Politicians and the media are rarely ever a good combination when it comes to the result of their “working together”. Still, combined they form a symbiosis where the media and press take over the role of a parasite. Since the media needs a host, in this scenario being the politicians, they cause both support and damage to the politicians. Normally, it is the latter.
And not surprisingly, this is once again the case in good ol’ Germany. This time I feel like everyone has been brainwashed by the media. Like they control the very words coming out of society’s foul, stupid, narrow-minded mouth. Now in natural science brainwashing is an extremely interesting phenomenon and the Emerald Jewel Wasp does it so well. I could watch this video over and over and over again:
But let’s get back to the topic I am actually referring to. One gets the feeling that the media has targeted one party in particular over the last couple of months: the Free Democratic Party (FDP). This party has been suffering from internal quarrels over the last year, with the climax having been reached when parliament had to be dissolved in the state of Saarland just over a year ago, because governance could not be carried out anymore. More recently though, the chairman of the FDP parliamentary faction, Rainer Brüderle, became a personal target for the press. More specifically, he became the victim of an apparent political smear campaign, as a young female journalist made allegations against him on sexism grounds due to a late night interview she did with him at a Hotel bar a year ago. Allegedly, Brüderle was flirting quite heavily with the young journalist and made comments on her chest measurement, stating that she would “fit in a Dirndl very well”. This has caused a huge sexism debate in Germany, which I actually consider justifiable. But the fact that this young female journalist did not care to report on the incident just after it occurred, but rather waited until Brüderle was nominated as leading candidate for the Bundestag elections in September this year, one cannot help to notice that the timing cries out for a smear campaign.
Just around the time the Rainer Brüderle debate moved into the background again, another FDP politician had to be selected for the media to feed on. This time, it has hit Jörg-Uwe Hahn, the vice prime minister of Hesse, who allegedly made a racist comment on his superior, Philipp Rösler, who is the chairman of the FDP and Vice Chancellor of Germany. He is of Vietnamese descent and has been criticized on his job continuously both within his party and outside.
In an interview, Hahn made the statement: “On Philipp Rösler however, I would like to know whether our society is ready yet to further accept an Asian-looking Vice Chancellor.”
While I admit that this statement can be misinterpreted under false circumstances, Rösler himself said that he does not understand what the fuss is all about and that Hahn is a colleague and friend of his and that he did not interpret it as a racist comment. But apparently this is not enough. If the media says he is a racist, then by God’s grace he must be a racist.
In my eyes, Hahn criticizes society for not being open enough when it comes to racial heritage of politicians. And I think he is spot on. Quite a few people have gotten the impression that criticism of Phillip Rösler is proportionally high compared to other politicians. Of course, one cannot ignore the fact that there is a staggering number of problems the party has to deal with, but I think Rösler’s Asian roots might be perceived negatively, even if this occurs involuntarily in the subconscious.
The chairman of the Young Liberals (JuLi), Lasse Becker, made this quite clear when he said that people come to the election campaign booth in the pedestrian area and say “I would vote for your party, but the Chinese guy would have to go first”.
Now when I read the comments of users on the Internet on this topic, I can’t help but think that society is becoming more stupid by the day. For me, the term “racism” is abused so much nowadays, that many people do not know the difference between a statement on racial heritage and actual racism anymore. If you want to know what racism really is, I can only recommend you ask someone in South Africa or Namibia, where Apartheid is still a topic today. Unfortunately though, the media is part of this society and stupidity does not get excluded when the word journalism is used. At least the Emerald Jewel Wasp knows what it’s doing.
The Germafrican 