Far-right AfD predicted to win big in crucial German state election

I've met lots of people from different countries and the story is always the same. Low wages, jobs hard to find, housing inaccessible, politicians corrupt. Then the response is always to find a scapegoat. That's the root of fascism, authoritarianism, whatever you want to call it.

That's kinda sweet in a disappointing way.

It's almost like capitalism is incompatible with democracy.

Exactly, it's supposed to mean something... In theory...

The correct abbreviation would be ST, not SA, but considering the AfD is now close to an absolute majority the latter fits better.

I mean, if they actually used their own laws, they could just ignore that idiotic quarter. When the nation was set up, not going Nazi again was a major consideration. Buuut the precedent for legal action, now, is that every anti-constitutional group is too small to qualify, too big to qualify, or, like, both.

it may be a 'reunified' state, but the divide between the former east and west germany is very much still apparent in many, if not most, maps that outline pretty much any demographic.

They didn't live under "radical socialism"

I swear to God you people are so fucking stupid. Lookup what words mean. You are destroying EVERYTHING WITH YOUR STUPIDITY

WE HAVE TOLERATED THE STUPID TOO MUCH. STUPID PEOPLE NEED TO BE SHOUTED DOWN AND TREATED APPROPRIATELY.

NAZIS NEED TO NOT EXIST. WE LET THEM GO BEFORE AND LOOK WHAT THEY DID.

PEDOPHILIC, AUTHORITARIAN FACSISTS ARE INFECTING EVERYWHERE AND WE ALL KNOWTHE FEW BEHIND IT. WE ALL KNOW WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TO THEM. WE ALL KNOW WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TO PEDOPHILIC TRAITORS.

It's not really clear how much is backlash, and how much is just a failed totalitarian state leaving them uneducated and unrefined. They still tend to want state intervention in the economy, as well, which is why BSW is a thing - the exact opposite would be the former DDR voting for their Liberal (so libertarian for Americans) party.

The majority of those people agree that it was bad - they just don't think it's the same. And they will never think so, unless they're literally waving nazi flags and heil.

It's been branded as such a great evil that nothing can ever compare.

Israel is working overtime to keep all 3 allies supporting Israel, even if it means destroying those same allies.

People want to have a good life, no matter their critical thinking levels. If your government tries to fuck you and practically only works for lobbyists they will happily jump on any bandwagon praising to be the holy god.

The only place to fight it is off the internet.

But it is much harder. You have to go out and socialize, in person.

Plus most people don't want to talk politics. At least in the U.S, it is considered a somewhat rude or inappropriate conversation topic in casual conversations.

Like religion.

Some people still do it and sometimes it just comes up. But generally it's seen as pushy. Or trying to start an argument.

But talking politics to friends and family is usually considered fine. Depends on the family members. So I do keep up these conversations with friends and some family members, when I can. Remind them that you can only trust what you hear from real people.

The internet would have you believe the majority of Americans are maga. When it's actually only 30%.

but what is the right one?

Culture, education and ensuring everyone's in at least the 2^nd^ lower tier of Marslow's pyramid.

For starters.

I worry becuase so many places seem only a few years behind the us and that these right wing things have both been internal and abroad so there is so much cross pollination. I have had a hard time believing people could be so illogical actually. Maybe it was my social circle but its not like everyone in my friends circle was especially smart. I think though that I held the position of the smart guy and people tended to go with me. It was only in school that I had strong debate experiences. More so with my college friends where I was not the only smart guy. Thing is I remember seeing graffiti in college bathrooms. Yeah it was in the high school ones but it was like. This is college. But you know its not like everyone is a stem major. After college I worked at a contract engineering firm. Pretty much everyone was engineers. Once again grafitti. I mean im not talking some profound grafitti. Im talking penises and such. Then there was the phd guy working at a national lab who was like running a neo nazi group. ugh. so even people who learned math and logic in a field can't seem to apply it outside of their field. its nuts.

You don't convince her.

The reich mindset does the same things to a person's eyes as the abrehamic religions. In either situation, the person has surrendered themselves to the love of torture and abuse, for a chance at survival in a situation their mind at one point considered beyond absolute terror.

This switch is a long understood weakness in human cognition. I assume it evolved as a last-ditch survival tactic. If you're suffering unimaginably, but you are given any way out, or you see a way out, your mind unhooks from its normal cognition and excepts the cause of that suffering from every output except "permanent fawn".

Nothing can break a mind from this state but itself.

Both the abrahamic trifecta, and fascists of all types use this technique to turn their figureheads into the target of "permanent fawn". It is a position above all loved ones including parents and children. It is even above "self" if you can get the person to associate with a "higher self", like a post-death self or living in-group of people.

Once this has been done, they can do anything they want and their followers will make up their own reasons for following.

You cannot break a person from this. The peak of terror is already occupied in the followers mind. They can imagine nothing worse than betraying the source of their original terror, the one they are looped into fawning.

This is a hard-coded part of the human psyche. It cannot be removed, only "patched". The only solution is to occupy this space in a person's mind with something beneficial or benign, before anything else.

Whatever you choose for that position will hold complete power over the person. It will have to be something that no single person can stand in for, or usurp. And no matter what, it will involve scaring the shit out of people when they are kids. That's how religion manages this through eternal torture, and fascism through an abusive parent.

It doesn't have to be a needless scare. For example, after this current apocalypse you can just simply tell kids about the hundreds of millions of dead, and a destroyed planet, show them pictures and videos of the robots turning the air in a city into a mist. It'll be something they need to know about anyway, and avoid at all costs. The scar will have a noble purpose.

Now, what to bind that terror in service to? Something that will finally put a stop to the insanity that has plagued us since the cities began? That's what we should be focusing on.

but what is the right one?

direct democracy, where people can protest on specific, relevant initiatives rather than in elections

What's the media landscape like in Germany?

Please, stop protecting them and repeating this nonsense. The West German mark and the East German mark were converted at a 1:1 rate right after the Wende. People in the GDR were not all living in Plattenbauten. Many had their own houses, and many others left for southern Germany and Switzerland instead of staying and helping to rebuild the country.

Since then, billions of euros have been transferred from West Germany to East Germany. I remember very well people in the East having two cars and renovating their houses. I had far relatives there, so I saw it myself. Meanwhile, parts of the West, especially the Ruhr area, were struggling heavily, with municipalities accumulating huge debts that they are still dealing with today.

And now they want to tell the West, which has spent decades financing and rebuilding this part of the country, what it should do?

You know what? It might have been better for West Germany if reunification had never happened and East Germany had simply been sold to Russia - at least it seems that’s also their wish.

I think you are using the word exploited wrong.

Exploitation means using desperation in people to force them into agreeing to do low paying work or other desperate acts.

The U.S, the EU, and Canada are largely responsible for destabilizing many other countries and inciting civil wars and genocides.

When civilian people from those countries, people who have no responsibility for the state of their home countries, attempt to leave to find a better life. You say they are exploiting the countries they move to.

It's those same countries who made the immigrants home country inhospitable.

The amount of money spent on welfare is pennies compared to money spent on weapons and gifts of money to Israel. And all the tax cuts and tax loop holes they keep giving to billionaires who hoard wealth.

Investing in people helps them get out of poverty and give back.

Some times those investments take a generation to show the benefits. But it's there.

That said, it's important that welfare money is spent in ways to help people. Job training. Housing. Food. Education. And it's balanced so that it's not a better living to stay on it.

Like in the U.S. If you are on disability welfare. Let's say you get $1000 a month. This is not a living wage. So you get a part time job. You can't work full time because of your disability but maybe you could do 20 hrs a week. But if you do, you lose your disability welfare.

You won't make more working 20 hrs a week than the welfare check. And you would also lose health insurance.

So this discourages people from working who could work part time.

This is a flaw with the system. Not the people who are forced to play by the rules and choose the best option.

Likewise. You can't hold it against people fleeing from an inhospitable country , that your country had a hand in making inhospitable, to go somewhere they have the best chance of making it in.

Refugees are our fault. Our own countries have destabilized theirs.

Pumped in weapons. Incited political violence for their own gains.

And then get all mad when the civilians want to leave to be somewhere safer.

Maybe if our countries stopped all the b.s of meddling in other countries affairs we wouldn't have to take in a bunch of people trying to find a better life.

No one leaves their life and home for small reasons. These people fear for their lives.

So eat the rich it is!

Fascism has always been about opposition to labor movements in general and socialism in particular. I would bet that China is currently preparing to be invaded and, like the USSR last time, do most of the job of putting down the fascists before other countries join in.

Judging by their performances against Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon, the Nazi's don't seem to have any military power either.

It's all Italians this time.

I’m so happy someone knew the inspiration :) Couldn’t quote it exactly since he mentions “Centauri” but it’s one of the best speeches ever.

Jesus christ it's Jason burn

AfD is bigger in east Germany.

Trump has record low popularity. That's exactly my point.

Violence (alone) doesn’t solve the problem of fascism. But it absolutely does in part.

The thing one must really come to grips when dealing with fascism is acknowledging what it really is. It’s societal cancer. It infects a society if it can, and it grows and multiplies, and if it’s only treated with violence it may be beat back a bit but it will still keep growing until it either strangles the host society to death or it’s properly dealt with. And even then, it’s only ever in remission.

The other half of it is understanding the paradox of tolerance and knowing that if you want a society of ideas and beliefs and ethnicities etc. You cannot ever be tolerant of tenants of fascism. And to ensure that, a society needs three strong pillars:

• a robust education system that is free and accessible by all citizenry.
• the basic set of rights most would agree enshroud common dignity of people. This should include healthcare and labor laws. Protection for labor and not just capital.
• finally the defense of truth. Not opinions but objective truth. Those that like to sow the seeds of fascism will usually use lies to do so. So by making the freedom of speech apply to hate speech is usually a way to always give fascism a foothold.

Now none of this as you see says oh and we need violence. Violence tends to be what happens when fascism has already taken hold of the host. Because one way or another throughout history of fascism has it ended itself through burning itself out.

But if we continue a good practice of social hygiene each and every one of us every single day… then it’s far less likely that people will turn to fascism as a societal solution to political issues.

This is my Ted talk.