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To be born here is reason enough to hate this god darn place.
Yes! Thanks again for this entry, it is a very good assessment of the situation in this place which I refuse to call a city. More, please!
I think Maria would like these women (scroll to second story) kookykimbo.tumblr.com
Here is the best line ever from Maria's post below, actually, it's all brilliant:
Politics - mostly they are deranged wannabe anarchist pseudo leftist types who think they are “free" while being dependent on the German government, alcohol and drugs. Lots of SJW, 5th wave feminist type of brain damaged morons who find Berlin to be a mecca for their ilk.
I just had to re-send this amazing post from MARIA, she is close to genius and it only took her one years to work this place out. This is the best post I've ever read here at BRN HTR. Maria, please make an email address, especially for people here, I'd love to chat to you by email. HERE IS MARIA'S POST AGAIN, ENJOY HER BRILLIANT INSIGHTS, ESPECIALLY THE ONES ABOUT THE LEFTY SHEEP AND DUMB FEMINISTS>
I am leaving Berlin for good on Monday. Am packing up this weekend. Texting friends and family at home, making plans to meet up. It's such an incredible feeling, to know that you're leaving this place. I hope you all get to experience this someday soon.
Background info:
I came to Berlin 1 year ago. At first, I was drawn to the physical freedom that I found in Berlin... you know, the typical things. Good quality of life for the price, slower pace of life, not stressful compared to major cities, lots of arts/culture/entertainment/nightlife, diversity, people weren’t obsessed with status, income or image like they are in so many places, and so on. I slowly realized, over that year, that this was all an illusion. And a very twisted illusion at that. If you don’t have the awareness and introspection skills to see Berlin for what it is, you WILL become a typical Berliner over time, if you stay in Berlin.
Here is my breakdown of the “illusions” of Berlin…
Good quality of life for the price - This is all relative to your salary. Salaries in Berlin are very low, unemployment is very high, prices are skyrocketing (especially for housing) without increase in salary or industry. There is a social tension in Berlin because tourists come in with money, long-term tourists come here and live for months/years, etc, and this pisses off people on Hartz IV and/or those receiving housing assistance, or those who make a typical low Berlin salary. I would say only maybe 20-30% of people in Berlin make a “real” salary. The rest are on some kind of social assistance, are unemployed, people who work very part-time (a few shifts at a bar or something) and are always working on “projects”, students and/or make a very low salary. The average person doesn’t have a career or much ambition. Tourism is the only real industry in Berlin, yet the people resent it because it’s forcing Berlin to change/evolve/etc, and people in Berlin are evolutionary failures. People who can’t and won’t evolve, change or adapt. The only reason they continue to survive/live is because the German government provides so much for them.
Slower pace of life/not stressful compared to major cities - True, but you also don’t get the bustling energy of a true major city. Berlin is more like a bunch of provincial towns pasted together.
Lots of art/culture/entertainment/nightlife - Once you go to a few grungy bars in Kreuzberg, some galleries that you know deep down in your heart is displaying totally sh*t art, eat doner a few times, go to the nightclubs stuck in time in the 90s with the whole sex/raver/drug den culture, maybe go to the Christmas markets in December… you have basically experienced all of the “culture” that Berlin has to offer. Unless your idea of culture is sitting in gritty bars where you can’t breathe from smoke fumes, going to horrible art galleries, getting high in clubs, going to fetish/sex parties, etc, you will tire of Berlin’s art/culture/nightlife etc, and find that it offers no variety.
Diversity - LMAO. This one is hilarious. I could write a book on how twisted this is in Berlin. Yes, on the outside, Berlin looks diverse, but really all you have is people who might look different, but they all think the same. You can be white, black, brown, yellow, green, but you think the same exact way as everyone else, have the same personality. Even in fashion, people in Berlin largely all dress the same and you won’t find many people with a unique style like you’d see in other big cities across the world. People are very same-samey, matching, robotic, conformist. Also, Germans deep down are quite prejudiced, xenophobic and secretly will never accept outsiders even though they put on this facade of being international, liberal, what with their constant traveling overseas etc. If you are white and learn fluent German, you might be partly accepted, but you will have to CONSTANTLY hear autistic screeching from Germans about how your country is x, y and z, how Germany does this and that better, hear their passive aggressive cowardly put-downs, and so on. If you are brown, non-European background, etc, forget it. Leave Berlin immediately before it starts to damage your psyche. People will assume you are a refugee at first glance, or a drug dealer (if you’re a black man), and you will never really be accepted in German society, let alone be allowed to prosper or advance. The best case scenario for non-white immigrants is opening a nail salon. Germans will always use Asians as an example of successful immigrants, when they are criticizing Turks for not wanting to integrate… yes, you can come to Germany, wash toilets, work in restaurants… maybe someday you can even open a nail salon! You good little immigrant! *pats your head*
People aren't obsessed with status, income or image - True, but they are obsessed with having the same exact political and social opinions , wearing the same clothes, thinking the same thoughts, eating the same horrible food, drinking the same cheap terrible beer, etc. There is MORE peer pressure in Berlin to conform, then there would be in a bigger, more cosmopolitan city that has true diversity in human beings. Yes, you will find more materialistic people in big cities like London, Paris or New York, but you’ll also find real artists, real intellectuals, real working class people who aren’t totally hostile, real everything. In Berlin, everyone is basically just the same, and if you are not, you will be soon, because no one can psychologically handle living in Berlin while being a real individual. Politics - mostly they are deranged wannabe anarchist pseudo leftist types who think they are “free" while being dependent on the German government, alcohol and drugs. Lots of SJW, 5th wave feminist type of brain damaged morons who find Berlin to be a mecca for their ilk. Lots of people have no real friends, are lonely, etc… this is why you will find people drinking at 10am on Tuesday on the train. In general, people here don’t have fulfilling relationships, and a large part of having good mental/emotional health, is having fulfilling relationships. People this stupid, devoid of common sense/reality, lacking in empathy/social skills and people this irresponsible WILL, over time, damage your own psyche.
Basically, Berlin is for a very specific type of person. It’s basically a place for losers, slackers, bums, etc… it’s like living in your mother’s basement forever, surrounded with other people living in their mum’s basement, so you never have to feel bad about yourself, although deep down you are extremely insecure. If you have any ambition or spark or whatever in you, you will come here and be miserable after a while, because you never planned to live in your mum’s basement forever… which is what Berlin is. If you are not this type of person, leave immediately before this city damages your psyche. I am leaving on Monday and am losing thousands of euros in the process, but I can’t stand to be here any longer.
His conclusion was the same as mine. Germans have no empathy. Its true. Something is missing from these people.Some genetic flaw that makes them..well inhuman.
Please watch (or read.) Niklas Frank. "Dont trust us Germans" B.B.C. Hard Talk. He is right when he says Germany never drained the swamp.(of the Nazi era). He believes it would only take 5 years of economic hardship for Germany to find a new scapegoat to mass murder..which will be the refuges.Make no mistake.A German is never wrong.
I have never met so many stupid and annoying people in any other city before. This City should Go to hell.
fuckyall
I've finally figured it out. People here being unfriendly, passive aggressive, arrogant, inconsiderate and lacking empathy - these aren't the problem, they're just symptoms. The fact is, that unlike most parts of western society, somehow there is no concept in Germany of striving to be a better person. Even groups that elsewhere tend to foster that ideal (e.g. devout Christians, intellectuals) don't care here. To a German, the only thing that "improving yourself" can possibly mean is going to the gym more often, eating more low-fat quark, separating your trash before throwing it away and riding your bike to work for fitness (to pretend it's not because you are living in poverty and will never be able to afford a car). People here don't care about fixing their broken psyches, just the miserable vehicles in which they're transported about. And this is the reason Germany will never be relevant in the world.
Good point, I think this is a symptom of the pathological narcissism that is the norm in Germany. Why would they improve themselves? They are so awesome and perfect already. I would just brush it off but I work with people like that and this kind of attitude can get dangerous in a workplace. There are people who regularly cause trouble and they get super defensive when approached about it - can't reflect at all. Improving their skills and habits is not on the radar at all.
As I have stated in a previous post.Germany is just a bit of roadkill on the footpath of history. Turkey now dwarfs Germany in power and influence. I certainly dont like the current leader but in terms of power Turkey has Europe pandering to its every whim. Thats power.
Make no mistake.The Turks have long memory of being denied E.U. Membership whilst given the job of stopping the migrant flow from states bombed on behalf of N.A.T.O.And German arms manufactures .The chickens are coming home to roost. Enjoy the bitter fruits of your hubris.
Do you honestly think the E.U. will survive after England told you to fornicate off? "Dear mr Junker,Brixit isnt a divorce so the E.U. can forget alimony.". Do you think Turkey gives a flying fornicate to be part of the e.u? Npobody cares for this unelectected fraud anymore.Go suck Mr Junkers horrific cock.
Striving to be a better person would involve (here!) a lot of guilt and finding fault with oneself. That's why it's not done. You also can't really try that, although i guess in the beginning it needs a bit of that, but afterwards, if you try, you are not in touch with natural impulses to be expressed but instead with an image to live by.
You'll never have a random, positive interaction with a local in this city. It just doesn't happen, ever.
It kills me that you have to wait until all your groceries have been scanned before you can swipe your card in the supermarket.
When I left my home country for Berlin, I never thought that one of the main things I'd look forward to doing when visiting home would be visiting the f*cking SUPERMARKETS there.
But, my god, they're an absolute paradise compared to every single dirty, squalid, nasty hole of an Aldi, Lidl, Netto, Rewe, Reichelt, Edeka etc. in this dump. Zero quality, extremely narrow choice that largely consists of revolting Abendbrot fodder, hard bread, tasteless fruit & veg, inedible meat, sour-faced clientele with zero manners or situational awareness, and a grand total of two checkouts (if you're lucky) staffed by downtrodden drones (not actively hostile, if you're even luckier) who scan everything through at the speed of light while you panic and flail.
Dear avid BH readers,
Churchhill once said that the germans (then referred to as the hun) were either at your throat or at your feet. Please help me understand how this rather apt generalisation plays out in Berlin?
Easy. If you are a figure of authority, they will treat you with respect. If you are a foreigner or non-white, you are inferior and are meant to obbey them. This explains the behaviour patterns people here complain about. If you were a foreigner with a lot of prestige or fame, Germans would treat you differently.
Well, even as a white european girl from a priviledged background I was treated like poop by my in-laws, go figure! I can and never will be one of them and why would you want to? They have issues up to the roof. They iced me but Its the ice-age for them. Ciao! to those cold tyrants.
Kiss my PO Berlin!
I have attended a job interview yesterday. The company was a start up and it was the worst job interview ever.
The person who was conducting the interview has failed to provide clear job specifications. Beyond this point, during the interview there were too many inconsistencies and uncertainties. After Brexit decision, you know media pampers that Berlin will be the new capital of start ups. I have also talked to couple of friends and heard the similar experiences regarding start ups. I can understand, start ups can have some minor problems but it seems they are looking for people who basically give all and demand minimum salary. I find this perception bullshit.
Berlin could only be the capital of failure !
The hype around Berlin startups has been going on for a long time, before Brexit. The real startup city in mainland Europe is Amsterdam. There are more stable companies there, better salaries, etc. Behind Amsterdam is maybe Paris if you speak French well, then Berlin and Barcelona. The rest is hit an miss. If you're looking for a more stable developer job within Germany, not at a risky startup, Munich is supposedly a better city for that.
Yeah, the German media likes to pat itself on the back and describe how Berlin is courting startups from London but no one with any awareness of the world believes this. If they want English skills or highly educated people (not just with degrees from diploma mills) then they'll go to Amsterdam as stated above. If they want hard workers, they will go to France or Eastern Europe. If they want to fail they will come to Berlin.