Germany’s far right is winning over the young
Germany’s far right is winning over the young
A dance track and online video game hyping mass deportations are some of the ways extreme-right groups are reaching the country’s youth.
Online campaigns like these have helped radicalize a broad swath of Germany’s youth, making extreme-right ideas that were once relegated to the margins of German political discourse increasingly mainstream. The Young Alternative, the AfD youth organization that put out the dance video, has been classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as an extremist group since last year.
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We need to understand what causes them to be receptive to this kind of radicalisation. Understand the root cause and then mitigate the root cause.
Social media. Especially TikTok
This is just the seed. You also need fertile ground, which is what OP is talking about.
The shorts format itself is an issue. It reduces complex issues and possible solutions to a few seconds of content. That is how the young people want to consume content. But they only thing you can do is oversimplified bullshit I'm that amount of time.
I suggest to read this in depth analysis.
That still doesn’t make it the root cause. You should probably read up on what a root cause analysis is.
I am well aware what an RCA is. The issue here is that the "root causes" like immigration fear and "the economy" are mostly fabricated or blown up.
The AfD pushes propaganda to young people. And to cite from the RCA I linked you
Younger people in particular can be strongly influenced by manipulation strategies and disinformation. They can develop problematic views of the world and people that run counter to basic democratic values.
You just surfaced 2 more adjecent layers, keep digging. I don’t know why you say you understand RCA when you stop after 2 whys.
Dude, a huge part of my job is doing RCA.
And I don't stop after 2 why's. I gave you a link to a good analysis you could read. Or just ignore it....
I am also active in german politics for 20 years, and I habe done youth work for 10 years. I have gathered my fair share of first hand knowledge...
OP said we need to find and mitigate the root cause. Your reply was social media, and specifically TikTok.
The article you linked doesn’t come to the same conclusion you do. They specifically mention lacking critical thinking and media literacy skills.
You could also argue for more regulation for algorithms. Or more equality/equity. Or communication from other political parties that is tailored to young people.
But no, you just say social media = bad.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what you do. And I recognize that the current state of social media is problematic. But it’s not THE problem or the root cause.
You can not fix the limitations of a growing brain. People are getting influenced in a young age, damage that is hard to undo. We can of course limit access (at least in theory) to such content. And then we regulate what? TikTok.
While am RCA goes hast to be done until we either can not further because of physical limitations for example, we must fix the thing closest to the root that can actually be fixed.
Young brains must be able to develop fast. Social media and specifically the short content format have a massive negative impact on this development.
We always had far right propaganda. Social media is what allows it the flourish in the minds of young people, future voters and politicians.
I don't said that social media is bad or that social media is responsible for far right mindests.
I said: social media is the root cause for the electoral success of the AfD and other far right parties in Europe.
The root cause for far right movements is "the human being". Of course we could go in depth here about the natural fear of the unknown, and the support dorbfar right parties is higher in places where voters are less like to see "aliens" in their neighborhood. But also, this is here much longer and European youth was left leaning for decades.
So let's focus on what changed that those parties get so much traction with young voters. Answer: social media
we must fix the thing closest to the root that can actually be fixed.
Then maybe say that instead of pointing to social media as the root.
I said: social media is the root cause for the electoral success of the AfD and other far right parties in Europe.
Sigh…
So let's focus on what changed that those parties get so much traction with young voters. Answer: social media
Ok, now you’re just conflating correlation with causation. Also I’ve heard this before: TV and Video Games are to blame, Music is to blame, Newspapers are to blame, Books are to blame…
The kids are being fed endless lies and you say the liars aren't at fault. Blaming the left instead exactly in the way the liars do. Like a fucking script.
Are you lost? Replied to the wrong comment?
Otherwise please explain where exactly I defended liars or blamed the left.
And a budget (like kremlins troll facrory)
Sorry to play devil's advocate here, and I don't mind if I get a million downvotes, but the causes are well-understood and have been for a while. It's easy to dismiss AfD voters as a bunch of uneducated, disruptive rubes while failing to see how much employment in Eastern Germany is different from the one in the West. If you have a university degree, you'll up and leave first chance you get because wages are so much higher in the West. Else, you'll try to survive for decades on a string of one-year contract-low-skill-jobs somewhere out in the woods, as this is completely normalized in the East. The influence, even the very existence of labor unions and works committees is greatly diminished, too, compared to the West. Inflation and rent hikes hit just the same or worse, though. Towns and cities are getting depopulated big time, especially de-womanized. People in the East feel left behind by common-run big-city politicians, and AfD has been filling this gap very systematically and effectively.
They are uneducated. If they were they wouldnt vote for a party only profitting the rich, as shown by all their voting patterns. Whenever something is proposed to help poorer people they vote against it. If rich people only profit they vote in favour. If you want to change something there are more than enough non fascist parties in germany to vote from.
How exactly does AfD fill this gap??
It's because they are fucking stupid, you know, just like America and everywhere around the world were people vote against their best interests.
It's because the other political content that reaches them is boring, cringe or not existant. The other parties missed their chance and are thinking too much and trying to be too correct to catch up.
It's the same thing it's been for decades, people just assumed that white people in wealthy countries were immune to it.
There may be a question for how to solve it, how to make other perspectives more attractive. And let's be real, who will foot the bill.
There is absolutely no doubt about the cause. It's the economy and good luck fixing that.
E.g. unemployment in "Sachsen" may be only 6.5%, but the average wage is 3000€ while the average for the republic over all is 4300€.
Here is a map about Rent, but don't let that fool you, the average price isn't actually below 5€, price in cities is 8.50€ You'll have to scroll a bit.
And average rent increase (2nd source) went from 5 to 6 and from 7 to 8. Which of course means that the absolute change was the same and the relative change was not. It doesn't matter if it's a "market correction". What people see is that their rent goes up, dis-proportionally so, while wages don't.
And of course, the meme that they can't articulate themselves is probably true. They don't see "the economy". They see the state of their cities, the living standards of their friends and family and then the government spending money on anything and everything else but them and their concerns. (climate, migrants, factories for companies in different federal states, weapons to fight foreign wars, etc.)
Truth