Greek MP Lapavitsas on Grexit | 294 comments (294 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

by Katrin on Wed Mar 18th, 2015 at 06:15:56 PM EST

That is actually worth it. I'm in tears.

by generic on Wed Mar 18th, 2015 at 07:05:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Incredibly Twitter is exploding with idiots who take this stuff seriously. Even Varoufakis seems to have forgotten how many fingers he has. People have been fed with the idea that satire is the same as inciting hatered of minorities and can no longer understand it. Hey, the guy has a message on a media hype, not on fingers!

by Katrin on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 05:41:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (none / 0)

Meh, I choose to believe it is real and not a fake fake since it is a lot more fun that way. Of course in the end it doesn't matter.

by generic on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 08:38:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (4.00 / 3)

The last sentence of the "statement" is the real important one. And I see no one is commenting on the background photo, which is a doctored version of a rather infamous photo, with heads replaced and a middle finger in place of a Nazi salute. The original was made in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in August 1992 and the drunken local who pissed his pants made the salute to cheer on neo-Nazis attacking a refugee home.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 12:06:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (4.00 / 4)

The last sentence of the "statement" is the real important one.

And, checking the quite extensive MSM reaction, the most ignored one... still, Böhmermann really up-ended the ruling Fingergate narrative.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 01:22:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (none / 0)

Looks like we found the German equivalent of John Oliver.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 03:25:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (none / 0)

This John Oliver? Whom did he troll in a similar manner?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 03:48:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (none / 0)

I Just used Oliver as a stand-in for fake-news satirist from English-language television (such as John Stewart).

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 04:07:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (4.00 / 4)

Ah. As a pop-cultural aside, in the late 1990s-early 2000s, there has been a quite successful German version of The Weekly Show (Die Wochenschow on Sat1, which made stars of people like Anke Engelke), and later comedy shows used its style at least in segments. But IMHO Böhmermann's trolling of the MSM was a different class.

What it reminded me of was a different piece of satire: the book Er ist wieder da (= "He Returned"), in which Hitler suddenly wakes up in late 2000s Berlin, and although modern Germany is a cultural shock for him, he aims to return to power by becoming a TV demagogue (with everyone believing he is an actor). The MSM and the media-obsessed political class of the Berlin republic only became worse since then.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Mar 20th, 2015 at 03:42:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (none / 0)

Heh, he made me think of a German John Stewart! Encouraging...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 20th, 2015 at 12:17:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (none / 0)

I find that earlier, Böhmermann was ordered by a court to pay a fine to the photographer who shot the Rostock-Lichterhagen photo, because he violated copyright by tweeting it...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 02:37:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For more tears (none / 0)

There are no copyright exceptions for satire in Germany?

by Upstate NY on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 04:14:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The last sentence (4.00 / 2)

I was having trouble understanding the last part of that last sentence, so I tried to transcribe it. Luckily, it's also in Spiegel: Böhmermann legt noch mal nach: Ein Fake ist ein Fake ist ein Fake

Niemals würden wir die notwendige journalistische Debatte über einen zwei Jahre alten, aus dem Zusammenhang gerissenen Stinkefinger und all diejenigen, die diese Debatte ernsthaft öffentlich führen, derart skrupellos der Lächerlichkeit preisgeben.

We would never so unscrupulously expose as laughable the necessary journalistic debate over a two-year-old, out-of-context middle finger and all those who have conducted this debate publicly in all seriousness.

The fact that in German the "expose the laughability thereof" naturally goes at the end of the sentence contributes significantly to the impact of the statement, of course.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 03:24:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The last sentence (4.00 / 2)

I think leaving most of it at the end works better in English, too:

We would never expose the necessary journalistic debate over a two-year-old, out-of-context middle finger as well as all those who have conducted this debate publicly in all seriousness to ridicule in such an unscrupulous fashion.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Mar 19th, 2015 at 03:54:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: the finger again (none / 1)

I note that this video already contained a passage where Böhmermann made the aim of his satire clear, beginning at around 7:49 in. Transscript of the original and edited English subtitles:

Es trifft aber wirklich ein Nerv. So sind wir Deutsche halt. In einem Jahrhundert zweimal Europa verwüstet, aber wenn man uns den Stinkefinger zeigt, dann FLIP-PEN WIR AUS. Dann kennen wir keine sachlichen Diskussionen mehr. Wenn uns ein Griche den Stinkefinger zeigt, dann FLIPPEN WIR AUS. Denn wir sind Deutsche.		But it really strikes a chord. But that's how we Germans are. Devastating Europe two times within a century, but GOING NUTS when somebody's giving us the finger. Objective debate is then out of question. When a Greek gives us the finger, we totally freak out. Because we're Germans.
Lieber Redaktion von Günther Jauch. Yanis Varoufakis hat Unrecht, ihr habt den Video nicht gefälscht. Ihr habt den Video einfach aus dem Zusammenhang gerissen, und einen Griechischen Politiker am Stinkefinger durch den Studio gezogen, damit sich Mutti und Vati abends halt schön aufregen können: "Der Außländer. Raus aus Europa mit dem! Er ist arm und nimmt us Deutschen das Geld weg! Das gibts ja wohl gar nicht! Wir sind hier die Chefs!"		Dear editorial staff of Günther Jauch, Yanis Varoufakis is wrong, you haven't doctored the footage. You simply took it out of context, and gave the Greek politician the runaround by pulling on his middle finger, so that in the evening Mom and Dad could pursue their passion of being outraged: "The Foreigner. Ot of Europe with him! He is poor and takes away the money from us Germans. That's just not possible! We are the bosses in here!"
So, that's what you did. Und der Rest ist von uns... [Lächeln]		So, that's what you did. And the rest was our contribution... [smile]

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Mar 21st, 2015 at 04:36:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Greek MP Lapavitsas on Grexit | 294 comments (294 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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