During the last few days I noticed a few people demanding that every Ukrainian refugee in Germany who is of able bodied age should be forced back to Ukraine to either fight on the front or work in ammunition factories or hospitals. As far as I can tell no major publication or politician has echoed this sentiment yet. I hope that will stay this way. But the sheer audacity with which these people demanded strangers to be sent to their death is astounding. “Fighting to the last Ukrainian” really is something they want and it sickens me.
I think the answer is multy tiered. A big reason for the mentality of many Germans is Germanies recent history.
A lot of Germans still feel somewhat guilty about WW II and believe it’s their duty to prevent another Hitler. But since analysing the reasons for Hitler’s rise to power would require a critique of capitalism and it’s inherent relation to fascism it’s not taught that way in school (or anywhere). Instead it’s the usual “great man theory” nonsense.
Combine that with the systematic smear campaign that is going on since the dissolution of the GDR and you end with the current situation. Tons and tons of Germans believe that the GDR was a horrible rouge state where the Stasi disappeared you for thinking a single subversive thought, the UdSSR was worse than Nazi Germany and Stalin was best buds with Hitler.
Now we are in a situation were Germans believe that Putin is trying to rebuild the UdSSR and since communism is worse than fascism, it’s totally justifiable to arm Nazi’s to fight Russia. But Putin is also totally just like Hitler. This has gotten so ridiculous that a common name for Putin is Putler now (Liberals and contradicting themselves, name a more iconic duo).
Supporting the fight against Russia is seen as a way to show that we are good boys now and have learned from the horrors of fascism and supposed horrors of communism. At least that’s what somewhat well off liberals believe.
Those who actually feel the consequences of the war flock to the far right AFD party. Mainly because there is no good left wing alternative. The Linke is busy with infighting and the DKP is way too small and the average member is older than 50.
I see, yeah, there are probably a lot of reasons, though “preventing the next Hitler” is something I hadn’t really thought about much. That’s what our libs say about Putin too, but for some reason it didn’t occur to me that Germans would take a strong stance because of that.
Though it is kind of scary to see the nation that literally empowered Hitler not actually teach anything about his rise to power. I expect it from my own country, but Germany? I guess it does make sense. I’ve often thought that the “next Hitler” will goosestep into the room and declare the enemies of western capital “nazis” as a way to get people on board with Fascism, but it really does seem like that’s Germany’s actual plan, instead of it just being incidental.
If socialism ever does rise in the west and we don’t just descend into barbarism, I have no real idea how we could properly educate and deprogram the masses, so much bullshit is pushed into their heads, and it is so “easy” to believe, while actual attempts at understanding history require a ton of energy and nuance.