Once upon a time....German society existed off a somewhat controlled newspaper, and radio-TV market controlled by public TV managers (controlled by appointed state-monitors).
You had mostly a left-of-center, right-of-center, and far-left political situation. Since the 1920s....with the Nazi-era added....this was the norm for public news.
If you reviewed newspapers and magazines from 1945 on....they had liberties to publish, and mostly stayed within a controlled thought process.
Commercial TV came in the late 1980s, but they tended to stick with sex and lust stuff....not so much politics.
All of this was the norm until you start to get around 2005-to-2015 period....where the internet and social media arrived. We were finally at a point where 'control' was not a handy-tool.
The arrival of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter/X? In the beginning, there weren't that many Germans getting into social media, and it was mostly a entertainment 'vehicle'.
Twitter....all the way through the Covid-era...either via the EU, or via German controls....they could keep people from social commentary. Then....things rapidly changed.
The real fear? You could have forty-odd Germans in a single week....asking a simple question....which triggers half-a-million German voters to get angry....discontented over fake agendas. A lot of the disgruntlement today in Germany...comes from people asking stupid questions, and the gov't unable to really resolve the argument or to find clarity.
The weakness factor for both the SPD Party and CDU-CSU Party? Half of the problem is social media folks dumping over the lack of action or inability to solve problems.
Maximum use of ARD/ZDF public TV....to create a message/brand, and get around social media 'hype'? Well....yeah, that is part of the landscape as well.
The path ahead? I'd say that the EU has to find some way of controlling social media (mostly X), and prevent open public discussions....to lessen the tension and prevent public rage. In some odd way...to create counter-rage. In some way, you need to invent fake Nazi-outrage or fake Putin-outrage....to accomplish the goal.
My first thought when I read this was the opening statement from the old TV show "The Outer Limits" They no long have control anymore. This would be the same across the board for these governments.
ReplyDeleteControl Voice: [introduction] There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Democracy is complicated, and the more people who are involved.....it's doomed to fail. It'd be helpful if 95-percent of citizens were left clueless on the process.
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