What is needed is a strong social state

Comparison of the storming of the Capitol with the Reichstag fire

Reichstag fire in the U.S.?

By Pommes Leibowitz

[This article published on Jan 13, 2021 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://philosophia-perennis.com/2021/01/13/reichstagsbrand-in-den-usa/.]

The Reichstag fire occurred in the middle of the campaign for the March 5, 1933 Reichstag election. As the initial statements at the scene showed, people were convinced, even in high circles of the NSDAP, that the KPD was attempting an uprising. Other contemporary observers thought it was an action by the new rulers to legitimize planned political reprisals. (From Wikipedia)

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. The so-called "storm" on the U.S. Capitol is also politically instrumentalized and becomes the basis for censorship and agitation against supposed enemies of democracy. Quo vadis USA?

Here is a lay video of the "storm" shared on Facebook. The doors are opened and a peaceful mass of people, among them an astonishing number of professional photographers holding up not their cell phones but huge cameras, enter as if it were open day.

For comparison, here is a "storm" from 1983, a bombing by left-wing extremists. One of the accomplices, Susan Rosenberg, sentenced at the time to 58 years in prison, later pardoned by Bill Clinton, is now an activist and organizer with Black Lives Matter!

1983 Capitol bombing

Source: U.S. Senate Commission on Art

What would a serious, journalistic approach to the "Capitol storm" have looked like?

It starts by asking the right questions:

1. how could this happen?

How can it be that a group of more or less unorganized lunatics invades a government building? Normally, demonstrating near government buildings is already forbidden, and barricades and huge

police contingents prevent it. What if some heavily armed terrorists actually attempted a coup and could not be repelled. Would Twitter be to blame then? Or calls for demonstrations?

2 Who is responsible for this total failure of the rule of law (if it was a failure and not a staged intrigue)?

3. cui bono? Who benefits from this incident? It is not Trump, on the contrary. In criminology, the search for the perpetrator begins with the motive. Plain thinking culture that the ancient Romans still possessed.

Instead of investigating and researching, the journaille unceremoniously shower us with conjecture, fictitious allegations and grotesque exaggerations.

The alleged attack on the Capitol is called an attack on democracy

That's about like calling the mistreatment of a dog an attack on wildlife. In both cases, these are tragic and condemnable exceptions against which a civilized society must be-and is-armed.

They are both aberrations, but they do not shake society as such, nor do they endanger democracy, nor have they endangered it at any time.

The real attack on democracy is the instrumentalization of this incident to establish censorship on an enormous scale.

This is how the Nazis had once started, too. Opponents of the regime were arrested, censorship was established, moral indignation and hatred of all dissenters was instilled in the masses. The Reichstag fire came just in time, which is why theories that it was staged by the Nazis themselves are perhaps wrong, but not absurd.

The storming of the Capitol was similar. These were obviously incited madmen, because it was not a coup attempt, no politician was killed, injured or taken hostage and to my knowledge no weapons were used against people by rioters. 4 of the 5 dead are rioters, 2 of them died of heart attack or stroke, one woman was trampled to death by the crowd. A coup is different.

Those who know the working methods of secret services know that such madmen and fanatics are psychologically "processed" in order to instrumentalize them for their own goals, also for false flag

actions. Therefore, as in the case of the Reichstag fire, it is perhaps a false but by no means absurd theory that this riot was deliberately staged and fueled and that the police presence that was actually required was deliberately avoided.

The disarmament and passivity of the forces of order was ordered!

The mayor of Washington, D.C., is a black Democrat, Muriel Bowser, who repeatedly called for (and in part realized) the disarming of police and ordered the following with respect to the National Guard (DCNG) that was to be called in to protect the Capitol:

"No DCNG personnel shall be armed during this deployment, and at no time will DCNG personnel or their equipment be engaged in domestic surveillance, search, or seizure of U.S. citizens."

Source: Newsweek

The video clip above also proves that the protesters were literally invited and were actually completely peaceful.

Instrumentalizing Capitol storm to establish censorship

Twitter, Facebook and Youtube deleted videos of Trump, including one in which he told the rioters, as well as all protesters, to go home to preserve law and order.

Twitter also suspended Trump's account. In addition, there is talk of a veritable witch hunt on Twitter for Trump supporters and the deletion of all tweets critical of this event. Any Facebook user who holds nonmainstream opinions will be able to confirm this observation from their own experience for Facebook as well.

Therein lies the real attack on democracy.

"When only one side of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind is imperceptibly impressed by it."

George Washington

Those who exercise censorship, simply at their own discretion and personal potential for outrage, without taking legal recourse, who furthermore call for the denunciation of dissenters, have already left the foundations of Western civilization and modern societies far behind. This is a frightening development.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history!"

Desmond Tutu/Hegel

***

Please support the work of "Philosophia Perennis"! Here with one click:

PAYPAL

... or in the classical way by bank transfer:

IBAN: DE04 3002 0900 0803 6812 81

BIC: CMCIDEDD - Account name: David Berger - Subject: PP

KEYWORDSInstrumentalizationPressemythsTop2Censorship

Share article

Fries Leibowitz

https://pommes-leibowitz.com

Studied economics, then worked as an analyst in marketing for a global corporation. In the meantime self-employed. At times active with the Pirates and as an Internet activist, developing various campaigns and political strategies. - "Pommes Leibowitz" is actually an art figure (including the caricature of my likeness), which I strictly separate from my professional and private life, and which is thus able to say and question things that nowadays can result in social destruction and always hate excesses. I see myself as a columnist in words and pictures (Photoshop), dedicated to questions of the zeitgeist rather than concrete, current events.

SUBSCRIBE TO PP VIA E-MAIL

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts via email.

E-mail address

Subscribe

SUBSCRIBE TO RSS

All topics

APO 2018 (147)

Islamization (444)

Gender

SOLIDARITY WITH ISRAEL

ABOUT PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS

Philosophia Perennis sees itself as a liberal-conservative blog, shaped by the Catholic background of its founder.

The basis for our work are - besides journalistic basic rules - values and truths which are valid over time and have their origin in the European, Judeo-Christian tradition. These convictions are closely related to the values of the German constitution and the Basic Law, whose defense is one of our central concerns.

Our commitment is fed by the responsibility to preserve these values for future generations. Consequently, we stand against any totalitarianism, whether National Socialism, Communism or Islam. We stand for freedom and justice.

We stand against the unjust discrimination of people on the basis of their skin color, gender and sexual orientation, as well as their religion or political convictions, insofar as these do not leave the framework of the Basic Law.

We are pro-American and pro-Israel. Not only out of a well-understood sense of gratitude or historical responsibility, but also because the modern state of Israel, as the only state in the Middle East, is a model worldwide for the repulsion of aggressive Islam and the simultaneous upholding of human rights and democracy.

Contact us: davidbergerberlin@gmail.com

DAVID BERGER

David Berger (born 1968) was a professor at the Vatican for many years after receiving his doctorate (Dr. phil.) and habilitation (Dr. theol.). In 2010 he came out: the book "Der heilige Schein" ("The Holy Appearance"), which became a bestseller, was published.

"What is needed here is a strong, social state"

by Marcel Malachowski

[This article published on Jan 13, 2021 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Hier-braucht-es-einen-starken-sozialen-Staat-5021944.html.]

Writer and satirist Christian Y. Schmidt wants to "make Corona dead visible" and organizes vigils across Europe. In the Telepolis interview, he talks about the taboo topic of death and prejudices against China

The writer and satirist Christian Y. Schmidt was editor of Titanic and has lived in East Asia for almost 20 years, first in Singapore, since 2005 in Beijing, where he also witnessed the outbreak of the corona pandemic. He is a senior consultant at the design firm "Zentrale Intelligenz-Agentur (ZIA)," for which Ingeborg Bachmann Prize winner Kathrin Passig and Sascha Lobo also work. His latest books include "The Last Huelsenbeck" and "Little Mr. Death."

You organize vigils across Europe for the now hundreds of thousands of people killed by Covid-19. Why?

Christian Y. Schmidt: Oh, there are a couple of mistakes in the question. First, they are not vigils. We put candles in places in our neighborhood to commemorate the Corona dead and make them visible. If possible, this should be done in such a way that people don't stand together at the memorial sites - we are in the middle of a pandemic, after all - but the candles do. Europe-wide is also an exaggeration.

No need for false modesty, Mr. Schmidt ...

Christian Y. Schmidt: Apart from the 25 or so initiatives in Germany, there is so far only one in Zurich and a second on the Canary Island of La Palma. Thirdly, I'm not organizing this. I had the idea for "Corona-Tote sichtbar machen," together with the artist Veronika Radulovic. We then looked for a place in our neighborhood where we wanted to put the candles on Sunday, December 6, at sunset at 4 pm.

For this I posted a small call on Facebook two days before. As a result, some people in other cities decided to do the same. We then said: we're going to do this every Sunday until the general public finally realizes how many people die every day from Covid-19 in this country. And we asked people in other places to do the same in their neighborhoods.

But it's important to me that they organize it themselves. "Making Corona Deaths Visible" should be and remain decentralized. And in doing so, only pursue the goal formulated in the name of the initiative.

"Modern man unconsciously assumes that he is immortal".

Why, then, are the dead so little remembered in Germany so far? This is almost reminiscent of "the inability to mourn". Another German special path?

Christian Y. Schmidt: I don't know whether the dead are remembered more or less in other countries. I only noticed that there was great horror in Germany when there were high numbers of deaths in other countries at the beginning of the pandemic - first China, then Italy, Spain, France or the USA. The German media also prominently reported the horrific developments in Wuhan, Bergamo or New York. At the same time, the media emphasized how well Germany was doing compared to most other countries. When, in the course of the second wave, the mortality rates in Germany clearly exceeded those in Italy or France - not to mention China - this was noted rather incidentally.

The number of people who died daily in Germany from Covid-19 appeared in the media every morning like water level reports, always following the number of newly infected people, introduced with the conjunctions "moreover" or "furthermore." It was as if people didn't want to admit that something like this was now happening in Germany. That was the trigger for "making Corona dead visible".

In the meantime, things have changed somewhat. Various daily newspapers have started to publish names, photos and short biographies of people who died of Covid-19, and here in Berlin, the "Abendschau" has also given Corona dead people a face and a story with individual reports. I also think that this will now continue. However, we have given the impetus for this.

People in this country want to have as little to do with death as possible. In Judaism, in South America, in Southern Europe and Asia, in Africa and in Shiite, there are other ways of mourning. Death is not banished, but made part of life. Are the oh so modern and supposedly enlightened West and the North backward when it comes to feelings?

Christian Y. Schmidt: I am not an expert on mourning. But the existence of death is of course the basis of every religion. So in every religion, too, one is constantly confronted with the fact of death, even in Christianity. Ultimately, you are supposed to live your life by the fact that you are mortal. In modern, largely secularized societies, death is repressed because it cannot provide meaning. Life itself is the meaning. Therefore, modern, enlightened man unconsciously assumes that he is immortal. Of course, everyone knows at the same time that this is not true. A paradox that one can only halfway cope with by repressing death.

"They are overwhelmed by real crises"

What was your first thought when you heard about the new resolutions of the federal-state meeting of the chancellor and the minister presidents on Tuesday?

The same as always: a systematic approach is missing. A lockdown - even now incomplete - is not much use if you don't at the same time immediately and consistently test everyone who has symptoms. It is of little use if those who are infected are not placed in a monitored quarantine. It doesn't do much good if you don't test all those entering the country at the borders and quarantine them here as well.

It is not much use if the health authorities are still so poorly funded that they cannot even consistently provide the Robert Koch Institute with solid statistics. It's not much use if you can no longer go shopping or to the theater, but have to keep going to work. We will see all this in the next few weeks. The infection figures will fall, of course, but not sufficiently in my estimation.

Do you have confidence in Jens Spahn?

Christian Y. Schmidt: Is this the obligatory fun question to ask at Telepolis?

Busted.

Christian Y. Schmidt: No, of course not. Federal Health Minister Spahn, like the entire federal government and the state governments, has failed in the fight against the pandemic. However, this failure is less a personal one than a systemic one. Spahn stands for a neoliberal policy that focuses on privatizing as many public institutions as possible and making them profit-oriented, including health care institutions. Just think of the fact that Spahn wanted to close clinics shortly before the pandemic began.

Because hospitals are supposed to make a profit, cuts are being made at every turn, especially in staff pay. As a result, there are too few nursing staff, which means that the work stress in some German hospitals is almost unbearable even without a pandemic. This policy is embodied by Jens Spahn. But if Spahn were to be replaced, the other person would do exactly the same thing. There would have to be a fundamental change in policy for that to change.

In view of the almost 40,000 deaths in Germany that were foreseeable, shouldn't we be talking about a failure of the state?

Christian Y. Schmidt: Yes. I think it's because of the neoliberal credo: The less state, the better for everyone. In concrete terms, this means that politicians let "the economy" do more or less as it pleases and intervene as little as possible in market mechanisms. This is not done as radically in Germany as in the U.S. or the United Kingdom, but nevertheless this state is now running more or less on autopilot. Here and there, the government intervenes and mitigates glaring injustices, but that's about it.

However, because Germany is a relatively rich country, things still fall off for the poorer people here, especially compared to the rest of the world. That's why this system is quite stable. The only problem is that you can't deal with a pandemic in autopilot mode. What is needed here is a strong, social state that intervenes quickly and decisively. And those in power here simply can't do that anymore. I really believe that: Neither Spahn nor Merkel nor Scholz or whoever knows how to do it. They are overwhelmed by real crises.

"We have had nine Corona deaths in Beijing to date."

Can Europe learn something from China?

Christian Y. Schmidt: Absolutely. It is precisely the quick and decisive reaction that is lacking here. Which measures are necessary and which can be dispensed with. I witnessed the measures myself in Beijing in January and February. The result: we have had nine Corona deaths in Beijing to date. Nine! With a population of around 23 million. In Berlin, where I am at the moment, there are now more than 1,400 deaths out of a population of 3.6 million.

And no: I am not forgetting that the authorities in Wuhan and Hubei initially made mistakes and tried to cover up the outbreak. And yes: I know that not everything that can be done in China can be done in Germany. You don't have to.

But you could also immediately test anyone in Germany who wants to be tested. You can also quarantine people at the border in Germany. You can also set up thermal scanners at the entrances to underground, suburban and long-distance train stations in Germany to exclude people with a fever from transportation and test them for the virus. You can develop a working Corona app in Germany, too. And, no, this list doesn't end there.... Again, yes, China is a dictatorship, but that doesn't make everything that dictatorship does wrong. Anyone who makes such sweeping statements is simply too lazy to take a closer look at Chinese actions. Or has other reasons for doing so.

Either way, the Corona policy of the rich West and North towards the South has a neocolonial effect: vaccines will only be available in 2021 and 2022 for a part of humanity that is comparatively wealthy. It seems as if human lives count for nothing.

Christian Y. Schmidt: Of course, the West is closest to itself first. And since it looks at the moment as if the Western governments will not be able to get a grip on the pandemic, there are hardly any Western vaccines left for the rest of the world. At least there are supposed to be vaccines for the global south under the World Health Organization's Covax program. But that is far too little. The gaps that arise will probably be filled with Chinese vaccine supplies, for example in Indonesia, Brazil or Turkey, where they have already been tested. It is also easier for China to sell these vaccines all over the world because there is no urgent need for vaccination in China itself. After all, they have so few Covid 19 cases there that even vaccine testing had to be moved abroad.

"The obedient 'Asian' is a racist projection".

Westerners like to attribute all sorts of specific characteristics to the Chinese. This secretly very widespread anti-Asian racism is particularly absurd because globalization and the Internet have actually westernized the whole world, even in facial expressions, gestures and everyday behavior. Remote Indio tribes in Brazil are provided with the latest smartphones - and Maasai are considered techies within Kenya. Are the racist clichés merely hiding market competition, the fear of the "yellow peril" and the "red Chinese" - the late capitalist version of the U.S. feature film "Help, the Russians are coming"?

Christian Y. Schmidt: A popular argument that I have heard again and again in Germany is: Yes, it is easier to fight the pandemic in Asia because the Asians are obedient to authority and do what the governments tell them. That's how we know "the Asians" from movies, literature and the media. In fact, this is a Western fiction that does not stand up to scrutiny.

In South Korea, people got rid of a fascist dictatorship in violent uprisings in the early 1980s, and a few years ago the incumbent president was hounded out of office and put on trial for abuse of power and corruption. She is currently in prison. In Beijing, it took three attempts to enforce something as simple as a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, because no one complied with the first two smoking ban campaigns, despite the threat of fines. So the obedient "Asian" - whoever that is supposed to be - is a racist projection for which there are various reasons. And certainly, fear - as always with racist projections - is also part of it.

You were still in China at the beginning of the pandemic. What were your observations? Would you like to return again?

Christian Y. Schmidt: The most important observation was probably: Immediately after the lockdown was imposed on Wuhan on January 23, the Chinese authorities communicated clearly: The virus is highly contagious and dangerous. Within days, banners, posters, handbills or LED screens all over Beijing told people how to behave: Wear masks, wash your hands regularly and disinfect them if possible, air out your homes as often as possible, listen to science and not rumors, stay home if you have symptoms. At the same time, the measures already mentioned were taken: All public institutions were shut down, New Year's vacations for employees and workers were extended, travel restrictions were imposed.

However, I believe that clear communication was crucial from the beginning. For example, masks were not compulsory in Beijing supermarkets; a few old people continued to shop in our supermarket without wearing masks without being admonished or even kicked out. But about 90 percent of the people wore masks in supermarkets - and most of them also on the street - because they understood that these masks can protect.

In Germany, on the other hand, the virus was initially downplayed by Jens Spahn, and even people like virologist Christian Drosten were still advising against wearing masks in everyday life at the end of February. Later, these statements were revised, but that caused confusion. I believe that this ambiguous communication at the beginning of the pandemic contributed to the emergence of this unspeakable "lateral thinking" movement.

And yes, of course I want to return to China. I had already booked a return flight, in November. Unfortunately, I had to cancel it, because the Chinese authorities had changed the criteria for flights via third countries in the meantime, so that I could no longer take the flight. Now I am watching the prices and waiting for a flight I can afford. Thanks to the pandemic, I have been separated from my wife in Beijing for almost a year now. It's getting to be enough.

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook