Germany's anti-mask movement draws strange bedfellows

[Klaralven]

A dancer in harem pants moves down a Berlin street next to a skinhead wearing a "Reich" flag: Germany's escalating anti-mask protests in the coronavirus pandemic draw from a wide, seemingly contradictory range of political camps.

A rally of nearly 10,000 opponents of government-imposed social restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 in Berlin this week brought together a motley band of demonstrators with ostensibly little in common -- apart from crumbling faith in institutions and representative democracy.

...

The scene in front of the Brandenburg Gate Wednesday marked a dizzying confluence of LGBT rainbow flags and Gandhi banners intermingled with posters for the increasingly international QAnon conspiracy movement.

Marchers wearing red Trump "MAGA" hats could be spotted in the crowd next to evangelicals, climate activists and "peace"-shouting hippies.

Most of the protesters remained peaceful while they railed against vaccines and dismissed the dangers of the virus, but a violent hard core attacked police.

Some 77 officers were injured at the demonstration, with Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik saying that "the brutality of the violence was immense."

"Some have told me that we have not experienced something like that in decades," she told the Tagesspiegel daily.

"We are moving away from a very colourful public and are now increasingly dealing with a spectrum of people who generally reject our system and are prepared to use extreme violence."

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201121-germany-s-anti-mask-movement-draws-strange-bedfellows

[doc03]

1. The people in the picture look like they are having fun. If they would ever outlaw beer

in Germany they would be seriously pissed.

[Blues Heron]

2. Assholes the world over

These types of people are so fucking deranged. So tired of these shitbags.

[Renew Deal]

3. The internet has created a group of paranoid truther types

It’s equivalent to a third party in a lot of places. They are paranoid, skeptical about government, and often motivated by racial issues. The anti-vax stuff is a strong symptom. So is a false concept of liberty. They think they’re fighting for freedom and liberty, but they have a mistaken idea of what they are legally and practically. In the US you see it both in MAGAts and “Justice Democrats.” It’s internet driven and difficult to solve.

[DFW]

4. Never underestimate the northern Europeans

They would rather give up blood and oxygen before they'd give up alcohol and tobacco, no matter WHAT their political persuasion.

As for the violence, there is the so-called "autonome Szene," a small, apparently self-perpetuating hard core of action-seekers. They have no ideology whatsoever. All they want is to travel to where big demonstrations are, and smash cars, windows and people, whichever is closer. The ones smashing windows and burning cars today weren't even born when my wife, as a young beginning-level social worker in Berlin in 1974, was dealing with their predecessors. They don't care if a demonstration is for masks or against them, just as long as it's big, and they can plan escape routes in advance.

[Hortensis]

6. "Autonomous scene" for a literal translation? We have our own,

of course, but our media are mostly using the names of the groups they hide in/are, instead of discussing the syndrome.

to commitment to alcohol and tobacco. If only we could dampen Trump fervor with tobacco addiction.

[Klaralven]

7. Is "autonome Szene" a continuation of the anarchist tradition or is it a new individualism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individualism

[DFW]

8. Not really anarchists, since they are neither for nor against anything

At best, you could say they are for causing mayhem, and against sitting around and hearing about others committing it.

More like what Frank Zappa described over 50 years ago:

"He's gonna do you in
"Because the color of your skin
"Just don't appeal to him
"No matter if it's black or white
"Because he's out for blood tonight."

[Klaralven]

9. Similar to political nihilism then.

[DFW]

10. That would be far more accurate. n/t

[Hortensis]

5. :) Not really. Extremist traits are more alike on right and left than different.

That's why there's so much political crossover. Mussolini famously started far left, hatemongering Hitler used socialism to add more far-leftists to his support and got them, but their followers put them both in power as archconservative fascists.

Half of class-warfare Sanders' hard-core base voted for class-hierarchy Trump but had already been determinedly anti-Democrat and all in for attempted election theft for one, then the other. Not exactly a big shift for those, shifts around the far side expected to continue.

On and on.

And, of course, groups like LGBTQX are interest groups, not political ideologies. So members are from all over the place otherwise.

Happy crowd in that picture. No doubt they are exhilarating events for the "mean people" whose development in society is a huge warning sign of the rise of RW (abetted by far-left) authoritarianism.