Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this essay from Ansage.org. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

BA-A-A-A! We’re Doing So Well!

The comparison of the Germans with a flock of sheep may seem a bit overused by now — but it just fits again and again.

Another animal analogy would be the lesser-known ant gyroscope: the hard-working insects are almost blind and follow the scent trail of their fellow ants. Sometimes it happens that an ant wanders around in a circle without direction and all the others follow it. They do this to the point of deadly exhaustion, which can also be observed in our country — individual journalists and “influencers” with a wide reach are constantly going in circles on the subject of Corona or the Ukraine war without taking on any new impulses and do not even notice it. Or they realize it and keep repeating it until the average person believes them.

One such loop is to show our readers at every available opportunity how well off they are compared to residents of other countries. A pattern familiar to us from childhood days when we were denied a wish. Injustice gnaws at you, but authorities quickly make you realize how evil and selfish it is even to be unhappy. Parents could simply admit that they don’t have the money to make their wish come true, but they don’t want to let themselves down. Opinion-makers are even less willing to publicly admit how little they are inclined to take a self-critical look at their own ideas. Of course, they would rather bite off their tongues than give up their cancel-culture methods and control of public opinion — that would eventually render them ineffective. As paradoxical as it sounds: we are supposed to feel bad precisely because we feel bad. Stiff upper lip at all costs.

Anyone who has seen the Total Control Zone documentary will know how North Korea deals with dissidents of all kinds. The state controls every little thing, right down to the private sphere, so an overlooked speck of dust on the obligatory picture of Kim Jong Il is enough to send you to a labor camp, where torture and starvation are the order of the day. Of course you can’t compare it to Germany — but when the water around me is up to my waist, the thought of those who have already drowned calms me a little. Some dictatorships start with a bang — like the mullahs’ regime in Iran — while others creep up on us.

Devoured, skin and all

And since obedience tests can definitely be part of the program: can people give injections of dubious content if the state says so? Do they adhere to a mask requirement, even if it makes no sense at all in most places? If the answer is “Yes!”, then the first hurdle to totalitarianism has been cleared — and things will be a sure-fire success. Anyone who now even cautiously raises their finger and clears their throat suspiciously disrupts the process.

He can also affirm that he has nothing against voluntary vaccinations and wearing a mask, as long as he is left alone with it, but it will not do him any good. This is the case in all matters now. One can stand up for a reasonable level of migration, but warn against overloading our country with it, but it is not enough to free one from the accusation of racism. And whoever says that he considers Putin to be a villain who has done quite a few things wrong, but nevertheless proposes negotiations with him for the sake of reason. is his friend. When it comes to forming opinions, we are now being devoured skin and all. And unfortunately it works. Even with me, until a hearty “Wait a minute!” slows down my bad conscience again. No one who plunges himself into misery can do anything for others. We are funding Ukraine’s weapon systems that even our own Bundeswehr is not equipped with, such as the “Lisa” air defense system now. Although this at least makes more sense than “Tierpanzer (animal tank)” which are clearly offensive weapons. [Tierpanzer is one of Annalena Baerbock’s verbal inventive tanks.]

So that’s how it went back then with the “Volkssturm”

But it starts way below that threshold. People suddenly claim that they have never showered every day because it is known to be harmful to the skin. Liane Bednarz, whom I mentioned yesterday, even wants to be atomized before she even makes a concession to Putin — fortunately, Moscow will not be interested in her heroism. One can suddenly understand how the Nazis managed to get young people excited again about the “Volkssturm” towards the end of the war, when Germany was already in ruins. Some will no doubt have taken part out of compulsion, but others have thrown themselves to their deaths with enthusiasm. That, however, is the decisive difference between then and now: the “young wolves” had to pay bitterly for their fanaticism in the reality of the war.

So you should follow your gut feeling in this matter, paired with a portion of everyday logic: If these appeals sound as if something is wrong with them, then it usually is. When others accuse you of selfishness and lack of consideration, there is often a “Do what I want!” — and they also know instinctively who they can get away with using this method on. The really tough ones shouldn’t really care what the morale guards think of them.

Afterword from the translator:

All I can say to this is, in the words of my favourite 18th century Scotsman David Hume: “It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom, that it must steal upon them by degrees, and must disguise itself in a thousand shapes, in order to be received.” I think he nailed it there and then, but nobody bothered to listen.