Summary
Thousands of Germans protested the CDU/CSU party for collaborating with the far-right AfD to pass anti-immigration legislation.
The move, seen as a breach of a post-war taboo against extremist parties, sparked outrage and accusations of making AfD extremism socially acceptable.
The CDU/CSU argues the legislation is necessary due to concerns about immigration and recent attacks by individuals who should have been deported.
I think that the reaction of most mainstream German politicians to the Israeli-Genocide has made it painfully obvious that they’re deeply Racist, since they justified unwavering support for a regime commiting a Genocide along ethnic lines - were amongst, other things they murdered tens of thousands of children because of their ethnicity - by saying that they “unwaveringly” support the ethnicity that said genocidal regime claims to represent: it doesn’t get much more Racist than justifying sending weapons to guys mass murdering children along ethnic lines because the ethnicity of the murderers is one specific ethnicity rather than a different ethnicity.
Not only is the moral distance from “We support Genocidal mass murderers because of their race” to supporting the quasi-Nazi AfD miniscule compared to what it would be if the starting point had instead been “No kind of oppression can be justified by the race of the oppressors”, but even the AfD ideology itself of “The German people should be able to do whatever they want to other ethnicities and nationalities” is morally not that distant from the “This specific race should be able to do whatever they want to other ethnicities and nationalities”.
In summary, the actions that the SPD and CDU/CSU (and even the Greens, for their eternal shame) have been unwaveringly supporting “for the Jewish People” are even more violent than those the AfD have been supporting “for the German people”.
Clearly the German Political class never strayed far from the way of thinking that underpinned NAZISM (they mostly moved a specific ethnicity from the “untermenschen” to the “ubermenschen” column) and hence the distance to get back to the “old” “principles” was always much shorter than their performative anti-Nazism led most people to believe.
Unbelievable. There is an article about how Germans take to the streets to protest our biggest threat to Democracy and the potential next Nazis-Party and the only thing you say is one of the most racist things I have ever read on here. Shame on you.
In the Racist mind the criticism of how their judgement standards and choices of supporting or not a person or State are different depending on the target person’s race, always ends up interpreted as “an attack on a Race” because Racists cannot even begin to conceive the idea that “All humans and their actions should be judged independently of their Race”.
When a Racist voices criticism of an instance of double-standards depending on Race being used, they are motivated by a desire to attack the Race which benefits from such double standards, so in their minds that must be the reason why other would attack such Race-related double standards and in their Racist minds it’s inconceivable that the criticism could be against any such double standards no matter who benefits and against the entire mental architecture of seeing and judging people as Race-members rather than as human beings,
In the minds of Racists everything everybody says or does about other people is determined by Race, so criticism of Racism itself is invariably seen as an “attack on a Race” in the mind of the Racist.
(Aside from this poster’s response to my post, other examples of what I mean can easily be found in how Trump supporters respond to criticism of their Racist actions - their responses often follow exactly the same pattern as the poster above)
Obviously thanks to their circular logic that “any criticism of Race-based double standards can only be explained as Racism against the Race which benefits from it”, Racists feel no shame about their own Racism, since it justifies itself as a reaction to what they interpret (following said circular logic) as the Racism of critics.
I weep for Germany and all the Germans who are Humanists rather than Racists: it must be hard living surrounded by so many people whose views on their fellow human beings fit the very same architecture of thinking of people as “first and foremost members of Races”, as the Nazi ideology.
A bit of additional context: The “legislation” passed on Wednesday was only a non-binding recommendation to the government. Basically a list of “the parliament would like you to do that”. So Merz threw away his “Brandmauer” (wall of fire against the AfD) for something that doesn’t even matter.
But, it gets better. It’ll repeat today, but this time with actual legislation. The CDU/CSU is trying to blackmail the other democratic parties into voting for it, because else the AFD will get stronger again. But they aren’t having it, so odds are high that we’ll get a repeat today. Just even worse because this time the outcome actually means something besides symbolism.
Keep in mind - that guy is currently in Position number 1 to become the next Chancellor, he’s always lying and backtracking on promises he made. Such as the promise that, after our government fell in November: “We’ll only pass things that can find support with the democratic forces.” Or a much earlier promise of:“Anyone who cooperates with the AfD will face a party-removal.” Even Merkel cut him down to size a bit yesterday by saying that she thinks it’s wrong - and Merkel basically never comes out of the woodwork to give her opinion on stuff in such a way.
“Brandmauer” (wall of fire against the AfD)
Firewall. As in a wall designed to hold back fire so that it doesn’t spread. Specifically a masonry wall, “Brandwand” is the more generic term.
True, thank you - I am at work and was typing that in a hurry before the next meeting, so that was indeed a bit off.
Are you paying attention, USA? TAKE NOTES.
Peaceful protests are the fascists favourites, easiest to ignore.
Yeah, we need soccer style riots every day or however often the uberglut orange too is able to move the pen.
The USA used to be badass when we thought our leadership were underhanded charlatans.
Bosses used to respect their labor because otherwise “collective bargaining” could potentially mean your employees dragging you out your front door and beating you in the yard until you agreed to a cost-of-living increase…if you didn’t take the hint when monkey-wrenches kept ending up wedged in the machinery.
Now look at us: The people waving guns around and screeching about “liberty and freedom” are the same people simping for their masters and bragging about how many hours they put in when they keep getting pay cuts. Belching out “wE tHe PeOpLe” while blaming immigrants and foreigners for everything, their fascist puppet-masters hands wedged firmly up them.
Lefties and socialists sold out and became spineless utopian yuppies and forgot what fighting for your rights actually entails.
Unions have to be “approved” and “recognized” by their oppressors to be considered valid. Corporations make us sign away our rights to a fair trial if they wrong us.
This whole thing used to seem like it worked because once upon a time both sides had a certain social contract and agreed to play by rules and pretend we lived in a civilized society.
But now we’re back to some monstrous autocrat saying "Who cares? Winning. Lol." , and we’re all stuck wondering why nobody’s listening to us.
Now we’re on the verge of being labeled “terrorists” if we so much as lift a finger against their regime. The people need to claim their fire back if we’re going to see these dark times through.
Unions have to be “approved” and “recognized” by their oppressors to be considered valid. Corporations make us sign away our rights to a fair trial if they wrong us.
We’re repeating history. The Pullman Car Company, for example, pulled this exact same move. Not particularly fond of Churchill, but yes, we forgot, we’re repeating.
So, the problem, as I see it, is that we already did the protest thing under the first Trump administration. It didn’t do much then and we’re tired now. It’s been about a decade of hearing about awful shit from Trump and realizing that our family members, coworkers and neighbors are actually awful people.
Didn’t do much?. BLM freaked the fuck out of the conservative elite. They sent the fucking closest thing to the military to the protests and brutalised protesters.
People decided to back down at that point. But they didn’t have too.
Difference is that in the US, people are armed to the teeth and a peaceful protect will quickly turn deadly.
Edit: Sorry for the essay. Turns out I have some deep views on this topic lol. (U.S person here, which will quickly become obvious lol)
But I hope maybe this is helpful for anyone to understand the situation over here.
Though lines are extremely blurry now, I still believe, in theory, an armed society is a polite society.
The democrats cowing their base into being staunchly, superstitiously hoplophobic whilst egregiously miseducating them on the subject of arms, has had this bizarre effect where the 2A, a constitutional right for “all (wo)men created equal”, that used to be a solemn responsibility, is now primarily a “far right” obsession thing.
So the majority-left seem to have disarmed and uneducated themselves on responsible arms ownership. Believing for decades that self-righteous smugness and being upset whilst wishing guns didn’t exist will be good enough because “Things shouldn’t work that way. :(”
The minority-left quietly and responsibly exercise their right to self-defense, knowing fascists don’t tend to regard harshly worded memorandums and shame. Problem is, being in the minority, it’s difficult to organize.
The majority-right-ish quietly and responsibly exercise their right to self-defense. They still likely vote wrong (lol), but we don’t hear much from them. Sadly more and more get pulled farther right and vote against their own interests because tone-deaf neoliberal politicians keep issuing empty threats about taking all their guns away.
Both sides know that rights lost are unlikely won back.
The radicalized-right have become religiously hoplophilic , and obsessively armed themselves, seeing guns as dangerous boys’-toys and fragile-ego enhancers, much like their ultra-lifted coal-rolling pickup trucks. Their leaders actively encourage this because it empowers more bullying.
So now we’re in this awkward spot where openly-fascist militias rove the streets brandishing weapons, because they KNOW a majority of the left have no understanding of weapons, have none themselves, and are just left to be scared and cry about it and post angry on twitter. (So they took that away, too, like the bullies they are, because what are we gonna do about it, right?)
There’s a saying that if you have no ability to do harm in the first place, not doing so doesn’t make you a pacifist, it makes you harmless.
If more leftist groups could be taken seriously and showed their teeth, they could respond to rightoid aggression with a strong defensive posture, and the goose-step fan-club would back down real quick because, for all their violence-monkey-boogloo-fantasies and chest-thumping, getting shot is scary and it hurts so they’d probably want to avoid it.
…and if not then, we could at least protect ourselves from them. Fellow anarchists, socialists, et al, should be educating and responsibly arming themselves. (After being brutally honest with yourself about your mental health with regards to owning a weapon, there’s no shame in avoiding putting yourself at risk, we’ll cover you. <3 )
For other Americans concerned about this, there’s actually a Socialist Rifle Association , and it’s quite telling that all the other “patriot liberty guns trucks” orgs specifically try to disassociate from them and shut them up.
I appreciate your response, even though I disagree. Still appreciated.
As an American who grew up in Europe, I have experienced the freedom that comes with living in societies that are largely weaponless. I don’t use the word “freedom” lightly here. It truly is a huge mental burden here in the US to send kids to school not being a 100 percent sure that there will not be a school shooting that day. Or go to the movie theater or just stroll down the street. It just feels and is much safer in most of western Europe.
I understand that it’s impossible to remove all these weapons from the American society, but I do think we need much stricter common sense gun laws. No need for bans, except for military-style weapons. But we do need to make sure that we don’t keep experiencing these insane massacres of children caused by firearms. Arguing that weapons have nothing to do with it, or even that we need more weapons to prevent it, is just ridiculous. The firearm is the tool used and it’s designed specifically to take life as efficiently as possible. It must be met with common sense rules.
Thanks for your response!
I agree with a lot of your points as well. Know what? I used to be a gun nut.
As my teenage hormones are behind me now, I quite honestly hate them. Even recreationally, they’re loud, they’re dirty (lead exposure, yay), they’re expensive to feed, they do horrific things in the wrong hands, and there’s the psychological burden of constantly making sure I’m mentally fit to have access to them. (I believe I am, but anybody is vulnerable, especially with all the stresses nowadays.)
And I think this is where a lot of disagreement comes: Idealism vs pragmatism.
You’re right. Ideally, civil society shouldn’t be wielding deadly force, even though for a while in our history, it was quite necessary.
You’re also right, in that realistically, we’re way past that point.
While my writing above was specifically about the people’s responsibility to maintain a civil presence that demands respect, (Speak softly and carry a big stick, if you will.), the inward societal problems can’t be denied.
My strong belief is that things like shootings are a symptom of a generations-sick society. There was a time when gun ownership was common, and these things just didn’t happen. I mean, in some regions, high-schoolers would bring responsibly transported rifles to school, and it was considered normal! Schools had marksmanship clubs!
A reasonable degree of respect and sanity was the assumption rather than the exception.
But, family ties and neighborly relationships used to be stronger. People had friends and social programs. A single worker could reasonably expect to not only find a job, but support a house and family.
The wealth disparity was astronomically lower than it was today. Society as an organism wasn’t nearly as stressed to a breaking point.
And as for the guns thing, people were generally knowledgeable and responsible with securing and educating about the hefty responsibility that comes with weaponry.
People still killed themselves or others on occasion, unfortunately, but it was anomolous instead of contagious.
But now…guns have become a status symbol and a fandom, an idol even, and all the small cracks in that previous society have become chasms. Desperation is the norm, sadness and misery are generally commonplace, education is absolutely abysmal and even holding a gun safety seminar near a school would be considered controversial and taboo.
Nobody has friends or knows their neighbors, corporate news outlets keep squeezing peoples’ amygdalas until they’re scared out of their wits, kids are under more pressure than ever, and nobody’s parents are around if they’re even together at all…(Statistically, they aren’t.)
Why? Jobs. Employers.
All of this stems from a power structure that wanted to breed a dumber, more desperate, more complacent consumer and employee to farm for riches. They slashed and burned education, they alienated us from the sweat of our brow, turned us on each other, they make us reliant on their goods and services and price-fix our lives out of reach, force us into enormous debt, and they ensure our continued collective misery.
None of the solutions to violence, whether with cars or guns or pointy sticks, is going to go away unless we drastically fix our education and stop letting people fall into such miserable places that murder of self or others seems to be the only way out. That’s why it’s such a frustrating issue. No single bill or edict is going to solve it in a single generation.
And sadly, this regime seems to be aggressively accelerating in the opposite direction, because with more chaos they can justify a stronger fist, and the feedback loop continues.
As for “military style weapons”, that’s another topic and I’ve rambled too much already hehe. But I don’t believe user-ergonomics don’t necessarily equate to “better mass-murder machine.” But I get your point, battlefield hardware doesn’t belong in just-anybody’s hands.
We have an issue with licensure now though: This is a regime that would absolutely be fine with demanding party loyalty to sell your constitutional rights back to you.
I also believe the unfortunate reality is that, while many fascist-friendly police forces are gearing up with actual military-issued hardware, and privatized corporate “security forces” will likely be more common, responsible civilians need to maintain some kind of parity to safeguard our liberties.
Fudd rifles and .22LR plinkers don’t scare dudes with APCs and 40mm launchers, and they need to be encouraged to use their words, so maybe they pause a minute when the tangerine-hitler tries to rile them into marching on their own neighbors.
Lol hope this was at least fun to read. I don’t mean to go off on tangents. 😅 Hope you have an excellent one. <3
we already did the protest thing
No, you really didn’t.
we’re tired now
Fuck off, libs really are just going to let Nazis march through the streets.
Pay attention to how Europeans protest.
We’re lighting some candles and then we are proud of ourselves. Even France which is the stereotypical riot country is under the tight grip of neoliberalism and for what feels like decades on the brink of having the Nazi Lepen take over.
There’s not as much of that protest culture as it seems.
I’d like to see how this comment ages.
The US was protesting like crazy. It didn’t matter in the end.
Protesting is a lot easier when your country is 28 times smaller than the US.
Oh well, nothing to be done but stay in the house and accept whatever comes, and MAYBE the politicians will suddenly have an attack of conscience!
No, but it’s important to recognize that the situations aren’t 1:1.
What are you seeing in EU protests that BLM didn’t have?
Go look at videos of French protesting proposed social safety net cuts.
Why don’t you tell us how the BLM protestors are pussies compared to the French. You say you want people to learn
Why are you putting words in my mouth? You picked one group of protesters. One.
So did you. You picked one. I picked one.
You felt that Americans can learn something from European protesters, but I don’t know what you’re saying the big difference is. The BLM protesters faced violence and extreme retribution, but were still out there continuously, living, sleeping… why are the Europeans better?
He did. It’s the same picture here. Even with all the protests we have people like Melloni and Schoof. AfD is polling at an all time high. I’m not saying stop protesting. But it’s obviously not enough to keep fascim at bay. People have to get a lot more militant.
Good thing Germany has actual proportional representation, and not gerrymandered districts under FPTP that causes voter apathy, as with some ahem other country… 👀
Still have voter apathy, rising fascism and a bunch of supposedly progressive parties that have moved strongly to the right, with truly left/progressive parties being almost irrelevant.
We have both actually, that’s why we get two votes. It’s still fptp but with a hotfix for proportionality applied.
They had that during the Weimar republic too but err…
There are more democratic reforms needed and a lot of how politics functions is based on the culture and current attitude.
Germany can lead the way. They can become the new leaders of the free world.
Germany is on the best way to repeat 1933, putting fascism into power with the help of the “conservatives” and a bystanding/complicit center
Don’t worry, they’ll have America on their side this time.
Not the greatest timeline to be living in right now.
Don’t worry, they’ll have America on their side this time.
And Russia too. Things are looking dark for Europe if things keep heading this way. And I’m still not sure what side China would take in the occasion there is a WW3, or if they would just decide to stay neutral and foster their economy while North America, Europe, and Russia just destroy each other.
I wish I had that kind of faith in our society. A lot of people are still conservative. The majority lacks any kind of class consciousness, and would really prefer the global western hegemony to keep trucking on unchanged for a few more generations.
The progressive movement is real and has great people in it. I love the conversations I’ve been having with people for the past decade. But it’s a bubble that includes maybe 5-8% of the population. Enough to build solidarity at least around population centers, not enough to sweep an election.
Kinda makes me think when I, as an immigrant over there, was a member of the Green Party in Britain before the Leave Referendum: great forward thinking people who were genuinelly good persons who wanted a better world for everybody, all the while the rest of British Society turned out to be mainly composed of dumb racists.
Still today I use the lessons I learned in British politics, since IMHO they were maybe a decade ahead of the rest of Europe in the shift to the Far Right (their version is just posher).
Third time’s a charm.
