"What happens if there is a major shooting or terrorist attack that can be plausibly laid at the feet of her opponents?...Elements of the state, including our constitutional protectors, are actively trying to make things like this happen. There is a very real danger that these people will very soon have the pretences necessary to push their fantasies further than anyone has yet imagined."
Yes. I would bet good money that something like this will happen, and happen soon.
This would be a false flag event. The trick for the perpatrators is that they will have to be cold-blooded enough to plan and execute an event which will cause sufficient mayhem to innocent persons to stoke widespread fear and outrage, and still bear a plausible connection to their opponents. If their "event" is just a little too transparent, they run the risk of being suspected of a monsterous crime. Frankly, I don't think they're that smart, or that confident.
Insufficient cold-bloodedness will not be a problem. And as communication media come increasingly under complete control by the Establishment, there is less and less concern about suspicion. The narrative will be that the antidemocrats are obviously guilty, and that strong action must be taken. That narrative will be largely unchallenged.
I agree w everything except the last sentence. If they feel threatened enough they’re arrogance will make the “event” seem necessary in their minds and just bc they’re likely not Intelligent enough to pull it off doesn’t mean they’re smarty enough not to try.
There is an awkward question for Germany. What did the State know about Nordstream, and why has it remained silent? Who, exactly, put the whole of Europe and the UK into an energy crisis, and why? What is the connection between this act and the German state? The problem is the silence of the German state is deafening.
Surely Frau Faeser can see this is significantly more important than political tittle-tattle? Or, is she incompetent?
If that is what asking a direct question is called, so be it. The question stands.
I do not wish to be a closet Marxist seeking destruction of the State in the name of revolution while telling lies to the public - which is what 'progressive' politics and MSM routinely do.
Germans seem to content to ride this sinking ship all the way to the bottom...of course all German politicians know that the US ordered the destruction of Nordstream, and ordered Germany not to use the one remaining pipe, which would have helped German industry immensely...So it's assisted suicide....and no one is interested in doing anything about it!
Germans are always on the cutting-edge of mass hysteria and now they're leading the way forward in the West's desperate need to atone for the crimes of its ancestors (which are no worse than the crimes of anyone else's ancestors, but Westerners of course only know about other cultures to use them as either props or fashion accessories).
Germans know they can only feel pure and sanctified if they jump into the demographic volcano and gloriously die off as an example for the rest of the West to follow.
The leaders of the West have opened the gates to all sorts of barbarians, which couldn't have happened if they didn't first agree with the barbarians—that all we have and are is stolen and the product of great crimes and must be returned along with abject apologies. Our leaders just hope to enjoy some great dinners and vacations and to be hopefully dead once their children (assuming they have any) have to choose between conversion and execution.
The dysgenic has its say and tries to be witty...That`s funny!!..... way to go lowering the tone to impress yourself....keep punching up buddy..you can do better../sarcasm...sorry!
"Germans know they can only feel pure and sanctified if they jump into the demographic volcano and gloriously die off as an example for the rest of the West to follow."
Yes, the glorious Gotterdammerung. Somehow it's fixed deep in the Germanic/Nordic psyche.
The death wish which gripped the West in the 20th c. (as evident from WW1and WW2) has returned with a vengeance. It is a collective complex being instrumentalised by a techno-managerial elite with an unlimited appetite for power and zero insight. An apocalypse appeals to people who find their lives overwhelmingly unfulfilling and who prefer the fantasy of redemption through cleansing revolution or upheaval.
What's the point to "die in a glorious" battle against evil and chaos which is entirely fabricated by a tiny fraction of the populace for their sole profits ??
Just shoulder your personal essentials (which are VERY few) and move-on to more peaceful lands ...
Once there, relax, lean-back and watch the carnage from afar ...
What do you mean, silence? It's known through investigations by both journalists and the German state that Nordstream was likely a joint operation between former Ukrainian special forces and US, with possible involvement of Scandinavian countries. (See Seymour Hersh on substack, among others)
The silence is a formal response, to explain how the interests of Germany and many other EU27 states were damaged, and explain why nothing was said about this at the time or since. The initial smear was it was all about Russia, then mad Ukrainians on a boat incapable of supporting deep dives, and then and so on. Yet not one word from any ministry, after causing severe economic hardship for millions of people.
Here is an anthropological, ontological response. Based on the work of Bruno Latour
In 1991 he published "We Have Never Been Modern" in which he describes the two transcendent pillars of The Enlightenment. They are Culture and Nature. Science gains its power because it accesses nature and provides empirical truth. But there never is a clear separation between the two, there are hybrids that span both of them, like the "pandemic." He also brings in non-human actors like spike proteins, microbes, air, are entangled actors that lead to many contradictions to maintain the fiction of the two pillars.
Now there is a third pillar: Capitalism., or more generally, finance. These three pillars underlie the transcendent, other worldly pillars.
Latour's radical proposal is to return to Earth. A Earth we have never known.
Apologies for the long quotes but Jörg Luyken had this to say (paywalled) if you're a Plague Chronicle subscriber I highly recommend adding The German Review to your reading list.
To Quote
Der Spiegel, which is the German equivalent of the Guardian or NYT, on Saturday blamed the attacks on “right-wing extremists and populists who portray democratic politicians as aloof elites, enemies of the people and traitors.”
Der Spiegel has since published at least a dozen articles on the subject of violence against politicians. None of the articles mention any attacks on politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
And
Meanwhile, a hundred politicians from the Bundestag signed a letter that called for an end to the “escalating violence against politically engaged people in public spaces.” The letter promised to “treat others with respect to ensure that the atmosphere does not become any more heated.”
AfD politicians were banned from signing the letter.
Finally
It is not an exaggeration to say that anyone who reads the mainstream German press will have been led to the conclusion that centrist parties are increasingly becoming victims of violent assault and the AfD are egging on their attackers. This reporting does an egregious disservice to any form of journalism that could be described as objective.
What has been left out of the national debate: a day after the attack on Ecke, two masked assailants, one male on female, attacked an AfD politician at an info stand in Lower Saxony. The assailants initially attacked him with eggs, hitting him on the head. The male assailant then hit the AfD politician in the face.
This was by no means an isolated incident. Over the past five years, AfD politicians have been far more likely to be the victims of physical violence than politicians from any other party.
statistically the AfD are by far the greatest victims of violence, followed by the polarising Greens (who, amusingly, are very often attacked by fellow leftists). the needle attack on Chrupalla last year, and the very serious assault on Jurca in Augsburg, are two very serious incidents, in their own way more disturbing than the attack on Matthias Ecke, which the media did everything to downplay or ignore.
This might be a crude American way of seeing centuries of intellectual flowering, but surely the entirety of the Western Enlightenment grew from people with both courage and brains saying "fuck that shit" to the establishment?
Yes, but two things (well, more than two) are missing from the equation this time:
No real split between protestants and catholics, so no religious wars, intrigue, and so on driving things on: it is an often under-estimated factor of Europe's development from feudal kingdoms (and our quilt-like map of various states from Hastings to the end of the Thirty Years War, roughly).
And:
No race for colonies around the world (and no race in developing/implementing new technologies before the neighbours/competitors driving the need to put real knowledge and actual reality before dogma.
Caveat: any historian could, would and perhaps should rip the above apart as over-simplified but I'm not really up an essay or thesis-length effort; I'm full to bursting with choklad-rulltårta with sugared buttercream filling (think you call them Swiss roll?).
You wouldn't talk about food if there was any possibility of me actually showing up on your doorstep looking winsome and asking for hospitality. Oh sure, I can look up recipes but it's really not the same, is it? I been making my own matzoh brei for 15 years but deeply aggrieved I am to have to do it. Swiss roll? I call it cruelty.
But anyway--can't those religious wars be boiled down to neither side accepting the other side's orthodoxy? And coming up with intellectual arguments of dissent to prove why? Once you let the first question in...
Well, if viewed as purely a schism within christianity, it would come down to different interpretations of dogma, and of the role of the pope and Vatican (which was a real powerhouse back in those days).
But that's just the head of the ale.
Many, many monarchs were thoroughly sick of the incessant meddling and powermongering of the papacy (and the corruption, pederasty, plenary indulgences, and so on) and saw in Martin Luther a chance to get out from under the threat of banishment and excommunication, and also taking control of the church and the clergy - something akin to having a state monopoly on communication as most people in rural areas got their news from the local magistrate, peddlers and the priest.
The religious split was certainly real for many, especially the common people, but to rulers striving to emulate the idea of the ideal Renaissance Lord as per Machiavelli et al, it was more of an excuse to cover the real causes of strife, and an excuse to no holds-barred beatdowns; what was unseemly to do to fellow christians was acceptable, even commended, when done to heretics and apostates.
Speaking of the pope, he has been all over the place in interviews (big one on the show 60 Minutes) in the U.S. lefty press lately. Not sure what that is all about.
Governments and their politicians never consider reforming, which would require them to admit mistakes. Instead, they become entrenched in their oppressive behavior to remain in power—no different from the monarchies of the past.
"This is an unhinged, crazy and very dangerous woman, who has achieved high office via the stupidity of German voters."
Voters are not stupid. They are lied to by their governments, what poses to be a free media. Given the blizzard of lies with which the public is deluged, it's hardly surprising that some of the worst pieces of refuse rise to the surface.
What is becoming apparent is that the mainstream political parties are becoming increasingly unhinged at the prospect of losing power because of a growing number of voters who hate them. Governments always become dangerous and unstable when they are on the verge of losing power. Hence the resort to tactics such as trying to label political opponents as everything evil in existence perhaps even including satanism.
It never works. The truth always comes out. Germany has been politically moribund for far too long locked in a supposed three-party system of intertwined parasites: CDU, SPD and Green. Now the public is looking to terminate their monopoly on power. Of course they are panicking.
It's not "governments" that become dangerous and unstabe when on the verge of losing power. Transitions of governments happen regularly. It's the government SYSTEM that becomes dangerous. There are far more people invested in the continuation of the system than in who runs it. Most politicians are just professional grifters who trade places every few years.
'in the latest attempt to characterize free expression as somehow criminal' And blatant criminality as free expression. The choice between the two made on the basis of your political point of view. Just like in the U.S.
We now see the Scottish First Minister 'Humza The Useless' has become silent after leaving office. Another stunning success for the second-rate minor lawyer.
Why is every government and the entire ownership class throughout the West so invested in unlimited immigration? It's perhaps the great question of our time.
I think first and foremost is the addiction to cheap labor, how it's needed to keep asset values high, wages low, the stock market rising. It is sort of a civilizational Ponzi scheme.
Then comes the next modern addiction, the Conspicuous Compassion that's replaced Conspicuous Consumption, and how everyone from the center-right to the far left are beholden to the idea that opening our borders to "people who just want a better life" is the kind and compassionate thing to do, another aspect of the Zombie Christianity that's become even more morally charged as traditional religion withers.
Then conjoined with this in both ways comes the NGOocracy, who work to launder cash and souls by constantly campaigning for more migrants, more funding, more politicians from their class with their belief system.
There is a powerful elite ecosystem infused with unlimited cash that works to keep borders open and dissenters' mouths shut, and they will be difficult if not impossible to dislodge.
Sticking a knife through the heart of the NGOocracy would do a lot to slay the Social Justice beast (at least its funding and political arms), but ironically the liberals who raged for decades against the billionaire takeover of civil society will fight to the death to prevent this.
This new billionaire class is on their side now, pays so many of their salaries, donates to all their favorite causes, subsidizes their publications and funds their activist groups, and most liberals seem to prefer leading lives of status and privilege under a postdemocratic klepto-oligarchy over sharing a real democracy with their blood enemies, the Deplorables (or whatever is their European equivalent).
Everyone hates an oligarch until the oligarch joins their team!
If I had to define "Zombie Christianity", I'd start with this quote from Nietzsche:
"Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality."
I hope this helps clarify why I consider our supposedly secular age to be deeply Christian, but in the sense that Christianity is a wrecked ship with people still clinging to its floating/sinking planks.
Liberalism and its angrier Marxist-Protestant offshoot, Social Justice, feel to me like people who found scraps of the Bible somewhere—the Parable of the Good Samaritan, "the last shall be first, and the first last", "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one..."—and decided to craft their own fundamentalist faiths around them, enshrining the morality while eschewing the supernatural.
Christianity had to die, so Social Justice (w its priests and dogma, martyrs and heretics, Damned and Elect, Day of Judgment etc etc) could be born.
It makes great sense. Thank you so much for taking the time to clarify.
And I think this is relevant to what you've written: Long ago, it began to really bother me the way many people who clearly were not Christian would try to throw what they thought were Christian precepts in the face of their overtly Christian political opponents, in an attempt to shame them and to reveal their putative hypocrisy. In other words, people who never even set foot in a church or actually study the Bible regularly try to use what they simplistically view as "Christianity" as a cudgel against their political opponents. For these agnostics and atheists, "Christianity" is no more nor less than a political rock to be hurled at the enemy. I think this is cheap and corrosive; the facile, gratuitous exploitation of others' religious faith for tawdry political ends needs to be censured by the larger society. It's not acceptable.
yeah i've always thought this was ugly and underhanded too, the whole "The Bible sez love the poor, so you should vote for unlimited welfare and open borders or else be denounced as a hyprocrite"—it fundamentally and cynically misreads the Gospels and erases the separation bw church/state sacred/political—"Render unto Caesar" etc etc. What you think is best for your own soul and what you think is best for society are vastly different things.
I'm delighted to hear this from you, C.P. I wasn't sure I was being clear. But, yes, what has been happening for a long time is that the Left, which scoffs at and even despises Christianity, has virtually no qualms about trying to use the religion they have no time for as an arm to advance their atheistic political cause when they consider it expedient. It's unseemly. I'd like to think that regardless of my own religious practices and views, I would find this dishonorable.
It’s not clear to me why the establishment in so many countries is so invested in unlimited immigration. Every right populist movement, from Trump to Brexit to AfD to LePen to Wilders, would collapse overnight if the establishment said “OK, we hear you, no more immigration”.
But they won’t do it. Anywhere. They’re willing to fracture their electorates, perhaps permanently, over this single issue.
Another great essay. This is Bruce Cain, from the other side of the pond: the United States. This is my favorite excerpt from you essay:
"No, what is most bothering are the rhetorical efforts of a powerful cabinet minister to collapse the distinction between words and crimes, and to draw a cloud of criminal disrepute also over the opinions, the political arguments and even the emotional dispositions of ordinary Germans. She makes their views, their rhetoric and their feelings complicit in the “escalation spiral” that she says leads to violent attacks. AfD offences against “human dignity” are also responsible for heightened aggression. This is a thinly-veiled reference to the AfD anti-immigration platform; the implication is that opposing mass migration itself may be borderline illegal."
From an Anti-Globalist point of view the entire planet is facing off against a globalist cabal that is attempting to enslave the planet though mass immigration, green policies, digital ID and currencies etc. We are in the midst of a historic global battle between global collectivism and individualism. In my latest essay I focus on mass immigration that must be reversed. I think the most humane solution to mass immigration is the deportation of all illegal immigrants that have entered our countries since January 1st, 2001. No trials, no exceptions. I also talk about the AFD whom I support.
=====
With passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (1965) non-Western and Northern European ethnicities were allowed into the US even though they don't share our values. Recall that George Washington wanted immigration from the virtuous: meaning people that share our values of free speech, gun rights and the Bill of Rights. Similar measures were enacted in the EU nations which has led to mass Muslim immigration worldwide. Activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek recounts the carnage that has resulted from this change of policy in a recent speech she made in Hungary. Her speech is a warning and well worth a watch.
Time for the US and EU to stop immigration from people that don't share our values
The Great Replacement is happening in real time in the US and EU
How sad for Germany , history in this case is repeating and rhyming , as your economy further deteriorates the incentive for authorities to go further will increase
Eugyppius, I love to read your reports on this topic, but afterwards I’m always left with a creeping sense of dread.
Don't worry, he'll be back in a couple of weeks describing the monumental incompetence of the would-be authoritarians, and we'll all sleep easier.
Yes, same
Very often the truth hurts. Bearing witness and advocating rational thought in the face of madness are among the burdens of responsible adulthood.
And I spend a couple of minutes SMH...
Sadly, it is no longer creeping...just dread.
Hopefully, this upcoming, creepy sense of dread does not cause any wilting of your petals ...
"What happens if there is a major shooting or terrorist attack that can be plausibly laid at the feet of her opponents?...Elements of the state, including our constitutional protectors, are actively trying to make things like this happen. There is a very real danger that these people will very soon have the pretences necessary to push their fantasies further than anyone has yet imagined."
Yes. I would bet good money that something like this will happen, and happen soon.
This would be a false flag event. The trick for the perpatrators is that they will have to be cold-blooded enough to plan and execute an event which will cause sufficient mayhem to innocent persons to stoke widespread fear and outrage, and still bear a plausible connection to their opponents. If their "event" is just a little too transparent, they run the risk of being suspected of a monsterous crime. Frankly, I don't think they're that smart, or that confident.
Insufficient cold-bloodedness will not be a problem. And as communication media come increasingly under complete control by the Establishment, there is less and less concern about suspicion. The narrative will be that the antidemocrats are obviously guilty, and that strong action must be taken. That narrative will be largely unchallenged.
I guess I just have more confidence in the public. The media and most institutions have lost a lot of credibility in the last 3 years.
I guess you do. I lost a lot of confidence in the public four or five years ago, too...
I agree w everything except the last sentence. If they feel threatened enough they’re arrogance will make the “event” seem necessary in their minds and just bc they’re likely not Intelligent enough to pull it off doesn’t mean they’re smarty enough not to try.
There is an awkward question for Germany. What did the State know about Nordstream, and why has it remained silent? Who, exactly, put the whole of Europe and the UK into an energy crisis, and why? What is the connection between this act and the German state? The problem is the silence of the German state is deafening.
Surely Frau Faeser can see this is significantly more important than political tittle-tattle? Or, is she incompetent?
Only a rightwing extremist would ask about Nordstream, or even remember Nordstream. Do you want to be a rightwing extremist ?
If that is what asking a direct question is called, so be it. The question stands.
I do not wish to be a closet Marxist seeking destruction of the State in the name of revolution while telling lies to the public - which is what 'progressive' politics and MSM routinely do.
I have a spine. They do not.
Only problem is that they are abusing their rights and we do not know how far they will go
I fear those who feel they can grab power in the face of weakness will not stop until life for the majority is unrecognisable.
Nice sarc!
Heck yes! Can I call myself a liberal rightwing extremist?
Germans seem to content to ride this sinking ship all the way to the bottom...of course all German politicians know that the US ordered the destruction of Nordstream, and ordered Germany not to use the one remaining pipe, which would have helped German industry immensely...So it's assisted suicide....and no one is interested in doing anything about it!
Germans are always on the cutting-edge of mass hysteria and now they're leading the way forward in the West's desperate need to atone for the crimes of its ancestors (which are no worse than the crimes of anyone else's ancestors, but Westerners of course only know about other cultures to use them as either props or fashion accessories).
Germans know they can only feel pure and sanctified if they jump into the demographic volcano and gloriously die off as an example for the rest of the West to follow.
The leaders of the West have opened the gates to all sorts of barbarians, which couldn't have happened if they didn't first agree with the barbarians—that all we have and are is stolen and the product of great crimes and must be returned along with abject apologies. Our leaders just hope to enjoy some great dinners and vacations and to be hopefully dead once their children (assuming they have any) have to choose between conversion and execution.
This is what they mean by Social Justice.
"Germans are always on the cutting-edge of mass hysteria "
I think clown world in Australia can beat you...
The difference is no one really cares about Australia. Sorry!
That's very true. Specially those of us who live there/here.
lolol
Ah, that's not fair. They make some exquisite table wines. Perth Pink, Chateau Chunder or Hobart Muddy to name but a few.
The dysgenic has its say and tries to be witty...That`s funny!!..... way to go lowering the tone to impress yourself....keep punching up buddy..you can do better../sarcasm...sorry!
Agreed....."Social justice", which has never existed and never will exist in a "democracy", was always a feminist push for suicide...
"Germans know they can only feel pure and sanctified if they jump into the demographic volcano and gloriously die off as an example for the rest of the West to follow."
Yes, the glorious Gotterdammerung. Somehow it's fixed deep in the Germanic/Nordic psyche.
is crazy what kind of trouble Protestants get into once their hearts become inflamed for Justice...a nice cleansing apocalypse will solve everything!
The death wish which gripped the West in the 20th c. (as evident from WW1and WW2) has returned with a vengeance. It is a collective complex being instrumentalised by a techno-managerial elite with an unlimited appetite for power and zero insight. An apocalypse appeals to people who find their lives overwhelmingly unfulfilling and who prefer the fantasy of redemption through cleansing revolution or upheaval.
They are working on it
I strongly doubt any Scandinavian would agree.
Germans only, but to full extent ...
Gotterdammerung = Ragnarok. Everyone dies in a glorious battle against evil and chaos.
What's the point to "die in a glorious" battle against evil and chaos which is entirely fabricated by a tiny fraction of the populace for their sole profits ??
Just shoulder your personal essentials (which are VERY few) and move-on to more peaceful lands ...
Once there, relax, lean-back and watch the carnage from afar ...
BINGO !!!
and easily explained: They are relaxed and comfortably lean back for most of them have fully comprehensive insurance ...
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
If the fine-print covers what is to come remains another issue ...🤔🤔🤔🤔
What do you mean, silence? It's known through investigations by both journalists and the German state that Nordstream was likely a joint operation between former Ukrainian special forces and US, with possible involvement of Scandinavian countries. (See Seymour Hersh on substack, among others)
Only the US Navy is capable of pulling something like Nordstream off.
The silence is a formal response, to explain how the interests of Germany and many other EU27 states were damaged, and explain why nothing was said about this at the time or since. The initial smear was it was all about Russia, then mad Ukrainians on a boat incapable of supporting deep dives, and then and so on. Yet not one word from any ministry, after causing severe economic hardship for millions of people.
Now we know how Hitler came into power in Germany.
I disagree. He was genuinely popular in a situation of great chaos. That's the scary thing. Hitler may be what comes next.
Excellent point that underscores the difficulty of politics.
The West has neither good politics nor good politicians.
The Enlightenment construction of modernity is on hard times.
But keep in mind the Germans tendency to be very law abiding and in the end may just except
BINGO !!!
"They" did not reach all their goals with WW1, therefore ... and the rest is history ...
Maybe, just maybe, YOU can tell me, for whom he was REALLY working for ??? ...🤔🤔🤔
Seeing how "things" currently develop and surface, he was just one single chapter of the "whole story" that continues to this very day ...
Here is an anthropological, ontological response. Based on the work of Bruno Latour
In 1991 he published "We Have Never Been Modern" in which he describes the two transcendent pillars of The Enlightenment. They are Culture and Nature. Science gains its power because it accesses nature and provides empirical truth. But there never is a clear separation between the two, there are hybrids that span both of them, like the "pandemic." He also brings in non-human actors like spike proteins, microbes, air, are entangled actors that lead to many contradictions to maintain the fiction of the two pillars.
Now there is a third pillar: Capitalism., or more generally, finance. These three pillars underlie the transcendent, other worldly pillars.
Latour's radical proposal is to return to Earth. A Earth we have never known.
Apologies for the long quotes but Jörg Luyken had this to say (paywalled) if you're a Plague Chronicle subscriber I highly recommend adding The German Review to your reading list.
To Quote
Der Spiegel, which is the German equivalent of the Guardian or NYT, on Saturday blamed the attacks on “right-wing extremists and populists who portray democratic politicians as aloof elites, enemies of the people and traitors.”
Der Spiegel has since published at least a dozen articles on the subject of violence against politicians. None of the articles mention any attacks on politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
And
Meanwhile, a hundred politicians from the Bundestag signed a letter that called for an end to the “escalating violence against politically engaged people in public spaces.” The letter promised to “treat others with respect to ensure that the atmosphere does not become any more heated.”
AfD politicians were banned from signing the letter.
Finally
It is not an exaggeration to say that anyone who reads the mainstream German press will have been led to the conclusion that centrist parties are increasingly becoming victims of violent assault and the AfD are egging on their attackers. This reporting does an egregious disservice to any form of journalism that could be described as objective.
What has been left out of the national debate: a day after the attack on Ecke, two masked assailants, one male on female, attacked an AfD politician at an info stand in Lower Saxony. The assailants initially attacked him with eggs, hitting him on the head. The male assailant then hit the AfD politician in the face.
This was by no means an isolated incident. Over the past five years, AfD politicians have been far more likely to be the victims of physical violence than politicians from any other party.
https://www.thegermanreview.de/p/what-a-brutal-attack-on-a-politician?r=8ahwm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
the german review is great.
statistically the AfD are by far the greatest victims of violence, followed by the polarising Greens (who, amusingly, are very often attacked by fellow leftists). the needle attack on Chrupalla last year, and the very serious assault on Jurca in Augsburg, are two very serious incidents, in their own way more disturbing than the attack on Matthias Ecke, which the media did everything to downplay or ignore.
The press is controlled by scumbags.
The left is full of psychos.
This might be a crude American way of seeing centuries of intellectual flowering, but surely the entirety of the Western Enlightenment grew from people with both courage and brains saying "fuck that shit" to the establishment?
Crude but effective.
Yes, but two things (well, more than two) are missing from the equation this time:
No real split between protestants and catholics, so no religious wars, intrigue, and so on driving things on: it is an often under-estimated factor of Europe's development from feudal kingdoms (and our quilt-like map of various states from Hastings to the end of the Thirty Years War, roughly).
And:
No race for colonies around the world (and no race in developing/implementing new technologies before the neighbours/competitors driving the need to put real knowledge and actual reality before dogma.
Caveat: any historian could, would and perhaps should rip the above apart as over-simplified but I'm not really up an essay or thesis-length effort; I'm full to bursting with choklad-rulltårta with sugared buttercream filling (think you call them Swiss roll?).
You wouldn't talk about food if there was any possibility of me actually showing up on your doorstep looking winsome and asking for hospitality. Oh sure, I can look up recipes but it's really not the same, is it? I been making my own matzoh brei for 15 years but deeply aggrieved I am to have to do it. Swiss roll? I call it cruelty.
But anyway--can't those religious wars be boiled down to neither side accepting the other side's orthodoxy? And coming up with intellectual arguments of dissent to prove why? Once you let the first question in...
Well, if viewed as purely a schism within christianity, it would come down to different interpretations of dogma, and of the role of the pope and Vatican (which was a real powerhouse back in those days).
But that's just the head of the ale.
Many, many monarchs were thoroughly sick of the incessant meddling and powermongering of the papacy (and the corruption, pederasty, plenary indulgences, and so on) and saw in Martin Luther a chance to get out from under the threat of banishment and excommunication, and also taking control of the church and the clergy - something akin to having a state monopoly on communication as most people in rural areas got their news from the local magistrate, peddlers and the priest.
The religious split was certainly real for many, especially the common people, but to rulers striving to emulate the idea of the ideal Renaissance Lord as per Machiavelli et al, it was more of an excuse to cover the real causes of strife, and an excuse to no holds-barred beatdowns; what was unseemly to do to fellow christians was acceptable, even commended, when done to heretics and apostates.
Speaking of the pope, he has been all over the place in interviews (big one on the show 60 Minutes) in the U.S. lefty press lately. Not sure what that is all about.
I have a novel epidemiological theory. I know it sounds unusual but...
Could it be that widespread contempt for politics is caused by contemptible politicians?
Governments and their politicians never consider reforming, which would require them to admit mistakes. Instead, they become entrenched in their oppressive behavior to remain in power—no different from the monarchies of the past.
Bingo.
This part I disagree with.
"This is an unhinged, crazy and very dangerous woman, who has achieved high office via the stupidity of German voters."
Voters are not stupid. They are lied to by their governments, what poses to be a free media. Given the blizzard of lies with which the public is deluged, it's hardly surprising that some of the worst pieces of refuse rise to the surface.
What is becoming apparent is that the mainstream political parties are becoming increasingly unhinged at the prospect of losing power because of a growing number of voters who hate them. Governments always become dangerous and unstable when they are on the verge of losing power. Hence the resort to tactics such as trying to label political opponents as everything evil in existence perhaps even including satanism.
It never works. The truth always comes out. Germany has been politically moribund for far too long locked in a supposed three-party system of intertwined parasites: CDU, SPD and Green. Now the public is looking to terminate their monopoly on power. Of course they are panicking.
It's not "governments" that become dangerous and unstabe when on the verge of losing power. Transitions of governments happen regularly. It's the government SYSTEM that becomes dangerous. There are far more people invested in the continuation of the system than in who runs it. Most politicians are just professional grifters who trade places every few years.
Well put.
'in the latest attempt to characterize free expression as somehow criminal' And blatant criminality as free expression. The choice between the two made on the basis of your political point of view. Just like in the U.S.
We now see the Scottish First Minister 'Humza The Useless' has become silent after leaving office. Another stunning success for the second-rate minor lawyer.
Completely off topic (maybe not) and inappropriate: Nancy Faeser reminds me of Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Nurse Ratched was the adversary from hell. Faeser is quite an ordinary person. She's more like Aunt Marge.
ah the banality of evil
Why is the German establishment so invested in unlimited Muslim immigration?
Why is every government and the entire ownership class throughout the West so invested in unlimited immigration? It's perhaps the great question of our time.
I think first and foremost is the addiction to cheap labor, how it's needed to keep asset values high, wages low, the stock market rising. It is sort of a civilizational Ponzi scheme.
Then comes the next modern addiction, the Conspicuous Compassion that's replaced Conspicuous Consumption, and how everyone from the center-right to the far left are beholden to the idea that opening our borders to "people who just want a better life" is the kind and compassionate thing to do, another aspect of the Zombie Christianity that's become even more morally charged as traditional religion withers.
Then conjoined with this in both ways comes the NGOocracy, who work to launder cash and souls by constantly campaigning for more migrants, more funding, more politicians from their class with their belief system.
There is a powerful elite ecosystem infused with unlimited cash that works to keep borders open and dissenters' mouths shut, and they will be difficult if not impossible to dislodge.
Yes. The NGOs must be defunded. They get billions from US taxpayers.
Sticking a knife through the heart of the NGOocracy would do a lot to slay the Social Justice beast (at least its funding and political arms), but ironically the liberals who raged for decades against the billionaire takeover of civil society will fight to the death to prevent this.
This new billionaire class is on their side now, pays so many of their salaries, donates to all their favorite causes, subsidizes their publications and funds their activist groups, and most liberals seem to prefer leading lives of status and privilege under a postdemocratic klepto-oligarchy over sharing a real democracy with their blood enemies, the Deplorables (or whatever is their European equivalent).
Everyone hates an oligarch until the oligarch joins their team!
And they fund NPR.
Really well stated.
But, what do you mean by this?: "Zombie Christianity." Thank you.
Thanks!
If I had to define "Zombie Christianity", I'd start with this quote from Nietzsche:
"Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality."
I hope this helps clarify why I consider our supposedly secular age to be deeply Christian, but in the sense that Christianity is a wrecked ship with people still clinging to its floating/sinking planks.
Liberalism and its angrier Marxist-Protestant offshoot, Social Justice, feel to me like people who found scraps of the Bible somewhere—the Parable of the Good Samaritan, "the last shall be first, and the first last", "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one..."—and decided to craft their own fundamentalist faiths around them, enshrining the morality while eschewing the supernatural.
Christianity had to die, so Social Justice (w its priests and dogma, martyrs and heretics, Damned and Elect, Day of Judgment etc etc) could be born.
Hope that makes sense!
It makes great sense. Thank you so much for taking the time to clarify.
And I think this is relevant to what you've written: Long ago, it began to really bother me the way many people who clearly were not Christian would try to throw what they thought were Christian precepts in the face of their overtly Christian political opponents, in an attempt to shame them and to reveal their putative hypocrisy. In other words, people who never even set foot in a church or actually study the Bible regularly try to use what they simplistically view as "Christianity" as a cudgel against their political opponents. For these agnostics and atheists, "Christianity" is no more nor less than a political rock to be hurled at the enemy. I think this is cheap and corrosive; the facile, gratuitous exploitation of others' religious faith for tawdry political ends needs to be censured by the larger society. It's not acceptable.
yeah i've always thought this was ugly and underhanded too, the whole "The Bible sez love the poor, so you should vote for unlimited welfare and open borders or else be denounced as a hyprocrite"—it fundamentally and cynically misreads the Gospels and erases the separation bw church/state sacred/political—"Render unto Caesar" etc etc. What you think is best for your own soul and what you think is best for society are vastly different things.
I'm delighted to hear this from you, C.P. I wasn't sure I was being clear. But, yes, what has been happening for a long time is that the Left, which scoffs at and even despises Christianity, has virtually no qualms about trying to use the religion they have no time for as an arm to advance their atheistic political cause when they consider it expedient. It's unseemly. I'd like to think that regardless of my own religious practices and views, I would find this dishonorable.
It’s not clear to me why the establishment in so many countries is so invested in unlimited immigration. Every right populist movement, from Trump to Brexit to AfD to LePen to Wilders, would collapse overnight if the establishment said “OK, we hear you, no more immigration”.
But they won’t do it. Anywhere. They’re willing to fracture their electorates, perhaps permanently, over this single issue.
Group think and fear of being smeared if they dare to suggest practical limits / measures.
Another great essay. This is Bruce Cain, from the other side of the pond: the United States. This is my favorite excerpt from you essay:
"No, what is most bothering are the rhetorical efforts of a powerful cabinet minister to collapse the distinction between words and crimes, and to draw a cloud of criminal disrepute also over the opinions, the political arguments and even the emotional dispositions of ordinary Germans. She makes their views, their rhetoric and their feelings complicit in the “escalation spiral” that she says leads to violent attacks. AfD offences against “human dignity” are also responsible for heightened aggression. This is a thinly-veiled reference to the AfD anti-immigration platform; the implication is that opposing mass migration itself may be borderline illegal."
From an Anti-Globalist point of view the entire planet is facing off against a globalist cabal that is attempting to enslave the planet though mass immigration, green policies, digital ID and currencies etc. We are in the midst of a historic global battle between global collectivism and individualism. In my latest essay I focus on mass immigration that must be reversed. I think the most humane solution to mass immigration is the deportation of all illegal immigrants that have entered our countries since January 1st, 2001. No trials, no exceptions. I also talk about the AFD whom I support.
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With passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (1965) non-Western and Northern European ethnicities were allowed into the US even though they don't share our values. Recall that George Washington wanted immigration from the virtuous: meaning people that share our values of free speech, gun rights and the Bill of Rights. Similar measures were enacted in the EU nations which has led to mass Muslim immigration worldwide. Activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek recounts the carnage that has resulted from this change of policy in a recent speech she made in Hungary. Her speech is a warning and well worth a watch.
Time for the US and EU to stop immigration from people that don't share our values
The Great Replacement is happening in real time in the US and EU
BRUCE CAIN, MAY 16, 2024
https://brucecain.substack.com/p/time-for-the-us-and-eu-to-stop-immigration
Crazy.. Time for the US and EU to stop immigration from people that don't share our values
The Great Replacement is happening in real time in the US and EU
BRUCE CAIN, MAY 16, 2024
https://brucecain.substack.com/p/time-for-the-us-and-eu-to-stop-immigration
time to feed the tree of liberty again, German edition
How sad for Germany , history in this case is repeating and rhyming , as your economy further deteriorates the incentive for authorities to go further will increase
Unhinged crazy women scare the bejeezus out of me even when they hold no position of authority.