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Andrew Hammel

Andrew Hammel
@AndrewHammel1

Nov 25, 2022
7 tweets
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1/ The process of escalation and radicalization continues in Germany: "Last Generation" activists invaded the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, some gluing themselves to the runway, others riding bikes around to disrupt operations. thelocal.de/20221124/fligh…

2/ This time around, the action was criticized by every German political party and even "climate experts" (used advisedly) close to Last Generation. Yet, of course, speakers from this extremist faction will *still* be invited onto nationwide, publicly-funded talk shows.
3/ Further, although politicians are calling for the "harshest punishment under law", that's just hot air. They'll likely be charged only with property damage and trespassing, and receive a fine which will be instantly paid by crowd-funding. The local prosecutor
4/ won't even say whether they'll be charged with disrupting air traffic, even though that was their explicit goal! In the grand scheme of things, this is the next logical step in a cascade of radicalization similar to that which created the Red Army Faction.
5/ These are the types of increasingly polarizing and radical actions that fuel a mutual process of escalation. Arson is already a popular tool of the German extreme right and left (right-wingers burn asylum shelters, lefties burn property-developers' offices and vehicles).
6/ Soon, Last Generation -- or an "underground" faction not officially supported by the group but assisted by it -- will start burning down gas stations and blowing up pipelines, as many extremists such as Tadzio Müller are already openly advocating.
7/ If LG had clear, rational demands, there might be an off-ramp to further escalation. But their demands, to the extent you can pin them down, are demented policies which would plunge Europe into severe poverty. So there's no path open but escalation, in their skewed worldview.
Andrew Hammel

Andrew Hammel

@AndrewHammel1
Writer translator editor US lawyer living in Düsseldorf, the only habitable city on the Rhine. Words for FAZ, BZ, Übermedien, others. Victory over Horses**t!
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