As you may have heard already, there was a right wing terrorist attack in the German city of Hanau. The terrorist killed 9 people, mostly Kurds in two hookah lounges, went home, killed his mother and then himself. His manifesto is the typical mix of racism, incel misogyny and conspiracy theories. This attack only comes a few days after police arrested a right wing terrorist network that had planned attacks on mosques, trying to start a civil war.
It also comes after a couple of weeks into a political crisis started without need by the German liberals and Conservatives in Thuringia who voted together with the far right AfD for a liberal candidate for the Ministerpräsident. The discussions afterwards were endless rehashes of the bullshit horseshoe theory, as if the Left candidate who’d governed Thuringia for the last 5 years was the illegitimate son of Mao and Stalin, when at best he would have passed as a Social Democrat in poor light in the 1980s.
We’ve had the murder of a conservative(!) mayor by Nazis last year, we’ve had an antisemitic terrorist attack in Halle last year, when only a sturdy door prevented a massacre. Yes, right wing terrorism is a growing threat in Germany, yet still our politicians act like it isn’t. Even when talking about the horrible terrorist attack last night, the former leader of the Social Democrats (that’s Labour for the Brits) had this to say on Twitter:
Der Feind der #Demokratie steht rechts: Es lässt sich nicht abstreiten, dass linke Chaoten auf Polizisten eindreschen, Autos und Mülltonnen in Brand setzen und immer wieder hohe Sachschäden verursachen. Alles schlimm genug und nicht zu verharmlosen. #hanau
— Sigmar Gabriel (@sigmargabriel) February 20, 2020
“The enemy of democracy stands on the right [6 words in the original tweet]: It’s undeniable that left wing scatterbrains beat up police officers, set fire to cars and dumpsters and cause lots of monetary damage time after time. All of this is bad and mustn’t be played down [30 words]. #hanau”
That’s 9 words on right wing terrorism that just killed 10 innocent people, 30 words on “left wing terrorism” that causes damage against property. That’s equating burning dumpsters with dead Kurds. That’s zero words of condolence for the survivors, for the friends and family of the victims. That’s zero words towards our fellow citizens, friends, family, neighbours who are afraid to go to a café, a lounge, a Döner take away, a mosque because they have to fear for their lives because racists think they should be dead because of their skin colour, looks, ethnic origin or religion.
That’s contemptible, and Gabriel’s tweet is just the tip of the iceberg.
My heart goes out to the victims and their families, to all racially marginalised people in Germany who again not only have to see how their own get murdered, but also how those in charge play down right wing terrorism and compare them to dumpsters.
Sounds about white. Another item described him as a 43 year old who still lived with his 72 year old mother, his last victim.
I genuinely hope they find this guy was an AfD member.
I don’t really know what to say. And I have a cold with strong meds, feeling woozy. So sorry, this might be very rambly.
Had a talk with a student on monday. He did not think that nazis need to be punched when they appear. Violence and conterviolence and that bullshit.
I wonder what he will say tomorrow.
As for the Hufeisentheorie: Thank dog for Martin Sonneborn. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJWwU4M3BT0 German with passable engl subtitles)
Hahahahaha, SPD I am not even suprised, reinvite “scientific clearly not-racist” Sarrazin, he really fitted right in. Fuck you Sigmar! With a Deutsche Bank skyscraper. Sideways.
I am angry, so angry with the status quo fuckers, that ramp up capitalism and fan the racist flames. And claim to be “social democrats”.
As a last note, I just realized that it is already 12 years since I went to see Knorkator’s Laut gegen Rechts tour (“loud against (the) right”). I feel old now.
PS, heh youtube does not forget: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAmp1IHM3Ds the corresponding tour trailer video.- Subtitles are borked but it revolves around a geman wordplay: “na zieh’s raus” -- ‘well, pull ist out’ sounds just like “Nazis raus!” -- ‘nazis out!’
It’s pretty clear that the far right is a real danger in Germany currently, although being from the US I’m hardly in a position to lecture on that since we’re in worse shape. I used to be one of those people who said “both sides have their extremists who are equally bad”, but I don’t see leftists going on rampages where they murder conservatives, so that argument is not valid, and I’m rather ashamed now that I used to use it.
Gabriel’s tweet is also bizarrely defensive for someone who is at least nominally part of a left-wing party. I would expect AfD politicians and supporters to try to distract attention away from these murders, but not a Social Democrat.
Though to be honest, I can’t find fault with Sonneborn’s idea of “Stalinism” except for torturing folks who disapprove of the bumper stickers. Which is the problem with folks like Sonneborn: He is a comedian at first, and a politician at fifth or fourth.
I recommend Natascha Strobl’s excellent thread on the horseshoe theory:
https://twitter.com/Natascha_Strobl/status/1189126348440309760
@Giliell, I tried to read that twitter thread, but reading anything on twitter is downright torture to me, in German twice as much. Did she write some cogent article somewhere?
http://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2020/02/20/no-the-racist-mass-shooter-in-hanau-germany-was-not-an-incel/#comments
Here, David Futrelle argues that the “incel” connection of this shooter, claimed in some media reports, is based on misinterpretation. Overall, the shooter’s manifesto dwells very little on misogyny, compared to the racism and conspiracy thinking.
Charly, I’ll have a look
Lumipuna
I think David is applying a very narrow definition here. Anyway, I don’t think it’s worth arguing whether he was a “true Incel” or just a big standard misogynist whose dream of impregnating a blond German woman didn’t come true.
Eh, I’m not saying he’s not a big honking misogynist by common human standards. I just thought it’s slightly misleading to imply that his mass murder was substantially motivated by misogyny, as that’d be a whole other level of misogyny.
Anyway, I’m not arguing further on David’s behalf here. Sorry for the digression.