Summary
A survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation found that most young Germans (ages 16-30) feel disillusioned with politics, citing distrust, lack of influence, and insufficient avenues for engagement beyond voting.
Only 8% believe politicians take their concerns seriously, and fewer than 1 in 5 feel they can enact change.
Despite this, 61% still see democracy as the best system.
The findings come as Germany faces potential elections after its coalition collapse, with experts urging politicians to better involve youth on key issues like peace, education, and inflation.
Seems like the world has decided to re-learn the lessons about fascism the hard way.
Society will have to relearn a lesson like this every so often, because people kind of yearn to offload the mental energy involved in controlling some aspect of their lives to someone else. And while they’ll probably start by offloading or to someone competent and with their best interests at heart, eventually someone who wants to extract wealth from that position will rise in such a space.
Our outright fascist party currently stands ar about 19% and our far right conservatives party is at about 32%. That party is also known for talking about literally anything our facist party talks about.
So yeah, we are about to learn what fascism does the hard way. At least currently I am pretty sure that the fascists won’t form a coalition with the conservatives, but I don’t know how long it will stay like this.
And the far right AFD will benefit
Or the Freie Wähler or Bündnis Sara Wagenknecht. There are options for anti immigrant populism now
You even don’t have to vote for those. You can just vote for CDU. They are also vquite anti immigration and it will only get worse in the next years.
Why is the world getting collectively dumber?
Humanity is still coming out of its infancy. Modern science and medicine are only around 300 years old, human flight around a hundred while homo sapiens are hundreds of thousands of years old. A large number of people still have no homes, food scarcity, poor education to the point of illiteracy and the literate read at a average 5th grade level. The old traditions and norms are still trying to claw back at progress. We only live for a short lifespan that means the species has to maintain knowledge across generations or keep relearning the same lessons over and over again and often hurts itself in confusion. The world isn’t getting dumber, but it’s not finding any grip or purchase when trying to drag itself out of the pit of the natural world.
theres not a lot of time left.
Design. Keep the poors divided.
Corporate encouragement.
Is it dumb? When did politics ever solved the people’s needs? When was the last time a politician was elected that did not come from the elites?
I think it’s pretty obvious to see that politicians are just puppets on the strings of corpos and you cannot vote on those, so I ask you, is it that dumb to find it pointless?
Doing nothing and letting the greater evils get picked because you couldn’t be bothered to fill out a fucking ballot?
Yes, that is extremely dumb.
Spectacularly stupid even.
Is there any choice on the ballot that will save the environment, eliminate billionaires, make corporations accountable and provide for everyone’s needs?
I enthusiastically refer you to my previous statement, especially the last two lines.
I will also add, that if you are an American who didn’t vote, you can take your complaints and blow them out your ass.
Seems like people have already given up on the soap box and are giving up on the ballot box, America has already given up on the jury box and is already reaching for the ammo box.
Damnit Germany was going to be my stepping stone for a number of years when I leave the US, out of the fire into a frying pan maybe…
That honestly wasn’t a good idea from the get-go. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad to be in Germany instead of the US, but there are several reasons I’d be open to leave for years now. It’s been obvious we’ve been running into major future problems nobody does anything about. But then again, once you actually look into it, pretty much every country has gone to shit or never has been anything but.
A small list of problems in Germany: political shift to the far right; reliance on a dying industry; avoiding debt at all costs; no investment in infrastructure or any modernization; the inevitable collapse of our pension system; degrading health care; pretty much missing workers in all fields and still hating on immigrants; a crippling bureaucracy overhead for everything; a society dead-set on both complaining about everything and wanting to change nothing.
Sounds much like the US in many ways. Our media just chooses to focus on culture war bullshit instead.
Oh, we’ve got some shitheads taking every culture war talking point from you guys. On of them tried to import the abortion debate, thinking it would spark outrage despite pretty much everyone over here agreeing with abortion rights - as any sane person would. And this shithead probably gets voted into one of the highest positions of government early next year.
Three years ago it was illegal to say you did abortions as a doctor. And don’t get me started on women having to maintain lists of the ones actually doing them at all. So no, it’s definitely not something “everyone agrees over” especially in such a conservative country.
Germans have to stop comparing themselves to the USA, and start looking at their European peers, if they want to better they country.
I agree with both, actually. However, most people do agree over abortion rights. A recent survey found that more than 80% of people agree with abortion rights.
Oh I agree, it’s just that Germany gets me out of the US and overseas easier than anywhere else I’ve looked. So it’d be a stepping stone.
The fruits of neoliberalism. If the market is the ultimate arbiter, why bother with democracy.
Gifting control of their lives to the older generations. This can’t possibly end badly…
Don’t worry, if we just not vote, everything will magically right itself.
You’re right.
Germany appears to be regressing to the Biedermeier era of apathetic conservatism that followed the crushing of the upheavals of 1848
And how to judge them ? I can really understand why…
Politic just lost its proper definition as a word,
Meaning root :Politic is an adjective that means wise or showing good judgment, especially in making decisions. It can also refer to actions that are prudent or sensible in a given situation.
and in “latin” its even more specific, its “the life of the city”.
Rich people and governants are not a part of society, we are their slaves.lol. Good luck with that
Does anyone know what we can do about this? Is there hope?
Build guillotines, break things. Germans used to do that circa 1849, etc.
Passivity is an explicit goal of modern media
The left needs to stop prioritising their donors, focus on actually improving welfare, and work on actually fixing cost of living. Until then you have people voting right to get back at boogeymen conjured up by conservatives while the left keeps ignoring the issue and saying that the economy is doing well.
Just get young people to vote. That’s the issue. Not enough young people vote so politicians know they don’t have to cater for them. If young people voted en masse then politicians would take them seriously.
I agree that people not voting is an issue. But looking at how young people voted in the last EU election, it’s far from the only one.
Not enough young people vote so politicians know they don’t have to cater for them
cater to them? You think the problems we have are focused on youth-specific issues? School buses to slow, that sort of thing?
I never said youth specific, but if young people want change they need to vote.
That’s the same issue here in canada. especially here in ontario.
German democracy ends at the ballot box
“with experts urging politicians to better involve youth on key issues like peace, education, and inflation.”
Cute in so many ways. “Peace” is an “issue” huh. And they are going to “involve” youth with the problem of inflation? I guess the adults and experts have shat the bed on it, why not ask the kids to fix it? Why not ask the kids to fix everything. The adults refuse to do the “adult” thing on much of anything lately. Maybe youth needs to rule.
And who are these “experts”? Are they the ones who cut the checks to the politicians? I say that in seriousness, the bribery class are the only ones the politicians lift a finger for.
And by “involve” youth they mean market to them, right?
state media
That is your critique? Like, not that it’s a Bertelsmann survey?
Still wouldn’t discount the data, though, this is a behemoth of a neolib think tank doing a study on the impacts of the policies they’re pushing, with Bertelsmann it’s always the framing and conclusions that are the issue, not the raw data. Maybe they’ll understand that they themselves are the cause of the results, maybe they won’t.
