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Yes, that's what I meant. You can be either green or neo-Nazi, no middle ground. People have different problems and priorities than you, and if you decide to a

Yes, that's what I meant. You can be either green or neo-Nazi, no middle ground. People have different problems and priorities than you, and if you decide to annoy them on top of the hardships they've already been burdened with, this might be the straw that will cause them to eventually radicalize. Just look at the AfD banners of the day, and you will see that they use every opportunity like this to grab voters. I've seen posters that said "Klima-Kleber ins Knast", so this is a factor that may bend people down. What I don't like about Germany is that left-leaning people love to shout out their virtue with demos, banners, stickers, banter and whatnot, but when they are confronted with an actual working-class crowd, they just brush them off as "Nazis", and we don't talk to "Nazis".

VK538FY 3y ago
I agree with your assessment. I see the extreme polarisation growing elsewhere too. Is there any basis to suggest that it is linked to a growing urban-rural divide? Or something else maybe in the media?
- worklaptopacct 3y ago
  It might be, but I think formal education plays a role here too. German universities are very left-leaning, so people with a degree are more likely to hold left-wing positions. This is in comparison to my home country Poland, where there is an ideological divide in higher education - arts and humanities colleges are more left-leaning, while everything else is apolitical or leans right. I have a degree from an engineering college, and most people there (me included up until some point) had right-libertarian towards nationalist right wing positions. The technical colleges there are voter strongholds for the furthest-right fringe party, which initially incentivizes votes with promises of low taxation and resulting riches, and then sucks people in as a whole with conspiracy theories.
  - VK538FY 3y ago
    True about the political atmosphere in German vs Polish universities. I happen to have had a taste of both. There seemed to be more intellectual freedom in the Polish unis that I visited -- one technical, the other economics. (Just don't try to discuss delicate subjects like the Germans or the Russians.)

VK538FY 3y ago

I agree with your assessment. I see the extreme polarisation growing elsewhere too. Is there any basis to suggest that it is linked to a growing urban-rural divide? Or something else maybe in the media?

worklaptopacct 3y ago
It might be, but I think formal education plays a role here too. German universities are very left-leaning, so people with a degree are more likely to hold left-wing positions. This is in comparison to my home country Poland, where there is an ideological divide in higher education - arts and humanities colleges are more left-leaning, while everything else is apolitical or leans right. I have a degree from an engineering college, and most people there (me included up until some point) had right-libertarian towards nationalist right wing positions. The technical colleges there are voter strongholds for the furthest-right fringe party, which initially incentivizes votes with promises of low taxation and resulting riches, and then sucks people in as a whole with conspiracy theories.
- VK538FY 3y ago
  True about the political atmosphere in German vs Polish universities. I happen to have had a taste of both. There seemed to be more intellectual freedom in the Polish unis that I visited -- one technical, the other economics. (Just don't try to discuss delicate subjects like the Germans or the Russians.)