sure, sure. everything different from your view is either nazi or pro-nazi or pre-nazi.
Sometimes It seems to see some hair salon where some bunch of gossips says "fake boobs, fake boobs" or "surgery" or "botox" to any other woman they see.
Sorry, it's boring, and losing. Since forever. Always.
5
Replies
1
Boost
i wouldn't describe accurately identifying the problem as boring
i would describe the usual reaction to identifying the problem as boring:
garden variety cynicism and perfectionism, yes you are right about that
if our car gets a flat tire, that's not boring. if our reaction is to throw up our hands and whine instead of fixing it, yes that's boring
very american. Which means, dumb.
I hate this superficial, stupid, two-sides-only representation of politics you american have. And then, the arrogance to explain to people living in a place what they see, just because you have a TV at home.
Did you realize that, without speaking a word of German, without living here , and without having been here , and without being able to read a magazine written in germany, you are telling me, from NY, what I see around me? And do you realize how dumb you look, when you do that? How arrogant? How american?
that's why i said i could be wrong
so you can educate me
rather than shitting on your allies in the usa
and russia. and israel. and china. etc. ignore those still trying to fight the good fight
which is tactical failure when it comes to the challenge ahead of us
after the election sunday, why don't i just condemn all of germany? because i'm not tactically inept
but perhaps you don't want to fix our problem
perhaps you want to sit there and tweak your ego about how superior you are
ps: i used to be friends (i moved) with a former bundeswehr guy from munich who moved to the usa after they tried to restation him in east germany after reunification. he said "fuck no"
he had many unkind things to say about east germany
i readily admit my impression of east germany is shaped through the lens of a biased bavarian dude. i recognize my impression can be wrong. i said i can be wrong. so you can educate me
or, you know, shit all over me because it makes your ego feel good
There are a bunch of reasons why the AfD are stronger in Eastern Germany. Here are some of them at the top of my head:
During the Cold War, the official stance of the East German government: "There are no Nazis here, all the Nazis went to West Germany!" Meanwhile, West Germany _did_ make some attempts at de-Nazification. They were incomplete, and only partially successful, but progress _was_ made.
And West Germany had far more immigration, which means that West Germans got far more used to immigrants from all over the world. And this close contact helped reduce bigotry.
Then, after the Berlin Wall collapsed and Germany was reunified, West Germany basically took over East Germany, and the political and economic leaders of West Germany basically treated East Germany as a bankruptcy case. This caused a collapse of Eastern German living standards, and even today most regions of East Germany lag behind West Germany. And the major employers which do exist are mostly local branches of West German companies, rather than homegrown industries.
As you can imagine, this caused a lot of resentment in East Germany against West German leaders, so there was always a lot of potential for "protest votes".
Then there were two major crises of the last two decades. First, there was the Syrian refugee crisis, which brought nearly a million refugees to Germany. Lots of Germans put in a lot of effort to help the refugees... but there was also a lot of resentment that the fascists exploited.
Then there was the #COVID pandemic, which - just like in the USA - brought out a lot of antivaxxers and conspiracy fantasists. This, too, was exploited heavily by the fascists.
And because the resentment of authority figures and potential for protest votes was greater in Eastern Germany, this was where the AfD has had their biggest successes. Including today's election in #SaxonyAnhalt .
I hope this explains _why_ the fascists in Germany had these successes, and successes in Eastern Germany in particular. Though of course, this doesn't _excuse_ the people who vote for the AfD - it is very clear what the AfD stands for, for anyone who cares to look.
And I also want to make very clear that the AfD is by no means restricted to Eastern Germany - they have numerous followers in the rest of Germany as well, even if it's not enough to take over state governments. It's not a simple case of "West Germany good, East Germany bad".
