On demand …
…I answer. I received, via Fediverso, the request to clarify for a moment the discourse of anti-Americanism that is growing stronger and stronger in Germany, and I must say that there are so many premises to be made that, after having made all the premises, everything will run out. 'in very brief explanations.
The first concept to know is that the Germans speak little about politics when compared with the Italians. If they are in the know (that is, they participate in party initiatives) they do, but clearly you already know what they will say.
If I am not familiar with it, they will not talk about it with colleagues, nor with “bekannte”, with acquaintances, with whom they know little (I know, in gyms or beer gardens or stammtisch, or with neighbors). They talk about it with friends. And since you need 7/8 years of dating to say "friend", you understand that it is rare.
So in practice they decide for themselves, and this means that there are no really "safe" colleges: for this reason Merkel lost in Magdeburg, in conditions that in Italy you would call an "armored college".
Ditto for religion, where Catholics and Lutherans have learned the art of silent diplomacy.
To know that anti-Americanism is growing you must have "friends" in different circles, (Judo, Neighbors for a decade, SPA / Sauna club, historical colleagues, etc etc), and at the same time observe the newspapers carefully, but also (if you can) have at your disposal some sentiment analysis tools for social networks (and some servers to use). In addition to the fact that these kinds of feelings are analyzed, and there are also traces on the net:
In any case, the disaffection is palpable even without IT tools. But why'? Here we enter the field of opinion, and I believe that every country has its reasons. There is also the Trump factor to take into account: after Biden's victory, a small increase was recorded in all countries. A second increase came with the war in Ukraine, to be quickly reabsorbed. And maybe that was what helped me understand the reasons.
Let's go to the second premise: the teapot on the table.
Imagine that everyone has been talking, since school, about a teapot on the table in the center of the living room. That in normal discussions there are always references to the teapot in the center of the living room table. That it is mentioned, included, explicitly and implicitly, continuously, in political discourse, even without being named.
What's going to happen'? Everyone will start to believe that in every living room, in the center, there is a table with a teapot. And even if no one keeps it in their living room, everyone sees it.
What am I referring to in the German case?
I'm referring to some kind of promise / contract that never existed, but everyone sees it and everyone talks about it.
The German believes that there is a kind of contract between Germany and the world on a historical level. The unwritten contract that has been left to believe (by school, TV, politics, etc) is that if Germany deals only with industry, trade, culture, without projecting its strength in a military or hegemonic sense in a cultural sense , then they will never experience the consequences of war again, and will be left alone.
In short, the German is asked to produce, sell, and enjoy his money in Germany, or on vacation in the rest of the world. And people are asked not to export their culture, even to countries where it sells a lot. The USA, on the other hand, is thinking of this. They will not be colonized in return, not even culturally.
What do i mean?
Read here:
https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/culture/creativity-fashion/the-comeback-of-dirndl-and-lederhosen
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19976271
And not only in Bavaria. It means they dress like this for everyday life. Not just for Oktoberfest: go out any night and see girls and boys dressed like that. You go (and it happened to me) in a Bavarian company and you find the receptionist and the receptionist dressed like that.
And they also get married, like this:
And I know you are thinking “oktoberfest”, but it's not like that: they wear it to go out at night. Young people.And for the record it is considered elegant enough that they let us into parliament:
(her name is Dorothee Bär, elected in Bavaria).
Now, certainly in Bavaria it is more common, especially in small towns, but the point is that Germany has a strong motivation to remain "German-style", however superficially things may seem homologated: in the end after all, the German school is a factory of Germans, and this, they thought, was guaranteed by the fact that Germany should have no aim at expanding its culture.
What do I mean? I mean that although they are quite a welcoming people (at least towards me), they are one of the people most damned attached to their own ethnic identity. Until continuing to build houses that we would define "historical" and to dress in a way that we would define "folkloristic".
In short, they were made to believe that there was some kind of pact between them and the world: the world left the Germans to boil in their Germanness, and to enjoy their money, and in return Germany no longer made armies, it no longer had geopolitical ambitions, did not wage or participate in wars in a relevant way, and so on.
Since Obama has already been there, or even stronger with Trump, the Germans feel this agreement has been betrayed. The American presidents have forgotten about this agreement: there are still anecdotes (one comes from Merkel herself): one day POTUS asks her why it is so difficult for Germany to rearm, and she replies "because these were the rules that you have imposed on us ”.
The German wonders, this year, why Germany has done all that was required, remaining at a very low profile in every conflict in the world, has concentrated only on the industrial and commercial side, and today it finds itself with a winter in the cold as if there was a war, and because there is a war.
This promise was part of the culture, and all I hear is this: since school they teach them that, try the first world war, try the second world war, it is better that the Germans think more about making cars, rather what tanks. And they teach them that Germany that has emerged from two wars, being a pacifist, has gone beyond three “-welle” since 1945: essenwelle, hausewelle, autowelle. The abundance of good food, an abundance of good homes, an abundance of good cars.
And now they say "hey, we did as promised, where is your share?".
They feel deceived. Everything he was taught, and that gave him confidence, was false. No one had ever committed to keeping them safe from the consequences of wars.
It's a crawling feeling. It is reflected in many things. But it becomes macroscopically visible when a leftist minister allocates 100 billion to the military budget and no one breathes. I can understand the excitement for the start of the war, but today the excitement is gone, but no one protests that much.
The last question is: what if this is the case? Well, there's no need to make predictions because we see it now. For instance:
- The Ukrainians were given a few weapons, very old, which required months of restoration, and which obviously did not last long.
- They gave these weapons late, and obtorto neck.
- They held back on sanctions.
- By erasing the old pacifism, they made it clear that the agreement no longer exists.
It's still
- 5 regasification plants are being installed for 2023, but there are still no contracts with American suppliers, or negotiations about them.
- they have increased the budget for the military, but the purchase of F-35s is still not even discussed.
- they are not enthusiastically participating in discussions on the reconstruction of Ukraine.
and it's the recalcitrant position that will have to get used to, I think. On everything.