Yep, with the dissolution of the GDR came a thorough eradication of all organized socialists in the East, who were purged and punished by the western half. This created a vacuum easily filled by the far-right.
First, currently whole Europe is shifting right, so its not only the dissolution of the GDR at play here. However, that the former GDR is a bit farther along can be explained partly by the older generation in the GDR having been socialized in an authoritarian regime, a neo-liberal shift in the last decade(s) afterwards and missing strong civil society, where they felt left behind which affected the youth. And the right was there to gain traction over all these years.
I don’t agree to your framing as ‘all organized socialists’ getting ‘purged and punished’, because many individuals are still alive and well today. The PDS, now ‘Die Linke’ had or has a couple of them in their ranks. Many mistakes where done in the dissolution, but it has been a generally positive change for the people in east Germany.
BSW, the ‘other left’, and Putin sympathizer party, founded by an ex-SED politician, is actually closer to the far-right AfD in term of foreign policy, immigration and other topics, then other parties, supporting my point that the common thread is actually authoritarianism then actual social values.
I see that you are from lemmy.world, and I see that we are both using Lemmy. I don’t really see what that has to do with anything.
As for the whole of Europe surging to the right, I am well aware. The global south is managing to develop through increased south-south trade, which is weakening European abilities to benefit from unequal exchange and imperialism. There’s a ton of intricacies I just glossed over, but what we are seeing isn’t anything new: when capitalist economies suffer crisises in profitability, they surge to the right as smaller capitalists feel squeezed out and larger capitalists take advantage of this.
My point on the former GDR regions being especially vulnerable to this rightward shift is just that, the trend is broad but is especially pronounced in the GDR due to the crushing of the socialists during the reintegration of eastern Germany into the west.
One thing I strongly disagree with is your analysis of what authority actually is. By all means, Germany today is an “authoritarian regime.” States exist to uphold the ruling class of society and to prevent other classes from gaining political power. The extent to which authority is applied depends on the conditions a society is in. Modern Germany is a dictatorship of capital, and is an imperialist state. The former GDR was a socialist state, where the working classes ran society. Both are “authoritarian,” in that both exerted controls on those who undermined the state, but both serve enormously different groups of people.
As far as modern socialist parties in Germany are concerned, the KPD and DKP seem to be more representative of socialist views.
Yep, with the dissolution of the GDR came a thorough eradication of all organized socialists in the East, who were purged and punished by the western half. This created a vacuum easily filled by the far-right.
Ah… I see you are from .ml…
First, currently whole Europe is shifting right, so its not only the dissolution of the GDR at play here. However, that the former GDR is a bit farther along can be explained partly by the older generation in the GDR having been socialized in an authoritarian regime, a neo-liberal shift in the last decade(s) afterwards and missing strong civil society, where they felt left behind which affected the youth. And the right was there to gain traction over all these years.
I don’t agree to your framing as ‘all organized socialists’ getting ‘purged and punished’, because many individuals are still alive and well today. The PDS, now ‘Die Linke’ had or has a couple of them in their ranks. Many mistakes where done in the dissolution, but it has been a generally positive change for the people in east Germany.
BSW, the ‘other left’, and Putin sympathizer party, founded by an ex-SED politician, is actually closer to the far-right AfD in term of foreign policy, immigration and other topics, then other parties, supporting my point that the common thread is actually authoritarianism then actual social values.
I see that you are from lemmy.world, and I see that we are both using Lemmy. I don’t really see what that has to do with anything.
As for the whole of Europe surging to the right, I am well aware. The global south is managing to develop through increased south-south trade, which is weakening European abilities to benefit from unequal exchange and imperialism. There’s a ton of intricacies I just glossed over, but what we are seeing isn’t anything new: when capitalist economies suffer crisises in profitability, they surge to the right as smaller capitalists feel squeezed out and larger capitalists take advantage of this.
My point on the former GDR regions being especially vulnerable to this rightward shift is just that, the trend is broad but is especially pronounced in the GDR due to the crushing of the socialists during the reintegration of eastern Germany into the west.
One thing I strongly disagree with is your analysis of what authority actually is. By all means, Germany today is an “authoritarian regime.” States exist to uphold the ruling class of society and to prevent other classes from gaining political power. The extent to which authority is applied depends on the conditions a society is in. Modern Germany is a dictatorship of capital, and is an imperialist state. The former GDR was a socialist state, where the working classes ran society. Both are “authoritarian,” in that both exerted controls on those who undermined the state, but both serve enormously different groups of people.
As far as modern socialist parties in Germany are concerned, the KPD and DKP seem to be more representative of socialist views.