Schedium

“Millions of migrants from other cultures challenge the foundations of our community, the unwritten rules of coexistence, and thus national identity itself,” wrote the German politician Alice Weidel in her 2019 book “Counter-arguments. Thoughts about Germany” (German: “Widerworte. Gedanken über Deutschland”). Weidel is the co-chairwoman of the far right party Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) and the leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's federal legislature. In recent years, the AfD has gained significant support and influence in German politics. The party was founded in 2013 as an anti-euro movement, but later shifted increasingly towards right-wing extremism.   Alice Weidel in 2019.  Sandro Halank , CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons The AfD surged to 24% in a January 2024 YouGov poll, trailing only the Christian Democrats (29%), and ahead of the Social Democrats (15%) and the Greens (12%). On January ...

On February 3, 2024, writer and journalist Steven Beschloss wrote on Substack about his plans to travel to Japan: “I asked last year where in the world you might want to visit, but I’m thinking about it again now. I’m happy to say that this week I get the opportunity to briefly visit the place I have dreamed about for a long time. That’s Japan, including a quick visit to Kyoto and its bamboo forest by way of Tokyo and the bullet train. "As I described last year, I’m drawn to the physical beauty of Japanese gardens and ancient temples. I’m intrigued by the bustling contemporary art scene and the people—and both the hustle and quiet of everyday life. ‘I’m determined to visit.’”   When I read Beschloss’s piece, I thought: “How nice! He gets to travel to Japan, and he seems so enthusiastic about it!” But that's not your reaction if you're a far right ethno-nationalist spreading your ideology at every opportunity. The Substack account Yuri Bezmenov quote-posted Beschloss’s art...

The Mercator Foundation, along with three other German foundations, has announced its decision to leave X/Twitter, calling the platform “a threat to social cohesion and our democratic order.”  Exterior of the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on January 19, 2023, by  Frank Schulenburg ,  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 In a statement released on January 31, the Mercator Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation and the Zeit Foundation Bucerius denounced the spread of hate speech and disinformation on X/Twitter since Elon Musk took over the company in 2022: “We stand for an open, democratic society, for personal freedom and human dignity, for fact-based information and constructive dialogue,” the press release reads. “Since the takeover by Elon Musk, this value system has collapsed in our view on X/Twitter. We cannot tolerate hate speech and misinformation, the spread of extremist propaganda and the incitement against minorities. ...