You may think, ‘of course it does, I am sitting here right now’. But trying to convince doubters on social media that Switzerland is real may be a challenge.
We have already had the “Switzerland versus Sweden debate” and have proven that they are, in fact, two different countries.
We don’t know whether the same thing is happening over in Sweden, but here we have an online “community of people dedicated to proving that Switzerland does not exist”.
And it is not just a handful of rogue individuals who have nothing better to do than bash the tiny (non-existent) nation.
Thousands of people have taken time to post “proof” on Reddit’s “Switzerland is Fake” thread that the Alpine country is just too good to be true; instead, the picturesque mountains, lakes, and castles have been “photoshopped” in what could be the largest conspiracy since the moon landing.
“They are putting AI generated fake cities in front of their fake mountains,” one person said, backing his claim by a photo.
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Among other “fake” images of Switzerland is one showing a man “caught” spreading artificial snow on a miniature version of the Alps.
And then, when an (allegedly) Swiss person tried to prove his existence, online doubters “unmasked” him as an impostor.
What certainly doesn’t help to dissuade this community, is a very real Swiss Miniature Park in Lugano, where the whole of Switzerland is displayed in a tiny version.
Is it all a scam? Photo: Swissminiatur media
It only feeds into the disbelivers’ arguments that everything about the country is fake.
‘Abolish Switzerland’
While the Reddit community’s insistence that Switzerland doesn’t exist is (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek, real attempts to “erase” the country from the world’s map have actually been made – some more successfully than others.
In 2009, the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi submitted a proposal to the United Nations to abolish Switzerland and divide it up along linguistic lines, giving parts of the country to Germany, France and Italy.
The motion was thrown out – officially because it violates the UN Charter, which states that no member country can threaten the existence of another – and unofficially, because the idea was, well, crazy.
But wait – there is more
In much more recent times, in March 2024, shortly before his trip to Europe, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken published a map that put Sweden where Switzerland should be – and Switzerland was nowhere to be found.
Are you sure? pic.twitter.com/0639rzvE3e
— Sébastien Natroll (@Natroll__) April 2, 2024
The error was quickly noticed and the relevant post deleted from social media – but not before users saw how the US had rendered Switzerland non-existent.
So does Switzerland really exist?
Unless and until proven otherwise by scientists (or Sweden), Switzerland is a real country – just take our word for it.
