Meeting the AFD at their terms (“inhaltlich stellen”) is exactly what the CDU tried, and look where that got them.
Answering facism with “well okay maybe we do have too many outsiders and queer people” doesn’t solve facism, it simply creates more. And at the end of the day people still vote for the OG facists, so you lose across the board.
What we really need is to stop offering populists and facists the stage. We have to place the issues that are actually important instead of this fucking fear mongering. People don’t vote AFD for their legitimate policies! People vote facists if they’re uneducated, poor, and desperate. We need to offer education and realistic opportunities of economical advancement and happiness. Want to guess which party doesn’t offer that at all and instead will make all three significantly worse for working people? THE FUCKING AFD.
The problem is one step higher, the solution being offered is the shitty take.
People hate capitalism, they struggle with real in person connections, hate their jobs, are underpaid, and struggle with basic cost of living expenses. AfD blames immigrants. The solution isn’t to ALSO blame immigrants, the solution is to solve the underlying problems.
It’s a very difficult list of societal problems that specific people are claiming can be solved with one neat final solution, when in reality it just causes more problems and centralized power.
People in (former) East Germany believe that they are forgotten by all the traditional political parties. And that nobody attempts to take care of them. So most of them see it as a protest vote.
As an aside, about two thousand billion euros have been invested in the former Eastern Germany by the country and EU since the reunification.
What can we do about this?
Perhaps we could start addressing the issues that the AfD is using as campaign talking points and that the others choose to ignore.
Meeting the AFD at their terms (“inhaltlich stellen”) is exactly what the CDU tried, and look where that got them.
Answering facism with “well okay maybe we do have too many outsiders and queer people” doesn’t solve facism, it simply creates more. And at the end of the day people still vote for the OG facists, so you lose across the board.
What we really need is to stop offering populists and facists the stage. We have to place the issues that are actually important instead of this fucking fear mongering. People don’t vote AFD for their legitimate policies! People vote facists if they’re uneducated, poor, and desperate. We need to offer education and realistic opportunities of economical advancement and happiness. Want to guess which party doesn’t offer that at all and instead will make all three significantly worse for working people? THE FUCKING AFD.
The problem is one step higher, the solution being offered is the shitty take.
People hate capitalism, they struggle with real in person connections, hate their jobs, are underpaid, and struggle with basic cost of living expenses. AfD blames immigrants. The solution isn’t to ALSO blame immigrants, the solution is to solve the underlying problems.
It’s a very difficult list of societal problems that specific people are claiming can be solved with one neat final solution, when in reality it just causes more problems and centralized power.
Exactly my point.
People in (former) East Germany believe that they are forgotten by all the traditional political parties. And that nobody attempts to take care of them. So most of them see it as a protest vote.
As an aside, about two thousand billion euros have been invested in the former Eastern Germany by the country and EU since the reunification.
Source for the “two thousand billion”?
Local news yesterday night.
That’s no source. Which outlet?
Source seems to be Joachim Ragnith (economist, vice leader of ifo Dresden)
https://www.msn.com/de-de/finanzen/wirtschaft/ökonom-joachim-ragnitz-seit-1991-sind-knapp-1-9-billionen-euro-von-west-nach-ost-geflossen/ar-AA2by3p1
Pinpointing a number is difficult for various reasons though.
I think it was arte in “le dessous des cartes”. Not completely sure though.
I can confirm: The number is mentioned at about 2:00 in the German version.
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/126925-113-A/mit-offenen-karten-im-fokus/