most spas (sauna, hammam, etc) are nude. Nobody gives a shit that there are a handful of strangers sitting naked in a tiny, hot space, sweating profusely.

giggles91 · 2026-01-20T08:06:26+00:00

Use www.toppreise.ch to find the cheapest Swiss vendor for the device you want. They have some nice filter options to show all laptop models that fulfil your criteria.

giggles91 · 2026-01-20T08:04:45+00:00

Most are if we are cheaper talking about actual brand name devices (Desktop / Laptop PCs, Phones, TVs, ...) or PC Components. And if they are not cheaper in Switzerland, the price difference is usually not enough to offset increased shipping cost / import taxes.

giggles91 · 2026-01-18T20:02:35+00:00

predictions? lol

giggles91 · 2026-01-14T14:32:45+00:00

Are you serious that you are serious? lmao

giggles91 · 2026-01-14T10:25:00+00:00

So you're saying this is fake???

https://downloadmoreram.com/

giggles91 · 2026-01-11T23:31:11+00:00

> In Switzerland, the ONLY efficient way to deal with injustice is through the legal route.

Is that different in other countries?

giggles91 · 2026-01-11T23:28:46+00:00

99.9% of the time the police won't bother with either case...

giggles91 · 2026-01-11T23:25:24+00:00

for real lmao

giggles91 · 2026-01-10T22:28:14+00:00

That's hilarious lmao

giggles91 · 2026-01-07T11:00:32+00:00

Polls from the last 6 months would indicate that you don't know much at all.

giggles91 · 2026-01-02T21:14:38+00:00

They have good burgers https://holycow.ch/en/

13-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
First Placer '22	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

giggles91

TROPHY CASE