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

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“Brandmauer” (wall of fire against the AfD)

Firewall. As in a wall designed to hold back fire so that it doesn't spread. Specifically a masonry wall, "Brandwand" is the more generic term.

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True, thank you - I am at work and was typing that in a hurry before the next meeting, so that was indeed a bit off.

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What are you seeing in EU protests that BLM didn't have?

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Didn’t do much?. BLM freaked the fuck out of the conservative elite. They sent the fucking closest thing to the military to the protests and brutalised protesters.

People decided to back down at that point. But they didn’t have too.

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I think that the reaction of most mainstream German politicians to the Israeli-Genocide has made it painfully obvious that they're deeply Racist when they justified unwavering support for a regime commiting a Genocide along ethnic lines - were amongst, other things they murdered tens of thousands of children because of their ethnicity - by saying that they "unwavering" support the ethnicity that said genocidal regime claims to represent: it doesn't get much more Racist than justifying sending weapons to guys mass murdering children along ethnic lines based on the ethnicity of the murderers.

Not only is the moral distance from "We support Genocidal mass murderers because of their race" to supporting the quasi-Nazi AfD miniscule compared to what it would be if the starting point had instead been "No kind of oppression can be justified by the race of the oppressors", but even the AfD ideology itself of "The German people should be able to do whatever they want to other ethnicities and nationalities" is morally not that distant from the "A very specific race should be able to do whatever they want to other ethnicities and nationalities".

In summary, what the SPD and CDU/CSU have been defending "for the Jewish People" is an even more violent version of what the AfD have been defending "for the German people".

Clearly the German Political class never strayed far from the way of thinking that underpinned NAZISM (they mostly moved a specific ethnicity from the "untermenschen" to the "ubermenschen" column) and hence the distance to get back to the old "principles" was always much shorter than their performative anti-Nazis led most people to believe.

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Kinda makes me think when I, as an immigrant over there, was a member of the Green Party in Britain before the Leave Referendum: great forward thinking people who were genuinelly good persons who wanted a better world for everybody, all the while the rest of British Society turned out to be mainly composed of dumb racists.

Still today I use the lessons I learned in British politics, since IMHO they were maybe a decade ahead of the rest of Europe in the shift to the Far Right (their version is just posher).

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we already did the protest thing

No, you really didn't.

we're tired now

Fuck off, libs really are just going to let Nazis march through the streets.

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