Der Spiegel Online’s Berlin bureau chief says it’s easier to believe in some things than in others:
(The Germans) believed that Jews should be placed into ghettos and concentration camps because they were the enemies of the people. Then they believed in the autobahn and that the Third Reich would ultimately be victorious. A few years later, they believed in the Deutsche mark. They believed that the Berlin Wall would be there forever and that their pensions were safe. They believed in recycling and environmental protection. They even believed in a German victory at the soccer World Cup.
Now they believe that the United States is a greater threat to world peace than Iran. This was the by-no-means-surprising result of a Forsa opinion poll commissioned by Stern magazine. Young Germans in particular — 57 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds, to be precise — said they considered the United States more dangerous than the religious regime in Iran.
It’s easy to believe in a dangerous America – you get to feel good about yourself, wallow in the warm embrace of self-proclaimed moral superiority and – the best thing of all – it’s popular and doesn’t require any particular action or sacrifice. Believing that Iran is a threat, well: That might require bestirring yourself. Doing something.
Taking a stand.
Your analysis is pretty spot on with what I thought about those who were ‘For the troops, against the war’ after reading Freakonomics on my last cruise. Just looking critically at all the potential payoffs: morally, socially, and personally, makes some of the more irrational arguments make a bit more sense when they are put in the context of potential personal gain. However, I’m no psychologist, just a mouthy tailhooker.
Makes sense, really. When you decide to make a nation who is a complete non-threat your most impending source of doom, the world looks pretty rosy. When you actually pick a scary, dangerous, unpredictable enemy, things really go downhill from there. Makes me wonder if a few overturned subway trains or possibly a bombed out Berlin cafe wouldn’t change their minds.
How nausiating for the media that is responsible for miseducating the German public to all of a sudden to feign indignant dismay over the poor misinformed German public. I left this comment on their website:
“I see you have an article on anti-Americanism and introduce that phenomena by listing other mistaken beliefs held by Germans in the past. Have you considered how these mistaken beliefs come into being? Have you considered the role your own profession – the news media – has in educating the public – or should I say, mis-educating the public. Do you understand the irony in a news article disclosing that the German public might be misinformed? Is this article printed in the German version of your magazine?
Your article says, ‘Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest.’ It is also hyprocrisy for the media to ignore its own role in anti-Americanism.
Yor article says, ‘Not a day passes in Germany when someone isn’t making the wildest claims, hurling the vilest insults or spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States.’ But it does not say that these vile insults are spread by the media.”
Du muBt realize zat many of zese young Chermans being sampled in zis poll are not likely to be actually natiff born Chermans von Chermany.
Many of zese zat were interfiewed might actually be of Middle Eastern dezent, or from Turkey. In ziss case, I belief zat zese new Chermans may haff bin introduced zu zer beliefs in ze many new mosques in Chermany. Ziss might explain ze surprrising rezultz.
Ze aktual results von real Chermans ist probably much different, no?
-SJWilhelm
Another classic example of How Modern Liberals Think by Evan Sayet.
The politics of indiscriminateness – Take a commonly held belief: it is wrong to discriminate.
Exaggerate it beyond common sense: Criticism is a form of discrimination and is therefore wrong. Therefore to criticise is wrong (because we might offend somebody.)
Add a dash of politics: The Right is Bad and Evil, therefore anyone the Right criticises must be Not Bad and Not Evil.
Hence, the current anti-American Government crusade; the politics of Islam-isn’t-so-bad-really; GWOT’s OUR fault (because to admit it is not our fault would give credence to the Right, who as we know, are inherently Wrong.)
Evan Sayet gave a talk to the Heritage Foundation a while ago which appeared on LGF. I recommend everyone to listen to it, his insights are spot on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c
We hate the Americans but they shouldn’t move their troops out of our country because that would hurt our local economies…
Having family in Germany who blindly parrot the most mindless anti-American drivel, none of this surprises me. Their barely concealed resentment and imagined superiority is a source of eye-rolling amusement on our side of the pond.
“Well bless their little hearts” as the saying goes in the South. Little hearts is right. We love them dearly of course, but at the end of the day, ya know — they’re still Krauts.
…embracing the reality of the threat may be more than they can absorb. Shit, at the height of the cold war, Reagan & Thatcher were evil, and the nitwit hordes marched in the streets to shout it to the rooftops. No wonder Hitler led these people by the nose.
To borrow from Tom Lehrer (no the other one), “Once all the Germans were warlike and mean But that couldn’t happen again. We taught them a lesson in 1918 And they’ve hardly bothered us since then.”
Not only is it popular, it requires no thinking on their part.
Losers, one and all.
My apologies to the relatives, but you are either a thinker, or a feeler.
I prefer to think.
thank you, f2bqaf7y1lbql, for leaving that comment on their website.
That said, I got to spend 10 days in Germany in late ’02 (which doesn’t qualify me for much ) and dh was there for 6 months. During his time (and my visit) he took whatever free time he had, and slung his backpack, donned his civvies, and went out among the people, armed only with goodwill. He (and I) found them to be lovely people and quite friendly, although reserved. We didn’t do the usual touristy stuff, some of what we did was just be there in Germany–after all, there’s more to it that castles
I found them very decent although it may be different now.
I could see how they’d dislike American soldiers, because I had some firsthand experience–and what can we expect in a country where beer is cheaper than water and these kids haven’t been away from home before? I hope we can expect better than this….on the train home, 4 staggeringly drunken young pigs cheated the conductor out of ticket $, planned how to cheat the taxi driver, low-crawled up the aisle and made some very insulting and suggestive comments to two young German girls–my guess would be, one was 12 at most. I wanted to throw them off the train. Too bad I didn’t…it wasn’t going THAT fast. And the walk might have done them good. If I could’ve got hold of an MP…..
the boys in the local unit don’t call me “Grandma” for nothing!
d
Door – Don’t mean to 2nd guess you but, had it been me I would have paid their rail fares and told them that they were disgracing our country and to quiet down. Might have cost me a few bucks but, it would have been worth it.
From one “Grandma” to another, it might have been worth it…
Just to back up my claim, I was in Bulgaria a few years ago and watched some really stupid American tourists pet 1,000 year old frescos. I told them to keep their hands to themselves.
Someday I will run into one such poller..
Ah, this is not surprising. Stern is left and frequently on the forefront for such things.
As for the youths themselves, I’m a student and recently bored waiting for looooong pause to finish I picked up ASTA Zeitung [=Student Newspaper of the official student body] for the FH’s Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. Also laid out there Attac fliers, an announcment condemning G8 – the works.
I don’t know what these dorks study but it wasn’t history or politics or design for that matter. Absolutely uninformed drivel. Heck we had a candidate for mayor who claimed his election would be a blow against Bush’s evil empire.
PS: Your Comments Input box doesn’t want to let me scroll down, always jumping to the top
It has been now 18 years since the Wall came down and a good chunk of their population has little or no recollection of why we were there for 40 odd years in their own memory and experience. The people writing for these German Magazines have memories of convience. Not unlike some of the folks in our MSM. They don’t recall that the 3rd Shock Army or 8th Guards Tank army was in their back yard or looking across the fence. At any rate I wouldn’t lump all Germans together any more than I would all Americans so dispense with the ethnic jabs.
I have spent 7 years in Germany off and on. My last visit being in 03. I have always liked the Germans and still do. Made some good life long friendships with landlords and Bundeswehr members. I recall having a very civil conversation with some younger Germans in the park in Stuttgart over beer and schnitzel. Young to me is defined as about 30. They had some concerns as to how we were doing business but listened and it was a good give and take- in English. My first tour back when would probably have been more in German. Just about all the people I met younger than 35 spoke English well.
The Germans have a lot of historical baggage that most are very well aware of and IMHO, it has given them a sense of insecurity as to who they really are as a people. Historically, their government, since it’s inception after WWII, has always leaned a bit left by our standards. Europe itself has become overwhelmed with the nanny state socialism and Germany is no exception. That is whole other issue and I don’t want to pursue a discussion on that can of worms.
And yeah, most of our guys over there behaved themselves but we did have our share of dirtbags and criminals. I was there in the 70s and there were some troops who should have been in Leavenworth for the long course. Or dead. Overall, we saved Europe in the Cold War. Again.