Not smugposting. Shit sucks. :(
Tbf afd didn’t win a plurality, they will almost certainly not be in government.
Its likely CDU + SPD
afd got about 20%
Its concerning tho, since NSDAP got 18.3% in 1930, and just 2 years later, they became the biggest party and won a plurality of seats in 1932 and a year later win 43.9% of the seats with hitler becoming chancellor
The AfD is the German version of the present day US Republicans and they only got 20% of the vote, not won both a Presidency (which in Germany is mainly a symbolic post) and an absolute majority in the Bundestag (roughly, their Congress).
Further, just like the effects of Brexit on the UK cooled down for at least a decade the anti-EU sentiment in the rest of Europe, what Trump and the Republicans are doing with the power they got in the US is likely to (once enough of the side effects of his actions pile up) cool down any love for that kind of Fascism in the rest of the West.
The Far Right has an ideological framework of purelly criticizing/complaining/accusing, which is great when you’re an observer sitting on the sidelines and shouting about how those who are actually doing things are doing it all wrong, but doesn’t at all work when they’re in a position where they actually need to do things themselves, so they invariably fuck things up badly, generally because over the mid and long term the side effects of their actions completelly wipe-out any positive direct effects those actions were expected to have and then remain active and further destroying for far longer than the positive effects do.
IMHO, the danger for the rest of the West is far more that Elon and Trump start WWIII, than that people in other countries will be inspired to follow their ideology by seeing what they do with it in the US.
(The danger for the US, which I suspect is pretty much guaranteed since both major parties there have sided with the Pillager segment of society, is the country will be firmly and forever dethroned from its position as super power within a decade)
There is something that happens when fascism’s failures become increasingly obvious. They don’t necessarily lose power. What they do is insist that the problem is that they weren’t cruel enough so far.
I don’t want to unnecessarily downplay fears, but I think the main way a world war would be initiated here would require them to win over the army. While there’s some nutjobs in that sector that will gleefully imprison defenseless immigrants, I don’t think anyone wants to go to war against a world power, and many have taken an oath against following blatantly evil orders.
Much of the control exerted by Trump has been through emails and small bands of fowl actors given security through the executive branch. They also have a faction of chaos enabled by the J6 rioters, who are spiteful but not someone he can direct. That’s scary, but it also means he doesn’t have any kind of actual legion of force lifting their arms in unified salutes.
There is some danger of war creeping out through Russia’s constant slow greed, which would likely mean the USA not getting involved until our internal politics can reach an agreement.
Whilst I would say that triggering an Economic Crisis in the US which spreads to other Economies is a greater risk than a World War, American Presidents starting wars to distract from their own mismanagement is tradition and given Trump’s “if some is good, the maximum possible is the bestest” philosphy in his policy choices so far in this presidency, him through an accumulation of measures that make enemies out of friends, and small military interventions creating a situation that escalates to WWIII, is a realistic possibility.
I mean the idea that the threat Military Force is a valid tool even against US Allies predates Trump - just look at the Legislation Congress passed to invade The Netherlands if ever an American national was arrested by the ICC - and Fascists traditionally see Military Force as a perfect valid tool in the Great Game and Allies as only good as long as they’re useful.
Considering just how many Americans voted for him and the brainwashed hyper-nationalism that’s the bread and butter of military training everywhere, I wouldn’t rely on the US Army to not go ahead and attack a target in a country that was deemed a US Ally just months earlier and something like that escalating to something much bigger.
The CDU guy who’s about to be chancellor is the classic “economically liberal, anti regulation, blame foreigners for all violence” far right who pretends he’s not far right by taking the head of a party that keeps helping the far right rhetoric, instead of straight up joining the far right party, for some reason. He’s been mad at Merkel for 20 years because she sidelined him in the party because he was too much further right. He’s not Musk, but he’s the guy who keeps making sure Musk and Trump never get shut down.
Well, then it might very well be that the effects of Trump’s policies did not manifest themselves on time to sway Germans away from the Far-Right.
Having lived through Brexit, I still very much expect that what Trump is now doing in the US will fuckup most of the Far-Right in Europe. This belief is also anchored on what we are now seeing in countries which were “ahead of the curve” in bringing the Far-Right into Government, such as Poland, who are now turning away from it as well as things like the recent, sudden and somehow unexpected growth of the (real) Leftwing reversing the trend of moving to the Right in places like Finland.
I expect that, given its much greater economic dominance, size and footprint of reporting about it in of the media space, the example of the US will be far more visible and impactful in the general population of Europe than the examples of Hungary, Poland or Finland.
Are americans aware that the vast majority of Europe is not German?
Yeah, I’m also aware that the right’s been on the rise in Denmark, France, Italy, and the Netherlands at a minimum. The UK seems to have taken a moment to catch their breath, but I’m not convinced that they’re completely over it.
Let’s be clear, if you’re American, British, Canadian, French or now German, there’s an operation at foot to promote hard right extremes and disrupt your country. True of probably most of the world, really, even if it hasn’t fully taken root in your country.
Ultimately, yes, we’re in this together so no matter what your anger (or smugness level) is, keep in mind nothing good comes from other-ing those on the same side of history as you.
Theres also Romania, who almost elected a pro-russian right-wing extremist, and Moldova, whose citizens have been bribed to vote against joining the EU
Realistically Moldova shouldn’t be in the EU anyway. There are quite a few countries that have been admitted into the European Union that really shouldn’t have been. Nations with economic instability (for whatever reason) joining the single market only caused problems for the single market.
Right-Wing parties are not in power in any of those countries except America. Sure there is a plan to try and promote right-wing ideologies in those countries they’re always is a plan to promote right-wing ideologies it’s what the right wing is for.
I’m not just referencing the growth of their parties but also stupid decisions like Brexit. And it’s not necessarily just right wing, but also adversaries who benefit from our division. You can’t deny the existence of Russian and Chinese bot farms.
If anything I would think that the UK is less likely to make right-wing decisions now than it was 10 years ago. Precisely because we got to see how much of a fuck up they were.
Existence of bot farms isn’t really indicative of anything they’ve existed for years now long before Trump
So now I have to side with my left-wing dictator
Our conservatives aren’t literal Nazis. And yeah, the actual literal Nazis at 20% is horrifying but it’s not like they’re going to be part of the government. It’s going to be a coalition between the conservatives from the Union and the allegedly social democratic Social Democratic Party. If there’s majority for that they’ll add the vaguely progressive Greens to the mix.
Meanwhile the US has turned itself into a Nazi broligarchy.
We can still be smug. Sorry America.
Edit: and yes, this post is heavy on copium.
Our conservatives aren’t literal Nazis.
And yeah, the actual literal Nazis at 20% is horrifying but it’s not like they’re going to be part of the government.
Meanwhile… Meloni, Duda, Orban, the RN, and the AfD are all already part of their respective governments…
This is fine. Surely.
The RN is not part of the government.
AfD is not going to be part of the gov as it stands, and Orbán is going out next year as things are.
We are trying to fight back.
AfD is being excluded from governing, no one wants to make a coalition.
Unless I’m about to check the news and see the cordon broken…
The cordon was already broken, it was taped back in a hurry because FDP did not make it to 5%.
If the useful idiots from bsw had voted for AfD, or if FDP had reached the 5% mark, we would get CDU+AfD coalition. Or am I supposed to trust that poor excuse of a human being called Merz?
They will eventually pull a Donald Trump
Basically, the CDU/CSU is comparable to the US Democrats, and the AfD is comparable to the Republicans: racist, xenophobe misgonysts.
Like the US Democrats the CDU/CSU is also deeply racist, in favor of deporting immigrants and using LGBT only as a scapegoat to claim how much more civilised they are compared to the brown people. Oh and of course they are suckers for Zionism as it gives them a chance to ramp up hatred against Arabs and cheer on as Arabs get murdered.
Finally of course the CDU/CSU takes every opportunity to help tye fascist rise to power.
Our conservatives aren’t literal Nazis
That’s not a very strong argument when they enable the Nazis, and I say this as a European. In my opinion we should all organize, and fight fascism the way it’s historically defeated: unionisation, mutual aid, and socialist organization.
Yeah, I remember when we were telling ourselves the nazis would never govern. I was so confident I brought a nice cigar and bottle of scotch to the watch party. I never did smoke that cigar, but I went through that whole bottle nearly on my own and had to sleep it off on my friend’s couch.
What percent did the original Nazis win?
Can I just jump in here and say “broligarchy” is now my new favourite term
I agree, this shit sucks. But CDU isn’t really comparable to the GOP. AfD might be.
AfD just secured their strongest election result in history, I think that’s what OP is referring to
Yes, but they’re not (yet) in power. At least at federal level. This still sucks donkey balls.
If our German friends start hunting them, they never will be in power.
They’re in better shape than we are. Their conservative government probably won’t be in a coalition with, much less led by, the Nazis. But yeah. Shit sucks.
I’ve been commenting this on a lot of memes in that vein, it was plainly obvious from the German polls and the various EU-countries that got a rightwing government in recent years.
Yeah, shit sucks.
Didnt know Weidel was elected Chancellor.
Eh, Fritze is just slightly better…
