12 comments

  • cs702 16 hours ago ago

    The OP is long-winded, extremely convoluted, and completely unscientific.

    It is best described as an opinion piece based upon qualitative insights drawn from a tiny number of unrepresentative samples.

    Nonetheless, I found it a worthwhile read. Its conclusions, in particular, struck a chord with me:

    > ... antidemocratic, racist, and antisemitic sentiments did not vanish when Germany was defeated in 1945 nor when it was refounded as a democratic state in 1949. Instead, they drifted, and acquired new representations they could attach themselves to. In the self-image of passivity and privacy, the analyzed group ... could cling to old antidemocratic, antisemitic, and racist stereotypes without violating the new discursive rules of the Bonn republic. It may have been that this private self-image was eventually conducive for the stabilization of democracy in West Germany. But the question remains as to what it did to its foundations.

  • weweweoo 15 hours ago ago

    Obviously extremist attitudes don't disappear overnight when a regime promoting them disappears. Still, I would prefer to see a comparison to other parts of the world. Were antidemocratic, racist and antisemitic attitudes more common in postwar West Germany compared to other countries?

    What is particularly lacking in research is perspectives from countries beyond Western world. Humankind's history is full of racism and xenophobia everywhere, but most research has a Western perspective.

    • klyrs 14 hours ago ago

      Every study would be better if it were meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. But those cost a lot, and scientists make do with the resources at hand. But I think this study has value in its own right. I doubt this study was the only one looking at these sentiments during that time period; this is just the one that got posted today.

  • bdjsiqoocwk 12 hours ago ago

    I read somewhere a while ago that after Germany lost nothing basically changed with respect to antisemitism, until the US started "denazification" in the late 60s, which encompassed re-educating Germany society that Jews aren't bad.

    No idea if this is true or myth, but fascinating to imagine.

  • lupusreal 16 hours ago ago

    [flagged]

    • dang 16 hours ago ago

      "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

      "Don't be snarky."

      https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

      • lupusreal 14 hours ago ago

        Nope, generalizing an entire country from the opinions of eight fashion designer apprentices is hilarious. It reads like satire of sociology.

        "We interviewed a dozen go-kart attendants in Texas and learned that Americans like cheeseburgers."

        • dang 12 hours ago ago

          Ok, but the point is that you shouldn't be posting low-quality comments to HN, regardless of how bad some study is.

  • akfhgdh 15 hours ago ago

    [flagged]

    • convolvatron 15 hours ago ago

      I find that an odd take, as if the quasi-formal rejection of an objective truth was a disease that spread and flourished in the united state populace. I find them painfully difficult to read too, but isn't it possible that they called it?

      • orwin 14 hours ago ago

        (sorry i can't respond to the original comment)

        > This Frankfurt group (Adorno is mentioned here) brought us the whole postmodernism

        What postmodernism? Frankfurst school is neo-marxist, how can neo-marxists be postmodernists? They were very critical of each other. In fact, while the Frankfurt school, like most Hegelians, see contradiction and negation as an agent of change, Postmodernists (the two who wrote on that, so Foucault and

  • cucubeleza 15 hours ago ago

    they look fun, how can I be friend of them?