Germany megathread

[OSR stands with Israel]

The fact that a country that committed genocide and invaded other countries less than a lifetime ago and has otherwise been quite good about grappling with it is now defending Russia is disgraceful.

Remember they did this last January : https://news.yahoo.com/germany-blocks-nato-ally-estonia-223242052.html

Germany is preventing fellow NATO member Estonia from providing Ukraine with military support by declining to offer export permits for weapons of German origin, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

But the German government has opposed sending weapons to Ukraine to avoid provoking Russia, while also citing Germany's own history of atrocities in the region under the Nazis during World War II.

"Our restrictive position is well known and is rooted in history," Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said while visiting Kyiv this week.

[OSR stands with Israel]

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1690785647634632704


While I think the AFD is horrible, stuff like this is completely horrible and is extremely undemocratic as well. The reason the AFD has risen is Germany has not had an actual right of center party for a while and if the CDU acted like an actual right of center party then the AFD would not be doing anywhere near as well.

[OSR stands with Israel]

These protests all across the world in favor of Hamas proves why there needs to be better screening of immigrants from certain nations

[OSR stands with Israel]

There's this old saying... when the public discourse is about immigration, the AfD wins. When the discourse is about the AfD, the AfD loses.

I'm conflicted on that question.

Some argue the democratic parties should pay less attention to "AfD issues" like immigration because the political discourse around these only increases support for them. There's some truth to that, but on the other hand, people are apparently concerned about that. If SPD, Greens, FDP and CDU/CSU just ignore them, AfD and the media will say the governing parties and democratic opposition blatently refuse to address issues important to voters.

I find the whole idea of not addressing issues because you dont want to legitimize a fringe party as being completely ridiculous. No, what legitimizes fringe parties and politicians is the fact that the mainstream is not addressing issues the public wants addresses which increases the appeal of such fringe parties.

Like AFD's rise is directly the fault of mainstream parties calling anyone who opposed the refugee policy of the Merkel years as racist bigots .

[OSR stands with Israel]

There's this old saying... when the public discourse is about immigration, the AfD wins. When the discourse is about the AfD, the AfD loses.

I'm conflicted on that question.

Some argue the democratic parties should pay less attention to "AfD issues" like immigration because the political discourse around these only increases support for them. There's some truth to that, but on the other hand, people are apparently concerned about that. If SPD, Greens, FDP and CDU/CSU just ignore them, AfD and the media will say the governing parties and democratic opposition blatently refuse to address issues important to voters.

I find the whole idea of not addressing issues because you dont want to legitimize a fringe party as being completely ridiculous. No, what legitimizes fringe parties and politicians is the fact that the mainstream is not addressing issues the public wants addresses which increases the appeal of such fringe parties.

Like AFD's rise is directly the fault of mainstream parties calling anyone who opposed the refugee policy of the Merkel years as racist bigots .

That's a pretty simplified analysis ignoring any other factors as well as the fact that right-wing populist and right-wing extremist movements have been on the rise worldwide in recent years, from Poland to Italy to the U.S. to Brazil to arguably India. Germany is in fact the last one to the party. So it's questionable to what extent domestic policies played a role in any significant manner. "It's Merkel's fault" is merely repeating the AfD's own partyline.

A common theory in political science, I think, is that in the early 21st century political camps don't divide along the old traditional "right"/"left" lines any longer, but rather along the line between the (self-perceived) winners and losers of globalization (or as a Trumpist would say, "globalism").

This is why the gradual rise of both the AfD and the Greens (the latter of which with a temporary? dent in their polling right now) in the past five to ten years had been attributed to that very same phenomenon: The tradtional right/left parties of CDU and SPD being replaced by the more clear-cut pro- or anti-globalization AfD and Greens.

In addition, the rise of social media as a tool for political communication (and to signifcant extent, misinformation) served as facilitator for the rise of more extremist forces, both in Germany and abroad.

Because Mainstream parties across the west acted extremely similar on the immigration issue