Thanks, you said what I wanted to say but better. Let’s not forget that CDU have been in power for the majority of the time for decades, and Germany is far left of the USA despite Democrats being in power for roughly half that same time. So the proof is in the pudding, so to speak

German people are just generally not very open to talking to strangers in general, so making friends with them takes a while. But there are so many expats here that you can easily make friends with instead so it’s not bad really

I’ve lived in both Germany and the USA (very blue state) and strongly disagree with this. It’s incredibly easy and cheap to immigrate to Germany and you get the same rights as any European, in the USA you have to jump through a million hoops and constantly fight for the right to stay, you can get ejected so easily

I think it’s actually pretty debatable. Merz is left of Biden on some big issues, like being in favour of universal health care, and supporting unions and workers rights. One could argue that Biden is left of Merz on immigration and climate action but Germany is soooo far left of the USA there and so both of them are just pushing back towards a mid point, I very much doubt a USA under Biden would ever catch up to a Germany under Merz on those issues

The funny thing is that if you live in Europe and work for a US company, you also get the European perks. I really don’t understand why more Americans don’t move here

Wtf are you on about? There are a handful of hard right govts in Europe currently, but the majority of Europe is not, in fact by US standards you’d probably consider most parties here left wing (the US Democrats would be considered a right wing party here lol)

Immigration is also quite easy for an American, definitely easier than if you’re from the middle-east. If you’re capable of getting a qualified/skilled job or studying you can generally stay as long as you want in most places, and native English speakers are in demand.

I want to believe this, but an article on a site I’ve never heard of which provides zero sources is not really enough to be trustworthy

Oh no! Anyway…

Yeah but he’s on Lemmy and engaging in discussion so there’s potentially hope

That is why it has to first be proven in a court of law

I’m not defining anything. Fascism is an already well defined term with very clear criteria, such as being opposed to democracy and replacing it with an authoratarian, one-party state. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

In Germany there is a special, independent court, at a similar level to the US supreme court but without the ability for parties to appoint the judges like they can in the US, that reveiws hard evidence and determines whether a political party can be proven to be actively trying to break the constitution (including the part that makes Germany a democracy, for example). So it’s not left up to someone’s opinion, nor can one party simply label another as fascist to ban them (like Hitler did)

The main thing you need is a much better constitution

Sure, but dictatorships don’t end without civil war

The US constitution kinda sucks and just trusts those in power to uphold democracy. Germany learned from Hitler that that isn’t the case, so their constitution provides multiple defences against a dictator that US lacks

Being intolerant of fascists does not make one a fascist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

Not true, there have been multiple banned parties since WW2

This wouldn’t be a party banning another party, it would be the independent constitutional court