A dance track and online video game hyping mass deportations are some of the ways extreme-right groups are reaching the country’s youth.

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.

  • @brrt@sh.itjust.works
    1•3 months ago

    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…

    • Skvlp
      2•3 months ago

      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@sh.itjust.works
        2•3 months 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.