German Politics Thread

[Lērisama]

¹ Although with significantly more sanity than you seem to be suggesting

Hey, I was a big fan of his blog. I was one of the top commentators. I'm literally advising him to be louder about his opinions on social media whether they are well-researched or not.

Sorry, I'd forgotten that. In which case I'd like to say to Raphael that if his writing¹ can impress both me and Rotting Bones, then it must be quite good.

¹ In a semi-random suggestion, your writing seemed to remind me of a frustrated opinion columnist. I have absolutely no clue how such things work, but it might be worth submitting some writing to places which might accept such things².
² Which again, I have no idea what they are, but presumably there's some places that might.

[WeepingElf]

Many progressives communicate the wrong way. Face it: the fossil fuel lobby promise prosperity. The climate scientists warn of impending doom. Guess whom most people like to hear more. It needs to be communicated more that the fossilists lie and the impending doom can be averted - and we even know how.

[Raphael]

Thank you, Lērisama.

Many progressives communicate the wrong way. Face it: the fossil fuel lobby promise prosperity. The climate scientists warn of impending doom. Guess whom most people like to hear more. It needs to be communicated more that the fossilists lie and the impending doom can be averted - and we even know how.

Yes, good point!

[WeepingElf]

Thank you, Lērisama.

Many progressives communicate the wrong way. Face it: the fossil fuel lobby promise prosperity. The climate scientists warn of impending doom. Guess whom most people like to hear more. It needs to be communicated more that the fossilists lie and the impending doom can be averted - and we even know how.

Yes, good point!

And what's more: the aversion of the impending doom will give us an even better life than what the fossilists falsely promise.

[MacAnDàil]

Well, I'm not 34, but in my mid-forties. That's generally a bit old to enter a new field. And my adult life has been mostly a disaster. If I would have spend the last 20 years doing something like, say, studying medicine and then becoming a well-respected and much-beloved doctor in some local community somewhere, I might, now, be well-positioned to become a late entry to the great contest of politics. But instead, I have absolutely no (0) achievements to my name. A fortysomething with no professional references whatsoever would be unlikely to make a good impression on all that many voters.

You are not too old to start something new. I am in my mid-50s, and trying to start a new life as a solarpunk writer and prog rock musician. I don't know whether I will succeed, but I am self-confident enough to try. If you try, you can fail; but if you don't try, you will fail.

One of our Ph.D. students in our group started their Ph.D. this year at the age of forty. To echo WeepingElf and others,, it doesn't matter how old you are when you start or finish!

Somebody I know completed their history PhD after he had completed his career in nursing. So that reinforces the point that it is never too late to begin!

[Raphael]

Thank you, but given that I start out with no higher education at all, under my calculations, getting a PhD would take me 8 years, starting next summer. Not to mention that my second attempt at going to university demonstrated that I'm very bad at preparing and handing in the kind of homework you have to prepare and hand in in academic environments.

[Raphael]

Our glorious Chancellor has acted in such a way that it surprised even me. I mean, I never had a particularly high opinion of him as a human being, but that's about different fundamental values and priorities. Until now, I wouldn't have expected him to act in a downright stupid way.

What happened? He spent some time at the climate summit in Belém, Brazil. And as soon as he was back home, he made a speech to a business convention where he said that none of the journalists who had travelled to Belém with him would have wanted to stay there, and that he was really glad to be back home again.

I mean, really. When he talks fucked up shit about the less wealthy ones among his fellow countryfolk in Germany, that's one thing. But this kind of fucked up shit is actively harmful to Germany's interests. And for no reason whatsoever, not even a bad one. Yes, sometimes you have to talk bluntly, even if it has downsides. But there was absolutely no need for that in this context. He just blundered for shit and giggles.

What's especially galling about this is that Merz is from one of those corners of the political spectrum where people love to constantly lecture everyone about personal responsibility. Well, if he would actually believe any of that stuff, he would, now, resign and retire from politics. But of course people like that only believe in personal responsibility until they get asked to take some.

[Raphael]

The leader of the caucus of Chancellor Merz's CDU party in the federal parliament, Jens Spahn, has announced his resignation. He had announced that he and his husband had employed a surrogate mother in the USA to have a baby. Surrogate motherhood is illegal under German law, and the CDU itself, being theoretically religious conservative, has traditionally been very much against it.

Spahn is, or perhaps I should say was, one of Merz's most important allies in his own party.

Earlier in his career, Spahn had been Minister of Health during Covid, and had played a major role in a series of events involving the buying of a lot more facemasks than what turned out to be needed, many of them from businesses managed or owned by people close to the CDU.

[malloc]

Does that mean the current government could implode? That would be a disaster given the surging popularity of the AfD which could easily win the next election.

[Raphael]

Does that mean the current government could implode? That would be a disaster given the surging popularity of the AfD which could easily win the next election.

1. Dunno.

2. The might end up as largest party, but cobbling together coalitions is not an FPTP thing.

[Raphael]

This is really, really trivial, and with everything that's going on in the world, I shouldn't even mention it. But I simply have to bitch and moan about something that's basically a font size choice now.

Here is one of the large posters for the Green candidate for mayor in our upcoming local election:

k-k-bgm.jpg (233.16 KiB) Viewed 7973 times

Does anyone else think it's a bit weird that, in the design of the post, his actual name is so comparatively small? Look, I'm planning to vote for the guy, so it's not like I've got any ill will towards him. (I usually vote for the SPD, but they're not running a candidate in this election.) But couldn't they have adjusted font sizes so that his name would have been at least as large on the poster as the announcement that he's running for mayor?

[Lērisama]

(I usually vote for the SPD, but they're not running a candidate in this election.)

Is that normal? I suppose if tactical voting isn't as much of a thing then people would drop out more often than they do over here, but it still seems odd.

---

And yes, that font sizing choice is weird.

[Raphael]

Is that normal? I suppose if tactical voting isn't as much of a thing then people would drop out more often than they do over here, but it still seems odd.

As it happens, I know about some behind-the-scenes stuff which partly explains this, but I can't talk about that because it would be a breach of trust.

But yes, this is probably for the best - the municipality is politically rather conservative, and there are several more or less conservative or right-wing candidates running, so more than one center-left candidate in the race would mean the risk that the center-left gets shut out of the runoff.

[WeepingElf]

Does anyone else think it's a bit weird that, in the design of the post, his actual name is so comparatively small? Look, I'm planning to vote for the guy, so it's not like I've got any ill will towards him. (I usually vote for the SPD, but they're not running a candidate in this election.) But couldn't they have adjusted font sizes so that his name would have been at least as large on the poster as the announcement that he's running for mayor?

Well, the German Greens have always been a party that emphasizes ideas rather than personalities.

[Ares Land]

It’s not just the font size (thought that is the main issue); I think the local branch of the Greens could use the services of a graphic designer.

[Lērisama]

It’s not just the font size (thought that is the main issue); I think the local branch of the Greens could use the services of a graphic designer.

I don't know if this is normal, but of the admittedly very small sample of German Green campaign posters¹ I've seen, they've all had that look² to them, which is why I didn't mention it myself. This is all based on a very small sample size though, I assume our resident Germans would be able to confirm/refute this.

¹ For local elections, mind, and not just the Greens, although they did seem to be the most consistent after “random independent.” I hope the national party has better graphic designers available.
² The candidate picture backgroud³ with white writing over garish highlighting with side dish of “I'd assume this was done in Word if the aspect ratio wasn't non-standard.”
³ Far right parties also seem to be allowed abstract two-variations-on-party-colour background with carefully not illegal anti immigrant slogans in the same style as well.

[Travis B.]

Question ─ are the colors red, black, and white together verboten for political imagery in Germany today? Because I get the feeling that certain sorts of people would really like to use those colors if they could get away with it.

[Richard W]

Question ─ are the colors red, black, and white together verboten for political imagery in Germany today? Because I get the feeling that certain sorts of people would really like to use those colors if they could get away with it.

And aren't those the best colours for addressing those with colour disability?

[WeepingElf]

Question ─ are the colors red, black, and white together verboten for political imagery in Germany today? Because I get the feeling that certain sorts of people would really like to use those colors if they could get away with it.

Black-white-red, the flag of the German Empire, is very much used by neo-Nazis, and therefore these colours are avoided by anyone else. Not even the AfD uses them.

[bradrn]

Question ─ are the colors red, black, and white together verboten for political imagery in Germany today? Because I get the feeling that certain sorts of people would really like to use those colors if they could get away with it.

And aren't those the best colours for addressing those with colour disability?

As someone with red-green colourblindness, I beg to differ with the suggestion that red and black is a good combination.