Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
False equivalence good sir.
If you take a good look at the last few years its the CSU and the Af D who'd cause the most bullshit while the Left party just plods along giving Press Statements every now and then. SPD and CDU are center parties (though I hope Schulz gives us some good Social Democracy again) and if anything we're suffering from the lack of distinction between them.
We're not trapped between Left and Right, we're facing a threat from the right and the idea that the CDU might be trying to compromise with that...
edited 14th Feb '17 4:51:57 AM by 3of4
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If the media is giving the Af D ammunition by acknowledging that there might actually be racist reasons for sending death threats to the fucking mayor for saying Dresden wasn't an innocent city, then I don't know what isn't going to give them shovels full of goddamn ammunition.
The left isn't at fault for the right, across the pond and at home, deciding that human decency and cross-border solidarity was secondary to the rights of the wealthy and powerful to be insular, racist, ignorant and unopposed.
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Those are two different issues though. I don't think that we have to discuss that those mails are out of line. But that doesn't solve the question with the sculpture. This happens all the time. The Af D starts with their BS. Everyone focusses on the BS and while doing it, disregards what might be some honest complains. There are still people who remember the night in which Dresden burned, and a lot of people who lived seeing the result of the fire for years. If you just disregard the feeling of those people by saying "ah, they are just Af D", you alienate them step by step.
We don't have to listen to the Af D....but we need to listen to the people who are actually more on the moderate spectrum but feel currently so betrayed by the established parties that they consider voting for the Af D. Not spit them in the face to proof a point, because than we only make a point for Pegida and co.
I actually can't believe that during the planning of this statue nobody considered how the common citizen of Dresden would react to it. If they had picked something less tacky, the statue would have actually be way more effective as symbol against Pegida.
edited 14th Feb '17 5:02:06 AM by Swanpride
" Yeah, the myth of the glamorous Second World War is a pervasive and profoundly irritating one that the postwar FRG helped spread." I am not sure what you mean by that.
However you'd be hard pressed to find a single official source that paints the war as "glamorous".
Regarding Dresden, I agree the buses are damn ugly, but aren't they temporary anyway?
Are they? Because if that is the case, I would mind way less....though it would still not be the best idea to have them there during the celebration of the repair of the church....
<shrugs at the buses> Nestlé's HQ in Vevey has more hideous sculptures outside it that they paid through the nose for. The granite wall of whatever springs to mind; big, glossy, dark, grey and very, very expensive for whatever it's supposed to mean. Dunno what the fuss is about: it's not like those buses are a permanent fixture. Unlike The Wall of Nestlé's Coporate Overspending On Stupid. 
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
So someone posted a news article
on the Japanese Cultural thread describing a recent spate of media efforts to cast Japanese society in a more "positive" light compared to other nations.
A particular anecdote has a Japanese resident of Germany say some rather . . . controversial . . . things:
Bold print emphasis mine.
There is a certain inbred ethic in Japan, Kawaguchi-Mahn claims, that she misses in Germany. The high quality of Japanese service is emblematic. Japan’s trains run on time, its nationwide parcel delivery network is comprehensive and efficient, everything works and works well — why? Because of Japan’s enviably high-level basic education. More Germans than Japanese graduate from university, but 7 million Germans are functionally illiterate, as against a negligible number of Japanese. Systems work here because the masses are educated enough to make them work.
And they want to make them work. They feel a personal stake in the common enterprise known as society. The frequency of strikes in Germany shows that the average German does not, Kawaguchi-Mahn says. The average German is engaged in a perpetual struggle for personal advantage, for “rights.” If they’re won at the expense of the collective, too bad for the collective. Europeans fight, Japanese harmonize.
edited 20th Feb '17 10:38:20 PM by FluffyMcChicken
I wonder if the author is aware that Japan had colonies for longer than the Germans did (and even took some German colonies after WWI)?
I'm glad to see that the proud tradition of classifying foreigners as fence-hopping moochers has spread beyond the borders of Europe and the Americas
To be honest, my initial reaction to that anecdote was: "Then what the heck are you doing here if Japan is so much better?"
Also sorry, but lecturing us about how we deem others inferior - how does Japan treat its minorities again?
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
It is easy to argue back that Japan's trains might run in time, but are also often totally overcrowded and that the thinking for the collective creates a mind-set which allows companies to hold wage slaves. And then there is the Yakuza - but it is not like a Japanese would talk about such things. That wouldn't be loyal after all.
There is an interesting book a German immigrant has written about Japan, about his experiences in Japan as a foreigner - it is called "Warum Japaner nerven" (why Japanese get on our nerves). The author is a TV personality in Japan, and the book is a really funny read, which tells you a lot about the difference between reality in perception in the Japanese everyday live - and about details like the incredible high abortion rate in the country, or how companies control whole parts of Tokyo.
Oh, bother.
I've traveled on said trains a few times during a couple vacations in Japan. It's...not a fun experience. Especially if you don't enjoy close personal contact with other people.
Even less if you consider that people using the opportunity to secretly molest other people is apparently something pretty common.
Honestly, the little speech actually says way more about the Japanese mind-set than the German one.
edited 21st Feb '17 8:45:48 AM by Swanpride
Oh, bother.
Yeah, it's common enough that it's even a trope: The Chikan.
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
The Japanese, in any case, really go for German culture.
To hell with the people, apparently, but we'll gladly take your culture.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
Oh, bother.
Which is ironic, since that's the attitude some people have towards Japanese culture and the Japanese people. Never mind of course that the culture and the people kind of go hand in hand.
Come to think of it, that's pretty damn universal. There are a lot of shitty people who don't care for foreigners but like the things said foreigners made.
edited 21st Feb '17 7:00:25 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
They also really like French culture.
edited 21st Feb '17 7:01:52 PM by Bat178
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
One thing that I've noticed from the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese people I've interacted with throughout my life is that each different East Asian group seemingly subconsciously sees a particular European nation as some sort of Western incarnation of itself.
French is a popular language to learn amongst Chinese people, who seem to "identify" with the bombastic and flamboyant gaudiness of French art and architecture; observe a similar prominence with elaborate and intricate gold patterns used in the designs of French cathedrals and Chinese temples.
There's also the fact that Chinese people place an extremely high value on one's personal "face" and sense of fashion, which leads to them placing a high value on French fashion merchandise ("LV [Louis-Vutton] bao" is a notorious phrase in Mandarin regarding one's personal spending habits) as a form of social currency.
Deng Xiaoping actually studied in France prior to his ascension to the top ranks of the CCP.
—
In contrast to the Chinese, there's a visible current within Korean and Japanese people that places a greater admiration of German culture. I'd personally suspect that it has to do with the Germans' iconic reputation for being stoic, no nonsense, industrious, and humble, which appeals to the strict etiquette of Japanese culture much better than the bombastic bling of the French.
Meanwhile, Koreans feel as though they share a close historical bond with Germany, namely because a sizable number of both North and South Koreans had come to East and West Germany to study or find work as Gastarbeiter. In the case of the unanimously male North Koreans, a number of them intermarried and had children with East German women before being recalled during the Sino-Soviet Split.
edited 21st Feb '17 7:39:05 PM by FluffyMcChicken
We also have in Düsseldorf the largest Japanese community outside of Asia.
In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good.
Caring for everyone gets you peace and harmony. Demanding obedience only gets you silence.
Lurker turned Troper
The largest Japanese community in Europe if I am allowed to correct it. The largest Japanese community outside Asia is still in Brazil, if I am remember it right.
For those who are interested: Here some pictures of the motives in this years Carnival parade in Düsseldorf....I somehow like the one with the caterpillars.
If someone needs a translation or explanation, just ask.
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
Are they usually this satirical?
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
That seems pretty standard to me.
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
edited 14th Feb '17 4:45:55 AM by Swanpride