this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has gained ground in three recent state elections, caused an uproar in the Thuringian parliament and triggering another debate on whether to ban the party outright.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

A ban is incredibly hard. Not impossible, but hard. And even if, it won't solve the actual problem. The AfD maintained the image of a protest party and to this day people believe this crap. A great way to cut their votes in half would be educating the population so they understand that protest is good but voting for fascist scum is not.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

A ban is incredibly hard. Not impossible, but hard.

Not in Germany. Spreading Nationalist or Nazi-adjacent views is a crime in Germany. the AfD not only should be banned, but many of those those involved in it should be arrested and face criminal charges for spreading Nazism. It's literally just a matter of enforcing the law.

And even if, it won’t solve the actual problem.

It'll solve a large part of the problem.

A great way to cut their votes in half would be educating the population so they understand that protest is good but voting for fascist scum is not.

Germany is extremely highly educated. If you want to send a message to Nazis, start throwing them in prison until the rest get the message and fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

I mean I do think banning them is a good idea, and in general I think nazis should be taken on helicopter rides, most especially the enablers of nazis, their financial leash handlers which basically bootstrap them into these positions in order to push the dialogue further rightward in service of corporate interests, and probably also in this case in service of "geopolitical security" since we're going to be seeing oncoming climate refugees in the coming years, and combatting that in any way but increasing the security apparatus is off the table.

More than that, though, I worry that realistically just banning them, though a great temporary measure, won't do much, say, five years or a decade down the road, because it's not gonna solve the core hypocrisies and discrepancies that neoliberalism is not so keen to solve. If you want to actually solve this problem long term then you need to combat those core problems. Instead, though, I think that probably the party being banned will just see them either form a new party, or else tone down their rhetoric to an acceptable degree, or just join the next furthest right party and then decide to push them further right, and so on and so on, until we've all collectively just shifted rightward to an incredible degree.

Ad nauseam, et cetera, regardless of the political apparatuses at work, until collectively the western world plummets towards fascism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (5 children)

So, for the sake of argument, if AfD is banned would they not just became a paramilitary group?

What's to stop them from devolving into something more 'nefarious' if they are stripped of political power?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

The ease with which they can build such structures would go down. Building while hiding is harder than building while not having to hide.

Having central coordination, for example in the form of a party or some other form of organization, means that strategic goals can be planned for and resources acquired and allocated in a more efficient manner. The previous bigger neonazi party, the NPD, fulfilled that role for quite a while.

Organizations and people are not that interchangeable for these purposes. Workflows, institutional memory, leadership all matter. That's why targeted assassinations of leadership even in cell-like structures can meaningfully disrupt e.g. terrorist organizations' effectiveness. Similar things can be accomplished by simply disrupting business-as-usual.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm guessing they'd still be under observation after they get banned because of exactly that and I also think there's steep step between political engagement and serious criminal activity.

But that gets decided by a court and as a German I think the judiciary is the most trustworthy of the three powers. I think if it even comes to that they deal with the motion in a sensitive way.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (6 children)

or sell thüringen and bayern to the lowest bidder...would work for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

LOL! The damn Austrians would snap up Bayern. As far as Thüringen goes, break it up equally for the neighboring provinces to govern.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (6 children)

We, Germans, cannot allow 30 Jan 1933 to 08 May 1945 to repeat itself. Also, the communists in "Die Linke" can go straight to hell with the neo-Nazis.

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