5 ms·

I can only speak for Germany, but Social media here still is much, much less widely adopted than in the US, because sharing one's life with strangers is cultura

I can only speak for Germany, but Social media here still is much, much less widely adopted than in the US, because sharing one's life with strangers is culturally not as well regarded as it is in the US. This also applied before social media - telling one's life story to strangers was just not done. Now, this is changing for younger generations, but even they are still not nearly as willing to share as their American counterparts. It may just be a matter of time but here the Q-Anons and other divisive, Anti-Democratic groups are still more fringe than over there

hnbad 5y ago
That last part is only true if you completely ignore the Querdenker movement, which has overlaps (or at least "strategic alliances") with the far-right and QAnon. What Germany is lacking in social media it makes up for in WhatsApp status updates and Telegram groups. The landscape is less homogeneous in Germany with only a minute fraction of people using Twitter, Snapchat or TikTok for example, but you're extremely underselling the overall magnitude. There's a ouroboros of sharepics and clips spreading between Facebook/Instagram and WhatsApp/Telegram and vice versa dragging in additional people in every rotation. Instagram sharepics being shared in Telegram groups, TikTok clips showing up in WhatsApp status updates, and so on, often with direct links back to the source so people can jump right into the funnel. I've seen it with the anti-mask and anti-vax protesters, now I'm seeing it with pro-Russian propaganda. Meanwhile the Querdenker movement seems to be slowly rebranding as a "peace movement", but always with the same broad strokes messaging to distrust the government and to be critical of every party other than the AfD. Whether it's anti-queer, anti-vax or "anti-war", the ideology is fungible and arbitrary, but the underlying message remains the same.
da39a3ee 5y ago
Has Germany seen the same rise in young people adopting strongly entrenched positions on racial identity politics and not tolerating a diversity of opinion? E.g are undergraduates trying to ban speakers they disagree with? Can a person under the age of 40 voice agreement with a traditional feminist like JK Rowling without being socially and professionally ostracized?
- da39a3ee 5y ago
  It's not appropriate to downvote this. It was simply a question. A good-faith, politely-made, relevant, question. Please answer it or otherwise contribute substantively if you wish to participate in the subthread. (Don't bother telling me it's against site guidelines to question downvotes; I know that. Just downvote this if you feel the need. The reason I am breaking the site guidelines in this instance is that I suspect that the fact that the only response to my question is downvotes is a symptom of exactly the problem being discussed in TFA.)
  - suction 5y ago
    Point out where the good faith was :-D
    - da39a3ee 4y ago
      By "good faith" I mean that I was genuinely and sincerely curious about whether cancel culture etc was more or less common in Germany than in anglophone countries such as UK, USA and Canada. What do you mean by "good faith"?
- suction 5y ago
  I have no idea what you are talking about. You sound a bit crazy, to be honest.
  - da39a3ee 4y ago
    You're not familiar with the rise of "cancel culture" in the UK, USA, and Canada, and its association with "progressive" left-wing politics? I would love to not be familiar with that! Where do you live?

hnbad 5y ago

That last part is only true if you completely ignore the Querdenker movement, which has overlaps (or at least "strategic alliances") with the far-right and QAnon. What Germany is lacking in social media it makes up for in WhatsApp status updates and Telegram groups. The landscape is less homogeneous in Germany with only a minute fraction of people using Twitter, Snapchat or TikTok for example, but you're extremely underselling the overall magnitude. There's a ouroboros of sharepics and clips spreading between Facebook/Instagram and WhatsApp/Telegram and vice versa dragging in additional people in every rotation. Instagram sharepics being shared in Telegram groups, TikTok clips showing up in WhatsApp status updates, and so on, often with direct links back to the source so people can jump right into the funnel. I've seen it with the anti-mask and anti-vax protesters, now I'm seeing it with pro-Russian propaganda. Meanwhile the Querdenker movement seems to be slowly rebranding as a "peace movement", but always with the same broad strokes messaging to distrust the government and to be critical of every party other than the AfD. Whether it's anti-queer, anti-vax or "anti-war", the ideology is fungible and arbitrary, but the underlying message remains the same.

da39a3ee 5y ago

Has Germany seen the same rise in young people adopting strongly entrenched positions on racial identity politics and not tolerating a diversity of opinion? E.g are undergraduates trying to ban speakers they disagree with? Can a person under the age of 40 voice agreement with a traditional feminist like JK Rowling without being socially and professionally ostracized?

da39a3ee 5y ago
It's not appropriate to downvote this. It was simply a question. A good-faith, politely-made, relevant, question. Please answer it or otherwise contribute substantively if you wish to participate in the subthread. (Don't bother telling me it's against site guidelines to question downvotes; I know that. Just downvote this if you feel the need. The reason I am breaking the site guidelines in this instance is that I suspect that the fact that the only response to my question is downvotes is a symptom of exactly the problem being discussed in TFA.)
- suction 5y ago
  Point out where the good faith was :-D
  - da39a3ee 4y ago
    By "good faith" I mean that I was genuinely and sincerely curious about whether cancel culture etc was more or less common in Germany than in anglophone countries such as UK, USA and Canada. What do you mean by "good faith"?
suction 5y ago
I have no idea what you are talking about. You sound a bit crazy, to be honest.
- da39a3ee 4y ago
  You're not familiar with the rise of "cancel culture" in the UK, USA, and Canada, and its association with "progressive" left-wing politics? I would love to not be familiar with that! Where do you live?