Radio War Nerd EP #531 — What's The Matter With Germany? feat. James Jackson

I swear, when I get disheartened by the US' bullshit, I just remember...there is Germany.

C'mon, Sahra Wagenknecht is NOT "very anti-immigrant" or "Islamophobic". In fact she's gone out of her way to point out that immigration can be an enriching experience for a country. What she's against is the sort of massive, limitless immigration of the past decade, which has profoundly changed the face of Germany, & other countries. Wagenknecht's own father was an immigrant -- from Iran. She & others in her party such as Sevim Dağdelen simply point out that most people are socially conservative -- sorry, but that's an observable fact. They are hostile to radical, fast-paced change. This makes the party "controversial"? Well, big deal. Wagenknecht's party has been the only consistent voice in favour of the Palestinians since the genocide started. She doesn't get nearly enough credit in this interview.

heads up masha gessen uses they/them pronouns 💕

An increasingly enraged Napoleon Bonaparte watching the Iranians way of "fighting" and screaming "this is not WAR". Breaks his riding crop over his knee.

Arguably the German antisemitism towards Jews has now been redirected towards Muslim migrants, Palestinians and other Third World migrants. “Palestinianism” and “anti semitism” being the replacement of “Judeo-Bolshevism.” Bad empanada on YouTube has an interesting video on such a phenomenon called “the new antisemitism”

What’s the name of the German writer that you compared to Celine? Always appreciate your book recs

Where did you pick up this leftist Islam/Pal Trivializer? He's feeding you bullshit and you gobble it up - zero questions asked. There are so many Palestinians in Berlin that you see regular Al'Quds Marches etc. It's not as bad as in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt... yet, but we're getting there. There is a reason why Egypt has built a border wall and keeps the "Pals" out, because they got first-hand experience what happens if you let them in. Unsubscribed.

You might as well hold off on your next emergency episode until the emergencies can start to wait their turn and queue in an orderly fashion.

Lol need a new episode! Where’s major Kong??!

Just bought platform by houllebecq, excited to read

A British guy saying how no one should feel ashamed about their nation past LMAO yeah I bet buddy

I’m not sure why using a tactical nuke seems u trump’s alley- as much as I loathe the cringe adoption of TACO, it’s true in the sense that trump’s bark is almost always worse than his bite. He seems to love making big bold statements that gets everyone talking about him but he seems to shy away from doing stuff that actually causes major material damage (like dropping a nuke)

Germany’s hysteria is not surprising or weird in the least. All explained by holocaust guilt.

'if a single bomb falls on Berlin then you can call me [Golda] Meir' I'll see myself out Dumb jokes aside it's shit like this that makes me appreciate internationalism over anti-nationalism An attempt to harmonize competing concepts

As a German who's been living abroad for a while, pretty much everything your guest said rings through. The German elite and a decent chunk of the population were always insane Zionists, but the Ukraine war seems to have completely broken their brains. A lot of people really believed the Russians would be in Berlin in a few months at the beginning of the war and now that Russia is doing better militarily, that narrative is resurfacing again.

Germans are obsessed with being on the wrong end of every conflict

Can we get one of the Cockburns back on the show? I know you two aren’t spring chickens (respectfully) but I think they’re both older then John

Also the pic on this ep if you know who that is and you’re in the lgbtq community should make you want to vomit. Pink washing bullshit. Vast majority of lgbtq people reject Israel and this genocide. In the words of one of the most famous drag queens in America https://x.com/katya_zamo/status/1933636603773407554?s=46 Met her in Milwaukee. Amazing person.

Germany remilitarizing should make people super nervous.

Great stuff throughout, I speak as one who lived in Germany for 15 years and maintains connection. I had some minor adjustments, once of which is that Kohl was not Merkel's mentor so much as the big bird under whose wing she harbored, until the time came for her to - gently! low key! with regrets! - chop him up into cutlets.

It feels pretty clear to me that, even for USAan racists & conservatives, being aggressively ‘philosemitic’ (in a pro Israel sense) is their desperate way to convince themselves that they’re not racist (I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt here) despite being sorta obsessed with Nazis. I imagine Germany is even worse in this way. Of course I know there are also literally antisemitic neofascists out there but I think this kind of “we can’t be Nazis because we love Israel” stuff is much more common.

Here’s the thing about the stolperstein which means stumbling stones: it was ONE guy who made all of them out of grief and remorse for his ancestors. Not a cultural effort. ONE guy who was severely depressed when I heard him interviewed while I lived in Berlin in the early 2000’s — having grown up in L.A. and witnessed the carnage of the Clinton’s’ violent policies such as allowing shoot to kill militias at the border in AZ etc I’ve often thought about how to iterate the project here in the U.S. regarding “deportation,” and it is a hugely timely topic obviously.

If we lived in a just world, the confederate states in America, Germany, and Israel would all not have the right to exist and would be in a state of permanent "peacekeeping occupation"

That German freak on twitter wrote "Völkerrecht" which I initially interpreted as 'peoples right' (like, righ of peoples to exist) before I scrolled down and read the English translation (='international law').

finally: an ep that's going to make me want to dome myself 15% less than the previous ones

MEIN FUHRER! I CAN WALK!