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German here. German middle class considers the current political situation (across all federal layers) the least trustworthy in at least 30-50 years. The majori

German here. German middle class considers the current political situation (across all federal layers) the least trustworthy in at least 30-50 years. The majority of the people is frustrated AF because of government paralysis for no real reasons but political gambling. It's that bad that >90% of my friends and acquaintances chose to not read the news anymore and go with ignorance and escapism. Germany seems to be going through some kind of identity crisis right now (we lack most competencies for 21st century and used to cover all problems with money and arrogance) and chances are not that low we'll end up with far right leadership. (The only good thing is that the German army is that much underfunded and bureaucratic that a military coup is impossible. /s)

nomonnai 3y ago
Fellow German here. I share your sentiment 100%. I quit consuming standard news early last year and replaced it with reading primary sources if the topic was substantial. Further, there are capable experts on Youtube. However, cutting through the noise and hyperbole takes time, and sometimes experts do not realize having left their field of expertise. By now, I fully agree with Neil Postman's verdict that news primarily exists to entertain. Many discussions could be decided by looking at a chart if the discussion's participants had the will and competency to do so, which, I am afraid, is regularly not the case. Regarding the production and consumption of electrical power, I find www.smard.de/home/marktdaten a great tool. Before using it, I had no idea of basics such as the order of magnitude of power production and consumption or the meaning of units like Watt hour. In effect, quitting news helped me to expand my horizons far more than I expected.