This is just what we need these days: Uplifting communist photography. More specifically, a nostalgic retrospective of art photography produced in communist East Germany.
They just don’t make German democratic republics like they used to.
Category Archives: Higher Education
German “Critical Thinking” vs. American Debate Culture
Here is another interesting German commentary by American Eric T. Hansen in Die Zeit.
I’d like to translate it all, but I can’t, so I won’t (no time). Here are a few highlights, though:
Critical thinking does not allow for self-criticism. Where would we be then?
Critical thinking is not debating, it’s finding concensus, or, as I call it, harmony nagging (Harmonienörgeln): Two people criticize a third person so long until the two become friends.
If I want to hear a new or even a different perspective on something, I have to turn to the Anglo-American press. Regarding certain questions – for instance whether nuclear energy, genetically modified corn or having Mitt Romney as president might also have certain advantages – many of my German friends are not even aware that two sides to these arguments even exist.
I too understand Mitt Romney’s positions quite well and suspect that he would make just as good (or bad) a president as Obama. In America that makes me an intellectual. In Germany that makes me a right-winger.
Everything is so serious for the Germans, and they need to know immediately: “Who is my friend, who is my enemy?” For Americans and their debate clubs, however, there is always an element of playfulness involved.
Auch ich verstehe die Positionen eines Mitt Romney gut und ahne, dass er ein ebenso guter (oder schlechter) Präsident wie Obama wäre. In Amerika macht mich das zu einem Intellektuellen. In Deutschland macht mich das zu einem Rechten.
Well I Thought It Was Real News, Too
German news is reporting that Iranian news is reporting that American news is reporting that a Gallup poll is reporting how rural white Americans prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama.
Unfortunately (did I just write unfortunately?), this was just another satirical piece by The Onion. Dumb Iranians.
“I like him better,” said West Virginia resident Dale Swiderski, who, along with 77 percent of rural Caucasian voters, confirmed he would much rather go to a baseball game or have a beer with Ahmadinejad, a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed, than spend time with Obama. “He takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.”
Oompah, Oompah, $12.30, Please
€9.50 ($12.30) for an Oktoberfest beer? And that in September?
Damn that must be good brew.
Before long, even the most hard-bitten cynics can’t help but climb up on a bench (dancing on tables is frowned upon) and belt out the lyrics of newly learned folk song.
Internet Making Germans Dumber
It’s called “Digitale Demenz” (Digital Dementia) or something.
“Avoid digital media,” one smart German is warning his countrymen. “As shown here many times over, they truly do make us fat, dumb, aggressive, lonely, sick and unhappy.”
Nice try, buddy. But what you’ve failed to consider here (being a German yourelf), is that Germans don’t need any help from anybody or anything at any time when it comes to being aggressive, lonely, sick and unhappy. They’re naturals at it. As for the Internet making them fat and dumb, well, OK. If you say so.
The strange thing though is that everywhere else on Planet Earth it appears as if the Internet is actually making us smarter. Whatever. I guess maybe that’s how it is with Deutsche Sonderwege (German separate paths), it’s the exception that always proves the rule.
Such findings refute the claims of those who warn that humanity is getting dumber. We’re “amusing ourselves to death,” American media theorist and critic Neil Postman argued in a 1985 book of the same name. Postman blamed television for a decline in cognitive skills. Since then, however, the average IQ in the US has risen by nearly 10 points.
When Will The Hurt Feelings Ever End?
Germany has decided to take precautionary measures and will now be closing its embassies in Muslim countries after word got out that Bettina Wulff is currently planning to produce a Muhammad film.
“We have intensified security precautions everywhere in the region, and in some cases increased security personnel too.”
This German Woman Right Here Knows Practically Nothing About Computers
And German men want to keep it that way. You know, so they can help them and stuff? Again and again and again?
The latest Bitkom survey has found out that only half of all German women have halfway sort of somewhat decent computer skill knowledge. And the other half are real turkeys (especially the younger ones). So let’s keep it that way.
Selbst beim Anschließen von Druckern und beim Versenden von Emails scheitern sie.
Another In-Depth Spiegel Analysis
And it goes like this: “Romney dumb” (meaning “Obama smart”).
When it comes to objective, thorough and even-handed journalism (and the American presidential campaign) few international tabloids can compare with the quality reporting reported by Spiegel reporters.
The latest scoop for the German nation: Mitt Romney said “sheik” instead of “sikh.”
OMG. This is an issue, I guess. And shocking, or something. And proves something, I suppose.
Geepers creepers, that would be almost as inappropriate as saying these sorry Spiegel reporters are full of “Schiet” instead of “Scheiße” (Schiet, albeit correct, is a much more vulgar term here, I think).
Knapp drei Monate vor der US-Präsidentenwahl liegt Amtsinhaber Barack Obama in Umfragen weiter deutlich vor Romney.
Capitalists To Pay For Occupy Cleanup
Sure, hauling away 300 cubic meters of garbage, hunting down all the rats and fixing up the green areas sounds like lots of fun and all, but somebody is going to have to pay for it, too. And it won’t be the occupants this time.
Yet another vicious blow to capitalism or something.
„Wer Schaden anrichtet, muss ihn auch begleichen.“
Occupy Camp Frankfurt Was Not For Nothing
Or so we are told. The movement has now merely become “invisible.”
Not even the most vehement anti-capitalist protesters can believe, I mean live, in this Dreck (crap) forever.
That is why German Police have now put up barricades around Camp Occupy (next to the European Central Bank headquarters) and are helping to carry out the last remaining activists for reintegration into that heartless, bourgeois world of showers, warm meals/beds and regular working hours (or at least that is their sincere hope).
But the movement will live on or something, albeit in a new “invisible” form. And I only find this appropriate as the movement’s arguments have been invisible from day one.
297 Tage existierte dieser utopische Zwergstaat im Zentrum der deutschen Finanzindustrie.
Observing Hermann 