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Germany’s far right is winning over the young (www.politico.eu)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Online campaigns like these have helped radicalize a broad swath of Germany’s youth, making extreme-right ideas that were once relegated to the margins of German political discourse increasingly mainstream. The Young Alternative, the AfD youth organization that put out the dance video, has been classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as an extremist group since last year.

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[–] brrt 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

OP said we need to find and mitigate the root cause. Your reply was social media, and specifically TikTok.

The article you linked doesn’t come to the same conclusion you do. They specifically mention lacking critical thinking and media literacy skills.

You could also argue for more regulation for algorithms. Or more equality/equity. Or communication from other political parties that is tailored to young people.

But no, you just say social media = bad.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what you do. And I recognize that the current state of social media is problematic. But it’s not THE problem or the root cause.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can not fix the limitations of a growing brain. People are getting influenced in a young age, damage that is hard to undo. We can of course limit access (at least in theory) to such content. And then we regulate what? TikTok.

While am RCA goes hast to be done until we either can not further because of physical limitations for example, we must fix the thing closest to the root that can actually be fixed.

Young brains must be able to develop fast. Social media and specifically the short content format have a massive negative impact on this development.

We always had far right propaganda. Social media is what allows it the flourish in the minds of young people, future voters and politicians.

I don't said that social media is bad or that social media is responsible for far right mindests.

I said: social media is the root cause for the electoral success of the AfD and other far right parties in Europe.

The root cause for far right movements is "the human being". Of course we could go in depth here about the natural fear of the unknown, and the support dorbfar right parties is higher in places where voters are less like to see "aliens" in their neighborhood. But also, this is here much longer and European youth was left leaning for decades.

So let's focus on what changed that those parties get so much traction with young voters. Answer: social media

[–] brrt 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

we must fix the thing closest to the root that can actually be fixed.

Then maybe say that instead of pointing to social media as the root.

I said: social media is the root cause for the electoral success of the AfD and other far right parties in Europe.

Sigh…

So let's focus on what changed that those parties get so much traction with young voters. Answer: social media

Ok, now you’re just conflating correlation with causation. Also I’ve heard this before: TV and Video Games are to blame, Music is to blame, Newspapers are to blame, Books are to blame…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I’m thinking mental health is overlooked and a big factor in a lot of things. But I don’t see it as root cause. There are other things that contribute to good or bad mental health.

[–] brrt 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, there are so many issues with differing root causes that all feed into the symptoms we see in the main OPs article. If we don’t take care of all of them and just concentrate on the easiest target, for example social media, then something else will come along and take its place. Next on the chopping block: VR/AR and AI.