Germany: Mass protests after far-right AfD helps CDU/CSU

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Difference is that in the US, people are armed to the teeth and a peaceful protect will quickly turn deadly.

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There are more democratic reforms needed and a lot of how politics functions is based on the culture and current attitude.

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Protesting is a lot easier when your country is 28 times smaller than the US.

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Oh well, nothing to be done but stay in the house and accept whatever comes, and MAYBE the politicians will suddenly have an attack of conscience!

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No, but it's important to recognize that the situations aren't 1:1.

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Go look at videos of French protesting proposed social safety net cuts.

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Unbelievable. There is an article about how Germans take to the streets to protest our biggest threat to Democracy and the potential next Nazis-Party and the only thing you say is one of the most racist things I have ever read on here. Shame on you.

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Why don't you tell us how the BLM protestors are pussies compared to the French. You say you want people to learn

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Edit: Sorry for the essay. Turns out I have some deep views on this topic lol. (U.S person here, which will quickly become obvious lol)

But I hope maybe this is helpful for anyone to understand the situation over here.

Though lines are extremely blurry now, I still believe, in theory, an armed society is a polite society.

The democrats cowing their base into being staunchly, superstitiously hoplophobic whilst egregiously miseducating them on the subject of arms, has had this bizarre effect where the 2A, a constitutional right for "all (wo)men created equal", that used to be a solemn responsibility, is now primarily a "far right" obsession thing.

So the majority-left seem to have disarmed and uneducated themselves on responsible arms ownership.
Believing for decades that self-righteous smugness and being upset will be good enough because "Things shouldn't work that way. :("

The minority-left quietly and responsibly exercise their right to self-defense, knowing fascists don't tend to regard harshly worded memorandums and shame. Problem is, being in the minority, it's difficult to organize.

The majority-right-ish quietly and responsibly exercise their right to self-defense. They still likely vote wrong (lol), but we don't hear much from them. Sadly more and more get pulled farther right and vote against their own interests because tone-deaf neoliberal politicians keep issuing empty threats about taking all their guns away.

Both sides know that rights lost are unlikely won back.

The radicalized-right have become religiously hoplophilic , and obsessively armed themselves, seeing guns as dangerous boys'-toys and fragile-ego enhancers, much like their ultra-lifted coal-rolling pickup trucks. Their leaders actively encourage this because it empowers more bullying.

So now we're in this awkward spot where openly-fascist militias rove the streets brandishing weapons, because they KNOW a majority of the left have no understanding of weapons, have none themselves, and are just left to be scared and cry about it and post angry on twitter. (So they took that away, too, like the bullies they are, because what are we gonna do about it, right?)

There's a saying that if you have no ability to do harm in the first place, not doing so doesn't make you a pacifist, it makes you harmless.

If more leftist groups could be taken seriously and showed their teeth, they could respond to rightoid aggression with a strong defensive posture, and the goose-step fan-club would back down real quick because, for all their violence-monkey-boogloo-fantasies and chest-thumping, getting shot is scary and it hurts so they'd probably want to avoid it.

For other Americans concerned about this, there's actually a Socialist Rifle Association , and it's quite telling that all the other "patriot liberty guns trucks" orgs specifically try to "other" them.

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Don't worry, they'll have America on their side this time.

Not the greatest timeline to be living in right now.

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I appreciate your response, even though I disagree. Still appreciated.

As an American who grew up in Europe, I have experienced the freedom that comes with living in societies that are largely weaponless. I don't use the word "freedom" lightly here. It truly is a huge mental burden here in the US to send kids to school not being a 100 percent sure that there will not be a school shooting that day. Or go to the movie theater or just stroll down the street. It just feels and is much safer in most of western Europe.

I understand that it's impossible to remove all these weapons from the American society, but I do think we need much stricter common sense gun laws. No need for bans, except for military-style weapons. But we do need to make sure that we don't keep experiencing these insane massacres of children caused by firearms. Arguing that weapons have nothing to do with it, or even that we need more weapons to prevent it, is just ridiculous. The firearm is the tool used and it's designed specifically to take life as efficiently as possible. It must be met with common sense rules.

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The USA used to be badass when we thought our leadership were underhanded charlatans.

Bosses used to respect their labor because otherwise "collective bargaining" could potentially mean your employees dragging you out your front door and beating you in the yard until you agreed to a cost-of-living increase...if you didn't take the hint when monkey-wrenches kept ending up wedged in the machinery.

Now look at us: The people waving guns around and screeching about "liberty and freedom" are the same people simping for their masters and bragging about how many hours they put in when they keep getting pay cuts.

Lefties and socialists sold out and became spineless utopian yuppies and forgot what fighting for your rights actually entails.

Unions have to be "approved" and "recognized" by their oppressors to be considered valid. Corporations make us sign away our rights to a fair trial if they wrong us.

This whole thing used to seem like it worked because once upon a time both sides had a certain social contract and agreed to play by rules and pretend we lived in a civilized society.

But now we're back to some monstrous autocrat saying "Who cares? Winning. Lol." , and we're all stuck wondering why nobody's listening to us.

Now we're on the verge of being labeled "terrorists" if we so much as lift a finger against their regime. The people need to claim their fire back if we're going to see these dark times through.

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Don’t worry, they’ll have America on their side this time.

And Russia too. Things are looking dark for Europe if things keep heading this way. And I'm still not sure what side China would take in the occasion there is a WW3, or if they would just decide to stay neutral and foster their economy while North America, Europe, and Russia just destroy each other.

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In the Racist mind the criticism of how their judgement standards and choices of supporting or not a person or State are different depending on the target person's race, always ends up interpreted as "an attack on a Race" because Racists cannot even begin to conceive the idea that "All humans and their actions should be judged independently of their Race".

When a Racist is critical of the use of double-standards depending on Race, they do it because they're attacking the Race which benefits of such double standards, so in their minds that must be the reason why other would attack such Race-related double standards and in their Racist minds it's inconceivable that the criticism could be against any such double standards no matter who benefits and against the entire mental architecture of seeing and judging people as Race-members rather than as human beings,

In the minds of Racists everything everybody says or does is about so criticism of Racism itself is invariably "attack on a Race" in the mind of the Racist.

(Aside from this poster's response to my post, other examples of what I mean can easily be found in how Trump supporters respond to criticism of their Racist actions)

Obviously thanks to their circular logic that "any criticism of Race-based double standards can only be explained as Racism against the Race which benefits", Racists feel no shame about their own Racism, since it justifies itself.

I weep for Germany and all the Germans who are Humanists rather than Racists: it must be hard living surrounded by so many people whose views on their fellow human beings fit the very same architecture of thinking of people as "first and foremost members of Races", as the Nazi ideology.

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Why are you putting words in my mouth? You picked one group of protesters. One.

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So did you. You picked one. I picked one.

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I'd like to see how this comment ages.

The US was protesting like crazy. It didn't matter in the end.

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I picked a continent. They weren't cowed by munitions. They knew potential consequences. They also knew the consequences of milquetoast protests.

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We’re lighting some candles and then we are proud of ourselves. Even France which is the stereotypical riot country is under the tight grip of neoliberalism and for what feels like decades on the brink of having the Nazi Lepen take over.

There’s not as much of that protest culture as it seems.

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Thanks for your response!

I agree with a lot of your points as well. Know what? I used to be a gun nut.

As my teenage hormones are behind me now, I quite honestly hate them. Even recreationally, they're loud, they're dirty (lead exposure, yay), they're expensive to feed, they do horrific things in the wrong hands, and there's the psychological burden of constantly making sure I'm mentally fit to have access to them. (I believe I am, but anybody is vulnerable, especially with all the stresses nowadays.)

And I think this is where a lot of disagreement comes: Idealism vs pragmatism.

You're right. Ideally, civil society shouldn't be wielding deadly force, even though for a while in our history, it was quite necessary.

You're also right, in that realistically, we're way past that point.

While my writing above was specifically about the people's responsibility to maintain a civil presence that demands respect, (Speak softly and carry a big stick, if you will.), the inward societal problems can't be denied.

My strong belief is that things like shootings are a symptom of a generations-sick society. There was a time when gun ownership was common, and these things just didn't happen. I mean, in some regions, high-schoolers would bring responsibly transported rifles to school, and it was considered normal! Schools had marksmanship clubs!

A reasonable degree of respect and sanity was the assumption rather than the exception.

But, family ties and neighborly relationships used to be stronger. People had friends and social programs. A single worker could reasonably expect to not only find a job, but support a house and family.

The wealth disparity was astronomically lower than it was today. Society as an organism wasn't nearly as stressed to a breaking point.

And as for the guns thing, people were generally knowledgeable and responsible with securing and educating about the hefty responsibility that comes with weaponry.

People still killed themselves or others on occasion, unfortunately, but it was anomolous instead of contagious.

But now...guns have become a status symbol and a fandom, an idol even, and all the small cracks in that previous society have become chasms. Desperation is the norm, sadness and misery are generally commonplace, education is absolutely abysmal and even holding a gun safety seminar near a school would be considered controversial and taboo.

Nobody has friends or knows their neighbors, corporate news outlets keep squeezing peoples' amygdalas until they're scared out of their wits, kids are under more pressure than ever, and nobody's parents are around if they're even together at all...(Statistically, they aren't.)

Why? Jobs. Employers.

All of this stems from a power structure that wanted to breed a dumber, more desperate, more complacent consumer and employee to farm for riches. They slashed and burned education, they alienated us from the sweat of our brow, turned us on each other, they make us reliant on their goods and services and price-fix our lives out of reach, force us into enormous debt, and they ensure our continued collective misery.

None of the solutions to violence, whether with cars or guns or pointy sticks, is going to go away unless we drastically fix our education and stop letting people fall into such miserable places that murder of self or others seems to be the only way out. That's why it's such a frustrating issue. No single bill or edict is going to solve it in a single generation.

And sadly, this regime seems to be aggressively accelerating in the opposite direction, because with more chaos they can justify a stronger fist, and the feedback loop continues.

As for "military style weapons", that's another topic and I've rambled too much already hehe. But I don't believe user-ergonomics don't necessarily equate to "better mass-murder machine." But I get your point, battlefield hardware doesn't belong in just-anybody's hands.

We have an issue with licensure now though: This is a regime that would absolutely be fine with demanding party loyalty to sell your constitutional rights back to you.

I also believe the unfortunate reality is that, while many fascist-friendly police forces are gearing up with actual military-issued hardware, and privatized corporate "security forces" will likely be more common, responsible civilians need to maintain some kind of parity to safeguard our liberties.

Fudd rifles and .22LR plinkers don't scare dudes with APCs and 40mm launchers, and they need to be encouraged to use their words, so maybe they pause a minute when the tangerine-hitler tries to rile them into marching on their own neighbors.

Lol hope this was at least fun to read. I don't mean to go off on tangents. Hope you have an excellent one.

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Germany: Mass protests after far-right AfD helps CDU/CSU