The need for a scapegoat is great

by time news

The good news first: Most Berliners reject a dictatorship and are fundamentally convinced of democracy. This is the result of a study by the University of Leipzig on behalf of the Senate Department for Anti-Discrimination. Now the bad news: 23 percent of the Berliners surveyed want a single strong party that embodies the national community as a whole. A fifth thinks that the Federal Republic is dangerously foreign to the large number of foreigners. A fifth also thinks that politicians and other leaders are only puppets of the powers behind them. Just as many believe that the Corona crisis was talked about big so that few would benefit.

In Berlin these numbers are slightly lower than in the whole of Germany. And they show that the vast majority, namely 73 percent, are “all in all satisfied” with democracy as it exists in Germany. For 79 percent, it would not be a problem if their children married a partner of a different skin color.

But there remains a large, not to be neglected part that thinks folkish and racist. In addition, racism also occurs covertly and is not necessarily reflected in surveys. The proportion of people who are susceptible to conspiracy theories is also worryingly high. At the moment it is Corona for them, for which they blame obscure dark forces. Anyone who believes this does not have to be a right-wing extremist. Conspiracy beliefs reach deep into society. Yet, as the study correctly noted, conspiracy mentality is a gateway to right-wing extremist and anti-democratic attitudes. The old need to find a scapegoat for all evils is still great – not only among classic neo-Nazis.

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