Some Folks in Trouble Story

 This is one of those comical stories that you occasionally find in the German news.  So N-TV this morning brought up this story, which seems to be somewhat factual.

If you aren't familiar with the German office of 'the Protection of the Constitution'....they basically serve in a function like the US version of the FBI.  Once you get on their watch-list....you could be potentially detained and charged-up.  Right-wing, left-wing, mafia types, neo-Nazis, Chinese spies, Russian spies, and literally dozens of 'groups' are on the list to be watched.  

The way that the office is lined up....there is the federal office, and then you have state by state....more regional offices.

So this came up....some employees (numbers presently less than five) of the NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) Office for the Protection of the Constitution have been noted on posting Islamic or xenophobic commentary on chat forums.

Right-wingish?  Well.....yeah.

An investigation has started up.  Other folks likely to be identified?  Maybe.

The comical side of this is that they are actually connected to the Protection of the Constitution crowd, so they'd either have fire these guys or put them on a watch-list as well.

But we are headed down this road where you kinda expect a whole bunch of government employees and just regular Germans.....to have no opinion on things.  This would be like an Audi factory-assembly guy being asked about how the car is made, and he states as a fact that he has no opinion on the manufacture of the Audi cars.

Generally, my advice to Germans is that in any public forum or around a crowd....don't get all chatty or say much of anything related to any religious group or related to foreigners in Germany because it'll be dragging you into some xenophobic discussion (one that you can never win because of the expected behavior business of Germans now).

In terms of religious criticism....you could spend an hour being exceptionally critical of the German Catholic Church, or the ways that Lutheran Church crowd wastes their tax revenue money.  But all it does is stir up the pro-Lutheran or pro-Catholic crowd.  The same is true for the pro-Muslim folks.

What I expect out of this investigation on the Protection of the Constitution folks?  Basically, some course will be developed....probably a full 8-hour course....teaching people how to hide their feelings or avoid being vocal in criticism over anything. The cynics or sarcastic folks?  They will be re-educated in some form to just shut up and not say much of anything.  

So, some advice....learn some English and go 'hide' yourself under the American umbrella of social media, saying whatever you really want.....or just learn how to shut-up and not post anything of criticism.