We are witnessing yet another act in the tragedy of the historical failure of Germany’s so-called elites to confront genocide and colonialism

In a BBC interview in 1996, American intellectual Noam Chomsky was asked by presenter Andrew Marr how he could know that his interviewer was censoring himself. He replied: “I’m not saying that you are self-censoring. I am sure you believe everything you are saying. But what I am saying is that if you believed something different you wouldn’t be sitting where you are sitting.”

The voluntary internalisation of hegemonic views and the firm belief in them not only turn people into journalists in liberal media but also promotes them to the elites of society.

In light of the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, Germany is an excellent example of how this general social mechanism works and what catastrophic consequences it has. Germany’s “elites” in culture, the media, academia, politics, churches, trade unions, and social organisations would not be where they are if they did not submissively follow those in power.

Their loud and enthusiastic approval of the abominable crimes carried out by the Wilhelmine Empire and the Nazis is matched today by their collaborative silence when Germany denies and finances the genocide perpetrated by the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people

  • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    6 days ago

    Okay, I suspected this to be an opinion piece, but shit, it reads straight up like propaganda. I don’t think I need to defend elites that can afford a PR department, so I’m not going to. However, since the aurhor explicitly addressed journalists, insinuating that the media is just pushing some agenda, I will say the following:

    The majority of Germans is not on Israels side, the news that I consume - which include for example Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, the SZ, and the public media - are not particularly supportive of Israel, and the government itself has adjusted its tone and policy towards Israel as the war dragged on. Not to mention that the Palestinians are actively supported from and by Germany.

    The “article”, to borrow some quotationmarks from the at times surprisingly self-aware author, tells the tale of a Germany that is not willing to take any anction for Palestine and against Israel, which is objectively not true. To frame it like a scandal that a very devisive, emtional and complex issue that cannot be solved by Germany simply applying some pressure, is not solved by German elites, is disingenuous at best. And dragging the journalistic, scientistific and purely political elite into this by blanket criticizing all of them smells, in my personal opinion, of either heavy bias, incompetence or some underlying agenda. Maybe all of it.