As a crimson lining, I hope the United State’s decay will teach Germany to destroy the AfD and all other right wingers. They are a poison to civilization.
Germans literally have so many choices of political parties that they can actually elect, why do they have to go for the worst one AfD?
I want to give oen example of how people on the fence can up on the wrong side, radicalized if you will. For the record I’m as far left as I can get. I support a lof of humanitarian causes and respect the decisions of others, particularly in sexuality or individual personal definitions. Be what you want, do what you want, be good, be fair. It’s easier than being rotten.
I’m only a resident of Germany, so every two years I need to renew my residency card, the Awshfksoyngelelemdn, or whatever that alphabet soup is called. I began the process 3 months before I was set to expire (Nov 2024). Surely, that would be enough time to get shit done at a rathaus that refuses to do any of this online. Oof, so wrong. JULY was the first appointment they would give me. My residency expired in April. No problem, they said. I can still live here since I made the appointment, just don’t leave Germany. I must leave Germany as that’s my job and why they moved me here from the US years back.
I begged to understand why the wait times are so long and the answer I got, from the rathaus, was that refugees from Syria and Palestine have been given the opportunity to migrate to my town and their processing is a priority. The only way I can get around that, to get an earlier appointment, would be to stand in the line when they open at 7:30am-12:00pm, M-F. I went there at 7am and the line wrapped around the block. I asked the person in the front of the line what time they got there. 4am.
I came back another day, at 4am, and got shit done, but that’s a huge brick in the wall for people already pissed they have to share with the lesser fortunate. I sucked it up. I get what they’re doing. But when Germans see just how poorly this is all being managed, they start listening to the assholes that promise to fix that… at all costs.
It’s a fkn drag. I had much higher hopes for Germany when I moved here, but now I’m left wondering what my next move is going to be. I refuse to be ruled by racist idiots. It’s a big reason behind why I happily left the US. Only hope will be that everyone sees the US administration tripping over their own dicks and come to their senses, but I’ve really lost faith after the 2024 election cycle.
It’s really tiring how all-or-nothing political parties like to be. Your choices are: · Help everyone, thus straining our resources thin and barely helping anyone · Fucking kill anyone who so much looks at us
I personally think “help yourself first so you can help others better”. How are you expected to take care of humanitarian issues when your own country is unraveled? You’re having your own humanitarian issue!
its a few factors in play, one is the normalization of far-right policies by the other big parties (SPD, Greens, Union) and their inability to fix the damage caused by the financial crisis of 2008, the rise of anti-migrant beliefs in the german working class, and a few others
i think this video explains well the rise of the AfD in germany, at this point its only a matter of time until one or more parties decide to make a coalition with the AfD
nd their inability to fix the damage caused by the financial crisis of 2008
That’s absolutely not it. Germany went through the crisis of 2008 like a breeze. In 2015 during the refugee crisis, Merkel decided to open our borders to all of the refugees. Before that, the AfD had below 10% of the voters on their side. But a huge chunk of the population did not agree to Merkel’s refugee policies. That’s when the AfD took off. And now we can’t get rif of them 😒
So AfD took off because Germans are largely racist, great look
If you ask the AfD-Fanboys, most are probably going to say that they are not racist, that there are just too many refugees in the country and the other parties aren’t doing anything about it. The AfD, meanwhile, is blaming all og the problems on the “left parties” and illegal immigrants. But yes, in my opinion, if you vote for the AfD, you are racist to a degree at least.
It’s mostly East Germany. Communism’s fuckups in that area are still causing suffering today.
Unfortunately, that’s not the only reason. We have 16 Bundesländer (states). 5 of them are in the East. But they have hardly more inhabitants than Bavaria. So a lot of us in the “Real Germany” (the western states) are voting those AHs too.
Put looting the east via Treuhand on that list…
Treuhand was a disgrace
☹️
Both the US and Germany want to return to their fascist roots it seems
Decades of capitalist decay and anti-communist propaganda will do that.
Don’t forget about Russia. It is already there and leading in its effort to turn some countries into the same political system, making thereby these countries tries their puppets aka satellites.
Mass immigration into a housing shortage in order to push down wages, artificially invert the Phillips curve, and prop up housing prices will as well. I assume rising support for the afd is mostly the young.
https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/housing-index
https://recruitonomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/DE3-Net-migration-1024x565.png
The see the US and realize it’s possible to do it all over again.
No surprise considering CDU/CSU fucking up shit for the broad population from day one. They even suggested a 1000€ deductible for the health insurance.
Shit, in the US a $1000 deductible is what you get with pretty good insurance. My employer has a few plans and only one has a deductible below $1000.
Not to say that’s good. Just pointing out that the US has succumbed to capitalism.
pretty good usually mean somewhat expensive too.
Well well… here we go again. I’m ready to give up my life.
Ha! Suck it Germany! America isn’t the only shitty fascist country now.
But they aren’t even the ruling party, what are you on about
I’ve been watching AfD grow for years. They aren’t the ruling party now, but will be soon enough. Maybe German democracy is strong enough to resist Fascism, maybe not. Only time will tell for sure.
Strongest Power doesnt mean ruling power here. And they will not get into power unless the Union partys want to betrail all their voters even more than they have always been doing. Which will trigger a full on uprising.
And even if they are in power the states can block almost everything they do. Germanys constitutional court also has lots of say and can stop things and isnt appointed by the partys unlike in the US
I hope you’re right but like I said, only time will tell. In 2015 I thought US democracy was enough to hold Donald Trump in check also, but history proved me wrong there. My state is very blue and I think we can effectively resist a lot (but not all) of what he’s doing, but that doesn’t help other states that want his destruction, or the rest of the world.
Germanys constitutional court […] isnt appointed by the partys unlike in the US
That is new information to me, and quite interesting. How do your judges come into power?
Used to be partially threw parliament, partially threw the state council and the current judges also have a say in it. For anew judge it needs 2/3 majority. They are there only for 12 years and cant be reelected. Cant be above 68 neither younger than 40. Plus you have to have to be a judge which is very hard and strictly monitored and served as a highest judge. But last year they changed the voting process with heavy protest of the AfD. We have 2 supremecourt councils each made up of 8 judges. Plus the president also has a say. Its very complicated. But as you see the AfD would have to rule all of germany and every german state AND have enought judges in their ranks for over 10 years to yield hitler power levels.
Doesnt mean they cant do heavy damage already once in charge. But they wont be able to change voting laws or the distribution of power for example.
Germanys federalism is blessing and a big safe guard, but also that federalism brings huge headach and makes change really really slow.
Why hasn’t the German government shut them down? I thought they had anti-fascist laws on their books.
There are multiple factors at play.
- The government is incompetent and the Nazis are playing them like a fiddle by setting the public agenda aided by incompetent and complicit media. (That the Nazis’ economic agenda, more money for the rich, isn’t all that differnet from that of the established parties helps with this, because this renders them unable of countering the Nazis’ lies about foreigners being to blame for the economic hardships of the masses without harming themselves)
- The government consists of greedy, power hungry bastards who think they can use the Nazis to their advantage. (Some lie to themselves that they can steal votes from them by parroting their rhetoric, some use the spectre of cooperating with the Nazis to pressure other parties into cooperation with them instead)
- The government consists of opportunistic cowards who are afraid of angering the Nazi voters and/or losing the court case for a ban of the Nazi party.
It’s similar in the UK currently. The UK’s equivalent of AfD is Reform UK who are apparently the leading party in the polls (source):
Reform UK in front on 25%, Labour on 23% and the Conservatives on 20%, with the Lib Dems on 16% and Greens on 10%
The next UK election must be held in about four years. The only elections this year will be by-elections (notorious for elevating micro-parties due to protest votes) and local government elections (where Reform has done poorly, since they don’t really have more than a handful of candidates who aren’t local cranks and Nazis). Where I live, the local-government protest votes has swung seats from Labour to the Greens, and to a lesser extent, the LibDems; the right hasn’t had much success.
It should also be noted that the UK press is very rightwing and is constantly promoting Fromage.
True, it’s a long time until the next UK general election. Maybe Reform’s vote will suffer before then. Alternatively the local elections and by-elections could be a boost for them, I dunno.
Anyway, maybe we should have proportional representation in the UK. Even if Reform had 25% of the vote and therefore 25% of the seats in parliament, that would mean that 75% of parliamentarians wouldn’t be Reform members.
Our current system allows a party with minority support (potentially Reform in the future) to win a majority of parliamentary seats. In 2019, the Conservatives won 44% of the vote, which gave them 56% of seats. Last year, Labour won 34% of the vote, which gave them 63% of seats.
This is such a U.S. way of reporting things.
74% of people don’t want to be part of AfD.
It’s not. 74% are also not working on convincing disgruntled voters that AfD is just a shitsandwich and not an alternative that would improve anything. 26% for a single party that didn’t exist for long is huge and just shows how sick Germans are of the usual cdu/csu/spd/green/fdp bullshit.
The infuriating thing is that AfD voters would probably be better off with dieLinke.
Ive really been trying but every time theres a worse quagmire of information to wade through. “Like literal Trump fans. Jews own everything. Democracy is cool and all but really… sometimes we need other measures.” Theres just no way to talk back. Or even interact when in comes to politics.
One out every four people you meet being a literal nazi is tough tho
sadly, it’s basically expected that about 15-30% of the population are far-right xenophobes. the question is how well they can be mobilized.
US: what about one out of every two?
More like 1 in 3, many people didn’t or couldn’t vote
I disagree. The nazis leading the polls is very disturbing.
I mean, why vote CDU if they are doing the same shit as AFD but are not as good at it?
We don’t know how good AFD would be at doing, what they claim. But none of the parties who have been in power over the last 20-30 years have done anything significant to improve the average workers economic status (e.g. make housing affordable, guarantee a reasonable pension, lessen the fear of unemployment, etc.). AFD claims, “if we get rid of the immigrants, everything will be better again” and people are believing it.
tja
I read 50% of the men in Germany died in ww2 ….but yea cool Nazis what could go wrong.? Fuck around and find out I guess
…and after the War the allies fell over themselves to get former Nazi ministers reelected. The CDP was funded by the US State Department for decades.
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Who is going to fight them this time? The US and the UK are heading down the same path with the US far out in the lead and Russia is already an authoritarian state. France and Canada aren’t enough to stand up against this wave of naziism.
And 60 million others.
Yep nothing good ever comes from supporting facists
It’s baffling how those self proclaimed patriots can celebrate a bunch of traitors who ruined their country by killing off a significant part of its population and starting an unwinnable war that left the country in ruins.
Just looking at the people around me (mostly colleagues, I’m not friends with this kind of people) it’s no surprise, when just about anything triggers them to vote AfD. Some actual examples:
“We have a vegetarian day at the cafeteria now. Stupid Greens forcing me to not eat meat one day a week. I’m going to vote AfD next election.”
“They built a new bicycle lane on my way to work. Now I’m forced to stick to the speed limit because of all the bicyclists on MY road blocking me. It’s a straight street, I should be able to go 80 even though it’s inner city. I’ve always been going 80 there! Stupid Greens, I’m going to vote AfD next election.”
“Supplier X stopped issuing their bikini model calendar. Everything is forbidden nowadays! Noone ever cared for bikini model calenders, but the Greens want to forbid every little piece of fun. Stupid woke culture. I’m going to vote AfD.”
And let’s not forget that one boss who told me that my life-threatening nut allergy was woke nonsense, because back in his day “everybody just ate what’s on the table and noone died, but nowadays everybody has to feel special by making up things they won’t eat.”
They just want to go back to 1950s culture, when gay people, trans people, allergies, ADHD, autism, veganism, climate change and anything other than straight white dudes and straight white housewives “didn’t exist”, because how dare the world be more complex than a Rosamunde Pilcher movie.
The German mindset to capitulate in the face of challenges that cant be solved by doing how things where allways done (since kohl).
By god, nobody wants things like wealth and inheritance taxes to be done like way back when (when they existed).
Ok, unfair the majority of Germans wants them, but this great democracy continuously produces Governments for and by the 1% irrespective of your vote.
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” – Franklin Leonard
You guys gotta be more like America on the bike lanes one.
Just have crippling, insane traffic, where it takes you three hours to move five (5) city blocks (this has actually happened to me).
Suddenly, a new bike lane gets you across the city in 26 minutes.
It made the bike lanes very popular, haha.
As an American, I don’t think people will support bike lanes even then
They want to return to 1950s, but they will return to 1930s. And not only in Germany. Stupid people have no clue what dictators always do.
Specifically, 1939.
I’m genuinely sorry your boss said that to you, but it sounds so fucking ridiculous I laughed. Jesus. Imagine being so stupid that someone might die.
Well, to bring some darker thoughts to the topic: Most fascist movements are also very, very inclined on their interpretation of darwinism, so… “weak” people dying off may for them be more a feature than a bug
Also highlights we don’t live in a meritocracy if this clown is in charge of others.
You know what the worst thing is? He wasn’t the only one by far. Later at a different company another Teamleader told me I have to go out to eat with everybody. When I said the restaurant isn’t save for me (lots of nuts on the menu), he just said I HAVE to come and that’s what the Epipen is there for. I complained to HR and the HR lady asked why I don’t just do a therapy against allergies. Told me about some esoteric bullshit that’s supposed to cure all allergies and advised me to do that so I can better fit in with the company culture.
Bavaria?
NRW. Rheinland, um genau zu sein. Hier gibt es auch seeehr viele “Wir haben das schon immer so gemacht”-Leute.
This has to be the most toxic employer in Germany. I had some shut jobs, especially when I was younger, but this is insane.
I want to come throw hands on all these people for you!
*In an opinion poll
I mean lets not confuse an opinion poll with the truth. These things regularly get things a couple points off. In fact that’s the norm.
a couple points off
Yes so they’re first or a close second, that’s hardly better.
That’s what people have been saying for years and yet the AfD is already the second strongest in the last election…
