This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I might as well ask: how so?
Let's go party by party. I'll not try to hide my biases, and I'm not going to look for sources unless you insist.
Merkel is out of office and out of politics, and it didn't take anything drastic. I'd say it was simply a combination of exhaustion and national crises that a politician of her type was ill-equipped to deal with. As the article says, her M.O. was to remain above politics - but that was really workable only so long as politics stayed out of people's lives. Mass immigration and hysterical covid responses both actually affect people and thus reflected poorly upon Merkel, and my guess is that she's really happy to have gotten out before needing to respond to the war in the Ukraine or to take responsibility for the economic effects of the environmental policies she put underway. There's not much else to say about the CDU. They have a core of loyal voters who'll keep this party going for as long as they live. Sadly the party has absolutely no idea what it stands for or what policies it espouses. The CDU is first and foremost a club for doing politics, getting posts, and maybe keeping the other parties from screwing things up too badly, but only if it's not too much of a bother. Right now their leadership is undecided on whether to pretend to be environmentalists or conservatives.
The NPD hasn't mattered in any way in a long time. Everyone's new favorite scarecrow is the AfD, and the AfD really soaked up any sizable voting blocks the NPD ever had.
The AfD, coincidentally, has gotten into several state-level parliaments and was prevented from government participation only by opposing coalitions. They're not doing much, as all the other parties are still doing their damndest to sabotage them even if it means throwing parliamentary protocol overboard or inventing new rules, but they're also slowly taking root in the east where people are getting downright used to them.
The fortunes of the SPD have been wild, fluctuating between near-irrelevance a few years ago and somehow getting really lucky and becoming the largest government party and providing the chancellor in the last election. The War in the Ukraine really threw a spanner into their works though, and as I see it they haven't recovered yet. The German left's brand of pacifism has a hard time coexisting with their cathedral-approved hatred for Putin. Some of their ministers are still trying to just power on and do what their party is ostensibly there for, protecting the working class by forever expanding the bureaucracy, but they're also running a little scared at the prospects of what the Greens are cooking up.
The Greens are by now one of the strongest parties, with what I'd guess to be the second-largest block of loyal voters - second in size only to the CDU's, but also much younger and thus more likely to last, and they're firmly the woke/progressive/cathedral favorite. They're also in government and really getting things done. Their co-ed candidates for chancellorship ended up not getting the post thanks to the SPD's outrageous luck in the election, so they instead grabbed the ministries of foreign affairs and of the economy, and they're both trying their hardest to make names for themselves. The M.o. Foreign Affairs, when she isn't loudly proclaiming the age of feminist foreign policy, is also our standout warhawk in matters of Ukraine - a position most unusual for someone of her hardcore pacifist party. The M.o. Economy is instead leaning into the environmentalism, actually going through with Merkel's policies for national economic ruination, and adding a few more of his own to make sure that every German household gets to really feel it.
The FPD also made it into the current government, and their most known ministers are those of Law and of Finance. Their two standout contributions are respectively playing along with the other two parties to get a sexual-minorities'-rights law underway, and sabotaging all else as hard as they can to keep especially the Greens from destroying Germany's economy overnight. They've been rebranding themselves as a party that's socially progressive and economically not insane, and it seems to work. Naturally most young Germans hate them and blame them for causing the end of the world, and tend to completely ignore that the FDP did the legwork for the sexual-minorities'-bill and ascribe that one entirely to the Greens instead. Someone should tell the FDP about conflict theory.
In short, the last election went unexpected ways, and the war in the Ukraine broke a lot of people.
Thank you, this explains a lot.
Does it actually, or are you just being polite because I typed a lot? Sincere question for feedback; I'm rarely sure whether I'm on point or just blathering.
I'd like to second @HalloweenSnarry and say your post was genuinely interesting. Your view of German politics and @Stefferi's take on Finnish politics is something I'd have to put some effort into finding outside TheMotte. American politics gets so much attention--and admittedly, it's important on some level, even for non-Americans--that it tends to drown out the collective opinions of other peoples. Thanks for providing this window into Germany.
More options
Context Copy link
I was genuinely educated, I'd say (this made a couple other past comments about German politics make more sense), and of course I do have to show appreciation for the otherwise-thankless effort you put in. I like these kinds of local non-US politics updates.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link