Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Bastian Allgeier (bastianallgeier@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2024 22:29:40 JST Bastian Allgeier

   I grew up a few km away from the border to France. My classroom was 100 meters away from the Rhine. I was in 9th grade when they opened the borders. I was in 12th grade when they introduced the Euro. Visiting other countries in the EU suddenly felt truly magical. "Fuck you" to all politicians in this country who are currently destroying this magical idea for pure populism, to appease some fascists. It's all about staying in power - as if that helped - and I couldn't despise them more for it.

   • clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Mx Amber Alex (she/it) (amberage@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 12-Sep-2024 14:43:03 JST Mx Amber Alex (she/it)

     in reply to

     • Brecht Savelkoul

     @brecht @bastianallgeier "professional" politicians in general tend to be very anti-science. Science consistently proves their pet policies – from trickle down economics to increased policing, killing the welfare state, etc. – are counterproductive, so it seems to be an unwritten requirement for politicians to be anti-science.

     I said years back that COVID could have been an unprecedented chance for Trump. He could have campaigned heavily on "I, the good American, and our good old American know-how, will protect you from the filthy China virus and keep our country safe".

     But the price would have been acknowleding that scientists were right about COVID, and that price was too high.

     Discrediting science and spreading the idea that scientific findings are just another opinion that can be ignored is a key project across virtually all political parties. Germany's Die Linke did it when it embraced the anti-trans moral panic, the SPD for their anti-welfare and anti-labour policies, the FDP did it to continue their "tax gifts to the rich" course even before they started catering to nazi voters, the CDU does it for just about everything they do.

     Even the Greens do it to justify their heavy pro-policing stance. And the fact they keep acting as if politics is a genuine contest between people who want the best for the country and engage the AfD nazis as if they're serious shows they believe it, too, and aren't just eschewing political science to further their careers.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Brecht Savelkoul (brecht@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 12-Sep-2024 14:43:05 JST Brecht Savelkoul

     in reply to

     @bastianallgeier You'd also think that, being professional politicians, they would be aware of the ample political science research that shows these kinds of moves only strengthen the far-right.

   • Embed this notice
     Mx Amber Alex (she/it) (amberage@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 12-Sep-2024 14:44:08 JST Mx Amber Alex (she/it)

     in reply to

     • Brecht Savelkoul

     @brecht @bastianallgeier scientific findings are often contrary to "common sense", aka people's gut feeling. And elections are won on gut feeling. So by nature of their job, politicians mustn't be too receptive to science.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     sunflowerinrain (sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 12-Sep-2024 14:44:35 JST sunflowerinrain

     in reply to

     @bastianallgeier I drove from Dresden to Prague with spare time so didn't keep to a route, and remember the astonished joy when I went over a little bridge and realised I was in Poland.

     Going along the road beside the river was a revelation. Sticks in the ground on each side, painted with the colours of the appropriate flag. The river is not wide - a serious long-jumper could cross it - and THAT is a border? What nonsense humans perpetrate.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Matt Wilcox (mattwilcox@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 12-Sep-2024 14:59:24 JST Matt Wilcox

     in reply to

     @bastianallgeier As someone in the UK who’s on the other side of that absolute ruination. Hold what you have tight.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Stoneface Vimes (capnthommo@c.im)'s status on Thursday, 12-Sep-2024 14:59:27 JST Stoneface Vimes

     in reply to

     @bastianallgeier now imagine how we feel in Britain. Our happiness shattered by bigots and opportunists like farage and johnson.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Petra van Cronenburg (naturemc@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 12-Sep-2024 14:59:29 JST Petra van Cronenburg

     in reply to

     @bastianallgeier I feel you! Born on the German Rhine bank like you and living on the French side since 35 yrs., Schengen was a deliverance for me. I have been working for binational projects and common understanding for more than 30 years. We had a major setback in bicultural work due to the border closures during the pandemic, and now a new complication is coming from a German government that I would never have believed would jump on the bandwagon of cheap right-wing populism.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Michelangela :fckafd: 🏴‍☠️ (michelangela@norden.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 05:56:19 JST Michelangela :fckafd: 🏴‍☠️

     in reply to

     @bastianallgeier
     We enjoyed many holidays in Denmark without even noticing that we crossed a border.
     This is freedom.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 15-Sep-2024 22:43:55 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Elias Mårtenson
     @loke @bastianallgeier I don't know, it's more convenient for sure, but when the borders came down we were also partly sad that you couldn't collect stamps in your passport anymore. 🙂
   • Embed this notice
     Elias Mårtenson (loke@functional.cafe)'s status on Sunday, 15-Sep-2024 22:43:56 JST Elias Mårtenson

     in reply to

     @bastianallgeier the peole who love borders couldn't possibly be old enough to remember travelling from Sweden to Spain in a car before the Maastricht treaty.

   • Embed this notice
     Elias Mårtenson (loke@functional.cafe)'s status on Monday, 16-Sep-2024 00:25:40 JST Elias Mårtenson

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke @bastianallgeier you can, actually. You can get a collectors stamp. Check with a police station near the border. That's how we got out Andorra stamps.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Monday, 16-Sep-2024 00:25:44 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Elias Mårtenson
     @loke @bastianallgeier Ok, "couldn't collect stamps the same way" I guess.