this is again a rambling rant about everything
we are still cucked because of the nazis. desperatly doing anything _not_ german out of fear of being called a nazi. hell, i don't like football, but there were discussions if it is ok that there are so many german flags during the world championships. i think patriotism on a national level is bullshit, but those discussions are just cringe.
question unguided mass migration and you are certainly a nazi. the "melting pot" of cultures the states are, are viewed as universally positive, disregarding the massive problems which they have, and the fucking timespan it had.
meanwhile, if you are interested in the culture which was created here for centuries, better prove that the interest is purely scientific and that you usually consoom only woke artists. generally anything that isn't focused on consumption is viewed with suspicion, even the majority of ecological people just want to consume the same amount, only "green". parents doing attachment parenting are breeding cells for fashism and bad for the society because the kids aren't put into daycare ASAP to have the parents back in the wokeforce while the kids get taught how to consume properly. they better should work to take up a credit and buy a new tesla!
god am i pissed.
@velartrill i probably exaggerated a bit with my description and am not known as an optimist. judging from your desciption of the US, it's paradise here, so maybe i'm just spoiled.
i can't be really proud of a country which is filthy rich but where the money is used for so much bullshit. in my lifetime, germany hasn't really achieved much save crawling up americas ass and cutting down the welfare for profits. maybe in the current times, not being a shithole is already an achievement :)
i view flying the flag as something squares do, i don't get why people have problems with it though. it's a bit like free speech, you don't have to look at it ;)
i don't know why sending back criminal migrants isn't viewed as a no-brainer here. i don't fucking care if it's a warzone if someone doesn't bother about the rules, which aren't even specific to our culture. stealing, injuring people, raping people is frowned upon virtually everywhere. keeping those people here just makes the life for the _good_ people who just want to be left alone , native and immigrant, harder . i like to think that every country has it's assholes, and we don't need to import those, we already have enough of our own :)
AfD is just 99% crazy people, but the other parties aren't much better. Just different crazy. Orban also seems to be crazy for most parts, i don't really know much about him though.
Regarding consumption i only can judge from my inside POV, but it has gotten worse in my lifetime. Everthing is easily replaceable instead of repeirable. We are the masters of seperating waste, but it seems like if it's also a reason to justify creating more waste: recycling fixes it, so nobody has to care. I remember a time where most drinks where in glass bottles, it's almost exotic to have them now. It's all just too damn convenient.
regarding families, i think it depends where you look in germany. in the countryside it's easier to live on one salary as a family, living is cheaper. I can't imagine how that should be possible in cities for people who don't have a job which pays really well. That's why kids get send to daycare at one year old. That women (and men) were brainwashed into thinking that they have to work fulltime to consume bullshit instead of spending time raising their children is the other part of the problem and it's only getting crazier the more i think about it. It really isn't about that women shouldn't work (after all, they rebuild germany after the war!), but that people shouldn't have to feel guilty if they'd rather raise their kids. there was an idea from the CDU (i think) some years ago about paying parents who care for their children at home instead of sending them to daycare. There was an outrage, because that supposedly would keep women from working and was regarded as anti-feminist.
to close, i don't think it's necessarily as bad here as i paint it (probably it isn't ;), but i'd rather be pissed and angry than ignorant :)
> iirc most northern european cultures made a fairly big deal about proper treatment of guests, but also of respect for hosts. the former implies the latter.
Yes, old traditions were that travelers were always welcomed to food and overnight lodging. They brought news, stories and a bit of escapism from chores, a value in of itself.
Norther Europeans are the nicest people on Earth.... Until they aren't, and everyone else are shocked.
absolutely. basically for the next 48 hours after i stepped off the plane i was absolutely floored by everything around us, i kept telling @mia "i think our plane missed germany and landed in the 24th century by mistake," just from how absurdly futuristic and fancy and clean everything was, and mia kept being like, "hon they built that in the '90s." it's hard to recognize what you have until you've seen what it's like without it. e.g. as bad as deutsche bahn can be, it blew me the fuck away compared to amtrak. (did you know US intercity rail has as fourth as many train stations as germany does, despite being approximately uh fifty times the size? and that almost none of it is electrified? also we have so few train lines we give them names instead of numbers)
also, building an intelligent, high-trust society is an enormous accomplishment. easy to overlook, but you have no idea just how *nice* and *caring* germans are compared to americans. even in the city, pretty much any time either of us looks upset in public some stranger stops and asks if we're all right or need help, whether it's grandmotherly old ladies or rando homeless guys or rowdy turkish boys. the first time that happened i was so overwhelmed emotionally i started crying.
there have been times in the US when i've been quietly crying in corner of the train or literally throwing up in broad daylight, and whenever shit like that happened *everyone* just ignored and avoided me, without exception, ever. random immigrants straight off the plane from africa care more about obviously distressed american women than my own "people" do. (oh, did you know there's no duty to rescue in the US? multiple court decisions have forcefully affirmed that you have a fundamental right to let anyone die in any situation unless you have an explicit duty of care to them (e.g. you're married or they're your kids))
(okay back to reading your post lol)