Americans get their views of the world mostly from TV and movies. Being separated by two big oceans from the rest of the world means we don’t get to rub shoulders with strangers too much. The result is those caricatures of foreigners we see on TV get seared into the our mind, even though they are often wildly inaccurate. The most obvious example is the way in which Germans and Germany are viewed by Americans. Germans are either avuncular clock makers or cold blooded automatons that are ruthlessly efficient.
Of course, Germans are mostly OK with this characterization as it works to their favor, except for the constant Nazi references. Having a reputation for exacting standards and ruthless precision is a good thing if you are in the business of making things like cars or machine tools. It also works when it comes to government. Most people, not just Americans, just assume that the well known German efficiency translates into making the trains run on time and keeping the streets clean and orderly.
The phrase “German engineering” has come to mean high quality and high precision, as if the Germans never made anything stupid or poorly designed. The Beetle was a cheap piece of junk for the most part, but everyone believes the Germans make the best cars in the world. Yet, the Mercedes C-Class is an unreliable jalopy that costs too much to buy and way too much to own. If Germans were anything like we imagine, they would have had the engineers who made those cars sent to a work camp in Poland.
Volkswagen used to have the reputation as the builder of solid, inexpensive cars for working people. Then they came out with the new Beetle. Their marketing efforts made VW the car of choice for hairdressers and homosexuals. If that were not bad enough, they are now accused of committing massive fraud that could be lethal for its North American operations. Not only that, these dummkopfs may have managed to set back the cause of clean diesel technology to the point where it dies out entirely. Way to go Germany.
Even if you want to dismiss this sort of bungling as inevitable, even for people generally good at making things, you can’t ignore the mass insanity that is the current German policy on immigration. Angela Merkel’s decision to unilaterally flood Europe with low-IQ barbarians from the Middle East is going to go down as one of the dumbest decisions in the history of Europe. The fact that the response to the predictable unrest is to turn Germany into a police state suggests the Germans have gone mad.
Calling Merkel’s Million Muslim invasion the dumbest decision means overlooking pretty much everything German politicians have done since Wilhelm I walked into the Hall of Mirrors. There’s any number of reckless moves in the Great War, including the decision to back the Bolsheviks in Russia. Of course, the all time blunder was putting the meth munching morons called the Nazis in charge of the country. Is there another country on earth with a worse record of self-governance than the Germans?
The fact that the Germans and their record of ineptitude are now in charge of Europe does not bode well for the Continent. The Greeks should have been expelled a long time ago, but the Germans insisted they remain and now that dumpster fire is about to reignite. Then there is the fact that the Italians are headed to a crisis and the French may be about to elected a populist government, mostly due to mad Merkel and her efforts to flood the continent with Muslims. The French wanted to build and lead the EU to defend Europe, but now under German leadership, the EU has become a suicide pact.
Getting back to where we started, Americans and most of the world, judging from the international press, have this view of the Germans that is wildly out of phase with reality. The bill of indictment against Germany being anything but a fountain of mischief is rather long. In a little under 150 years, a unified Germany has managed to cause more damage to civilization than the rest of the western people combined. The temptation has been to assign this to a small portion of Germans who are evil. What if Germans are simply stupid? Perhaps to be German means carrying a gene for reckless stupidity.
Whether or not the Germans are the Minus Race is immaterial. The point is we need to seriously rethink our image of the Germans. Yes, they made some of the greatest art in Western history, but then they will tried to invade Russia in winter. They make some of the finest manufactured good in the world today, but they have also elected a collection of suicidal lunatics hellbent on blowing up Europe. Germany may be the land of engineers and chocolate makers, but it is also the home of the world most dangerous morons too.
Having lived in Germany for the past 40 years, I can say this; The Germans don’t like what Merkel is doing, but don’t have the balls to say anything about it, or do anything about it. All of the men here have been castrated by loosing 2 wars, and are afraid to voice an opinion because they are literally afraid of being called racists, nationalists or evn Nazis. So they sit back and watch their culture, their heritage, their wealth and their self respect get stolen by anyone who wants to take it, be that an American military GI, a… Read more »
Thatcher was right. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Germany should never have been re-unified. The right answer all along was to break Germany up into soemthing like its Pre-Empire configuration. A collection of nation states with no military would keep the peace and keep the Germans busy making clocks and car parts, instead of political mischief.
I’ve heard Germany compared loosely with Iraq in the sense that their boundaries don’t really reflect a coherent, homegenous, society compared to, say, Greece, France, or G.B. They’re a lot of different tribes, Slavs, Franks, Visigoths, etc. The post-war occupation zones somewhat reflect this, and while unintentional, they provided the framework for a longer-term solution to the German problem. Then the Soviets got cash strapped in E. Germany, built their “buffer zone” out of 1/3 of the continent, and turned the whole thing into a binary solution where the “winner” would “reunify” Germany…which really none of them probably wanted (at… Read more »
I worked in (former East Germany) for 15 years from the start of Reunification and can’t figure out why reunification was that bad a thing.
Could somebody tell me what are the big problems it caused?
You mean besides all of the things Zman stepped through?
I didn’t see that reunification exacerbated any of the things Zman criticized. Germany was bad. Yep, but they’ve tamed down external violence since the bad old days. Merkel grew up in the East and is stupid about migrants. Yep again, but the hard core opposition to being overrun by Islam is based in the former East. Merkel’s former state Mecklenburg Vorpommern is the area most vocal against her borders policy. PEGIDA’s big demonstrations are in Dresden, not Düsseldorf. Germany futzes with currencies via the Euro and EU. Yep once more, but I don’t see how reunification made that worse. Anyway,… Read more »
@ Lorenzo – The reunification was a moral obligation of free people and western democracy. It was a way to bring our country back together after it was physically divided, occupied by foreign armies, and it’s people physically separated and ruled by an oppressive regime under the DDR. I am thankful that President Regan had the courage to stand up and decry the oppression of our fellow Germans. No people should have been forced into exile as those in the east. No country, no civilized country, should have ever forced innocent civilians into what the DDR became. Was it not… Read more »
English historian Edward Crankshaw–
The tragedy of Bismarck, apart from the profound personal tragedy of a man of wonderful gifts corrupted, was not that he subordinated morality to the supposed needs of the state: most other statesmen of his time did that, including Gladstone. The tragedy was that he exalted the amoral concept of politics into a principle; and that, as a corollary, because he succeeded with such dazzling skill through the nine miraculous years which culminated in the foundation of the Reich, his countrymen surrendered to that principle.
The stage was set when the Iron Curtain went up. If there was a chance to reckon with everything that happened leading up to the end of WWII, the Iron Curtain nipped that in the bud. In that light is it any surprise what has happened to today? The slow rot of socialism was left to fester like a black plague bubo, and when the wall came down it was nice and ripe to infect the West in it’s cunning insidious ways.
isn’t “Bubo” that italian political party guy? 😛
Allegedly, at a boozy dinner at one of the WWII conference Stalin says, “They should be cut up!” Churchill comes back with a wonky reply, “Of course, we should break up Germany into the pre-1866 states and ensure…” Stalin cuts him off and interjects, “Not Germany, Germans!”
@ thezman – I will take full credit for excellent cars, but I must pass credit for excellent clocks to the Swiss. Credit due where credit is deserved.
Mericaner Mike, my impression from living there for months at a time, now and again, is similar. Here in the US, women and minorities use “mansplaining” and “whitesplaining” to make men and white people shut up and go away. The German men decided to shut up and go away a long time ago. The culture is such, that if a German male were to stand up and speak his mind publicly, at a minimum he would be socially shunned, and he quite possibly would be arrested. Behind closed doors, everything is different. But publicly, people avoid confrontation and slink away,… Read more »
It’s no accident that Geert Wilders is from the Netherlands, not Germany. And he gets enough grief even as a Dutchman. We will probably never see any German counterpart to Wilders.
We have a German business associate, who lives in ski country USA out West. I am not sure of his/his wife’s immigration status or if they are citizens. Their grown daughters are US citizens, pretty sure, and went to school here. Anyway, he is always trying to be a sort of “peacemaker” in contentious discussions, avoiding controversy at every turn. Doesn’t like to talk about his upbringing, which was rather deluxe. He’s about 65 and has a wonderful life skiing here and in Austria. Only problem I see is that the pretty daughters remain unmarried, so. . . no little… Read more »
Rather like the American left with it’s obsession for new and ever more oppressive punishments for the sins of slavery.
I doubt it has escaped the notice of those who would rule us how effectively one can guilt a society with Christian roots into submitting to destruction.
One wishes it were possible to somehow issue the Germans a blanket commutation of their sentence to self anhiliation in penance for the sins of the Nazis, so they could get up from the ground and throw the dusky horde out on it’s collective ass.
“how effectively one can guilt a society with Christian roots into submitting to destruction.”
Protestant Christian; the Catholic Christians, not so much. They tend to go for shame rather than guilt.
Making it a crime to question, never mind deny, the official Holocaust narrative is a good example of effectively guilt tripping a society to submit to its own destruction.
@ Recusant – I believe guilt is a construct of the Catholic church. We Proteestants follow the tenants of forgiveness. But we Germans are a difficult people – we don’t forgive others easily, and our selves less so.
Guest; Your more right than you know when you said “society with Christian roots” and not ‘Christian society’. Along with much of Europe and too much of the US, Germany is largely post-Christian, and arguably has been for over 100 years. A man or a society with a solid understanding of Christian doctrine, regardless of denomination, will know that they need not nor cannot accept accusations of collective guilt for the sins of others particularly from demonstrated evildoers and hypocrites. They would say something like, “God requires me to account for my own personal sins only, of which there are… Read more »
Yes, but when you guilt everyone who is vulnerable to identity politics, what you got left is a hardcore group of diehards who will never submit or bend a knee to the bastards. That is the counter dynamic of totalitarianism. A group who is very dangerous and indomitable. Can’t say what that foretells in German context, but I’ll bet a bit of the old Prussian blood still runs through a few veins. History is circular, it doesn’t so much repeat as the pendulum swings the other way. You can’t kill human nature anymore than politics is always downstream from culture.… Read more »
Brings to mind that famous line “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” People do have a breaking point. And while shame, guilt or other social pressure has kept men, and women, from taking action, you can bet there is a lot of seething rage about the situation on the ground. I do not put it past German’s or any other people to tolerate this insanity to the end. What they need to do as first steps is just what G.B. did and vote for Brexit of their own, and like America, vote for a… Read more »
Mike, I essentially agree with your characterization of my country’s current condition. Having said this, and appreciating fully that it’s fun to vent (not you, rather our esteemed host) every once in a while, let me also point out that the disease seems to be much broader, more Western than just German, though with every country having its specialties of course. Also the degrees of intensity and the strengths of the immune systems vary. The leftist and cuck establishment pretty much everywhere in the West still subscribes to the pro-immigrant stance, anti-men and anti-White policies, and all that. France, Sweden,… Read more »
You may be the fellow to ask. Is not the current state of the German man (and I do mean male) the result of being Americanized after the war with our worst qualities? First the occupation but then, for far longer, the cold war by necessity forced Germany into the American orbit. The dream of the war weary western world (plus Russia), was to see Germany emasculated, and perhaps they finally succeeded. A feminized Germany is still the most powerful force in Europe, if only because Europe is no less feminized. No society dominated by women can sustain itself beyond… Read more »
There is the fact that WWII killed millions of men who where natural warriors. Look at Britain, by the time of the Normandy invasion they faced a man power shortage that had bled it dry. And Germany was fighting three different powers on three major fronts. Think about the numbers of warriors who where killed in action. It had to have bled Germany white of men who had what it takes to wage mortal combat.
it’s interesting that countries that form empires, become feeble afterwards — as if the warrior spirit is exhausted permanently in them. don’t know of any counter examples but would like to hear of any theat others can think of.
Need to think about this point. Maybe having to absorb so many different fragments of energetic humanity under one flag/language/religion the way that the US, England, and Spain did when they got going on the empire-building highway, France, too, is what did it. Laws that made sense for one type of humanity to live under could not be bent sufficiently to handle indigenous primitive peoples, so they ended up dead from disease or often sad slaves to the conquerors. Other more advanced societies like India and China chafed under European rule and ended up exploding in resistance. One country that… Read more »
@ Soloman – In modern times that would be Portugal, Spain, the Netherland, France, the UK and America. About in that order.
James, I don’t think express American policies played much of role in masculinity’s trajectory in postwar Germany. I was born in the 1960s, and during my (rural, admittedly) childhood the manhood of the adult males I interacted with seemed pretty intact. Not much self-doubt or even self-awareness there — which was not without its own problems either. After all, there is a reason why early feminism seemed to have a point, or perhaps several, even for fair-minded masculine men. In my view, the downward road began to be taken when Boomer thinking began to dominate, and over time occupied virtually… Read more »
@ Herzog – One significant difference between German youth and Americans is we do not promote competition as they do. One need look no further than sports in American schools. Something we never experienced. I will agree, the focus for us was to excel in school only at the academic level. Sports was a past time, or hobby. Competition is not something we Germans incorporate into our culture as do the Americans. I think we would do well to become more competitive, rather than as passive as we have become. Intellectual debate has it’s merits, but I must give credit… Read more »
@ James Wilson – Remember that many of Germany’s best and brightest (given a smaller population) were lost as cannon fodder in WW2. To the point we armed 14-year old boys and sent them to their death as late until the last days of the war in the spring of 1945. Meanwhile in America, the best and brightest (given a much larger population) went home and picked up in the same factories and stores where had worked prior to the war. We had no such option. German women collected bricks and rebuilt with the help of Italian immigrants, and disgraced… Read more »
I agree. This is not just a German problem. It is almost everywhere in the west, with few exceptions.
Spot on Deana. That just about sums up the problem. Hey, this is right up your alley. Just read it 5 minutes ago. It’s about as awesome a bit of dirt people critical thinking as I’ve come across regards what you said. ( I hope you comment more 🙂 )
The last sentence should blow your mind. Because the rest of it is so good you won’t be prepared.
I hope everyone here reads it. Everyone needs to read it.
I don’t know who this guy is, but sincere is an understatement.
Days of Rage
https://status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/
When we liberated Europe, and found the concentration camps in Germany, there were civilians living in nearby villages who said they had “no idea” what was going on.
“What can we do?” sounds like a much more realistic answer. Yeah, they may be castrated, but then again, maybe they’re actually okay with it.
Or perhaps it was a bullshit exaggeration in the first place.
If I had killed 30 million before 1945, and 100 million after, I’d want a good cover story too.
Even one that grew increasingly ludicrous.
De-nazification went on for far too long. In 1968, the left took over in Europe. What they have done to German institutions is closely akin to what the left has done here in the USA. When you throw in the brain damage they endured from 70 years of vicious anti-German propaganda, it’s no wonder they are now useless as a political force. And worse is coming.
@ merikaner Mike – Well observed. As I mentioned to SamlAdams, the term “Nazi” is the single most powerful word that stops any and all arguments from the left. It paralyzes us into fear and unreasonable reactions because it is such a huge psychological pathology. One can only hope in the next two or three generations we can remove it from our collective national psyche or we will never extract ourselves from this quagmire of self loathing.
Can only offer perspective from business dealings. And this will come off as a generalization..so apologies to our German friends. On strategy projects the issue seems to be with overly linear thinking and an inability to see outcomes that are out on the fringes. A “because it was, it will be” mentality. That seems to be Merkel’s approach to refugees, “Germany was once bad, so now we have to be seen as “good” on everything”. And therefore a blindness to the existential threat posed by importing millions of non-German speaking, utterly alien-cultured auslanders.
@ SamlAdams – No apologies needed! Your point is well taken and clear even to us. It is, unfortunately, true on many regards because we can not, or should I say – are not allowed – to forget our past. One we must “get over” in order to move on.
I’m going to try and copy and paste something I wrote elsewhere. One thing I learned from reading that book about the diplomacy regarding the Dardanelles and the Bosporus in the nineteenth century was that there is a long standing alliance of sorts between Germany and Turkey. It seems illogical and paradoxical, but the fact that Germany and Turkey have no immediately competing interests made them into allies for this very reason. They were not natural enemies, but they had other powers that they held in common who they both had either fought wars with or had competing interests. They… Read more »
Doc; Great summary. I agree with the gist of it. But the logic is actually so simple that most smart people miss it, namely ‘Use the Next Power Over’. That is, since it seems a law of nature to have tensions with any near peer next door, the power just to the other side of them is almost always a handy source of leverage on your fractious and avaricious next door neighbor. Thus in the 1700’s when they feared the power of France, England cultivated alliances with German states, particularly Prussia. And as soon as Germany was reunited under Bismarck… Read more »
” Germany . . . is also the home of the world most dangerous morons too. ”
I dunno. We still have Barbara Boxer, Sheila Jackson Lee, and that wise latina Sotomayor, so it is a close thing.
You haven’t even scratched the surface of Amerikan Dummkopfs. Were’s Karl!? Karl, you need to get in on this man.
Doug; I haven’t noticed Karl being around for the last few weeks. The air has been crackling around this blog today. Something seems off somehow.
I am not as well educated as you guys are, so I am not going to wade into the discussion.
It will take quite a lot to take the Trump smile off my old face. My country is turning around and heading for the top again.
Doug, we know our dummkopfs better than a German would.
Let’s not make this a misogynistic thing. On the guys side there are plenty of morons also such as Harry Reid, Michael Bloomberg, Barney Frank, Paul Ryan, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Chuck U. Schumer.
Criminalizing Holocaust skepticism is not a sign of a health society.
Why are they hunting down 90 year old guards and 92 year old accountants?
Witness elimination.
Yet Mengele remained a free man til his death in 1992. His experiments were camoflauge, making them ‘pass’, not conversion.
Who really was the Master race?
We forget a Semitic constant- they eagerly kill each other. They are not universalists.
Non-semites are livestock to be managed, mere scenery.
Hunting down the 92 year old guards is particularly odious. Talk about the ultimate in craven virtue signaling.
I like your description of German manufacturing. In terms of machining metal, I don’t think anyone is better. I own a Heckler & Koch rifle – I marvel at how well the thing is put together. It’s heavy and probably considered obsolete now, but the guts of the thing are indestructible. The new G36 is a lightweight wonder but got terrible reviews in actual combat conditions. My uncle had an early 80’s Mercedes diesel that was built much the same way. It drove like some unstoppable tank. He also had a 911 from the same era – just an incredible… Read more »
And then, of course, there’s the Glock, which essentially revolutionized the entire world of handguns.l
The Glock is Austrian, but close enough.
As Jugears said, they speak Austrian.
OK, you’re right. But Hitler was Austrian, so I figure that’s close enough.
At any rate, speaking of the indestructibility of the Heckler & Koch reminds me of how Glocks are not just marvels of innovation, but marvels of design and manufacturing as well.
Glocks are the only handguns I’ve ever owned that just work. All. The Time. They NEVER jam or misfire – unless you limpwrist them when firing.
There’s no other handgun I can say that of (with the exception of revolvers), and I’ve owned numerous versions of numerous other makes.
Ditto. First .22 as a kid was an Anshutz 164, used to shoot competitively against other kids with bull barreled target rifles with adjustable stocks and peep sights and scorch them using just the factory sights and nothing but lightening up the trigger pull. Thing was and still is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.
I’m quite looking forward to Karl Horst’s response.
I have a sense this article was written with specifically Karl Horst in mind.
A worthy tribute to Karl. He has a good heart and is very caring, always has something insightful to say. If Karl is representative of the German dirt people, I hope they get through this trying time they are facing from the cultural marxist and genocidal Fascists who have tried to destroy their country and culture like they have tried here in ours.
Thanks for your kind words, Doug.
@ Doug. You are too kind my friend. Perhaps it is my passion for so many great things for which America, and it’s people, are praise worthy. For this reason I must be critical of those things that are less than honorable. To point out the things that do work, and those that do not. As you know, I have lived in your country for many years, visited most of your states and seen first hand what it is that makes you what you are and what you have become. My hopes are that President Trump will pull the tiller… Read more »
Calling people that are very well educated, articulate, and savvy enough to attain and maintain national power “dumkopfs” “stupid” and “morons” excuses their behavior. The German leaders, then and now, are not stupid. What they are doing is on purpose. The German people should be stringing them up from the lampposts.
disagree, it is stupid. cosmically so.
Generally speaking, the Germans I have known always struck me as being a little Aspie.
I think of that as the national trait, mild and mostly beneficial Asperger’s syndrome, combined with predisposition for getting things done.
I believe Bill Gates has a bit of German in his ancestry.
Anyway, consonant with general Aspieness, I consider the Germans very bright but a bit maladroit at figuring the social consequences of their actions.
Maybe what the German people require because of their cultural makeup is a form of Fascism, not the Nazi kind, but a strong man style of government mixed with republican form of government. If you kind of squint your eyes and look at Germanic peoples history over time, it appears it has tried to find a balance of the two systems, but the pendulum keeps swinging too far to the extremes. Maybe what the German dirt people really need is a good old fashioned revolt, a revolution for the kind of freedoms and liberty that best suits them. I’m not… Read more »
I am not quite so sure. Germans are heavy drinkers and heavy thinkers. Much of the “soft” sciences (and a significant part of the “hard” sciences) have German roots. I am hoping that the position that the German people will find themselves in will support a “bottom up” change in the culture, in which the males once again take on the biological roles of protectors and providers, which have been stripped from them. Too many “top down” German schemes have gone completely off the rails, while arguably the greatest success in German history was a “bottom up” revolt of the… Read more »
Right. Nothing like a life of ease to make the masculine male appear to be of no consequence at best. We should welcome strife, if for no other reason that to bring balance back into our cultures.
Well thats just it. Is there any argument top down shakedown forms of governments are a fucking unmitigated disaster? It would be poetic justice if the German dirt people did the Declaration of Independence thing. Germanic people have a long history of Martial acumen. It’s intended goals notwithstanding, Germans make for pretty darn good soldiers. What I’m saying is if the German dirt people could channel that attribute and their creative/industrious nature, into a self determining republic, they would really have something pretty awesome going. At some point repeating insanity over and over again has to sink in and people… Read more »
People have a real psychological predisposition to follow a strong horse. Too many leaders, especially in Europe, have leveraged their support into a tyrannical approach to governance. The fear here in the U.S. is that Trump will do something similar. I doubt it, because I sincerely believe that Trump seeks to earn the respect of the “little guy”, and wears the disdain of the elites as a badge of honor. Many people, late in life, once they have made it financially and the next generation is squared away, seek to build a legacy. Trump seems to want to build a… Read more »
That is one splendid observation right there Dutch.
Hey, the punditry, the media, the status quo didn’t give Trump a snowballs chance in hell either.
I dunno if they can be saved, at least anytime soon. When you sit idly by and watch the Stasi Powerskirts totally hose you over with an invasion of rape-y 7th Century swarthy barbarians and do literally NOTHING to push back, you’re pretty far gone. The truth is, the current state of both German and Japanese males are a standing testament to the utter ass-kicking we gave both in WWII. I remain convinced that if we had dealt a similar blow to the Middle East (“Shock and Awe”, my ass) the Arabs will still be walking around with their hands… Read more »
we should have leveled every city in Saudi Arabia after 9/11. just nuke em to hell with no warning.
“The truth is, the current state of both German and Japanese males are a standing testament to the utter ass-kicking we gave both in WWII. ”
The ass kicking was one thing. But the truth is they’ve been occupied territories since then. They do what we tell them to.
My favorite German invention is the Kindergarden;-) The Germans delight in children. Innocent enough, right? So why aren’t they having any?
“Maybe what the German people require because of their cultural makeup is a form of Fascism, not the Nazi kind, but a strong man style of government mixed with republican form of government. ”
Kind of like what we opted for recently? (meant sincerely without sarcasm or irony)
Well exactly yes. Not many leaders like Trump come along. Regardless, it really all begins with each of us no matter how you slice it. Trump wasn’t possible without the dirt people and vice versa. The german dirt people have to have that zietgeist. Can they, do they have it in their blood to do so? They better, their survival as a people and culture depends on it I think. Even so, I think they got it in them, they are going to have to dig deep for it. But german’s are lucky in one respect, they live in a… Read more »
Blood and soil- pure patriotism- is now a curse word. WW1 and WW2 murdered the men of Europe.
That’s funny. My first thought about “recent fascism” was Barack. Complete and utter disregard for the rule of law of the land and instituting his own law.
it’s kind of funny but the hippy movement is/was an extension of the Der Wandervogel movement from late 19th and early 20th century. Nature Boys of Southern California[edit] During the first several decades of the 20th century, these beliefs were introduced to the United States as Germans settled around the country, some opening the first health food stores. Many moved to Southern California, where they could practice an alternative lifestyle in a warm climate. In turn, young Americans adopted the beliefs and practices of the new immigrants. One group, called the Nature Boys, who included William Pester, took to the… Read more »
One aspect I’ve not seen discussed is that, with all Europe to a greater and lesser degree, Germany is today a ‘remnant population’. That is, todays’ Germans are descended from those who stayed behind during the great outmigration over the last 150 – 200 years, largely but not exclusively to the Americas*. Back before Sociology became just another flavor of multi-culti soft (and not so soft) Marxism, there was a theory of migration that both the cream and the dregs** went out from the mother countries in search of opportunities and escape abroad. This idea was quantitatively demonstrated to be… Read more »
We all have burned up a lot of margins in a lot of places in the last few decades. Good that we all had the wiggle room to do so, but much of that may be gone now.
I like how the conversations around here lead from one interesting subject to another and back again.
That sure is a valid bit of critical thinking. Look how Australia was shaped by the forced deportation from Great Britain of undesirable subjects. How the Scots Irish shaped Appalachia and western Pennsylvania, down into the Ohio river valley and into the new Cumberlands. Never mind the puritans, Yankeedom who waged a war of aggression on the southern Agrarian’s and became the Amerikan Nomenklaturer of today. And how all these migrations play an integral part through our history.
What a utter nonsense. No wonder You’ve got Your informations from TV and cinema. Sometimes it helps to read a little literature about culture and history. Concerning German history between 1933 and 1945 it is a bit difficult or -better- impossible to get the facts because Your archives are closed until today and too many documents are still classified. Tell me why? Who has something to hide?? “Yes, they made some of the greatest art in Western history” LOL, A little bit of pholosophy, music, literature, natural science, physics and chemistry too, Germany was the pharmacy of the world until… Read more »
I’m first gen Canadian. My Dad was a POW in Canada from 43 to 46 when he was forcibly repatriated, despite his escape attempts. He had been a paroled enemy, a cowboy, ‘riding the wire’ near Brooks Alberta for a year and had come to love the open freedom of this place. He finally got back here in 51 with my resisting mother in tow. By 1962 they had done well in Canada and decided take us all back to Germany, buy a Gasthaus and live there forever after in peace and happiness. Thankfully, Dad only took a leave of… Read more »
re: “My uncle Michel was in the SS. When he cocks his head and talks about it, and gets that weird ass glint in his pale blue eyes and says he’d do it again, well Jesus H.” Fred_Z
You owe it to yourself to read this book: The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Soldier http://tiny.cc/ad1wiy. After reading it you will understand your uncle’s attitude.
Dan Kurt
Sorry: The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer http://tiny.cc/ad1wiy.
Dan kurt
The new beetle is a funny thing. I have an ALH diesel. It’s assembled in Mexico, so it’s German engineering meets Mexican assemblers, in other words it acts like it’s haunted by a ghost. Things move on there own and it breaks a lot. The only reliable thing is the German made Diesel, and manual transmission, but that made all the rest worth the aggravation.
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck was a German historian who wrote The Third Reich in 1923– When two augurs of the west are met together, they both know what liberalism is: a political trick: the trick with which the upstart society of the tiers état was able to swindle the tiresome, remaining plebs out of the promises of 1789. The augurs know what “liberty” means, that most seductive of the three catchwords with which the champions of the rights of man lured the deluded masses away from their dangerous barricades and shepherded them to the innocuous ballot‑box. When the Germans… Read more »
That’s it, right there. In 1923 there was no way for the German public to get the institutions to address their grievances, given the German government and the international situation of the day. Despite all the trappings of democracy in Germany today, does the German system (or the French, the Dutch, the Spanish, or the Greeks) really have the institutional structure to address the collective grievances of their citizens? From this observer’s standpoint, I would say “no”, keeping in mind the ominous implications of such an answer.
Any nation that can produce a genius on a level of Immanuel Kant should not be discounted so easily. I give them 25-30 years more and then the great uncuckening shall begin . Remember that Trump did not just show up and won the presidency. There was a tea party movement, pat buchanan and reform party and variety of grassroots organizations before him doing little things on a state and local county levels. From my neigbourly perspective Germany is somewhere at the point when the tea party started . There are no shortcuts , pushing the Overton window is a… Read more »
25 or 30 years? At that point an uncuckening would require civil war, cattle cars, and guys in snappy uniforms.
Remember, too, that Big Brother operates at a much higher level than it does in the US (as far as any of us can tell). Any social or political activity away from the status quo “norms” is tracked and monitored. Political activity akin to the Tea Party here is the U.S. could make one subject to extra scrutiny, and the alternative political parties themselves are institutionally squelched by the political system and a matrix of laws. It will take an epic set of balls to stand up to it all, because in doing so the system over there will squish… Read more »
Consent, especially withdrawal of consent is the most powerful weapon ever devised. It always seems to come out of nowhere when it rises up. That is the purview of the dirt people. It is always underestimated by the status quo. If anything that is what makes the status quo the ignorant fucks they are.
In my opinion, the toxic mix of German culture is their tendency towards idealism combined with their history of pursuing that idealism and trying to make it real. If reality interferes, reality be damned. The French aren’t as bad as they are mostly just talk and more talk, rarely action. Pragmatism is not a German trait.
Obvious troll for Karl. Will he take the bait?
I assume we are waiting while he writes a… uh… manifesto.
Give Ol’ Karl a chance. He’s smart enough to come around to the truth sometimes you just got to say fuck it, spit on your hands and go for broke. Anything has to be an improvement over Merkel, their obama in a Mao pantsuit.
There’s that timeless German/Austrian military axiom about action: “It is the act that matters”
I see what you did there you wicked, wicked thing you.
Gentlemen! I go away for a few days and this comes up! Thezman, did you miss me? Ah, yes. I must regrettably agree with you on several points and of course disagree on a few to keep the pot stirred so to speak. I will try to avoid my usual rants about those things which have worked and still work well for us because they are obvious and don’t need repeating. Shall I anyway…no, I think not. To Volkswagen. Yes, I must agree they have become something of a monster. They have traded honest hard work and dedication by their… Read more »
Welcome back Karl.
I can understand your irritation with Germans. I feel the same way. But many of your assertions about how Germany is the cause of the 20th century’s problems is simply false. I don’t have the space or energy to go into all of the issues, but suffice it to say that had Hitler not interfered with the magnificent Prussian invasion plan of Stalin’s Soviet Union in October of 1941, the German army would have entered Moscow virtually unopposed and the war would have been over by the end of November. And Operation Barbarossa was initiated in June, 1941…in the summer.… Read more »
Maybe it was Churchill that noticed the collective bipolar Germans first
The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet
Interestingly Hitler was rather fond of the Brits in his own way. Didn’t he say something to the effect he viewed the Brits as a kind of cousin? Which is pretty interesting in light of how much Churchill hated the Nazi’s. He respected their warrior culture though.
well, the british are anglo-SAXONS 🙂
if you want a fantastic movie on the norman take over of britain, checkout The Warlord with the incomparable chuck heston 🙂
What period of that history is the movie about? They seem to have went back and forth a few times in a number of ways. Sounds interesting. Talk about the richness of history
it’s set after the 1066 norman conquest, and shows the local anglo-saxon customs and paganism, contrasted with the norman christianity.
re: “Churchill hated the Nazi’s” Doug
Churchill was half Jewish. His mother was Jenny Jacobson. Jenny’s father was involved in the age old Jewish business–the theater. He changed his name from Jacobson to Jerome.
That explains a lot.
Dan Kurt
The old warhorse sure had some grit. And a flair for dramatic verse when things were at their darkest.
He also had a black dog that tormented him. Among other things.
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/04/churchills-jewish-ancestry-not_08.php
Not Jewish.
Go back to WWI. In 1917 the British royal family, in which English bloodlines were few, changed their name to Windsor from the German Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, which House had been preceded by the Hanoverians (the 18th c. German Georges who became Kings of England!). Also, it is still true that the British royal dynasty set-up does not permit the heir to the throne to marry any but a Protestant prince/princess. Hence, the many petty principalities in (now) “unified” Germany were useful in that they supplied qualified non-Catholic brides for not only England, but Russia, Denmark, Greece, Sweden etc. I… Read more »
@ Gord – Churchill was only pointing out what the Romans came to understand about us 2,000 years before!
Efficiency? I seem to recall a story of one of the Nazi ‘leading lights’ getting all hot and bothered by the fact that his radio didn’t work, and so he went on a rant about German engineering and promising to buy British radio when Germany won the war as at least it would work. I believe he never got the chance to find out. But putting that aside, I too wonder if the re-unification of Germany was a good thing. if nothing else it brought Merkel to prominence and with it her bizarre ideas about how her nation should be… Read more »
Like I said – they do great with metal, not so great with electronics.
They had a real hard time figuring out those cavity magnetron and traveling wave tube thingies during WWII.
Culture matters. How many times has Intel tried to enter the mixed signal design world and failed?
With Analog Devices going Hindu, I wonder how long they’ll be in the mixed signal world also.
@ Drake – I would agree one of our engineering faults is over-engineering. LIke the Tiger tank for example. But on the other hand, we we’re very good at advancements in aviation and rockets.
Were they Merkel’s ideas? Or is she singing from the songbook that somebody else handed her? One thing that gets left out of this immigration debate is the economic argument, which I think holds sway with some of these elites. Germany is dying. As are other European countries. Eurobabes would rather get take the pill and get abortions so they can ride the cock carousel into middle age with no responsibilities if possible, so fertility dropped off long ago to below the replacement rate. This causes problems not just for social welfare schemes for the old, but for economic growth… Read more »
except the people coming in are objectively retarded, and totally unfit for modern work. they eat taxes and produce more cancerous muslims. so i have to say, what you just posited is moronic. do some god damn reading!
Of course they’re retarded, you dumbass. I said so in the post. But I guess you’re reading comprehension challenged.
” They’ll be good enough to keep the country going. That’s all that matters. Just enough bodies and tax receipts to keep the governing class well fed and in power.”
so fuck you and your juvenile analysis.
Let me help you. Here’s he whole paragraph
Never mind if it destroy German culture and the resulting race of semi-morons can’t really operate the machine tools that built the German industrial state. They’ll be good enough to keep the country going. That’s all that matters. Just enough bodies and tax receipts to keep the governing class well fed and in power.
Perhaps you missed the first sentence and the context it imposes on the rest of the paragraph.
OH! Sorry. That’s 12th grade material.
By the way. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
No, he’s accurately recounting what the Smart People tell us. Don’t kill the messenger.
Yup, the Magic Dirt theory applied to economics.
Society is more than the number of warm bodies.
I think Merkel is Germany’s dangerous-moron-in-chief. There can be no other explanation for her admitting the hordes of Muslim rapists and murderers that are destroying Germany. There is a point where obtuseness crosses the line into imbecility and leads to incredible recklessness. The average German seems to be incapable of challenging authority. Thus Merkel goes on and on. When the allies conquered Germany they let the German people off the hook. The Islamist fanatics will not be so kind.
With regard to immigration, not dummkopfs, but deliberately returned to their natural state of compliance, conformity, and ultimately, submission and complicity.
Germany’s modern reputation existed only subsequent to 1866.Prior to that it was a collection of petty principalities, which produced, mercenaries, beer, and superior white wines, and second rate reds (both wine and political thinkers).
The Germanic tribes gave the Roman’s a serious run. Even after finally beating them they never fully concurred them.
the german tribes didn’t really beat the romans so much as integrate with them. western rome just kind of faded away rather than being destroyed ala carthage. and of course the eastern part of the empire survived another 1000 years.
June usually isn’t regarded as “winter”.
it is south of the equator
Not to mention Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche.
It’s easy to dismiss Leon Uris’ Armageddon and William Schirer’s Berlin Diary as propaganda, but they both really nailed the German condition.
It’s just wrong to blame them for the other Karl.
Is it wrong to blame American’s for obama? Yes and no. Yet maybe it is something else. Like what Netflix’s CEO basically said the other day about Trumps absolutely Constitutional and executive rule of law ban on unfettered wide open immigration of known mortal enemies of the Christian West: it’s unamerican to have an America of Americans. That is Merkel and her transnationalist marxist bloodsuckers to a T: It is unGerman to have a Germany of Germans when they have the unmitigated gall to express their concerns about a Caliphate army invited in willy-nilly invading their homeland, on top of… Read more »
Before we mention Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche we should probably explain that it’s either
Dummkopf (singular) or Dummköpfe (plural) what even a Dummkopf can easily find out.
– an especially dangerous idiot one must be
to even name a “hater-website” wrongly but in another language that he obviously doesn’t know well enough
don’t you think?
Being married to one, who is very smart and has a lot of very smart people in his immediate family, I’d hesitate to use the word “moron”, but the rest is pretty spot on. Perhaps the high IQ causes a lack of other types of intelligence; I don’t know. They get better (sometimes and somewhat) when taken outside of their native land (the American side is far more hardnosed and sensible). As my (Italian) family used to call them “patsi tedeschi” — which has a bit of a nuance not picked up in a straight translation: they are as a… Read more »
What is going on in Europe is insanity. But of course, what is going on in America is too. But to say that “… but now under German leadership, the EU has become a suicide pact” I think goes a bit far, at least the part about being under German leadership. Yes, Germany is ‘the’ economic powerhouse in the neighborhood. However, as for ‘leading’ anything, that is clearly coming from Brussels, a.k.a. the EU. The Brussels Castle in under siege big time. And the likes of Donald Tusk, President of the EU something or other (maybe he was elected in… Read more »
@ LetsPlay – I for one am very happy with a 40-hour work week, six weeks of holiday a retirement plan. You’re thinking of the French when you talk about short work weeks (35-hours) or the Greeks who can retire at age 45. No, the German government doesn’t provide everything to everyone. Or we could argue that the American government does, at least if you’re third generation welfare. Germans pay plenty of taxes, just like Americans, and we also pay out of own pockets for health care. But I would argue if American companies paid their fair share of corporate… Read more »
Bob Lutz says that a Chevy Malibu has roughly 95% of the cost of a BMW 3-series in terms of content.
and 10% of the BMW’s cachet
True, but you are still getting 95% of a BMW in terms of input for about 1/2 the price. It’s more reliable, too.
I have registered, I’m writing nicely, still my comment are being deleted. Great!
Please note that our current President Donald Trump is German by heritage,
even if he lied about being of “Swedish” heritage.
While I probably couldn’t disagree more with the political agenda of the owner of the website, I do like some of the text. When you write: Germans created Art, Germany the land of engineers… that you call Germany the land of the most dangerous morons is immaterial – well not completely because WHAT YOU OVERLOOK IS that Trump has almost 100% German genes that the USA under Trump (and supporters like you) is on track to do the exact same thing that Germany did before it started two World Wars. Alienate most others, destroy your political system (the judiciary) for… Read more »
It’s not that the Germans are stupid, it’s that they are insecure, arrogant narcissists. Imagine a country of 81 million Barack Obamas and all of the damage that they can do.
As far as the supposed wonderful German engineering, I fix industrial machinery for a living. Believe me: German engineering is as stupid as American – or any other country’s – engineering. Engineers today are more focused on impressing their colleagues with how brilliant their ideas are, than in making a product that is well thought out and easily maintainable. Try working on your own car for a perfect example.
It is quite remarkable that Germans managed to burn through at least 3 parliaments in just 100 years (2. Reich, Weimar and lately ESEF/ESM). If you count in the Eastern German one and the Austrian ones, we are at half a dozen. That can only mean, Germany doesn’t work. Evolution doesn’t allow that kind of failure in the long run, especially when it comes to such an important institution. Germany’s parliamentary system is doomed to go down and it won’t come back. What will come? Well, this “Europe” looks like the next attempt. But that too will fail horribly. And… Read more »
@ Tom – Don’t forget we Germans also changed our currency as many times. We even came up with a different form of writing called Suetterlin script. As to Parliamentary system, it does work as it has for the British and other countries, for longer than America has existed. One benefit you may have overlooked is that Instead of a mandatory changing of leadership every 4-8 years, Parliamentary Chancellors (or Prime Minsters) can remain as long as the people want them there. Be honest, if Trump actually does turn things around, wouldn’t you want him to KEEP running things for… Read more »
The Germans invaded Russia in June. It was supposed to be all over long before winter. Whoops!
And it would have been over by the end of November or sooner had Hitler not diverted many divisions to the unimportant battle developing around Leningrad. A tragic error that condemned tens of millions of Asians to death in Communist work camps for decades to come.
@ Tim & Epaminondas – One might argue that it would have been over in June 1940 after the resounding failure of the British at Dunkirk. Our chancellor offered terms of surrender to Mr. Churchill not once, but twice, and was refused. You don’t go to war then and allow the return of over 300,000 soldiers if you’re planning on fighting those same people in the future. Had America stayed out and Britain quit in June of 1940, it would have been over long before Christmas. The Germans and the English have too much in common to warrant fighting each… Read more »
And when they produce a genius? Yeah, they refuse to acknowledge him, and drive him out of the country.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2012/oct/08/einstein-nobel-prize-relativity
In fairness, they’ve always been willing to give this guy his due:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Gauss