Summary
Over 200,000 people marched in Munich against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, with organizers claiming 320,000 participants.
The protests, held under the slogan “democracy needs you,” warned against any party collaborating with the AfD, particularly the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), ahead of legislative elections.
That’s a whole lot of people. Good on them!
I was there, it was awesome. Bit short though and the audio equipment wasn’t suitable for so many people.
Thank you for showing up!
America needs to learn from Germany. This example. Not the other one. We are currently FAFO on that one.
Came here to say the same thing. Time for Americans to step up and step out.
They have an economic system where they can take days off without losing their homes.
We don’t. It’s part of the plan. Can’t have mass protests when you’re about to lose the roof over your head.
You can’t take days off for protests in Germany either.
Which is why protests are almost always held on the weekend to allow as many people as possible to join them, since significantly fewer people are working.
There’s also public transport, healthcare, literally weeks of paid days off. They simply have better social resources than we do.
Sure, but I’d argue the largest aspect is cultural.
There’s a reason France’s protests are significantly more disruptive than those of other European nations, despite similar social resources and significantly worse police brutality.
I mean, the US has denser cities than most of Europe. It’s not impossible to have large-scale demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of protestors in them.
I suspect it’s just that most Americans aren’t all that interested in changing the status quo for the better. The amount of apathy is perhaps only topped by Russia.
Citation very needed
Ah, turns out I’m somewhat wrong. From what I can tell, the city centers in the US are denser but if you include the entire city Europe has generally denser cities.
Most US cities are significantly taller in the center due to skyscrapers and highrises. Most European cities are more “horizontal” in that regard by having many multi-story apartment blocks instead of a handful of highrises.
Most American cities aren’t New York.
We have no real public transit, and many of our cities were urbanization following the invention of the automobile and are spread out to accommodate the automobile infrastructure and longer commutes.
Houston is our third most-populous city and has a metroplex with a Combined Statistical Area of over 12,000 square miles. That makes it roughly the size of the Netherlands, with around 40% the population of the Netherlands. Soon, Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio are going to form one giant metroplex that’s 60,000 square miles.
It’s Sunday.
And the majority of us work weekends
No you don’t. It’s high but 30% is not a majority, also, that’s 30% of people who work, not of those who could show up at a protest. Students, kids, non-working spouses, pensioners, etc, where’s them.
I can’t give you one solid answer because it’s a situation that has nuance.
Not everyone owns a car. Not everyone is educated well enough. Many times people are exhausted by the time they have a day off.
I’m not letting my KIDS put themselves in danger. That’s insane.
But okay. This is a black and white issue with easy, simple answers. Like most issues are.
If it helps, in 90 years Americans will have anti-fascist rallies…
“Ah, here’s the problem: Germany didn’t control the most powerful military force on the planet and was therefore defeated. Won’t happen this time!”
Unfortunately people are just showing up to the protest but they aren’t fighting the creep of right wing extremist rhetorics into centrist parties and mainstream media.