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www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/br87x6/german_teens_allowed_to_have_their/
The amount of people in the comments talking about sex with 13 year olds is worrisome.
The thing I don't understand about Germany is the generally lax attitude towards teenage sex (letting 14 year olds have coed sleepovers, legal age at 14 and sex between for example a 14 year old and a 40 year would generally be perfectly legal, the general attitude that parents have absolutely no business whatsoever in forming a child's values/virtues, etc.) but the overprotectiveness of young adult criminals. It's unfathomable to me that you can be 23 and still prosecuted as a Heranwachsende but sex the day you turn 14 is legal in nearly all contexts. I don't see how you can hold both positions: that you're mature enough to engage in this degree of risky behaviour but simultaneously almost completely unaccountable for real-life consequences. Really hard to imagine that German parents care at all about their children.
Really weird to compare the answers above to the answers here:
www.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/comments/9htnf9/is_it_normal_for_europeans_to_see_family_members/
Basically: If you want to fornicate while living at your parents house it's okay and they must respect your privacy but at the same time it's normal in Germany to not lock the bathroom door and have people walk in on you showering and taking a dump? What the fornicate is up with Germany?
If you are new to Berlin, whatever you do, never show generosity to a German, never show appreciation or a kindness, they will find a way to turn your good heartedness into a weakness, and then they will try to exploit that so called weakness. It's a very sick society, no wonder there are so many alcoholics and homeless people.
But it's all they have ever known, so they just say "I am normal, you are the freak for being so weak".
Remember the golden rule, they will never see any form of generosity as anything more than a weakness.
I once told a guy who I stupidly thought was a kind of friend, that I have lots of spare time and I could help him for free until his cafe business s up and running properly. I found out later that he told people I was trying to find out all his secrets so I could take over his business. There s no hope for Germans. By the way, they will never pay back what they owe you, so never be generous with money, or you will learn the hard way.
Because the sate did all heir thinking for them in the 'good old GDR days' :o) They never have an original thought, that's why they are so boring, repeating he same tripe over and over ad nauseum. Their jokes are straight out of kindergarten, you wait and wait for they punchline while they laugh uproariously. It will go something like this "a man was walking along the street and wasn't watching where he was going and slipped on a banana skin" ha ha ha ha, "that will teach him, you should always look where you are walking".
And most importantly, remember that Germans know everything about everything, so never offer your opinion, it is worthless to them. They should hire themselves out to the world as Devil's advocates.
Do not, under any circumstances, try to crack the social code in Berlin, you will definitely go crazy trying.
I don't understand why Berliners and Germans aren't criticised more on forums, blogs, reddit etc. If I were to judge German norms and mentality by what I find on the Internet, I would consider the country a utopian haven of humanism and culture - and, well, we all know the truth. Mentally challenged, unhygienic, unenthusiastic, craven creatures without a sense of humour or a touch of creativity.
The English, the Greek, the Spaniards and especially Americans get plenty of hate, most of it undeserved, yet this cesspool in the middle of Europe can get away with murder and still maintains a decent rep. Why?
People always used to female dog about Germans and I stuck up for them before I actually lived here and realised they are not worth knowing. So I think they have a reasonably bad rep. And people always think "oh Germany, it's so efficient and clean and everything works". But the question is, are the people here really sane? And the answer is no.
You hardly see any criticism of Germans because most larger online communities are moderated by ideologues who unevenly apply their own rules. Fake news and insults and and conspiracy theories are generally not allowed, unless they somehow support the idea that "social democracies" and welfare states are the way of the future.
The news corporations here are also really weird. I've tried to make a conscious effort to read more German news lately and it's incredible how much Trump is criticized for how the US is handling the coronavirus crisis but I have never seen real criticism of Germany (or even Italy or Spain) for how they're handling the crisis. I think people see lack of reporting about failures as an implicit approval of how a country is handling things. As anyone with a brain knows, Germany has its journalists on a tight leash, as it does generally with all data, and there have been no real journalistic complaints about the lack of post mortem tests done in Germany, the suspiciously low death rate, the lack of medical ventilators, the lack of proper hospital hygiene standards, etc. Watch any US press conference and listen to the questions lobbed at the US government afterwards. Then watch any German press conference and observe the meekness within the same profession. German honesty and bluntness? Must exist only at supermarket checkouts and in the subway. This kind of thing happens when a nation is convinced of its genetic superiority but can't openly state it.
The German communities on Reddit are some of the most insanely biased places I've seen on the internet, kind of like a liberal version of 4chan but with less productive autism. If you post just a few critical comments of Berlin in a row there you're banned immediately and permanently, even if you've done it in a civilized and well-intentioned manner. Try it out for yourself.
It's called centralization. The state = the people in their eyes. There was never any kind of German revolution in the proper sense of the American and French revolutions, so they have no real concept of freedom or liberty. Democracy is by default equated with liberty because that's what they've been indoctrinated with in their state ran schools, which any 2nd rate political philosopher worth their salt knows isn't true (two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner).
The algorithms reward the kind of rhetoric that portrays Europe in a positive light (well, the Europe that exists in countries like Germany and the Nordics). As some guy a few pages back wrote "progressive news goes unmolested while anything conservative is critiqued until it no longer exists".
In communities like German reddits you can sort comments by controversial and see there are plenty of people who are happy to criticise Germany but they all get downvoted or banned by the ideology-ridden mods. Germans online seem to have a warped sense of their own country and speak in normative terms in a way that makes you think they're descriptive. I used to try to gauge the German Zeitgeist by the kinds of stuff I can read online but it's hopeless as it's heavily curated.
In some isolated pockets of the Internet you'll find the kind of accurate representations of Germany that are understandable. But they're isolated. If you can get past the constant use of identity politics, here's an example:
www.exberliner.com/features/opinion/germans-why-so-rude/
RIP right to anonymity
Police arrest man who called for demonstration
14.03 h: Because he is said to have called for a demonstration against the exit restrictions on the Internet, police have arrested a man from Weinheim in Baden-Wuerttemberg. With the demonstration, where many people had gathered in public, the man had called for a criminal act according to the current regulations to contain the corona crisis, a police spokesperson explained. Without the conditions, the peaceful protest march would not have been a problem.
According to the investigations, the 32-year-old had wanted to organize a peaceful protest march anonymously in an internet portal two weeks ago. He called on potential participants to bring children to protect themselves from the police. Numerous people who read the appeal informed the police.
Investigators finally tracked down the 32-year-old via the provider of the internet portal. During the apartment search on Friday, the officers had seized data carriers, three laptops, hard disks, a tablet and a smartphone, which are now to be evaluated. The 32-year-old was released after his preliminary arrest.
In Baden-Wuerttemberg, gatherings of people in public places are forbidden as soon as more than two people meet who are not part of the family. While gatherings of smaller groups are an administrative offence according to current regulations, groups of more than 15 people commit a criminal offence according to a police spokesperson.
These people have no passion, no inner drive, no curiosity to know about other ways to deal with things, no flexibility, no empathy. What kind of soul crushing education system do they have here? No wonder most of them smoke pot or do drugs to cope with this mess
I have a hard time coming to grips with this degenerate city as it is and I'm pretty libertarian. I can't imagine the amount of disgust you must feel being in this hotbed of debauchery if you have such a strong opinion about marijuana. And I'm not saying this in a judgmental way, but seriously get the hell out of Berlin as fast as possible if you are still this tender because this shitshow is going to make you regret every second you wasted here.
I hate when fellow foreigners try too convince you to learn the language and integrate. It’s like they get offended if you say something negative about this poop hole. I always tell them I’m pass the point of trying to integrate here. I can’t undo all the poop I’ve experience here. You can’t forget when someone has mentally abused you. I wish I was an idiot like the rest of them and didn’t see these Germans as weird freaking Nazis. But it’s too late to go back now after everything I know about these people. The backstabbing, mobbing at work, people pretending to like to get something out of you, the lies, the racist passive aggressive attitudes from neighbors, and just fake butt people in this city. Can’t trust male or female here in this city. Germans and the weird foreigners who come here and love it so much belong together.
If Trump is responsible for this then he just won a new supporter!
www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/coronavirus-news-am-freitag-die-wichtigsten-entwicklungen-zu-sars-cov-2-und-covid-19-a-7fb93f73-4d39-4d57-81fd-ded70c060f6d
Hypothetical scenario:
You have a friend or relative who's considering moving to Berlin. This person isn't easily persuaded by appeals to emotion or platitudes. They're willing to listen and reconsider, but want you to put your best argument forward for not moving to Berlin long-term. How do you convince them to make the right decision? What do you do to pull out all the stops?
Basically, without just saying "hurrdurr germanz r mean n sheit" what would be your actual argument(s) to someone against moving here?
Depends where your friend is from. If he's from a first world country I would pick out some economic indicators and other general metrics that show quality of life and show him a comparison to his own country. For example, if your friend were American I would compare median disposable income (especially with a breakdown by education attainment), tax and mandatory contributions as a percentage of income, average size of domicile, percentage of population living below the poverty level, survival rates of medical conditions (
colorectal cancer, breast cancer, heart attack, ischemic stroke, etc), alcohol-related death rates. For Berlin, if all of this information is even available, it should be extremely convincing. But even for Germany as a whole it paints a pretty damning picture.
one cant decide for another. let them make their mistakes!
some people do enjoy Berlin somehow (i suppose, if they are living in a parallel non-german world). so let them come and decide for themselves. you can tell about your frustrations, but dont decide for them in the end.
was referring to her:
www.instagram.com/p/B3P7-x8nGia/
People here are unbelievably flaky and always think there is something better going on. It is hard to find good down-to-earth people who can be relied on. Even if you are a very stable, social person Berlin will knock you off balance in some way and it is not something that you can imagine beforehand.
Do you know why all job descriptions are very high level in Gemany ? I really do not understand this. When you read the job desciptions here, It does not give any idea / impression what your job could be. %90 of job descriptions are something like below
We are team ducked up, looking for a football player !
What are we looking for ?
- You need to control the ball and pass to your team mate
- You are able to wear your jersey on the match day
- You have two feet to play football
Seriously, why do they post these type of job descriptions without givng any idea about the job you would posibbly do ?
news.trust.org/item/20200402160625-8y12u
www.instagram.com/p/B3P7-x8nGia/
this is an ode to a city that allows me to be. soil rich enough to blossoms me. bear me fruits and feed me its sweet nectar. a place where freedom of expression is encouraged, from one creativity to one identity. circle of trust created within potentiality. a community where i finally belonged, it is a sanctuary for my chosen family.
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as i grow, i grow collectively.
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thank you for giving me the time to experience change of seasons emotionally, and the space to breathe deeply with every single challenges you presents me.
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as i grow, i grow collectedly.
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im loving you infinitely.
Anyone else here notice that German guys in public bathrooms don't leave the customary space when using urinals? In every other country I have been guys almost never use the urinal right next to you out of respect for personal space. In Germany, even if there are 6 urinals and no one else present, they'll still stand right next to you. Why?
LOL I also noticed that in German WCs. I also noticed the underwear here doesn't have a hole in it for when you pee. It looks like womens panties sort of and it means you have to pull them down to pee. How do real men who don't pee sitting down deal with this?
Remember when that one judge Stefan Hank state the following in his ratio decidendi?
"Despite the increasing domestication of the male in this context, urinating while standing is still quite common. Someone who still practices this formerly prevailing custom must regularly expect sometimes considerable confrontations with - especially female - roommates, but not a chemical burn of the marble floor installed in the bathroom or guest toilet."
Pissing while standing obviously isn't a "previously prevailing custom" as anyone who has ever walked through Berlin more than 5 minutes will be able to tell you. What an absolutely bizarre country.
Previous poster here. Seriously, what psychological trauma causes this degree of repression and anal-retentiveness?
What about those born after WWII? What about those born in West Germany? What the feck is wrong with these people? I'm honestly flabbergasted. I've lived in four countries on three continents, never before have I seen the institutional normalisation of a collective developmental disorder on such a grand scale. Please help me find an explanation, I have to deal with these feckers for two more years until my contract expires. I think it would be easier to cope if I could explain it. Is it something about the educational system? Is it the climate? The geopolitics?
For one thing it's because Germany is a society without morals. Sure, there is some concept of a minimum standard that must be used when dealing with others but that is dictated largely by the government and maintained by force. That's why you see so little charitable giving and volunteering here. Look up OECD data for voluntary participation in organizations and groups for a clear illustration. The individualist countries in the report, like the USA and Australia, completely pummel Germany in nearly every way imaginable. Germans defer ALL responsibility to the government or, at the very least, "experts". They don't help people in need because, in their eyes, that's the role of the government only. Generally everyone in Germany shirks responsibility and accountability to the greatest extent possible and consider doing so to be the zenith of freedom (in Germany, you'll learn, freedom is nothing more than a synonym for hedonism/degeneracy).
And then there are so many rules and regulations here that people have stopped behaving like humans. It's illegal to insult others, it's illegal to throw glass bottles in the garbage on a Sunday, it's even illegal to dance on certain days. I've often thought to myself that you can teach a German manners but you could never teach one to be polite. Every sense of individuality is beaten out of German children from a young age by rigid rules and a harshly segregated educational system (children are railroaded into the roles of prole or intellectual already at the age of 10 and there's minimal mingling among these classes). Despite "free university" and government grants, on average it takes someone in Germany an entire generation longer to move from lower social ranks to middle class when compared to America. Add to that a largely uniform and status quo-friendly media and have a nation of people that believe something but don't have the mental capacity to explain why without vaguely appealing to collective emotions. Ask a German to give specific examples for why they oppose AfD (and - I am showing my German social conditioning now - I am in no way defending the AfD here) and they simply can't answer without using the kind of abstract reductionism that quickly becomes indistinguishable from a meme. It's why meaningless words like "solidarity" and "conservation" and "data protection" are able to justify anything conceivable in Germany from exorbitant taxes to abysmal service and literally anything in between.
Finally, they all have a blindspot for their own nationalism/patriotism. Ask a German if they're proud to be German and they'll invariably say no. Ask them what country has the best X, be it health care or environmental standards or quality of manufacturing or women and they'll all say Germany. They're pleased when they can embrace EU transnationalism because they see it as an extension of Germany and the soulless ideals Germany stands for (when Angela Merkel was once asked to describe how she views Germany she famously noted the "moderate weather" and "air-tight windows"). If you've been here longer than a week you'll already know how Germans react if you in turn show any pride in your own nationality in any way, however mild.
If you're used to people with passion or a heart then you'll forever be hopelessly depressed here and IT IS 100% THE FAULT OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE.
Why not defend AFD, I've spoken to many of them i Dresden and they were all very well educated and not at all hateful racists, they just want their own culture and heritage to be respected, like every other nationality in their country. Political correctness is a tool of the left to silence the majority.