If like @SimpleStacker and myself you enjoyed "The Return of the Strong Gods" you should check out this interview with the author.
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50 sats \ 23 replies \ @optimism 9h
I feel a bit strongly about the "Germany hyperbole" taking form as "people don't want to fight for their country, so go ahead and rape our women and children."
I don't think that that's what's being felt in Germany by Germans, but more by visiting JDV loving Americans. It's definitely not "injustice be damned" from my personal experience, it is more: "the state no longer is the top authority on justice".
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100 sats \ 22 replies \ @kepford OP 9h
If so... that's good. What is the top authority then?
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45 sats \ 9 replies \ @optimism 9h
Depends on who you ask. Large parts of German population are religious, so that's easy, but for those that aren't, I'm not 100% sure. For the Germans I know and talk to this about, the common denominator is natural law / nonaggression. Same as for most human beings really.
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100 sats \ 8 replies \ @kepford OP 9h
Unless they are anarchists some system has to adjudicate justice and law though. I'm an ideological anarchist but we do not live in that world yet. Maybe never. So the existing systems should protect the victims from aggression. In a state like Germany that is the state's monopoly position, right?
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171 sats \ 7 replies \ @optimism 8h
There are lots of anarchists in Germany, (unfortunately) most I've personally met are of the anti-capitalist kind, but I think that its more that a majority has lost faith in the government / the system they have than that they have a better alternative to put their faith in. Coincidentally you'll see the same in France, Belgium, Netherlands... basically everywhere in the North-Western EU. It's a perceived failure of the system and it's possibly caused by the EU - because that's the common denominator.
So yes, there is significantly less national pride because there is less national in the first place. Most development originates from Brussels where the leadership (the EC) isn't elected and the parliament that is elected doesn't wield much power, so logically people are frustrated. Imagine a situation where the federal government consists of only unelected bureaucrat and congress has no power to make laws, except vote down proposals. That's how the EU currently is governed, and it is capable of overriding local law.
On top, in Germany there definitely is the outsized immigration that started under Merkel that is not without downsides, and people feel threatened by some of the issues that have arisen from this. But again, that is not coming from some passive stance of people not wanting to defend their principles, it is, from what I can tell, disillusion with the status quo that is unable to structurally fix problems and often the cause of more problems when implementing their ideologies.
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100 sats \ 6 replies \ @SimpleStacker 8h
My understanding is that more and more Germans are supporting the AfD because of these problems.
So are you saying that even those who don't support the AfD, would still acknowledge that mass migration is a problem, and they just are disillusioned that the AfD can fix the problem?
Because, from my American POV, I think a lot of people are not willing to articulate that mass immigration is problematic, probably due to ideological precommitments.
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @optimism 8h
I'm not entirely sure what you feel "a lot of people" means. I don't know anyone that would deny that there are severe issues. The disagreement is, to stay with hyperbole, "we should help people" versus "they can fuck right off". The longer it takes to fix issues, the more people will end up in the latter camp. Not because they aren't morally aligned with helping people, but because they feel incapable of helping, especially when they themselves aren't being helped either.
AfD is more popular in the US than in Germany - at least where I voted.
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100 sats \ 4 replies \ @SimpleStacker 8h
I don't know what I mean by "a lot of people" either.
Probably what I mean is that, within my own professional circles, I 100% feel like there are certain things I cannot say without professional risk---and suggesting any causal relationship between immigration and social problems is one of those things. Even if it's just for the sake of discussion, without landing on any particular policy solution.
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0 sats \ 11 replies \ @kepford OP 9h
I also do not recall Reno making a case for this either. Quite the contrary. He predicted the end of Germany as a nation state as we know it. They have lost their national pride and identity. I believe that is his position.
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41 sats \ 10 replies \ @optimism 9h
He literally said it at 28:13.
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100 sats \ 9 replies \ @kepford OP 9h
I think I misunderstood your point then. Yeah, he said the quote. Wasn't suggesting that.
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0 sats \ 8 replies \ @optimism 8h
Yeah I wasn't really clear about it I guess. My point is that if you take that as truth, then your whole assessment will be on shaky grounds.
He's not neccessarily wrong about Germany maybe not being as-is in 20-30 years, that's possible. But it won't be because Germans would be letting their wives and daughters be raped by invaders.
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100 sats \ 7 replies \ @SimpleStacker 8h
It's obviously not because they are "letting" their wives and daughters be raped.
But... here's where I think he's onto something.
Even if there was a statistically clear cut correlation between migrants and crime... even saying that out loud will get you labeled or cancelled in some circles. (And these circles often are the ones closest to the decision-making power centers.)
Thus, it's not that anyone is "letting" the crime happen, but moreso stifling any debate about it such that nothing can ever get done to address the issue.
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0 sats \ 6 replies \ @optimism 8h
You cannot reflect the actions of the political establishment on the people, especially when a very large part of the country is extremely unhappy with that establishment.
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68 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 10h
"1939 was a long long time ago. Yet it exerts an incredible grip on our political and moral imagination."
So true. Our entire moral language is still framed around it.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @88b0c423eb 5h
Watching now, thanks for sharing
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