A new study found that, on TikTok and Elon Musk's Twitter, nearly 3/4 of all partisan content being pushed algorithmically to German users favored the party best known for its ties to neo-Nazis.
Ok, so shut them down. Block them nationally. I know people will get around it but take some kind of protective measures before it is too late for you.
It says Tiktok and Twitter, so the tech giants come from China and the U.S. here. And they are not (only) aiding Russia. The AfD has close connections to China, and Beijing is very interested in the rise of the far right in Germany and the rest of Europe.
Please, please god crush these clowns. I don't know if I'll be able to mentally recover from an AfD sweep. The U.S. needs to be the end of the spread of fascism, not the first domino in a falling chain.
The AfD won't sweep but they will likely become the 2nd strongest party, after the conservative CDU whose right wing loves the Republicans:
Among others in this image: Former traffic minister Andreas Scheuer, a prominent CDU member (CSU to be more precise but it's basically the same party).
If AfD + CDU achieve a majority it's not unlikely that they will form a coalition - or at the very least vote for the same bills.
Fascism is on a global rise. The fascist Reform UK is surging in British polls, Italy has a fascist government, the fascist ÖVP FPÖ has gotten the most votes in the recent Austrian election etc etc
Fascism is on a global rise and actively supported by Russia, China and the US. I doubt that democracy can survive efficient Russian disinformation + the full resources of China and the US.
We are literally experiencing US disinformation. Trump is on the news telling lies, passing them off as facts. It's being reported, spread, reaching many people.
Wtf? How are there still people using this kinda garbage app? Lemmy and the fediverse is free, run and developed by volunteers. There are plenty of open source clients to choose from. Why in the fuck are people actively choosing to look at ads?
Didn't Vance's speech the other day hurt the AfD? Didn't it make some people deluded by their supposed "patriotism" wake up and see that we were all sold out to the Russians?
I am not German and I do not know the reality on the street in Germany, but I am scared of what could happen and how it will affect the European project.
No. In the mind of the AfD fanbase, being under the control of a strongman-led Russia is by far preferable to whatever they perceive is currently the case. I mean, for most of them, at least in the eastern part of Germany, that's something like "the good old times".
A key facet of fascism is the desire to return to a mythical 'better time'. They are willing to bow to a dictator who promises them this myth, especially when mixed with the promise to put the racists in power over others in the process.
Ok, so we have a big problem there. It's not one or two, there are many who vote for that, if we were talking about complaints about the economy or about migration from an economic point of view (they always hides racism behind it, but if they hides it it's because they knows it is wrong) we can work with that.
But if they just want a strong man to guide them so they don't have to face the problems, what can you do with something like that?
The AfD morons already ran around years ago with Russia Flags, Putin Pictures and Banners begging him to be their president. Those people are beyond any recovery to sanity
This is an easy problem to solve. Denmark solved their right wing problem years ago. The centre left party adopted slightly tougher immigration policies and the right wing party last half their supporters almost overnight. Poll after poll across Europe finds the same: immigration is a major issue for voters. Get tougher on immigration and watch AfD disappear. It’s the easiest political win in history but so many parties refuse to do it. Bleating about social media influence is a losing battle. The internet is free and will remain free. It’s literally designed to work around censorship like it’s a damaged part of the network.
Same in France. All the major parties have been tougher and tougher with immigration for decades, and the far right popularity keeps increasing. It's just validating them and it solves nothing.
I think that’s your opinion and you’re making a claim for which you don’t have any evidence. We have real world evidence that giving voters what they want wins elections. I cited the Danish example. The Social Democrats adopted slightly tougher immigration policies after the 2015 election, in which the right wing Danish People’s Party (DF) won 21.1% of the votes. Following these changes, the DF lost most of their votes, dropping to 8.7% in 2019. I would hardly call Denmark a right wing hellscape today.
I take issue at your broader contention that it’s somehow wrong to give voters what they want. That’s how democracy works.
This is the opposite of true. Appeasing the far right on immigration in other countries has led to disaster, every time. It's caused Brexit. It shifts the overton window., allowing their rhetoric to become mainstream, making it credible. You do not give these fucks an inch. You tell them no. They have to be fought as early as possible, because they're like bedbugs: if you allow them in you can't get rid of them.
Its not only that but how the left has been marginalised, as what happened with the labour party in the UK - Jeremy corbyn, the old leader who was actually left wing has been barred from the party, which he was part of for his whole life. A lifelong anti-racist on the correct side of every issue has been smeared as being a racist and that is now the mainstream 'truth'.
The only left wing party of any size in the UK now is the green party. The only alternatives to business as usual labour/conservatives (same thing) are the greens (seen mostly as a middle class protest vote) or reform.
Labour are definitely not for the working class anymore.
Apparently telling voters “no” is working terribly because right wing parties keep rising in polls. The evidence directly contradicts your claim. I don’t see how Brexit was caused in any way by appeasement. If anything, Brexit was caused by derision and dismissal, leaving low socioeconomic voters in particular no other way to vent their anger than by burning an institution to the ground. If you don’t give voters what they want they will vote extremists into power, or vote for extreme solutions out of spite.
Broadly speaking I find the argument of telling voters “no” in a democracy absurd and authoritarian.
This is an easy problem to solve. Denmark solved their right wing problem years ago. The centre left party adopted slightly tougher immigration policies and the right wing party last half their supporters almost overnight. Poll after poll across Europe finds the same: immigration is a major issue for voters. Get tougher on immigration and watch AfD disappear. It’s the easiest political win in history but so many parties refuse to do it. Bleating about social media influence is a losing battle. The internet is free and will remain free. It’s literally designed to work around censorship like it’s a damaged part of the network.
Hey boss, got rid of those nationalist xenophobes for you!
What did you do?
Oh, I just had to become a nationalist xenophobe! Now we cater to the widespread isolationist political demands manufactured by a few demagogues. But don't worry, the demagogues didn't get elected, so it's alright!
Germany has enacted border controls to catch illegal immigrants, causing massive traffic jams. There are huge pushbacks kicking out thousands of refugees. Social services have been cut for refugees. All of that leads to a doubling of the right wing party, because migration ends up a topic in the media and the right wing is calling for everybody who is not 100% ethnic German to be kicked out of Germany, which is obviously insane.
Voters are not asking for temporary border patrols. They want lasting solutions. This is at best political theatre because even if an illegal immigrant is detected, they are still permitted to apply for asylum and will be given free accommodation for many years at minimum. The CDU reduced refugee benefits by less than 4%. They retain all their other benefits like free and subsidised housing, free medical care, free education, and free daycare in most states and very cheap in all others. These measures are not addressing the root cause. They aren’t going to make any lasting change. The social benefit change was only enacted last month. It’s far too little, far too late. As long as incumbents refuse to listen to the needs of voters, the AfD will continue to gain in popularity.
I see this as well. "Nationalist" parties only have traction because they keep on talking about immigration problems (which they enhance). Take that away and their fascist and elite agendas become extremely obvious.