In its crackdown on pro-Palestine speech, Germany has normalized racism and state violence in a way that goes beyond any conflict abroad, reminding us this really is the country of the 1920s, again.
I don’t know about all the accusations of smearing etc. I can just say I live in Germany as well, a different part of it. I occasionally leave the house and mingle with people. And what can I say? I’m seeing different things than that journalist. Violence hasn’t been normalized here. In fact there’s always a big outcry and everyone hates it. We have ten times less of it than for example the US. Sometimes administration even does sane things. And we’re kind of proud that society still somewhat works out. And I don’t think state violence is on the rise either. You were never allowed to say some slogans here. I’ve been shoved around and nearly had a horse trample on my foot on some protest 20 years ago. That’s just how it is. My city has 2 cops to protect the jewish synagogue. I suppose you can’t do your Palestine protest there or do some grafitti. But other than that the protests happen and I don’t see more state violence than for example 20 years ago. So the premise of the article is pretty much the opposite of reality as I perceive it.
Idk, why? Am I wrong? Is reality wrong or do I need glasses? I’m not saying Germany is perfect btw. We have systemic issues. We’ve always had and have racism, inequality, police violence, criminals. And political discourse is getting uncomfortable these days. And the idiots are way louder than a few years ago.
And as a suggestion, maybe give some context if you’re a journalist. If you have a picture of a protester being arrested, tell your english-speaking audience they’re let go by police 5 minutes later. And in Germany it’s not like in the US where you’d be brought to jail and then maybe deported.
Look, like I repeated multiple times in this discussion, nobody is saying Germany is a totalitarian state. There are worrying signs. I get that in your immediate experience those might not be there. But lived experience is not a substitute for structural analysis. The article is not saying that they are pervasive, but that they are becoming more common and that’s alarming.
We are on the same side here: the side that wants Germany to be a free and democratic country. Sounding an alarm should not be cause for defensiveness but for vigilance.
I’m a dual EU-Canadian citizen. Canada is not an authoritarian country. However in the past few years, more and more, provincial governments are using a constitutional trick called the Notwithstanding Clause to push various political agendas without having to care about judicial oversight. If someone rings the alarm that this is an authoritarian tendency, a slippery slope that could fundamentally erode our rights as Canadians, should I start calling them anti-Canadian propagandists? Or should I take stock and weigh the danger and maybe use my position as a citizen of a democracy to make noise about it?
«The price of liberty is eternal vigilance» because democracies don’t fail overnight. They erode at the margins, starting with the people it is easiest to vilify. The time to speak up is not when repression becomes universal, but when it becomes noticeable at all.
I don’t know about all the accusations of smearing etc. I can just say I live in Germany as well, a different part of it. I occasionally leave the house and mingle with people. And what can I say? I’m seeing different things than that journalist. Violence hasn’t been normalized here. In fact there’s always a big outcry and everyone hates it. We have ten times less of it than for example the US. Sometimes administration even does sane things. And we’re kind of proud that society still somewhat works out. And I don’t think state violence is on the rise either. You were never allowed to say some slogans here. I’ve been shoved around and nearly had a horse trample on my foot on some protest 20 years ago. That’s just how it is. My city has 2 cops to protect the jewish synagogue. I suppose you can’t do your Palestine protest there or do some grafitti. But other than that the protests happen and I don’t see more state violence than for example 20 years ago. So the premise of the article is pretty much the opposite of reality as I perceive it.
Idk, why? Am I wrong? Is reality wrong or do I need glasses? I’m not saying Germany is perfect btw. We have systemic issues. We’ve always had and have racism, inequality, police violence, criminals. And political discourse is getting uncomfortable these days. And the idiots are way louder than a few years ago.
And as a suggestion, maybe give some context if you’re a journalist. If you have a picture of a protester being arrested, tell your english-speaking audience they’re let go by police 5 minutes later. And in Germany it’s not like in the US where you’d be brought to jail and then maybe deported.
Look, like I repeated multiple times in this discussion, nobody is saying Germany is a totalitarian state. There are worrying signs. I get that in your immediate experience those might not be there. But lived experience is not a substitute for structural analysis. The article is not saying that they are pervasive, but that they are becoming more common and that’s alarming.
We are on the same side here: the side that wants Germany to be a free and democratic country. Sounding an alarm should not be cause for defensiveness but for vigilance.
I’m a dual EU-Canadian citizen. Canada is not an authoritarian country. However in the past few years, more and more, provincial governments are using a constitutional trick called the Notwithstanding Clause to push various political agendas without having to care about judicial oversight. If someone rings the alarm that this is an authoritarian tendency, a slippery slope that could fundamentally erode our rights as Canadians, should I start calling them anti-Canadian propagandists? Or should I take stock and weigh the danger and maybe use my position as a citizen of a democracy to make noise about it?
«The price of liberty is eternal vigilance» because democracies don’t fail overnight. They erode at the margins, starting with the people it is easiest to vilify. The time to speak up is not when repression becomes universal, but when it becomes noticeable at all.