[aebtebeten]

(I was once chatting with a swiss lawyer, and asked if he were familiar with the concept of "venue shopping". He pointed out the 26 cantons[0] and asked if he needed to proceed any further?)

("Welfare & Steering": JH's 1973 "relative success of the welfare-state compromise" may be a bit dated? I get the impression that ever since 1980, and distinctly accelerating since 1992, the Old Country's politics has, on average, been reducing both outputs: welfare and steering)

For CH, I think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjlT4BME2aE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYJ5V2HYy4 captured the difference in vibe well. (one detail SwissBloke didn't go into the weeds on: the army asks dozens of people to leave each year, on grounds largely ranging from far left extremism through fundamentalist islamic extremism to far right extremism, and a consequence of that is that one has to return one's service rifle. Part of having a hunting license[1] is being a member of a hunting club, and presumably they too will kick you out should you start to seem too crazy to associate with)

[0] it'd be a bit more difficult to game, but as far as gun ownership by foreigners is concerned, it's max(home country, CH), so there could be up to 195 potential venues involved, and I have the distinct impression that, having come from the States, I would have only hit the limit at local[2] law.

[1] another example of difference in vibe: in the US, folks complain bitterly if the exam for a hunting license takes more than 1 day; in my old part of CH, the process took 2 years, involving classroom time, community service, and practical, written, and oral tests.

[2] the cantonal police got a call about an old nutter in my first few years here. I was impressed, because apparently they just went out, talked with him, and left him all his legal weaponry, but took the full auto weapons, grenades, and other explosives with them when they left. I imagine in the Old Country that kind of visit might've been closer to a Waco?

Reflection: there's the societal vibe difference, and then there's not having an expansively interpreted 2A. Our constitution dates all the way back to 1999, because we believe in cleaning up the legacy cruft.

[aebtebeten]

Moore on reducing welfare and steering: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRZj7bq...

[gsf_emergency_6]

I wonder how much [theory vs practice] of CH policy moves the average vibe around guns towards an Aristotelian mean (compared to the US)

It's common to compare shooting at a range to meditation?

[aebtebeten]

I don't know about common, but meditators and rifle shooters both:

- relax their muscles and search stillness

- maintain awareness of their breathing and heart beats

- focus without letting their minds wander

so there are definitely parallels!

(on theory vs practice, I have a minor comment that can wait for a thread with some PH participation)

[gsf_emergency_6]

Fwiw I'm quite alright at (low calibre) rifles & terrible at meditation..

(I do wonder at, say, Hunter S. Thompson's skill level, which is where I'd guess the median gun rights vocalist would be at --to ask Gemini later)

am myself curious at how PH would answer your death / Kohut questions, amen on squatting.

[aebtebeten]

Hmm... I'm a relatively poor shot, and I've never tried meditation myself, only listened to people talking about it, so maybe I should retract that. What would you say the major differences are?

(might you see more of a parallel between ice climbing and meditation?)

[gsf_emergency_6]

To your kind of meditation, yes!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41326474

To Fehmi's (& what I called "meditation"(/"prana-bindu") above, to be investigated..

Happy 2026!

Ps presumably your dad was with the Navy?

[aebtebeten]

Have an excellent 2026! (and a good slide in, on the slim chance it's not too late for you)

PS the US Navy (although its final cause is instrument of empire) is one of the easier ways for a young man with little cultural capital and even less economic capital to find himself in an organisation that not only values lifetime learning but even goes out of its way to support it.

[gsf_emergency_6]

(That was not to imply that I have firsthand familiarity with iceclimbing; I was just wildly extrapolating from rock climbing and friends')

The major diff is paying attention to external (nontactile) sensations perhaps?

[aebtebeten]

ice climbing is way more meditative than rock!

(because (a) crampons mean you get to study the ice and make your holds, instead of rapidly making use of what's there, and (b) the process of making them takes time... I was very pleasantly surprised; I'd expected it to be more thrilling and above all „Besonders Im Winter Arsch-Kalt“ but it was actually relatively low-adrenaline and high-activity)