Saying what you think in Modern Multicultural Germany is no longer advisable. At least that’s what ordinary Germans seem to think nowadays, according to a recent survey.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the online news portal Nius. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:
Worst level in 70 years: The majority of Germans do not dare to express their political opinions freely
Since 1953, the Allensbach Institute has been asking Germans how free they feel to express their opinions. The results of the latest survey are alarming: never before has the population been so afraid of speaking freely. Only the supporters of a certain party see it completely differently…
Under the traffic light government, fewer and fewer people dare to speak freely. This emerges from the latest “Freedom Index” from the Allensbach Institute for Demoscopy (Public Opinion Research). Every year Allensbach asks: “Do you have the feeling that you can express your political opinion freely in Germany today, or is it better to be cautious?” The two possible answers are: “You can express your opinion freely” or “It is better to be careful.”
The wind has changed
Since 1953, the majority of Germans have said they can express themselves freely. The survey reached its peak in 1971, when 83% of the population said they felt free to express their opinions. But the wind has long since changed. [I’m not surprised by that specific date, since that’s just before those ‘68ers started to infiltrate every aspect of industry, academia and public life.]
This year, 44% say it’s better to be cautious. Only 40% believe they can speak freely — the lowest figure since the survey began in 1953.
[graph]
“Since the fall of the Wall, when 78% of Germans answered this question extremely confidently in 1990, the values have fallen steadily, first with the Schröder government, then under Merkel, only to register their historic low point at the halfway point of the traffic-light government,” the authors of the study write.
Only one party has a majority belief in freedom of expression
The difference between the supporters of different parties is striking. In November of 2023, 62% of AfD supporters were of the opinion that they could no longer speak freely. But the majority of supporters of the FDP (57%), SPD (46%), Left Party (45%) and CDU/CSU (43%) also see it this way.
Only Green Party voters firmly believe that there is unrestricted freedom of expression in Germany. 75% of them say they can speak freely. Only 19% of them think that one cannot freely express one’s political opinion. That is less than half as often as supporters of all other parties.
[graph]
In eastern Germany, the proportion of people who prefer to be cautious is 47%, higher than in the western federal states, where it is 44%. The answers also differ between educational levels. While a clear majority of respondents with a simple and medium school education say that they have the impression that one cannot freely express one’s political opinion, only 34% of those who have a high school diploma or university degree see it this way. The majority of Greens and academics have the feeling that they can express themselves freely, while all other population groups do not. [What a surprise, those who force their ideological crap down people’s throats through state-sponsored “violence” feel like they can express themselves freely. Like asking a card-carrying Nazi or Stalinist if he or she’s happy with the way the exterminations are going in the death camps.]
In any case, the Allensbach authors warn of the consequences of “political correctness” and an “erosion of subjective freedom of expression”: It is obvious “that the tone of public discussion has become sharper and more intolerant compared to previous decades, at least in certain subject areas.”
Afterword from the translator:
Can they name one subject that isn’t subjected to “political correctness” in Germany or the West? I cannot think of ONE that can be discussed freely without some loony, ideological retarded leftist freaking out about it, specifically when your opinion differs from theirs. That goes from Food and Drink to personal Health to EVERYTHING nowadays. They politicised the building blocks of LIFE and the bowel movements of people and livestock, for [vulgar expletive]’s sake.
Let the Germans join the partisans! But don’t forget to leave your phone at home. And when they go to guerrilla warfare and commit sabotage, it is best to wear Muslim women’s clothing.
Very good article. Talking outside your nearest inner circle (sometimes even within) has indeed become increasingly dangerous in Germany (and the entire West) since the millenium shift. Even “the weather”, which until recently used to be the traditionally safest topic to discuss when anything else could be risky, is no longer safe. No matter whether it’s warm or cold, dry or rainy, windstill or windy, it’s always considered “bad” and “unusual” (which it in reality hardly ever is) and caused by so-called “climate change”, which we are forced to agree about that it is “man-made”, to be more specifically, made by white, hetero-sexual “cis-gender” men in western countries. And if you disagree with this absurd and hackneyed dogma, they tell you that you are “guilty” because you don’t “believe in science”.
These leftist lunatics ignore that the essence of science is research and debate, and not “belief” and consensus. How on earth can one “believe” in science? It’s a method, not a religion. And secondly, it’s up to every single person to determine what they believe or don’t believe in.
Two final remarks about the following passage: “While a clear majority of respondents with a simple and medium school education say that they have the impression that one cannot freely express one’s political opinion, only 34% of those who have a high school diploma or university degree see it this way”.
– One would need to explain the term “high school” here. It’s a direct translation from the German word “Abitur”, which is an exam after grammar school that one is required to pass in order to be admitted to university. In Germany, only approximately 20% of pupils take this exam, while the other 80% follow practical educational programmes, of which many include apprenticeships. It’s therefore not comparable to the American high school diploma, which can have varied educational levels and which almost all pupils in the USA take.
– The fact that those so-called “higher-educated” people feel more free to express their opinion, is because many of them belong to the elite who are pushing this leftist agenda. It’s the “common” people, factory workers, farmers, shop-keepers, “office slaves” at the big companies, teachers, nurses etc. who bear the burden of these leftist looney dreams. For us, these are not dreams, but nightmares. Those academics have well-paying jobs, thick wallets and live in quiet and safe green suburbs, so they don’t feel the painful consequences of their destructive policies.
It also shows that nowadays, the institutes of “higher” education have been transformed into brainwashing factories, producing a prototype of post-modern human with a well-functioning abstract intellect, but a total lack of empathy and complete lack of ability to think freely and independently about real-life issues and concrete societal quests and themes. Idealistic young people enter university with little condensed knowledge but an open mind, a willingness to learn, and an inherent ability to think for themselves. However, when they leave university, they hve acquired some (academic) knowledge about one very narrowly specialised subject, but forgot everything else they knew before, and turned totally ignorant about everything outside their narrow scope of specialisation. The worst part of it is, that they end up imagining themselves to be “the ones who know it all”. Nothing could be further from the truth. In addition, they start to look down on people who “only” have a practical education (or no education at all), adding insult to injury.
The higher educated one is nowadays, the more indoctrinated and arrogant one is prone to be.
Therefore, it’s very dangerous to leave the decisions only to the so-called “higher educated” elite. Every one should have the same possibilty to participate in politcal debates and decision making.
Finally: Inorder to overcome this mayhem that’s befallen our post-modern Western societies, the universities and other institutionss of higher education desperately need to be radically transformed, to begin with, to be cleaned from the neo-marxist poison that entered them after 1968. Only then can our society regain a chance to survive the catastrophe that the destructive leftist elite is pushing us further into with a rapidly increasing tact.
Yes, I was told to write to the Business School’s Dean of Studies personal satisfaction and approval regardless of the data and evidence that I had gathered for my thesis. In fact, I was told to make my evidence fit the Dean’s paradigm or else I would not graduate. I reminded the Dean of the penalties for Constructive Fraud which is what I was required to engage in. The Deans response was that I would either make the demands work or else be regarded as too incompetent to graduate and receive the degree in Business that I was studying for, and that was more than 13 years ago. I don’t want to think about what changes have occurred since.