I wish that for 2022.
“Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently.” At the turn of the year we should remember that the Corona crisis does not cancel this important principle, formulated by Rosa Luxemburg. The deletion of the SWR “late shift” with a controversial contribution by Lisa Fitz from all media fits just as little as the ban on the demonstration #peaceful together in mid-December, the initiators of which firmly promised compliance with the Corona requirements and in the run-up to possible right-wing free riders clearly delineated.
This applies completely regardless of the fact that Lisa Fitz has exposed herself to legitimate criticism through a (willful?) Misinterpretation of EMA data on vaccination effects, and regardless of whether I share the concern of #peaceful together or how I find individual contributions to the Corona debate . By the end of 2021, we may have gotten too used to the fact that freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are subject to an increasingly broader reservation.
We shouldn’t get used to it. We should again conduct an open discourse in which fundamental criticism also has its place – and thus can be publicly refuted if necessary. And where other people don’t see opinions as a threat, but rather as an asset. Caution is more advisable where the separation of powers and the rule of law are called into question, as by the former chairman of the Marburger Bund, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, who mocked the “little judges” who have to pass the verdicts on corona measures. Or if higher health insurance contributions are required for unvaccinated people, as by the Bavarian Minister of Health, Klaus Holetschek.
Our society is deeply divided. It was before Corona – and it is even more so now. Anyone who thinks they can dismiss this split, for example as a small splinter of an otherwise homogeneous, stable wooden board – I read this parable on social media many times – is wrong. The task is bigger. Relentlessness increases on all sides. On some of the so-called walks of the action critics, it turns into violence. Right-wing groups pour fuel on the fire and want to benefit from the split. It is all the more important to make the debate more objective again.
I have decided to invite the neighbors to Corona discussion groups in my constituency offices in Tempelhof and Marienfelde, of course taking into account infection protection, because I have learned that there is a great need for discussion. I want to try to meet all the opinions that are presented there without prejudice. One can only get smarter through an open exchange of views.
Dr. Alexander King has been a member of the Berlin House of Representatives since December. Before that he was district chairman of LINKEN Tempelhof-Schöneberg.