#german democracy

[antizionazi]

This got attacked by Zionists.

Meaning someone still doesn't want the Truth to prevail

Free Palestine

[racefortheironthrone]

In Germany, Sahra Wagenknecht took some of her political friends out of the left-wing "Die Linke" to create her own party "Buendnis Sahra Wagenknecht". It seems to represent a weird quadrant of the political spectrum: mostly left on economics, but pronouncedly right-wing / "populist" regarding LBGTQIA+ and migration. First polls indicate 5-10 % of votes going for this party. What would your strategy be towards them, as a social democrat / progressive? Thanks for your perspective, Steven!

Red-to-Brown is not an unknown phenomenon, and it’s not unusual for radical-right parties outside of that specific movement (think Front-National or Fidesz or Law and Justice) to emphasize expanded social benefits and state economic intervention as long as they exclude immigrants, minorities, and emphasize natalist gender roles and family structures.

While I think Wagenknecht’s move is morally evil, I think it reflects an accurate strategic assessment that a lot of economically-left, socially-right voters in eastern Germany would be willing to bolt Die Linke and would probably prefer a Red-to-Brown party over AfD’s radical-right-but-also-neoliberal platform. The real question is going to be whether they cannibalize more from the left or the right. Obviously the best case scenario is that BSW and AfD end up evenly splitting the vote and failing below viability, but any amount of resources eaten up in attacking each other rather than winning over working-class voters who care more about economics than social issues would be helpful.

As a social democrat, my instinct is to say shift left on economics and fight it out on that ground, because you’re not going to match them on social issues but I think you can on economics, especially since your only hope of victory is with the support of the Greens and the remaining Dei Linke (which will be more cohesive and hopefully more amenable on both economic and social policy now that their cultural right flank has bolted and what remains is the more middle class ex-SPD faction). That being said, it’s not good news for social democracy, and will probably end up with another Grand Coalition to keep out the right at best.

[tanadrin]

The Heinrich Böll Foundation is now trying to furiously backpedal and say they didn’t think Masha Gessen didn’t deserve the Hannah Arendt prize, actually, they just thought their essay caused “controversy.” It’s mealy-mouthed weasel behavior, but maybe an indication that German liberals are not immune to criticism from abroad. I hope people continue to call out this bullshit.

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

April 10th, 1938: The Anschluss. In a vote of all people, 99.7% of Austrians approve of the political unification of Austria and Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

The ballots for this vote were not kept secret, and threats and coercion were made to ensure the vote supported the wishes of the ruling party.

[enemymine2000]

My hometown today.

35000 people standing up against right wing propaganda and fascism. Being on the right side of history. The largest demonstration in recent history in Hannover. And the second one in just a couple of days that far surpassed the expectations of those in charge of planning.

These were 8500 on a weekday on short notice.

And we are not done. Because we are more than all Nazis combined. We want our democracy to thrive with all our fellow citizens, whereever their roots may be, whatever (mental) health conditions, no matter if cis het or LGBTQIA+. We want our society to be colorful, with inalienable rights for everybody.

[soryualeksi]

People honest to fuck keep telling me "But Hamas WANTS this war/as many Palestinians to be killed as possible!"

And like.

??????

So we are now doing EXACTLY what we convinced ourselves some Evil Enemy Force is secretly or not so secretly wanting us to do - commit absolute atrocities and human rights violations en masse - because at least we're doing it for. what. To bring Peace and Democracy? Enlightened Western Values? Freedom from the Evil Enemy Force that DEMANDS we do exactly the brutality we're getting away with?????

What kind of logic system is this supposed to be???

"Every Muslim should come out and publicly Condemn Hamas, else they're basically Terrorists - oh but don't you see, Hamas WANTED us to bomb this NICU, they DEMANDED we leave these babies on ventilators to starve, suffocate and ROT surrounded by the things their now-also-dead parents brought them, HAMAS wants us to do all of this and so we obliged! All hail the Western Democracies and their endless pursuit of human rights and liberty!!!"

You lie to me that "we" are the bastion of humanity's human rights, but your definition of "human" doesn't include even NICU babies if they are inconvenient (and don't fall under your definition of "Western").

Fuck all of this.

"Hamas wants this, so that's what we should do. Oh but anyone criticising this bombing campaign in any way is Hamas AND A TERRORIST!!! MORE BOMBS!!!"

[neco117]

die ärzte – DEMOKRATIE (Offizielles Video)

Good song and an even better music video! ❤️✊🏽🏳️‍🌈

(Sadly, the video was made with AI...)

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Der Kampf mit dem Drachen der Not [Fighting the Dragon of Poverty / Destitution],” Simplicissimus. Vol. 37, issue 15, July 10, 1932. ---- Die Lanze der Verordnung sticht doch nur den Drachen leider nicht. 

[Unfortunately, the lance of decree just doesn't pierce the dragon.]

A somewhat heroic St. George-ish Franz Von Papen tries to lance the dragon afflicting Germany with poverty, need, economic distress, and destitution, but the lance of ‘government decree’ kills only the victim, not the cause. Of course, one of the odd feelings reading old issues of Simplicissimus is that though we know von Papen as one of the gravediggers of German democracy, he is generally presented in these pages as a totally normal politician dealing with not so normal situation.

[benevolent-blackhole]

I hate that Wikipedia is usually the best source that comes up on Google because it really does have its problems. It’s not as if it’s peer reviewed, what gets allowed or not is the purview of just whatever editor who isn’t typically a subject area expert or anything

[little-candy-store-of-horrors]

oh to ask your (21 M, twink) brother (18 M, twink) to help chase down a (38 M) bear bc you are young and stupid and screwed up in public what could possibly go wrong. except that it's not a regular night at the club it's the Holy Roman Empire and you are the emperor your brother is your regent and the bear you teenage twinks are after is religious dissident Martin Luther

[racefortheironthrone]

Do you know of any good books about the German SPD and (more specifically) its decision in choosing to support the German war effort in WWI? Mike Duncan dedicated an episode in his Revolutions podcast to the collapse of the Second Internationale, and I'm interested in learning more.

This is a great question! I'm going to dig through my reading lists and do some updating, because I have done a fair bit of reading on the SPD and to some extent on the War Credits issue.

Here's where I would start:

One Hundred Years of Socialism by Donald Sassoon. The classic text in the field, and has a very good account of the development of the SPD.

The work of Sheri Berman, who does comparative social democracy (with a particular focus on the German SPD and the Swedish SAP). Her two big books here are The Primacy of Politics and The Social Democratic Moment, but a lot of her articles will be useful.

Ostrowski's edited volumes of Eduard Bernstein's writings would be very useful, since Bernstein was one of the major intellectual forces in the SPD and wrote on the war credits issue.

Roger Fletcher's articles on Bernstein's foreign policy views are also probably useful here.

I suppose you should also read Hudis' edited volumes of Rosa Luxemburg's writings, since she was one of Bernstein's most trenchant critics - especially on the War Credits issue.

The Second International and the Question of War by Eve Pech, which I imagine Duncan had on his reading list.

Talbot Imlay's The Practice of Socialist Internationalism is also a good text for this question.

[tr4shbby]

[lodeur-de-la-pluie]

A German Youth (2015), Dir.  Jean-Gabriel Périot.

[images-drole]

[der-blauweisse]

Political and social double standards - racism in the USA, Israel and (Nazi) Germany. A historical comparison.

USA-Germany-Israel: the Mental Bermuda Triangle Three states play a special role in the imperial charade of the “West of values”: the USA, Germany and Israel. For the fiction of a West supposedly based on human rights, democracy and freedom, the triangle of these states creates special narratives of this fiction and at the same time represents the “Bermuda Triangle” in which historical truth…

[sowwywithoutthew]

"Im not homophobic but why do queer people have to shove it in everyones phase like ehy are coming outs even thing? straight people do go around making a fuzz about being straight?!"

WELL, my "friend"... HAVE you considered that there might be a POSSIBILITY that this is because being straight is the NORM in a patriarchal captialistic society like ours? No? then my only question is wether you have considered shutting the fuck UP. thank you and good night.