DandomRude

Has he always been such a spineless traitor, or is he just sucking up to the orange pedo so he can get off the hook?

I know absolutely nothing about this clown - except for the fact that he has remarkably little talent.

Well, he’ll soon realize that the clan is even less interested in his shitty music than everyone else. What a moron...

What does that remind me of? ... Exoskeletons... Hmm... ah, yes...

Indeed, I do believe, however, that neo-Nazi parties like the AfD are by no means successful on their own merits.

As in the U.S., I think, this is only possible thanks to the active support of the very same billionaires who, in the U.S., ensured that a pedophile serial criminal could become president. In my view, this is only made possible by an artificial illusion of public opinion, which is now predominantly propagated through mainstream social media platforms.

If one considers public opinion according to the definition by the renowned political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, I think it becomes clear what I mean:

"Public opinion is the sum of those opinions on a given issue that individuals express publicly because they believe they are socially acceptable and will not lead to isolation."

Elisabeth Noelle-Neuman, The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion - Our Social Skin

Mainstream Social Media platforms are, after all, controlled unilaterally by billionaires who use them to advance their interests - something Musk for example makes particularly obvious. In doing so, they control public discourse and make Nazi ideology appear socially acceptable again by artificially amplifying it to make it seem like a majority opinion.

Unfortunately, this has by now eliminated the effect of social isolation, which explains why, even in Germany and despite its terrible history, Nazi ideology appears to be a socially acceptable viewpoint - which, in turn, has a very significant effect on political discourse.

And I wouldn't exactly call it subtle - quite the opposite, in fact: in Germany, for example, politicians step in front of the camera and openly spout Nazi slogans. Just 10 years ago, they would have had to resign for that, and rightly so.

Yes, that’s definitely true, and it’s the same irrational fear of the unfamiliar that you find almost everywhere in the world. This is particularly absurd in rural areas of eastern Germany, because there are actually very few foreigners there.

Volksempfänger

It is not the people who make the laws, but their representatives, who, all too often, unfortunately do not make decisions in the people’s best interest. Nevertheless, it is indeed the people themselves who decide whether to use Twitter, speak to a voice assistant, or reveal their personal secrets in an AI chat.

Of course, it’s true that it may be appropriate to protect people from themselves, but I still think it’s also entirely appropriate to hold them accountable for their decisions and the consequences. For example, there are countless alternatives to Amazon, but people still order from there because it’s just so convenient.

In addition, people could also put pressure on their representatives if they allow themselves to be bought off by lobbyists yet again. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t happen very often.

What I'm getting at is this: None of what we're experiencing today would be possible if people didn't make it possible by buying products from companies that everyone knows are harmful to society.

I really wonder how we ended up here.

Why do people use mainstream social media? Why do they buy those stupid glasses? Why do they willingly feed corporations their most personal data?

Unfortunately, one has to conclude that it is, to a very large extent, people’s blatant stupidity that has led us to a point where there is now something like a new monarchy of unscrupulous billionaires - if not their stupidity, then at least their indifference, their apathy, and laziness. It’s just awful...

I’m afraid Germany hasn’t learned anything from him: In the state where I live, the state government unfortunately decided late last year to implement Palantir, even going so far as to amend the police law specifically to retroactively lend at least the appearance of legality to a contract for the purchase of the U.S. mass surveillance software "Gotham" that had already been concluded unlawfully.

There was significant public resistance, but it was simply ignored.

It may still be possible to prevent this through a lawsuit filed with the Constitutional Court, as the use of such applications for groundless mass surveillance is unconstitutional in Germany due to the right to informational self-determination - and I also find it hard to believe that such a thing is compatible with EU law.

I think our politicians must have been bribed. I can’t explain it any other way, because even just from security standpoint, it goes without saying that it’s insane to pass even the most sensitive data directly to the fascist regime in the US - thanks to Snowden, we all know that there’s almost certainly a backdoor.

Try explaining that to the people in Iran who rose up against the regime, were shot by the hundreds, and are now being bombed by the U.S.