Closing Schengen borders appeared to me another populist move to try to steal the populist vote by simply becoming them. Arming Israel instead of standing up to crimes against humanity, even after the issue of the ICC arrest warrants, is another bad look. Especially while refusing Ukraine.
I live in Denmark, the Social Democrats here successfully marginalized the far right by in many ways becoming them. And it seems like the SPD is taking notes. It’s disturbing, and I don’t like it.
Edit: I guess I misunderstood your question, and you make a fair point. I don’t think all centrists are necessarily cowards; When I said “centrist cowards” I mean they’re centrists in effect of having abandoned their ideology and any left wing (or Christian or conservative) DNA for the benefit of playing politics, and cowards in effect of being cowards.
There’s of course a history in Germany for cowardly centrists. Hitler’s rise is in no small part the story of Hindenburg’s weakness.
I don’t rule out that brave centrists also exist. I know they do. But they need to believe in something.
Ideologies can be dangerous, even when well meaning. It seems we have responded to this insight by stripping politics of ideology, leaving a sort of bland grey mass. I think what we are slowly learning now is that a lack of ideology is also dangerous - politics lack direction, and it feels like we are fumbling around in the dark. And it turns out the grey mass can turn brown very easily.
Sometimes centrists can be ideologically driven, and their position in the centre of the political spectrum can be strongly motivated. It’s also relative - by many people’s standards (certainly around here) I’m probably a centrist myself. But when it’s just centrism due to a lack of back bone - like the SPD these days - it’s both cowardly and dangerous.
Yeah, Ukraine’s by far biggest European supporter is refusing to support Ukraine. Just like they shipped weapons within 2 days of Russia’s invasion (ones we could all see in footage) while not doing anything for months. And now they even help killing Palestinians with those air-defense ships and submarines, engines and spare parts (the actual things shipped to Israel) dropped on them.
But good to see that propaganda-induced braindamage is doing its intended job. Keep voting for the “we are totally not far-right, just saying the same things”-right in your country (also we really need more stories of how Denmark should be our model on how to defeat the far right by becoming then… it’s nearly a day since the last one!) while worrying what those evil Germans are up to again. Everything working as planned. 🤡
Germany has of course been an important ally of Ukraine. German support per GDP is higher than the US, but lower than Canada, and 15th in the world. They’re doing better than France, but France is of course down the drain these days.
I’m just disappointed because I would have expected more from Germany. I half expected them to play a leading role in Europe and in the protection of the human rights regime globally. Instead what we’re getting is this shit.
I don’t understand what else you’re trying to say, so I’ll leave it at that. I can’t even tell if you’re agreeing with me or not.
I can see how the SPD/Scholz are cowards with their refusal to ship taurus missiles to Ukraine. But apart from that how are all centrist cowards?
Closing Schengen borders appeared to me another populist move to try to steal the populist vote by simply becoming them. Arming Israel instead of standing up to crimes against humanity, even after the issue of the ICC arrest warrants, is another bad look. Especially while refusing Ukraine.
I live in Denmark, the Social Democrats here successfully marginalized the far right by in many ways becoming them. And it seems like the SPD is taking notes. It’s disturbing, and I don’t like it.
Edit: I guess I misunderstood your question, and you make a fair point. I don’t think all centrists are necessarily cowards; When I said “centrist cowards” I mean they’re centrists in effect of having abandoned their ideology and any left wing (or Christian or conservative) DNA for the benefit of playing politics, and cowards in effect of being cowards.
There’s of course a history in Germany for cowardly centrists. Hitler’s rise is in no small part the story of Hindenburg’s weakness.
I don’t rule out that brave centrists also exist. I know they do. But they need to believe in something.
Ideologies can be dangerous, even when well meaning. It seems we have responded to this insight by stripping politics of ideology, leaving a sort of bland grey mass. I think what we are slowly learning now is that a lack of ideology is also dangerous - politics lack direction, and it feels like we are fumbling around in the dark. And it turns out the grey mass can turn brown very easily.
Sometimes centrists can be ideologically driven, and their position in the centre of the political spectrum can be strongly motivated. It’s also relative - by many people’s standards (certainly around here) I’m probably a centrist myself. But when it’s just centrism due to a lack of back bone - like the SPD these days - it’s both cowardly and dangerous.
Yeah, Ukraine’s by far biggest European supporter is refusing to support Ukraine. Just like they shipped weapons within 2 days of Russia’s invasion (ones we could all see in footage) while not doing anything for months. And now they even help killing Palestinians with those air-defense ships and submarines, engines and spare parts (the actual things shipped to Israel) dropped on them.
But good to see that propaganda-induced braindamage is doing its intended job. Keep voting for the “we are totally not far-right, just saying the same things”-right in your country (also we really need more stories of how Denmark should be our model on how to defeat the far right by becoming then… it’s nearly a day since the last one!) while worrying what those evil Germans are up to again. Everything working as planned. 🤡
Germany has of course been an important ally of Ukraine. German support per GDP is higher than the US, but lower than Canada, and 15th in the world. They’re doing better than France, but France is of course down the drain these days.
I’m just disappointed because I would have expected more from Germany. I half expected them to play a leading role in Europe and in the protection of the human rights regime globally. Instead what we’re getting is this shit.
I don’t understand what else you’re trying to say, so I’ll leave it at that. I can’t even tell if you’re agreeing with me or not.