We say that here in the US, too; it’s great place, aside from the people.
I didn’t say ‘forever,’ but it’s sure as hell off the list as long as these shady muthafuckas are in charge.
Good luck to you; stay safe.
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It used to be a joke by this oldschool comedian, Costinha. It loses a bit of its charm without his voice and facial expressions.
God was creating the world and defining natural disasters. So he looked at the USA and said “here I’ll put earthquakes and tornadoes”. “Here, Europe, I’ll put some more earthquakes and volcanoes…”
“What about Asia?” says an angel.
“Oh, there I’ll put some tsunamis and earthquakes”
“Wait, God, I don’t understand… Look at this place. It has no earthquakes (and you are really into earthquakes), no tsunamis, no tornadoes and the only volcanoes are long extinct… All the other places you have put some disgrace, something awful. I don’t get it.”
“Hohoho, my son, don’t worry. You haven’t seen the people that I’ll put to live in there”
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I run into this issue a lot in the U.S. In the very young, I find it excusable. When I assume a person is old enough to either read or watch movies, I don’t allow a free pass.
I hear you.
How to address this hole in our human understanding effectively?
I am asking two things here, I suppose. First, ought one take it upon oneself to mention in a few sentences what fascism is and why it is problematic? Second (if yes), what to do or say?
When I use the F-word (fascism), I often see the person I’m talking with glaze over, mentally check out of our conversation. I feel that big neon-lit “Boring Pedant” sign light up over my head.
Most of my fellow Americans do not travel abroad much. Travel has become a class marker, or at the very least a marker of the able-bodied. I see the leisure class doing world travel. Apart from enlisting in the armed forces, few Americans can afford seeing much of the world. A HuffPo writer said in 2012 it was ~3.5% of “Americans”–of which only 5% of that small percentage visit Germany:
America’s most popular overseas countries are: England (9% of all trips), France (7%), Italy (7%), Germany (5%), Dominican Republic (5%), Jamaica (5%), Japan (4%), China (4%), India (4%) and Spain (4%).
So I’ve given up on a critical mass of Americans learning fascist history onsite via one of the world’s most prominent 20th century examples. I don’t know if American tourists even visit a WWII or Holocaust memorial much these days. I have family and friends in Deutschland and they tell me that decades-long, widespread effort has been made in German culture to not bring up World War II stuff [for oh so many understandable reasons] anyway. Maybe my hopes are mooted by all this also.
The History Channel seems to be geared for older viewership, and unlikely to attract many 15-30 year old viewers, to say nothing of the under-15 year olds whom we desperately need to reach IMO. We need something like a Sesame Street but for history. That’s going to be a lot harder to do than teach kids numeracy and literacy. And far more contentious, I would guess.
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