As of: March 27, 2024, 1:00 p.m
By: Andreas Steppan
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The threatening symbol of the gallows is one of many examples of a culture of discussion that has slipped, comments Andreas Steppan, deputy editorial director of the Tölzer Kurier.
© Imago/photo library
Symbolic gallows are set up at demonstrations, government employees need police protection, and the boundaries of what can be said are shifting.
This makes the democratic search for compromises more difficult.
A comment from Andreas Steppan, deputy editorial director of the Tölzer Kurier.
“The tone is getting rougher” was the title of an article in our newspaper recently.
Mayors from the southern district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen reported on their working conditions.
The tenor on site was that personal hostilities were still limited.
Threatening imagery and defamatory posters
Nevertheless, it cannot be ignored that there are some very worrying social developments.
The mayor of Markt Schwaben resigned after massive hostility in connection with a planned refugee accommodation.
In Warngau, Miesbach district administrator Olaf von Löwis had to leave a citizens' meeting under police protection, where he was met with the anger of many citizens over a planned refugee accommodation.
The Tölz district administrator Josef Niedermaier reported in an interview with our newspaper that there were repeated police operations in the district office because authorities employees were being severely attacked.
Others use the threatening imagery of the gallows during demonstrations without any scruples, on which, in their view, whoever and what they don't like should hang.
Or they choose the body weight of female politicians in order to defame them on posters on the federal highway.
Agitators benefit from negative emotions
The even worse gaffes on social media and user comments on websites are not even mentioned here.
So many things have become possible to say that people wisely refrained from saying a few years ago - at least in public.
The aggressive tone that some provocateurs and agitators have deliberately brought into the debate because they benefit from social division and negative emotions is being transferred and is increasingly crossing the threshold from virtual to real interaction.
Everyone should think briefly about who is actually being served by making general comments about “the state” or “the system” and covering their representatives with agitation or threats.
Everyone is responsible for the success of the state
In any case, it is counterproductive when fewer and fewer people agree to take on political office because they do not want to endure the personal attacks.
When you refrain from making objective, thoughtful discussion contributions on the Internet because you have to fear hate messages.
Or when the district office has to isolate itself more in order to protect the life and limb of its own employees.
Then the constructive search for compromises that defines our democracy is at risk.
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Instead, our community would benefit from the insight that “the state” is all of us and that each individual bears responsibility for its success.