Distracted Boyfriend

(Note, while the message above *is* English (trust me), I guess it'll take a Dutch to read it). :P

apparently, German works as well 😅 or is it, because I've taken some Dutch courses in university? 🤔

Misschien dat laatste 😁! Although in my case, many people with English for the native language always think I'm from the US when they hear me speak.... Funny... I've never been there.... 😆

Probably. 😁
Also, same. I went on a student exchange to the States and most people only found out about it when I told them I'm going back. 😅 To this day it's kinda funny to be able to just fool people, even here at home. 😁

"Ik denk dat ik gewoon raar ben" (I believe I'm just odd).... hmm I believe in Germany they give a 1 for a perfect score in school and 6 for a very bad job right... In that case... I'll rate it 1.... :)
That was a perfect Dutch sentence, well done... Yeah, I know there is Ost Friesland, I didn't know about the North Variant though, but I never knew the Germans spoke of West Friesland as a result, since West-Friesland is in Dutch a region North of Amsterdam and not part of the province of Friesland (I know because my ex-wife was born in that region and she's proud of it), but of Noord-Holland.

I am from Noord-Brabant myself, but in the Netherlands we all say Brabant, which is not entirely correct since Brabant is in Belgium (Brussels is located there, although it currently serves a bit like a Belgian version of District Columbia if you know what I mean) and in the current situation the Belgian Brabant is officially split into two due to the Dutch and French "language war". If you wonder where Noord-Brabant is... If you've ever heard of the cities Bergen-Op-Zoom, Breda, Tilburg, 's Hertogenbosch (aka Den Bosch) and Eindhoven, that's all Noord-Brabant.

Okay, I went a bit up in the thread, as that max reply chain length became a bit bothersome ;)

Awww, thanks. 😊 Fascinating, how different people have different names for the same thing and same names for different things. 🤔 Nordfriesland is the area up the coast between Ostfriesland and Denmark - maybe you've heard of the island of Sylt, which is part of that.
I'm not too firm on the different areas of the Netherlands but our teacher showed us around a bit on a map. It was part of the "how to introduce yourself" lecture and I remember a few things. I specifically remember Noord-Brabant because of its closeness to Belgium as my favorite beer is from Belgium - Piraat. 😅
Yeah, sometimes I wish there wasn't a limit on thread length... Especially if you start a longer conversation you keep having to go back and forth and it becomes harder and harder to keep track. 🙈 But there's still no direct message feature on imgflip... 🤷

Haha, yeah that thread limit is bothersome, eh?
"Piraat"... Hmmm... I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to beer, but the Belgians do have a good rep when it comes to brewing beer, so perhaps I should try it someday. Sylt? I must say that I can only memorize the Dutch islands when it comes to the isles in the North. But with a name it's easy to look it up on Google Maps, eh?
I must say that our teacher never really went into the deep of Germany either, but when I was still a teenager Germany was still divided in the BRD and the DDR and most of my geography lessons concerning Germany were therefore about that split-up.. I was taught that Germany has many mini-states though (hence the name "Bundesrepublik" or "Bondsrepubliek" as we call it in Dutch) but they never told me the name of these states.... So I was told what "Checkpoint Charlie" was, but names like "Bayern" or "Nord-Rhein-West-Fahlen" if I spell that right, were things I found out whenever Germany was in the news, and Germany comes a lot in the Dutch news, so I've seen Angela Merkel a lot on TV. You do know who the Dutch leader of the government is? Just trying to find out how visible we are abroad....

Yeah and Belgium is pretty close where I am... When I take my scooter it takes me somewhere around 30 minutes or so to reach the border. And yeah, it's bothersome eh, that you can't DM on imgflip...

Well, Sylt is basically the island of the rich... and the northernmost point of Germany. That's why people may have heard of it, but it doesn't really matter. 😉 Yeah, the split is still a much bigger part of Germany than it should be... People are still devided into "Ossis" and "Wessis", there are still significant differences in basically every aspect of life between the "old" and "new" states. So, don't forget all of what you learned. 😅
Unfortunately, not much news of our smaller neighbors gets to us... It's mostly France, a little Poland and Austria, and at the moment, of course, Britain. I'm sure I've seen the other heads of state at some point when there were EU meetings or something but I couldn't tell you many names apart from Johnson and Macron... I'm not even sure exactly what system you have, I'm afraid... You still have a royal family (although the only one I really remember was Beatrix) but you also have some elected officials but I couldn't tell you who does what. Is your king or queen (if I recall correctly right now it's a king?) considered head of state?

I know that Merkel is not the head of state... Don't ask me the name of your president though, as I really don't know... I think when it comes to power Merkel comes close to Rutte when I compare the two countries, which is always a hard thing.
Well the PVV is in seats the second party of the country now and the only reason why Wilders isn't part of the government now is because none of the other parties even wanted to negotiate with him about a coalition.
I agree... Despite appearances Johnson is definitely a lot smarter than Trump and also knows better how to play the game called politics than Trump does...

When it comes to the German farmer strike... yeah the Dutch news reported about it. Well Germans helping Dutch with a strike doesn't surprise me, after a big demonstration from the entire population of the province of Groningen went on a kind of strike because of the earthquakes due to the gas pumping there, and got help from the most unexpected group imaginable.... Native Americans of the Sioux tribe. Really. They felt sympathy with the people in Groningen due to their own argument with Trump who wants to put oil pipes over their holy ground. So if Native Americans come all the way to the Netherlands to strike with us, Germans don't surprise me anymore.

Yeah, even I don't keep up with the current Bundespräsident... It's just not worth it. 😅
We have that same situation eith the AfD in a few states now... So far, nobody wants to talk to them either... I hope it stays that way.
I had no idea about Native Americans participating in any demonstrations outside of America. That seems like a really nice gesture of them though. I bet they know a lot about the topic. And I agree that after that German farmers supporting Dutch farmers really doesn't seem odd at all. I bet their respective situations aren't too different anyway...

Beatrix? She's the former queen, however she abdicated and she's now a princess again. The current King is Willem-Alexander. Formally the monarch is the head of the state, but his political power is very limited to nearly non-existent. He still signs the laws passed, but he may not make any statements, as that could place one political party over another and the king must always remain neutral. He has more power than the Scandinavian kings/queens who only fill a ceremonial role, but his power is only a tiny bit more.

The leader of the government is the prime-minister. We Dutch people also call him "De premier" (after the french word "premier" meaning "first"). Our current premier often meets with Merkel. His name is Mark Rutte, you should have heard of him. And the Dutch farmers want to block all distribution centres of supermarkets in the Netherlands next Wednesday, and they claim German farmers want to help them (although the judge banned them from doing that, and if they do they'll get a fine of €100000 per location they block, but somehow I'm not quite sure if that is gonna stop them... They even compared themselves to the Jews in WWII and even used the controversial phrase "Wir haben es nicht gewust" and perhaps you can imagine they angered loads of people with that one).

Oh when it comes of Dutch politics... I can't imagine you haven't heard of Geert Wilders. An Irish woman I met here on imgflip calls him Euro-Trump. He's the leader (and only member) of the PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid). If I have to believe the Dutch news the AfD is the German party coming closest to what he stands for.

And when it comes to Britain... If you are fore or against Brexit, I guess nobody can deny anymore that it has become a big joke and a total embarrassment for the UK. I really wonder where that is going....

French news... Well Marcon himself most of all, and of course, the news from the US. So Germany, France, UK, US that's what we hear most about. And on this moment tons of news from Dubai but that was because the most wanted criminal of the Netherlands was arrested there yesterday, so that is very big news..

Yes, I remember something about her abdicating and I've definitely heard of Willem-Alexander before but for some reason I couldn't remember.
Most monarchs these days are basically just ceremonial. Elisabeth might de facto be the most powerful but she doesn't use most of the powers she has on paper either.
Something in the back of my head remembers "de premier" but I couldn't have told you the name. Btw., Merkel is technically not even our head of state. We do have a "Bundespresident" (basically a prime minister but not exactly the same - they're not really elected for example but simply put into office by the leader of the biggest party) who is de facto head of state but has basically the same powers as most constitutional monarchs, which means signing off what others have decided. Angela Merkel is the chancellor (usually the leader of the biggest party, but she has stepped down from that this year). But she is very involved in foreign affairs even though that's not technically her job which is why she's all over the world and on tv so much.
The farmer strike I have heard about and I'm already getting popcorn for what's about to happen there... I don't know if you've heard but we've had a similar deal in Germany a few weeks back where a lot of farmers took their tractors and in groups each drove a symbolic part of the way to Berlin to deliver a package to the government with all the things that bother them. Complete chaos on the roads and they weren't even trying to block anything... 😅
Geert Wilders I definitely have heard of and from what I know he's litetally the Dutch equivalent to the AfD... I hope he never gets as popular as the AfD is here, especially in east Germany (there we go with the east-west-split again). But I wouldn't call him Euro-Trump because in my mind that's already Boris Johnson. I don't know who stole from whom there but they seem like twins, except Johnson doesn't mind looking stupid but is actually a lot smarter and Trump always wants to look smart but is infact not. But the rhetoric is very similar.

Yeah it really happened... The Netherlands got rich due to gas in the ground of Groningen, but winning it causes earthquakes and many people suffer a load of damage now, and since the argument of the Native Americans was about oil, well maybe you get the relation....

I don't know exactly what the German farmers are angry about. The Dutch Farmers are angry about a verdict from the Raad van State (the highest court in the Netherlands) about the emmisions of nitrogen. Some political parties want to solve it by halving the amount of cattle, and well, since many farmers could go bankrupt because of that and they already paid way too much for environmental measures (of which none worked so far) that they are just damn tired of it. Now I agree with the reason of their anger... However blocking distribution centres so supermarkets can't be restocked goes a little bit too far... And the judge agreed on that... However now construction workers want to take over these actions out of sympathy for the farmers (as the Dutch construction workers also suffer because of this verdict) and it's too short now to put that one in court (clever, eh?) So I hope I don't have to go to Belgium to get my food the next few weeks...

Yeah, in Ireland some people refused to believe I wasn't American until I had to translate everything they said to Dutch to my (back then) girl-friend's father whose English was poor at best, and sometimes you don't need understanding of a language to hear that people can speak it fluently. Although I guess I got some kind of a talent... My German is pretty bad, but my German teacher still gave me high marks for my German pronunciation and my French is even worse, but my pronunciation also appears fine.... When I hear the Dutch prime minister speak English then I can really hear a Dutch accent.... terrible 🤣🤣

Yeah, I have a similar feeling towards the German accent... I just can't listen to it. I have no idea why noone has invaded us for our horrible English yet... 😅

Well... I wonder... I heard many (negative) comments on the English and German of the Dutch soccer coach Louis van Gaal... Now I can confirm his English was horrible, but can you tell me how his German was? (Ja, ich glaube dass es schrecklich war, aber vielleicht können Sie dass besser hören als ich.... I hope that try to speak German wasn't so bad).

His German is just as bad, yes. 😅 Yours was better. 😉 But calling someone "Sie" is pretty formal and usually I would consider comments on a meme site informal enough to just say "du" instead. I would've said: "Ja, ich glaube, dass es schrecklich war, aber vielleicht kannst du das besser hören als ich."

Frylân, eh? In Dutch we call it "Friesland"... "Frylân" is the Frysian name, and Frysian is a language on its own (and not a dialect), of which I only know a few words. I live close to the Belgian border myself, so Antwerp is closer to me than Leeuwarden.

Yeah, I like to use their word for it. We in Germany call it Friesland as well. Technically, "Westfriesland", because Ostfriesland and Nordfriesland are both on our side of the border. I don't know why exactly I don't use that... 🤔 Ik denk dat ik gewoon raar ben. 🤷 (Was that right?)

I was choosing the safe road, as my German teacher told me that most Germans feel insulted when you say "du" in stead of "Sie", however, that was 30 years ago, so I guess in Germany things may also have changed by now... In Dutch "u" is the equivalent of "Sie" en "jij" of "du" and I also prefer to be called "jij" in stead of "u", although 30 years ago, that was already a kind of a trend in the Netherlands. I always say that I feel like an old man when people say "u" to me 😁

Yep, it's pretty analogue to the Dutch u and jij. And in the language courses they always tell you to go for the "safe route" and especially older people and, for some reason, the younger generation now as well want to be called "Sie" by strangers. But, like I said, in an online chat situation you'll seem like someone who learned German through a course when you use "Sie" instead of "du". 😉

Well, no point in keeping a secret that I speak JUST A LITTLE German... I am sure I'd also mix "der", "die" and "das" all the time and then I'm not speaking of the cases, but just about the non-genders. "der Mann" and "Die Frau" is easy, but is it "die Hause" or "der Hause" or "das Hause"... I really don't know, but I guess you'd understand me either way, right...

My teacher once told me he was in a German supermarket where he said "du" to a little girl who was outraged. "You may not say "du" to me anymore because I'm already 12!" Or maybe my teacher just that one little whiner you'll find in any country ;)

😅 Yeah, my Dutch is probably just as rudimentary. 🙈
And it's "das Haus". "Hause" is only used when saying "zu Hause" (as in "at home") or "in diesem Hause" (which is pretty antiquated but still used in formal conversations like when I write an email at work to another company, telling them how we do it at our company, i.e.: "In unserem Hause planen wir standardmäßig Teile der Firma Müller ein.")
And don't ever trust anything a twelve-year-old said. 😅 But, as a rule, I would always use "Sie" when contacting people in a work related thing or when talking to service personnel (restaurants, banks, grocery shops,...). If someone there says "du" just go with it. In situations like a concert or festival, in chatrooms, in bars, basically all free time activity I'd use "du". I mean, usually you can tell the stuck up people by their looks and then I'd use "Sie" as well. Also, in general it's the older person who offers the "du" and calling them by their first name (usually in Germany that's basically the same thing - you'd never call a Mark "Sie" or a Herr Schmidt "du").

"das Haus"... Okay... See that shows how "rusty" my German is. But you did understand me, as that's what matters. I'm sure that if be in Germany more or even get myself a German girl-friend or something cheesy like that, I'll pick it up quite easily. It's hard to train yourself in a language when you hardly speak it, right...

Well last time I had to go to the hospital (my gallbladder was removed a few months ago), I even requested the surgeons, nurses and well all the personel there to say "jij" to me and to call me by my first name (which is "Jeroen"... Hard, guess, eh?) For some reason I always feel old when people say "u/Sie/vous" to me and address me with "Mr. Broks" (that would in Dutch be "meneer Broks")... You know that feeling?

Yeah, you learn any language by using it. I'm glad I get to use English so much or I'd probably lose that over time as well... Technically, I learned Spanish, Swedish and Dutch, but since I never use either I wouldn't say "I speak the language"... We used to go to Fryslân each year for a week (sailing), but two years ago I couldn't go, this year it fell through and next year is questionable. I hope I can get back there soon, I really miss it.
Same. 😂 I usually don't react to my last name - even my dad doesn't. 😅 And when people use my first name, they're not really close friends because I usually go by my middle name. 😉

Yeah, it's a very similar issue here. The government is going to seriously tighten a bunch of environmental laws which are - at least according to the farmers - impossible to keep. And while I do think that farmers shouldn't be exempt from laws to preserve what little we have left I definitely don't think they should be the only ones or even the first ones to carry the load. So I can understand their anger and the motivation to support the Dutch (and perhaps other countries in the future) in their very similar efforts. And maybe blocking all the distribution centers is a bit drastic but I also think the protests would have to be pretty drastic to get the government(s) to listen...

Well, the big issue is Christmas... Never will more trucks be leaving those centers in order to restock supermarkets than in this time of the year, so the damage will be great and go into millions, if not billions... That could spell the end of supermarkets in the Netherlands if they had to bring up that much of damage such an action could cause... Not to mention that the supermarkets supported the farmers so they also feel a bit backstabbed by this, and I can't blame them for that....

But I do think now that, although the farmers will still suffer I'm afraid, that we should when it comes to issues with farmers and the environmental issues around their business, needs to be dealt with with well thought-out plans that REALLY work for the longer term, as now it's just one measure after another in a short time... Well, I don't think that's possible for anybody to keep up... And indeed, it's pretty hard to tell the story that farmer have to reduce their cattle by half while they want to expand Schiphol airport even more, while aeroplanes are also big pollution monsters and the pollution caused by sea ships.... damn that's a very big issue.... So they have a point... And they did do a few actions that were better... Like demonstrating on "Het Malieveld" in The Hague and even repairing the damage to that field after the demonstration, and even giving bread with stuff like ham or cheese on them to the public for free... It did win some people for them, but after they broke down the door of a provincial hall (I believe that was in Groningen) and coming up with this blocking stunt... the public support for the farmers is dropping... Surprise, ain't it?

I'll need to see a list of the German measures to see if the German farmers are right, but as politicians are nowhere in the world very keen to handle environmental issues with a well-though-out plan.... I think the farmers are.... Can you blame me?

Well, there just isn't a simple solution. Everybody says it but noone actually seems to understand what it means. We could simply outlaw anything that hurts the environment and contributes to global warming within a day. But everything would simply collapse. I honestly don't know a solution that will make everyone happy and save the planet and anyone who says they do is either stupid or lying. Yes, we'll all have to cut back on our fairly easy lives and yes, it will take a while to adjust, but that has been used as an excuse for far too long now. It's been "five to twelve" for fourty years now and the clock has kept ticking... At some point it is simply too late to prevent anything. At some point we'll have to fight to change things back and it seems we've passed that point...
But how do you convince the people who don't see it like that, which coincidentally are the people in charge? I want to believe it can be done peacefully and constructively... I'm just not sure it'll be enough at this point... Sad, isn't it? 😕

Yeah, that's the issue, eh? Environmental activists don't want to see that you cannot execute 40 years of backlogged actions in less than a week, and some other parties don't want to see something must happen, asap and so nothing will ever happen at all, and both parties are equally guilty for that.... And perhaps it's time now to stop panicking and to think about really working solutions that will work out for the longer term... And in the meantime some things must be done to get symptoms of the situation under control as long as there's no solution, but that doesn't happen either...

Then again, this is how humans have always worked throughout our entire existence, and we've been in very much "5-to-12" situations before, some even more threatening than what we have now, and we always get into the same situation.... Nobody wanting to give in... But in the end we always managed, so I guess we'll manage this time too... the question is... what will the damage be by that time we managed this... :-/

It's just so much easier to just keep building higher dams than to actually combat the reasons for the water rising. And, of course, there's simply no money in saving the planet. It would take a worldwide organization that actually has the power to tell each country what to do, regardless of the cost, but since that would narrow people's "freedom" it's not going to happen. So, different governments will keep discussing what needs to be done and pointing fingers at each other for not doing as much as would be necessary as an excuse for not doing their share. But a central entity taking all the necessary measures sounds too much like communism and communism is the enemy and we can't have that. 🙄 But as long as every country only acts for themselves they won't put enough pressure on their people to do anything because as long as there's even one government that doesn't join people will just move their companies or their money to a country where they can still do whatever they want. The same thing already happens with taxes. Why are there tax havens? If people would have to pay roughly the same taxes everywhere and the earnings were taxed where they were earned each country would have enough money st their disposal for difficult situations like this one. But as long as you can just move somewhere else to save your money from the evil government people will keep doing that. And exactly the same applies to environmental issues. If one country puts laws in place to reduce your emmissions or improve worker safety people simply move to the next country where the government hasn't made those laws yet. And the countries actually doing something to save the planet will keep losing money and won't be able to do much at all... So, people will keep batzling the symptoms instead of the actual problem and all the while we'll keep sliding downhill... I really hope people will wake up and realize what they're doing but I've been watching the downward spiral for too long now to have much hope left...

Yeah, there are many things in which fear to "lose freedom" is in the way. Of course people do not always understand the threat posed by refusing to unite. Someone I knew once claimed that if the Berlin wall was still standing the EU would have been a federal state already. After all the threat posed by the Soviet Union was understood pretty well (the current Russian president poses the same threat, but nobody wants to see that anymore)

And one of the biggest laughs is for cybercriminals. For them there are no borders... Only lines the police may not cross, and so you can't stop them while they are phishing or otherwise threatening us all, and what people fear is the only thing that can stop them... A world union...

Of course, those with power to rule the world can cause devastation when they abuse that power, which is the con of such a world union.

Funny thing is anti-Europe politician Thiery Beaudet makes his propaganda about how a small country could defeat the Spanish in the 80 years war (with the underlying message "and we will fight Europe the same way") but you know what the fun part is.... Back in the 80 years ware there was no country named "Netherlands"... It was nothing more but sovereign counties all acting for themselves who were unified into one county under the lead of Willem van Oranje, which is why he's the father of the Dutch nation, and this unification was back then also hated, and it was even said it would be dissolved once the Spanish would have been defeated. Of course the Spanish were defeated, but the country still existed and would become the Republic of the Netherlands. So in his desperation to defy the EU, he uses our victory in the 80 years war which was only possible because the Dutch did back then, what he's not propaganding against.... Isn't it ironic?

Yup, it's come to a point now where "freedom" is so clearly defined as being seperated from anyone else. I have no idea how people can be blind to the fact that most of their personal freedom comes from big unities like nations or international cooperation. The fact we've had such long lasting peace in Europe was hard work and was only possible by working together toward a common goal. But a lot of people alive today don't remember or have ever experienced what it's like to be at war so they imagine threats that don't exist to their own freedom as an excuse to go back to seperating from everyone else and starting a new cold war or worse. All of these rightwing "freedom" parties these days - the AfD here, PIS in Poland, the PVV in the Netherlands, and, yes, probably Boris Johnson as well - get voted for because people have forgotten what "everybody for themselves" leads to. The more seperated we are the more hard work will it take to keep peace and work on worldwide issues together. Even now basically every nation is convinced they'd be the only ones saving the environment and it will all be useless because the others don't do the same. And basically every nation uses that fear as an excuse to do nothing themselves, thus "proving" the self-fullfilling prophecy of their own propaganda...
Of course, it is difficult to argue for a world government with such an enormous amount of power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Which is why almost all attempts at real communism have thus far failed... But that's just the same argument again. We're afraid that the solution will bring new problems so we'd rather stay with the old problems... I don't have the perfect solution here. But even the discussion of other possibilities is somehow a taboo these days...

I always like to joke about the "PIS" party in Poland, since it's the Dutch word for piss... And I often say that the PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid => Party for Freedom) should rename itself to "PTV" Partij TEGEN de Vrijheid => Party against Freedom).... Yes, people are taken our current freedom and welfare for granted and are protesting and trying to combat THAT what made them great in the first place. Well same can be said for "America First", as the USA became one of the most powerful nations in the world because they are in kind of "boss of the world" interfering with many worldwide affairs...

Yeah communism requires a strong leader to make strong reforming possible, however as they need power that cannot come without curruption communism never came to be and many countries calling themselves "communist" are a violation of everything the ideology stands for, which is the Achilles heel of communism, but I also say that the fact that power corrupts is the reason why nothing but trouble can come from capitalism. You can already see how big companies are often above the law, because of economic interest conflicting with national interest and justice interest, plus the ability to hire the most expensive lawyers who will know every loophole in the law or who are able to confuse the jury (nicely parodied in the episode "Chef Aid" in South Park with the "Chewbacca defense"). So capitalism and communism both turned out to be failures.

But truth is the new solution WILL bring new problems... The perfect world doesn't exist, never existed, will never exist, cannot ever exist. Of course the EU has downsides, but so does Germans for Germany, Dutch for Netherlands, Belgians for Belgium etc. etc. Everybody for their own country. I did once ask... Helmut Kohl was the first human being who got himself a funeral under the European flag... But whenever I ask "Do you see Kohl as a European or as a German" everybody will answer the latter. I guess the European Union may need a father of the nation, like the USA has George Washington and like the Netherlands as Willem van Oranje. But at the same time, perhaps EU nationalism is just as bad as Dutch nationalism or German nationalism or Danish nationalism end so on, und so weiter, et cetera, enzovoorts, so that makes me a bit against a EU father of a nation.

I did once anger people who asked me "sing your anthem" and I began to sing "Freude schöner Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium!". Asked the wrong question! :P

I think everyone joked about the PIS party. 😅
Yeah, Americans have basically always seen themselves as some sort of "world police". I think to some degree it has to do with their strong connection to Christianism and the missionary ideology that comes with it. They firmly believe they are the ones with the best systems of government and belief and they need to save the world by making them conform to their ways... As you might be able to tell from how I just said that, I don't agree with them. 😅
Neither capitalism nor communism are perfect, that is true. I don't know if communism can work since I don't know an example of it working but the same can be said for capitalism. I don't consider what we have now "working"... But the big problem with democracy is that as long as people think they might one day be rich they won't vote for laws that help the poor. The human race as a whole is selfish because throughout evolution the selfish people survived. But these days we wouldn't need to be selfish - actually, it hurts more than it helps - but most people don't see it. Democracy needs everyone to be able to make an informed decision and that doesn't seem to be the reality, sadly. I'm not saying other systems are necessarily better, of course. Yes, a monarchy basically only needs one well informed person to work well for everyone but that means it can just as easily be terrible for everyone when that one person doesn't know how to or want to make the best decision for everyone.
There is a saying I like to quote a lot: Wenn jeder an sich selbst denkt, ist an alle gedacht. (If everyone thinks only about themselves everyone is thought of.) And it seems to be the mentality of many people. Out of fear they might be overlooked they put themselves first to make sure they get what they need. And they don't realize that if everyone does the same we all lose in the end (or at least most of us do).
Helmut Kohl really tried to set an example for a "European Citizen" and he probably thought of himself as a European more than a German. But it seems people only remember him for reuniting Germany and not for the much bigger picture he was aiming for of a united Europe. I don't know if Germans just didn't want to see it or if they're just too used to the focus on their own nation from decades of "Germanic" propaganda - which is all bullshit of course; there was never such a thing as "Germanic" tribes - it was hundreds or thousands of individual tribes and families...

When it comes to battling poverty it gets abstract as it *is* more in the interest of the rich than they think. People who turned crime into a profession are a minority in most jails or people with a criminal record. Many people comited a crime out of desperation. When people are poor and cannot find food or other basic needs to survive, they may need to become thieves in order to get their primary needs. Clyde Barrow (of the famous duo Bonnie and Clyde) made his first steps into crime simply due to very high numbers of poor people in the U.S. as the result of one of the biggest economical crises the U.S. has ever seen.... His murderous attitude later, and constantly being on the run, which would make him eternally famous, was out of fear for the electric chair due to a murder he did NOT commit, and there you see desperation again.... So Clyde may be a nice example why giving stuff to the poor and always being fair in judgment is vital, even when you are rich yourself (it's basically a pity that Clyde is only remembered for his love for Bonnie while he was on the run, making the cat-and-mouse game with the police kind of an extreme love story, while the truth is not so romantic).

What I've also said to PVV-voters, is that the right to vote makes you for a part responsible for what politicians do, and the right to express your opinion is nice and cool, but you'll also have to accept the consequences of voicing your opinion. Made them pretty angry, telling me I was an idiot. This shows... that people only accept the benefits but not the down-sides of democracy, exposing its achilles-heel.... I remember Padme Amedala say in Star Wars: "And so democracy dies under a thunderous applause"... I'm afraid a fictional character made a prediction that may come true in reality.

And speaking of Hitler... He did what populists do. Only saying what people want to hear. Making promises people wanted to hear. Denying true facts about the loss of WWI and its aftermath. And I often say that the most important story of WWII is not Anne Frank, or heroic tales of people risking their lives to defy the Nazi regime (it's still important these stories exist and be remembered, don't get me wrong), but the story of how could WWII come to be. Blaming Hitler is easy, but people voted for him (and the most important question is: Why?) and I'm pretty sure WWII would have happened without him anyway, it may only have had a different course and outcome. Oh well....

...and only fairly recently have they united as a country at all. Especially the Nazis tried to push the notion of a united Germanic folk from prehistoric times on and pushed individuals like Arminius (don't know if you've heard the story) to being idols for todays Germans even though that's not even close to what they actually were... I think, people just want to have an idol they can look up to, which is part of the reason Hitler happened when he did, and also probably part of the reason Kohl is only remembered for his efforts of uniting Germany and not for what he did for Europe. I wouldn't know how to create such an idol for the entire European Union and I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to have one... I mean, the flag is pretty cool and the anthem is awesome (I hate the German anthem btw and I identify more with the Ode to Joy as well), but it seems that's still not enough... Maybe we need to tell people more explicitly what benefits the EU brings us all and what the world looked like before... But I also know teachers have been trying that for decades and apparently still haven't succeeded... maybe we do need a new role model. A charismatic character people want to listen to. But it seems even Greta Thunberg couldn't do it and she is awesome. I'm honestly losing hope in it being possible at all lately...

Well, you speak of Clyde - I was thinking of 17th and early 18th century pirates... Basically the same story and even back then "society" didn't really understand what was going on and since it has happened again and again in varying intensities...
I totally agree that the most important stories about the Nazi time aren't the stories of the brave people in the resistance. Everybody nowadays claims that they would've been in the resistance as well and fought those idiots and how could anyone ever blindly follow such an obviously terrible regime... But that's exactly the point. How did it happen? It wasn't just a few followers and everybody else resisted. Lots of people actually did vote for them and did follow them upto and during the war. And the same will keep happening if we all pretend it didn't happen amd of course we'd fight against that. But guess what: Hitler wasn't the first one. He knew (or had people who knew) what worked the last time or the time before and they used their knowledge of history to manipulate people. We should teach how it must have been for ordinary people. How it must'be felt to live in a war-stricken country with the whole world essentially blaming you for a world war you didn't want in the first place. And then someone tells you they want to rebuild the country, reunite the people and make you feel strong again. They organize all sorts of activities for kids to make friends and learn useful skills. They will help you find work, support communities and in each of these branches you get the chance of becoming someone special, an important person. Don't try to tell me that's not tempting. And that's precisely why it's so important to tell those stories. People didn't just say "Wir haben es nicht gewusst", many really didn't. Of course, that's because at some level they also just didn't care and didn't want to see the horrible things. And a lot if it is also people's willingness to accept the propaganda because it's easier to live with and pretend the other one's are just lying to you.
And this would be the most important lesson to learn for our time. How people can be manipulated, everyone of us, because we're too lazy to ask, too comfortable in our ignorance, too eager to accept the lie because it means we don't have to feel guilty for our actions. Not just with all the populist, right wing parties that crop up everywhere but also with other issues like pollution, global warming, social injustice and inequality, racism,........

Yeah, pirates are indeed in the same league. But if we look at pirates today, in the region of Somalia, the same story applies to them. A country where there's no law and order and a lot of people desperate to make a living and piracy being one of the few options they got to make a living. But we can even draw the parallel to terrorists, like the ones working of ISIS and Al Qaida. I'm not speaking of the leaders of those organizations, but rather about the boys they recruit. Feeling rejected by the western society (and let's be frank, they technically are), recruiters can talk into their misery and poof, you got yourself a new terrorist in the making... Well, reality is more complicated than that, but it is what it comes down to, really...

When it comes to people saying they would fight any new regime that could come for a 3rd World War I must often think of the novel "Oorlogswinter" by the Dutch writer Jan Terlouw (I hope there's a German version of it), where the Dutch boy Michiel, is heavily confronted by the woes of WWII and the threat of the German army, and by accident he gets involved in hiding an English soldier from the Germans, risking his life in the process. Unaware of who to trust, or even to distrust. Terlouw did even want to show that the Germans were not really "evil" is many people thought they were. Halfaway the novel Michiel falls through the ice and is saved by a German soldier. And in the end the most unexpected person, is unmasked as a traitor who had been collaborating with the Germans all along, showing that you didn't know who to trust. And that latter point Terlouw built the entire novel upon, might be the most important lesson of the novel.... You really cannot believe you'd just fight off any enemy in a war, as you can never be sure on which side people are. Even during the war, there were people in the Netherlands who thought Hitler had the right idea... In fact, even after the war, there are... War is always be thought of too lightly... until the day you're in one... I honestly don't know what I'd have done if I were in WWII, regardless of which side I was on back then...

And speaking of WWII, what pains me is that when people speak of the EU, they claim their forefathers (read: the allied forces who fought against the Germans) fought to prevent the nazi's from founding what the EU is about to become... They even beschmudge their ancestors in their ignorance, I suppose.......

Yup, that's what I meant with the many instances it's happened since the 17th century. I probably has been happening even before that.
I think I've heard of that book but I've never read it. Sounds like an interesting read though. I was thinking of "Die Welle" (the wave) - a German book about the topic of how to teach today's kids about how the Nazi regime was able to happen at all. It describes a teacher's experiment to reenact a similar situation with his class and they basically start their own "cult" and figure out how that changes the minds of people inside and outside if that class and in the end it basically gets out of control and he can't really stop it anymore. They also made a movie adaptation of it. (I'm not sure if it was translated into Dutch but I think there's an English version at least.) I think every class should at least watch the movie if not read the book in class because it has some very important messages and maybe that would bring more people towards realizing that it's not that easy to see who is doing what why and that you can get drawn into it even when you technically already know where this is going.

I've looked up "Die Welle" on the Dutch Wikipedia, and all they mention is the movie. I did find Terlouw's book "Oorlogswinter" on the German Wikipedia as "Kriegswinter" and on the English Wiki as "Winter in Wartime"... Well since "oorlog" is the Dutch word for "war" (I guess that was obvious). That book has also been filmed and funny to note is that the actor playing the English pilot is actually an English man and that the German soldiers are actually portrayed by real German actors, and the Dutch roles are preformed by Dutch actors, of course, and Michiel, the main character speaks terrible German and English throughout his dealings with the English soldier and the Germans, which is kinda funny, but also a bit sad, given the situation.
I will certainly see if I can get a copy of Die Welle, either the movie or the book, as it does indeed look like an interesting story and one with a message too....

Now I'm also a writer myself. I write Dutch fantasy novels and if you'd read my work you'd also see me take a kind of a stance against nonsensical politics which could only lead to misery (and quite often that also happens). I also write off some personal traumas in them, though... :)
Too bad I discovered the hard way that you should NOT try to translate your own work to a different language... at least not literature that that... So that's why my work is currently only available in Dutch...

I will definitely look up Oorlogswinter as well. For some reason I really enjoy it when different nationalities in movies are portrayed by people actually from those nations. That's why I liked Inglorious Basterds so much even though it's mostly nonsense. 😅🙈
Funny that you write fantasy... 😅 I have started a fantasy book myself but haven't really accomplished much. I enjoyed building the world a lot more than telling a story in it. Even though I basically had all the main story figured out I only ever wrote about four chapters worth of it down... And I guess it would be boring to read as well as it was basically just one chatacter exploring the world and the different people in it and what different views he picks up during his travels... I don't think I'm any good at telling complete stories... 🙈 But I'd like to read yours. Where can I find them? I'm not sure I'll understand everything but it would be some good practise on my Dutch either way and it sounds like I'd enjoy it. 😁