The Dresden University of Technology....decided to do a statistical analysis of the Pegida (our anti-immigration/anti-Muslim) participants. I would assume they were led by a professor who helped to shape the questions and ensure some type of competent understanding of what the movement was about.
If you review state-run TV over the past month....the term 'Nazi-pin-stripes' came out several times and they tried to feature people who gave one-liners....in some fashion to make the movement appear limited in nature and not that knowledgeable about the topic of immigration or Islam. After a couple of such reports....you could sense the slant being used.....not pure journalism, but something else.
So, TU Dresden says....after looking at 400 interviews from marches in December and January.......that most are middle-class men....fairly educated....and an income-level above average. In effect.....these aren't the Burger King burger-flippers or marginally educated crowd.
Yeah, kind of a shock.
While I used the word "most" to indicate men....there's a fair number of women who show up for the Pediga demonstrations, and you can note them in the videos that get featured on Tuesday nights.
The big reason why people show up? Well....they are dissatisfied with the politics they see within the theme of immigration. It's not harped on and explained in detail, but I would suspect we are talking about the national level....NOT the local level.
The second reason given? They are critiquing journalism and the news media. The term 'lying press' is often used and there's some sentiment that press isn't reporting facts....but slanted views.
Third? There's some ill feelings about immigrants who are in the country already.....the government's handling of them. Some sharp criticism from the general public about easy asylum has been suggested a good bit back in October. Those thoughts probably sharpened folks a bit.
Finally, we come to Islam. Frankly, there's reservations noted in the polling data about the religion. Some folks have observed noted the tendency to drag standards of life into changes as part of the accommodation episode, and these young guys running off to jihad adventures in Syria.
The problem now? Let's say that a number of political folks in Berlin look at the data collected and start to worry a bit. Just using names like 'anti-Muslim' or 'pin-striped-Nazi'....won't work. Trying to gather big time players to appear on TV forums and chat from a certain prospective....getting people to accept different viewpoints.....won't work. Trying to get religious enthusiasts from different religions to use moral judgement on the public....won't work.
Basically, you'd have to go back to the white board, and talk a bit on some structural changes, and different ways of handling immigration. In effect.....change the game. These aren't idiots or from the marginally educated crowd. They also appear to have a deep hostility toward the news media....believing they are part of the problem, than the solution. What you don't want is that their movement survives on....moves to other cities....and is popular in late 2017 for the next national election. Imagine the AfD Party getting some pick-up and achieving thirty-five percent of the national vote. Serious consequences exist if you keep the current game-plan on the board.
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