Well, I certainly hope the Cantons adopt them.

But I think we consumers need to be pushing back at the retailers to curtail their actions to get more and more shoppers into their shops. We’ve seen

A Grande Reopening of the Coop in Vich (Gland) with games for the kids, promotions and give aways.

Black Friday ‘Weeks’ promotions (Migros) and extra opening hours.

Late night openings and Sunday openings in the run-up to Christmas.

This is insanity and no, giving out free hand sanitiser does make up for stupidity.

Grande reopening - Stoopid.
Promotions - Meh
Extra hours - I think this is positive as it spreads the number of shoppers out over time. On the other hand it could of course also bring other people who would not have otherwise gone shopping reducing it back to meh status.

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
I've seen the future, brother
It is murder
(c)

meaning vaccination will not work?

Agreed - I've been doing my groceries at "off hours" for some time now and those off hours no longer exist during the holiday period - the stores are crowded, all the time now. Bern has always had later hour open stores, I am a little bit concerned it will just get more crowded.

It's funny, personally, what this pandemic has made me realize is just how easily people get carried into shaming/insulting/making existential assumptions about strangers based on the sole measure of whether they're wearing a mask, following a certain rule or not, or on whatever they're saying on the internet.


No, it's not. It's a convenient tool for you to exercise your virtue signaling, because it's a visible cloth and it allows you to visually spot and call out the people you oddly consider imbeciles but objectively, you know nothing about their situation and their reason for not wearing one. Claiming someone is a 'selfish moron' or a narcissist because they're not covering their face in the midst of a pandemic while not knowing anything about their situation or how otherwise diligent they are about what is, arguably, the most efficient measure against spread (physical distancing) says more about you than anything else.

I could easily claim that anyone owning and regularly updating their smartphones or any electronic device in 2020 (basically 99% of us) is a 'selfish moron' insensitive to the human suffering/deaths involved in their production. Same goes for clothes. But I don't because it's dumb and I recognize that human nature and the measure of how virtuous and earnest someone ultimately is accounts for many more variables.

In regard to the above comment...

There have been numerous incidents in the news where, for example, a store employee is stabbed or shot after telling someone they need to wear a mask in the store. In France, a bus driver was beaten to death after asking passengers to put a mask on.

France: Bus driver dies after 'attack over face masks' in Bayonne
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53367432

"A bus driver has died in France, five days after he was attacked by passengers who reportedly refused to wear face masks, his family says.

Philippe Monguillot, aged 59, had been left brain dead after the assault in the south-western city of Bayonne."

But right. People who refuse to wear masks couldn't possibly be selfish. And when they're accused of being selfish, the accuser is just "virtue signalling."

Are we living in an age now where people are becoming afraid of expressing a sense of right or wrong because otherwise they will be accused of "virtue signalling"? Is that really the kind of world we want?

I agree.

But imagine that we ask a group of annonymous kids what they think about homework. What will you get? If you criticise how mature people are when dealing with internet...you have to count in human nature, too. How people really react to adverse opinions, etc. There are ways to improve it.

Business idea: start selling masks that say this mask is as useless as virtue signalers. Make a profit with discontent and enjoy how the rebellious wear the mask This is one of the most profitable music industry business models.

PS. I don't confront people not wearing a mask, just fake a sneeze and see them run in disgust.

Other things I observe and deem "sign of brain and/or proper socialisation-deficiency":

• Using your phone while driving
• Even worse, using your phone while freehand on a bicycle
• Walking while looking at your phone
• Simply wandering out onto a road because the pedestrian crossing gives you right of way
• Smoking in the car with kids or animals inside
• Not wearing a seat belt, especially not wearing one when you are in the back with someone sat in front of you
• People who use plastic bags to discard their kitchen waste in the green recycling bin
• Those who litter, especially those who throw cigarettes in fresh water bodies or think balloon releases are a great idea
• Those who intentionally make noise with their vehicles in residential areas at night
• People who jump queues or lay into service industry staff for minor oversights
• Parents who insist that it is completely impossible for their special little crotch fruit to have done the things the teacher has phoned them about and get lawyers involved
• Etc. etc. etc.

All of these things are in some way detrimental to other people/the planet, either potentially so or very much directly. Some of them are about ignorance, others laziness and some are simply down to the misguided idea that one's own comfort comes before everyone else's. And that is where I "sort" the mask dodgers/rebels. The percentage of people with a real, insurmountable medical condition that does not allow them to wear a mask is minuscule. These people are also probably not out and about in places where masks are mandatory because they have been advised by their doctors to isolate as much as possible. The rest is just being a bunch of anti-social toddlers who were too chicken to rebel properly with actual risk to themselves involved as teenagers and are now making up for lost time by putting others at risk.

But this is not the mask dodger thread and you are now joining the select number of people on my ignore list because it is clear that you have nothing better to do than follow me around this forum and try to attack me. This is only slightly less unoriginal than being a "corona rebel" but definitely more boring. Ta-rah, pet.

Alain Berset: "We were overoptimistic in September"

Agreed. It would actually make a lot more sense to allow trading 24/7. Even in London, I never encountered more than four or five other shoppers at 3 am in the Sainsbury's at Waterloo.

Funny YOU say that. Everyone with a dissenting opinion has been baptized as an covid-denier, anti-vaxxer, moron and Trump supporter and asked to be banished from the forum on multiple occasions. This is the world YOU seem to want and push for. You went so far as to put people on your ignore list precisely for expressing a different opinion. Sometimes it makes sense to take a step back and look at oneself. From time to time.

Well, why would put people on your ignore list when they agree with you?

Funny TC thanked your post when he has written the following;

but if you're not certain whether someone does or does not have a medical reason for not wearing a mask and you call them a selfish moron then it's just prejudice on your part.

Weekly assessment by Task Force (available in German or French only). Not much new, but they state that with higher mobility and contacts over Christmas holidays they expect infections to rise.

https://sciencetaskforce.ch/epidemio...dezember-2020/

My gut feel from a few hours outside today: Early pre-Xmas beehive, and warming up.

The odds are firmly in my favour. Plus, it doesn't have any real impact on them, they either know they are in the right for medical reasons or don't give a sh*t about me or anyone else apart from themselves anyway. It's not like I get out a judgment stick and start beating them up.

well i have a family member that has actually had some problems due to their inability to wear a mask. so to suggest such prejudice doesn't have any impact on such people is not only selfish, it's simply wrong.

I would vehemently oppose any such measures. It's one of my favourite features of switzerland. Giving workers time off on Sunday, reasonable hours during week.

Why would we want to participate in a race to the bottom?

Why not get stuff delivered, COOP is very reliable, then you can self isolate indefinitely to be safe.