Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
- 28
- 1
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Hard to predict the future. The AfD is held together by contrarian spite and, appropriately enough, a lack of right-wing alternatives. There isn't really much positive valence associated with it; it's a thin organisational membrane around what is otherwise an empty hole in the political spectrum in Germany. And in my estimate, that membrane isn't too sturdy - polite society hasn't yet found the right kind of tool with which to cut into it, but once they find something that works there won't be much holding the AfD as such together. To be sure, as long as that aforementioned hole remains, some political force will form around it, but it needn't be the AfD with its current branding and personnel. It's ascendant now, but protest voters are fickle creatures.
That said, I obviously hope it continues to grow, trashes the "establishment", then nukes itself because their platform is nothing more than a placeholder and their people are politically incompetent, and from the ashes something better can grow. Or something worse, more likely. Things can always get worse.
Ah! A fellow optimist!
People are born into the world and expect it to develop tangentially to how it was during their formative years. Then the world keeps turning, but those expectations remain constant. Disappointment invariably sets in. The next generation is better-adapted to the revolved world, and can appreciate what it does better. But for the old guard, all they see is the distance between the world and their outdated expectations.
I am very disappointed.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link