Yeah, people always seem to think the AfD is one united front.

But they span the whole gamut from Tucker Carlson ultra-right-wing-but-also-no-grasp-on-factual-reality to literally-a-fucking-nazi-wanting-to-burn-jews-themselves-in-their-own-oven.

They're abhorrend as a party, and the fact that so much of the shit media in Germany low-key supports them hard and pushes people towards voting for them (namely and chiefly the Axel Springer media landscape which is sadly huge) and as a result they get quite a significant number of votes is... "worrying" to put it mildly. As a German in particular, I have genuine plans how and where to move if shit hits the fan, which at the present rate it will. >.> (Ireland, probably)

Yup! So much so that even members of a party under investigation for being a nazi front tried to expel him.

This is beautiful, though:

After Höcke's "monument of shame" comment, the Center for Political Beauty, a Berlin-based art collective, erected a full-scale replica of one section of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin within viewing distance of Höcke's home in Bornhagen as a reminder of German history.

Like all right-wing parties they lack any actual real agenda. That is, they're not interested in running the currently existing state, they want their fascist WW3 Nazi Germany with them at the helm. Rather, their entire political "argument" right now is "Current stuff is SHIT!". That's how they get all their votes, from people being angry and disappointed.

But, much as I like to ramble about current politicians (since you can't call the AfD fuckers "politicians"), things can be shit outside of the control of anyone in particular. As if Höcke could have handled COVID. Imagine what a disaster it would have been if he had any say in it. Imagine how even the nascent efforts at climate would be worse. Inclusion, Russia, education, health, there's not a single topic the AfD would improve if they got power. And they were openly do not intend to improve anything. They're completely open about it.

I don’t have a wide experience to draw on but I have one very vivid direct experience of this.

Years ago I was shadowing a teacher for a day when I was considering teaching as a career. In one class there was a kid who had a gonzo remark to make for everything the teacher said. The whole class laughed at his every word. It was really disruptive. He made a clown of himself and the teacher did nothing. Even stranger, his girlfriend was practically sitting in his lap, stroking his wrist, and kissing his neck the entire time, and the teacher also did nothing. The whole flow of the class was destroyed and I remember nothing else from that hour. It blew my mind that the teacher just let it happen.

Later, I realized that my interpretation of what I’d seen was all wrong. The kid wasn’t a smartass. He was differently abled. He wasn’t trying to be disruptive, but he couldn’t control himself well and kept reacting out loud to the lecture, saying things like “oh shit they shot the archduke?” It did create a funny effect, but the class was mostly laughing along with him. Perhaps he had Tourette’s? And it wasn’t his girlfriend kissing him, it was his dedicated teacher sitting with him, whispering in his ear to try to coach him and get his disruptions under control.

I was across the room from him with an obstructed view and the dedicated teacher was very young which all helped me misread it at first.

But still. The level of disruption was totally undeniable. In addition to consuming an entire teacher of his own, the kid took over the rest of the class and impacted everyone.

I couldn’t have designed a costlier setup with worse results for everyone if I’d tried.

We care. We don't have the same resources as some of these assholes, but we care.

I'm more sympathetic to letting people choose to abort fetuses with clear genetic or physical problems.The world isn't made a better place by more people with down syndrome. Very early genetic testing is helpful here.

However, not letting these people who do exist, and to some extent will probably always exist, live full enriched lives to the extent that they are able is rather horrible.

What does "mass abortions" mean exactly in this context?

You're probably talking about Iceland's "100% abortion rate for people with down syndrome"? Which comes to about 1 or 2 cases per year.

Exaggerating much?

Höck approves of this message!

Yeah, I've no doubt that Höcke is pursuing this for extremely cynical and gross reasons, but the broken clock is right twice a day. “Inclusion" is one of those policies that sounds so self-evidently positive and reasonable at a glance, that people's brains shut down and nobody thinks of potential downsides to it as a universal policy. A majority of kids who require special education fare much, much better in smaller classes taught by a special education teacher who can move through material more slowly and boil it down to easier-to-grasp concepts. Sticking them in a large classroom with 20-30 non-disabled peers, even with a SpEd teacher present, rarely has a positive effect, and more often than not leads to worse outcomes for all students present. Inclusion is at its core a cost-saving measure (it's cheaper to stick the SpEd kids in a GenEd classroom than making a dedicated class for them), but it wraps itself in progressive ideology so well that it's almost impossible for parents or teachers to argue against.

I agree, we should aim for regular schools if possible, but should watch out in taking our ideology too strictly and clouding our view on reality. If it's not manageable, a special school might be best for all parties.

We can still try, but not against one's better judgement.

Actually, you can also straight up call him a Nazi in public by now! ;)

It’s always been like this. It’s just now we hear about it more. But in a way it’s good. It shows we as a society collectively cringe more at this than condone it. Perhaps keeping it public and reminding people why they are stupid and ignorant through public scrutiny and outrage is one way to combat it.

George Orwell wrote in 1942, during the war:

"Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other.“

With that said conservatism is not fascism, but one enables the other.

We're talking about AfD. They don't even hide the fact that they are nazis. People who vote for them never really learned from history.

If Kenneth Copeland and Ellen had a kid

Why is it any different because they are German?

I know what you are going to say, but we are a globalized world now and there are fascists in all governments