Stop playing Nazi games - Margarete Stokowski's column

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Green Sarah-Lee Heinrich: Of course there is a dilemma

Photo: Kay Nietfeld / picture alliance / dpa

Theoretically, the Sarah-Lee Heinrich case could have worked out very quickly: The 20-year-old, who was just elected spokeswoman for the Green Youth, wrote problematic tweets as a teenager, but has since said that she was sorry for them. Among other things, she had used “disabled” and “gay” as an insult, written “Heil” under a swastika or that she wanted to sweep all white people out of Africa with a broom.

"Yes, I would also prefer if I hadn't written so much stuff on the Internet when I was 14," wrote Heinrich, and that she had deleted some tweets in the meantime. So you could have said: Okay, should she do better now. But because it doesn't work out that easily, Heinrich has been attacked and threatened for several days. The Green Youth announced that because of death threats, Heinrich would “withdraw for a few days for their own safety”.

Everything about it is normal in a very uncomfortable way: it is normal for people to tweet things that are inhuman, it is normal for people to be insulted and threatened.

Normal in the sense of: happens every day.

What is particularly unpleasant, however, is that in 2021 still not enough people understand how hunted down by right-wing extremists and right-wing extremists on the Internet work and how not to participate.

In fact, hatred on the Internet does not affect everyone equally

It is not surprising that right-wing extremists and right-wing extremists pounce on Heinrich's tweets.

At most, it is surprising how few people who are actually not right-wing learn when it comes to right-wing campaigns.

It is actually clear that this is about a campaign and not a few accidentally emerged tweets: The tweets that Heinrich are now accused of are sometimes six years old. You only have them ready so quickly if you have collected them. A more recent quote that Heinrich is accused of is from 2019. At that time, she spoke of a "disgusting white majority society" on a talk show. But she had already apologized for that in 2019.

Of course, right-wing extremists and right-wing extremists don't care much. AfD politician Georg Pazderski called Heinrich a "racist and anti-Semite". Maximilian Kneller, Junge Alternative NRW, called her “deranged” and shared a tweet from Heinrich in which she wrote to someone “I want to burn you” and “all men are shit”. The fact that the tweet is from 2015 is not without a certain irony, because in the same year Kneller resigned from the chairmanship of JA NRW after he called a young liberal "slut" on Facebook and wrote that he would "definitely be the worst." Miss Hatefuck «.

When people talk about so-called hate online, they often say: Hate online can affect anyone.

That's true in principle.

In fact, however, it does not affect everyone equally.

Benedikt Brechtken from the Young Liberals is known to like to create stress on Twitter.

When he was temporarily banned because he had written, among other things, that Kubicki should be stoned and that he would like to kill Rosa Luxemburg, he was allowed to write about it in the »Welt«.

The teaser read: “Benedikt Brechtken is the young liberal with the widest reach on Twitter.

Again and again he was blackened by network investigators. "

more on the subject

Anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist tweets: The outrage comes too late A comment by Janne Knödler

If Sarah-Lee Heinrich were a young liberal, she would probably already have an offer for a Springer column as a wonderfully politically incorrect young talent, but she is a Green. A Green politician, a black woman who fights against racism. Without question, it is quite stupid as a spokeswoman for the Green Youth to use the same Twitter account at the age of 20 that you used at 13, knowing that you did problematic things with this account at the time.

So there is now also talk of the media skills of young people, of course. The »Tagesspiegel« reflected on »what the Sarah-Lee Heinrich case tells about growing up in the digital world«. Result: The internet never forgets and you have to learn to deal with it. In the »taz« it was said that »today's young people« are »not to be envied because the network forgets nothing« and that the Greens should have paid attention to it beforehand. And at »Zeit Online« it was found that the discussion on Twitter is characterized by »mercilessness, lustful misunderstanding and malice«.

Speaking of coined: Far too little is talked about the fact that the whole topic was even set by right-wing extremists and right-wing extremists. Nobody seriously doubted that the tweets of Heinrich, who was 13 or 14 at the time, were wrong - but the fact that they are still being talked about days later is because too many people are still too keen to play Nazi games on Twitter. Sure you can talk about the social media competence of 14-year-olds, but you can also talk about that of adults. Media literacy does not only mean looking what traces you leave behind on the Internet, but also not joining in with every nonsense.

Of course there is a dilemma: those who show solidarity run the risk of drawing even more attention to the case.

You can't get out of that.

But you don't have to contribute to dragging the debate out forever.

Some found it appropriate to share what they'd done even when they were 13 or 14.

You can do it, but it doesn't help, except maybe a few likes for what a crazy kid you were.

One could slowly see through the mechanisms

If there is a digital hunt against a young left black woman, with the participation of politicians and journalists, then this is actually not the time to discuss what rubbish you did yourself when you were 13 or what internet skills Young people need or whether it is really a sensible demand to lower the voting age.

That doesn't mean that one should be silent, but slowly one could see through the mechanisms. Right-wing extremists and right-wing extremists collect screenshots or video excerpts that are suitable for a shit storm and then publish them at the moment when a person is supposed to get a new job, for example. Soon the first Springer media took up the topic, a few hours later came the “NZZ” think piece on “the social significance of the affair”. More serious, left-wing media are following suit and reporting, et voilà, Nazis have set a topic again.

You can then clearly remember that Helmut Kohl was in the Hitler Youth as a teenager, that Philipp Amthor had a problem with corruption and was then defended by his party with "He's just young." That the Junge Union regularly produces scandals with Holocaust relativization, Wehrmacht songs or sexual harassment. You can also write halfway self-critically, as in the »Stern«, that »we all revolt with great pleasure« and that's just how it is in »the society of rebels«. Or you write that you are not participating in this at the moment, and "get upset about the excitement because you find it ridiculous and driven by baser motives" ("Zeit Online").

You can do it all that way.

But you should be aware that you are playing a game that those who started it are especially happy about: It is a Nazi game by Nazis for Nazis at the expense of a young black woman.

At a time when people have to cancel events because of right-wing agitation, have to move - or are killed.

Yes, of course, this column also extends the debate again.

But in the hope that maybe next time a few people will consider whether they absolutely have to use the moment when someone is exposed to right-wing agitation for a few likes.