by | Oct 27, 2023 | Aggregate
Foreign Affairs
Europe After America
As America grows apart from Europe, where does that leave Germany? An interview with the German AfD politician Maximilian Krah may help answer that question.
Maximilian Krah, 46, is part of the national leadership of the German political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and is a member of the E.U. parliament. During the July 2023 nominating convention of the AfD, he was elected to be the party’s lead candidate for next year’s elections to the E.U. parliament. He is the author of the book Politik von rechts. Ein Manifest (Antaios, 2023).
You open your book Politik von rechts (Politics From the Right) by distinguishing the political Right from other terms that are often used synonymously, such as “conservative” or “libertarian.” What in your eyes is the essence of the Right?
It is the will to live in accordance with the natural order, with both empirical nature and with the metaphysical structure of being that is inherent to nature. This distinguishes 19th century conservatism, at least in its European variant, from liberalism. We believe that from being arises an ought, and we want to live in harmony and identity with that which we are and with creation. That is why the Right is identitarian.
Anglo-American conservatives will be bewildered by this. They often say they are “classical liberals,” which to them means to defeat identity politics and to defend the autonomy of the individual.
First of all, let’s make plain that I seek identity with reality. Leftist identity politics is chimerical. If I were to suddenly say that I’m no longer Maximilian, I’m Melinda now, that would be ridiculous. In other words, for the Left, identity is a code word for something that isn’t there. It’s an attack on reality. The problem with classical liberalism is that it misunderstands the concept of freedom. And it’s a misunderstanding that it shares with the woke. So if I want to be Melinda now, it’s my own free decision. But once we say that Maximilian cannot be Melinda, we draw on a principle that is more fundamental than freedom. We on the Right understand nature normatively, which quite obviously limits our freedom. Once I grant that there are limits to my freedom due to a normatively understood concept of nature, only then do I prevent freedom’s misuse. And only then does freedom become a positive value.
You also write that identity “always also excludes.” Let’s use that statement to segue toward addressing the elephant in the room. By seeking to exclude, for example in its views on immigration, the AfD is viewed by many at home and abroad as the rebirth of National Socialism. Is it?
It’s a giant problem in the Western world today that it cannot bear differences. But we need to learn to like differences. We aren’t all the same. Difference is a gain. Traditionally, Germans have been an innovative, industrious, orderly people. But it’s just as good that elsewhere in the world people have a higher musicality or a higher appreciation for the aesthetic. If we give up on difference, we give up on tremendous wealth. And then we arrive at a horribly mediocre common denominator. But we need the highs and the lows. This appreciation of difference is definitely crucial for right-wing thought, simply because you find difference in nature too.
Regarding the charge that the AfD was the second coming of Nazism: To say “long live difference” means also to accept that others have their own qualities and that we don’t say we’re the best. In other words, the problem emerges when I group people in a hierarchical way by saying: “Our way of life is much better than that of others and that’s why they have to follow our lead.” And so, 20th century European fascism lacked the appreciation of difference. That, I think, is the key distinction and that’s why I don’t think we are National Socialism reincarnated.
Let’s talk about whom to exclude from the European continent. You draw on Carl Schmitt to call for a “Ban on Intervention for Spatially Foreign Powers.” The United States is spatially foreign—so Yankee out?
Geopolitics means that politics is bound geographically. It’s bound to place, locally specific cultural characteristics, to the economy, to natural resources, and so on. In short, it’s crucial to reconnect politics with space and the people that live there. Whereas a politics that doesn’t deal with real spaces and real people, but just with abstract values, is a politics that leads to forever wars. This is what we’re dealing with today. In cultural and ethnic terms, the United States was once a European power. Americans were the descendants of Europeans. By 2045, it will no longer be European.
Which leads to this question: How can a country that is moving away from Europe dominate it at the same time? This question poses itself very concretely in Ukraine. Obviously you see that the United States does not have the well-being of the Ukrainian population on the top of its mind. After all, we are right now sacrificing the Ukrainian youth in this moronic war: a war that could have easily been avoided. Clearly, this war is about America’s ambition to push back against Russia. It is a war for world order. And Washington has effectively taken over Kiev which cannot do anything without American approval. The U.S. finances Ukraine, arms it, makes strategic decisions on its behalf.
Has Berlin also been taken over by Washington? Does Germany operate as a sovereign state, independent of American will?
Berlin is in a different weight class. We are, for one, capable of financing ourselves. But the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines means that the United States has decided that Germany cannot buy its gas from Russia and has simply created a fait accompli. And our government in Berlin knows this and is silent. Is this how a sovereign state acts or a vassal? But I don’t like the concept of sovereignty because it is too binary: sovereign and not sovereign. Whereas I think sovereignty falls along a spectrum. The highest level of sovereignty would mean that you can do as you please without consideration for others. That applies only to the United States, China, and Russia. Thus, if Ukraine would join NATO, Russia would no longer be on this level of sovereignty. Russia is no longer capable of defending itself when there is a foreign power in Kharkov. And so, Russia is fighting in Ukraine for its ability to maintain the highest level of sovereignty.
Germany has never been on this level, not even before World War I. It was always bound up with its neighbors and needed to consider their interests. That was a good thing. It was a mistake to want more. It cost us the 20th century. I like to say “sovereign is the one who has alternatives.” I need to be able to have choices in the most crucial matters, such as energy and technology. Germany wanted to order 5G technology from Huawei, and the United States forbade that. Much of German gas once came from Russia. The United States forbade that. Now we are one-sidedly dependent on energy imports from America. This knocks us down quite a bit on the sovereignty spectrum.
What about the European Union? Do you advocate a “Dexit”?
I do not. Precisely because the world will be multipolar in the future, Europe needs to be an autonomous pole. All states, except the U.S., China, and Russia, can only achieve security through systems of collective security. If there were no European federation, no E.U., no replacement organization, then each European nation would have to seek a security agreement with the United States. A country like the Czech Republic can’t defend itself; nor can Hungary. The experience of the Cold War has taught us that Russia is unattractive.
But I just said America was growing apart from Europe. And we can see in the example of Ukraine that such a security agreement can be pretty sobering. I, for one, would not like to end like Ukraine. Charles de Gaulle advocated for a “Europe of the fatherlands,” whereas right now we have a bureaucratic unitary entity. So, drawing on de Gaulle, I’d say that internally we need as much freedom and sovereignty as possible and externally as many commonalities as necessary. Right now Europe acts chaotically toward the outside and internally it is incredibly centralized. I’d like to invert that.
How should Europe position itself toward the emerging BRICS coalition?
First of all, let’s push back against a widespread misconception on the right, that right now the U.S. is hegemonic and that the only alternative is Chinese hegemony. Even Brzezinski wrote that that’s nonsense. China and BRICS are an anti-hegemonic coalition. So I’d say it’s this way: We either have a Pax Americana, which I believe is necessarily woke and bellicose, or we have no sole global hegemony but regional hegemons instead who rule according to their own local preferences. And I’m not even saying that this latter model is better than the former. It’s just inevitable.
In 1913, the West was 30% of the world’s population; today it is 16%. And we’re aging fast. There are no demographic and economic foundations to believe that the West will govern the world uniformly according to its own universalistic ethos as a Kantian world state. The thing that remains is military power. In short, the multipolar order is inevitable. This means in turn that the E.U. will need to become its own pole and foster relations with others like the United States but also Russia, China, India, and so on. And these need to be mutual relations. We can’t order these states around and tell them how they should live.
I wanted to shift to the domestic policy views of the AfD: The party was founded by liberal economists and some prominent members belong to the free-market Friedrich von Hayek Society. But other party leaders seek to present it as pro-worker. Alexander Gauland said the AfD should “not fall below Bismarck’s social reforms.” You’re often associated with his wing of the party, but in your book you bemoan “the sinister power of the unions” and say the welfare state was throttling growth. Sounds like libertarianism to me.
The German welfare state has failed. It is oversized and its benefits act like a magnet for migrants. We can’t solve social problems with even greater redistribution, which would accelerate immigration even more and thus cause further problems. But privatizing social welfare would cause problems too. The Right has lost elections wherever it ignored the social question. Our novel contribution is that we need to connect the social question to immigration. In other words, we need a model of social solidarity that prevents most of the benefits from going to immigrants. In the AfD we call this “solidarity patriotism” (solidarischer Patriotismus). Current upheavals—such as immigration, A.I., the demographic crisis—lead decent individuals who belong to our people to experience hardships. And they have a claim to solidarity.
Are you concerned about competition from the popular left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht, who is also critical of open borders but is attractive to working-class voters? She will found a new political party, and according to some polls, could attract many current AfD voters. She said she will not collaborate with the AfD, though.
That’s precisely why Wagenknecht poses no threat to the AfD’s success. Wagenknecht and we say that status quo mainstream policies are running this country into the ground. And so we ask Wagenknecht: Are you ready to form a coalition with us? She says no. So everyone should get that she is nothing but a plant of the Social Democrats. We need to communicate that Wagenknecht cannot solve the immigration problem because she is a leftist. Just five percent of welfare recipients are German citizens. The German welfare state already ethnicizes the social question, only that it does that in favor of immigrants. And so, a vote for Wagenknecht would be a lost vote. Our voters know that. I believe that ultimately she will fail.
The post Europe After America appeared first on The American Conservative.
by | Oct 27, 2023 | Aggregate
Credit: Washington Post
The Charlottesville Black History Museum has decided the best way to handle America’s history is to destroy it.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the museum secretly made the choice to melt the historic Robert E. Lee statue, which was the subject of the white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally six years ago.
As the Post notes, groups with ties to and dedicated to defending the Confederacy had sued to stop the monument from being taken down. Most recently, they sought to stop Charlottesville from handing Lee over to the Black history museum, which proposed a plan to repurpose the metal.
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit recommended that the monument should remain intact or be turned into Civil War-style cannons. Alas, the museum prevailed and went forth with their plan to erase American history Saturday in a small Southern foundry outside Virginia.
The Post made the decision not to name the location because they feared violent retaliation.
The paper was able to capture exclusive video of the destruction of the statue. It was cut up into fragments and then placed into a 2,250 degree furnace.
WATCH:
The statue’s defenders more recently sought to block the city from handing over Lee to the Charlottesville’s Black history museum, which had proposed a plan to repurpose the metal. In a lawsuit, those plaintiffs suggested the monument should remain intact or be turned into Civil… pic.twitter.com/D80282TZYv
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 26, 2023
Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue has met its end, in a 2,250-degree furnace.
The divisive Confederate monument, the focus of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017, was secretly melted down and will become a new piece of public art.
More on the process:… pic.twitter.com/XatZUfvku3
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 26, 2023
Participants gloated as they watched the statue melt.
“Well, they can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” said Andrea Douglas, the museum’s executive director. “There will be no tape for that.”
“No cannons,” added Jalane Schmidt, a University of Virginia religious studies professor standing beside her.
The Charlottesville Black History Museum now plans to convert the melted mush into a new piece of “public art.” One would not be surprised if turns out to be woke garbage.
The historical statue of General Robert E. Lee was melted down in a furnace by the Black History Museum in Charlottesville
The melted mush will be used as a new piece of public art.pic.twitter.com/hcnmrvRJPx
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 26, 2023
One can also be sure this action will do absolutely nothing to heal racial tensions or improve the lives of the black population.
The post VIDEO: Charlottesville Black History Museum Secretly Melts Historic Robert E. Lee Statue in Horrific Act of Cultural Erasure – Plans to Turn the Melted Mush into New Piece of “Public Art” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Oct 27, 2023 | Aggregate
People in Chicago are once again protesting the construction of a camp for illegal border crossers.
At a public meeting in the Brighton Park neighborhood of the city, angry residents called out local leaders and implied that the people weren’t even told that this plan was moving forward.
The meeting was full and there was a line of people outside who wanted to get in but couldn’t.
Is it time to send another bus?
FOX 32 in Chicago reports:
‘We said no!’ Tensions escalate at Brighton Park migrant meeting
Tensions escalated in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood during a meeting Tuesday evening over a proposed encampment for approximately 2,000 migrants.
Residents say they only found out about the project when they recently spotted construction crews working at the site. The discovery led to protests, and on Monday, city officials confirmed their intent for the 10-acre vacant lot, located at 38th and California.
“The City of Chicago has been identifying viable sites across the city to construct base camps as an alternative to new arrivals sleeping outdoors, at O’Hare and on the floors of police district stations as winter fast approaches,” the statement from the mayor’s office reads. “The site at 38th and California appears viable, and the intention is to construct temporary shelter at this site.”
The city’s statement confirmed speculation that the site would become Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first “winterized base camp” – after neighbors noticed construction equipment there.
Watch the video below:
Asian-American residents of Brighton Park, Chicago are furious about illegal migrants coming to their neighborhood
87% of this area voted for Biden in 2020 pic.twitter.com/gLfU6TKMVN
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 27, 2023
This video shows the huge crowd outside the meeting, demanding to be let in.
What City of Chicago officials did last night at the “community meeting” to hear from residents about @ChicagosMayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to put his winterized base camp for migrants in Brighton Park was downright deplorable. Thousands of residents turned out and were locked… pic.twitter.com/eRPckLHb09
— Reporter William J. Kelly #thatreporter (@Williamjkelly) October 25, 2023
People in blue cities are now protesting illegal immigration. Did you think you’d ever see this?
The post Residents of Brighton Park Neighborhood of Chicago Protest Construction of Migrant Camp: ‘We Said No!’ (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Oct 27, 2023 | Aggregate
The radical group ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ has chapters at schools all over the country.
At Stanford University in California, the group has issued a list of demands that has to be seen to be believed. One of their demands is that the school provide them with plane tickets to Gaza so that they can go there and grieve properly.
Someone should start a GoFundMe to buy them all one-way tickets.
Twitchy reports:
The Students for Justice for Palestine at Stanford University, along with a couple of other student groups, have sent a letter to the administration demanding that the school “acknowledge and condemn Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza as an international war crime.” The war crime was sending armed paragliders into Israel to slaughter innocent civilians.
Better yet, the students DEMAND “24/7 counseling by specialists in trauma-related mental support for refugees and immigrant students affected by the ongoing genocide in Gaza and confrontations with military-occupation abuse.” Of course, they demand a safe space and counseling — Standford better find those specialists in trauma-related mental support for refugees…
Students want to school to buy them a round-trip ticket to Palestine so they can grieve properly. How is this possibly the financial obligation of the school?
Stanford Palestinian activists have released their List of Demands and it includes some amazing stuff
“Full round trip covered by University upon the signing of a ceasefire for students to visit their family and friends and grieve properly.”
Upon the signing of a ceasefire…… pic.twitter.com/J0HjvTk4vZ
— Max Meyer (@mualphaxi) October 25, 2023
Round trip tickets? No. One way tickets? No problem.
Maybe Trump could use his plane to fly all of these students there and drop them off.
“I hope you know, I am fighting for you, I am fighting for the home that was brutally taken from you”
Rally for Justice at @Stanford #StopGenocide #Palestine pic.twitter.com/LfoQtXrlDG
— Marlon Ariyasinghe (@exfrotezter) October 21, 2023
This entire affair has shown that higher education in the United States is beyond reform.
The post Stanford University ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ Issues Insane List of Demands Including Plane Tickets to Gaza appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Oct 27, 2023 | Aggregate
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced Thursday night the U.S. launched attacks on two bases in Syria used by Iranian proxy forces to attack American troops based in Syria and Iraq. U.S. troops have been attacked several times this month in Iraq and Syria; until this evening those attacks have gone unanswered by the Biden administration. About two dozen troops have been injured in the attacks. A contractor died from a heart attack during one assault. (UPDATE at end of article).
The U.S. strikes come just hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian threatened the United States in English over the Hamas-Israel war in a speech given at the United Nations in New York City.
Statement by Sec. Austin:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III’s Statement on U.S. Military Strikes in Eastern Syria
Oct. 26, 2023
Today, at President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted self-defense strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups. These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17. As a result of these attacks, one U.S. citizen contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place; 21 U.S. personnel suffered from minor injuries, but all have since returned to duty. The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.
The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop. Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.
These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria. They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict. We continue to urge all state and non-state entities not to take action that would escalate into a broader regional conflict.
Earlier Thursday Iranian Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian threatened the United States while speaking on U.S. soil in New York City at the United Nations:
#BREAKING Iran’s Foreign Minister @Amirabdolahian, in his speech at the UN General Assembly, warned the United States that “you won’t be spared from the fire of the war in region” if the Gaza war does not stop.
“I say it frankly to American statesmen: We don’t welcome the… pic.twitter.com/Q1IsSu4tao
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) October 26, 2023
“…Shows that we have always supported peace and security. But today in New York, and the United Nations, I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome to expansion of the war in the region. But, I warn, if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire. It is our home. And West Asia is our region. We do not compromise with any party and any side. And we have no reservations when it comes to our home’s security. The genocide in Gaza must stop immediately. The forced displacement of the people of Gaza must be stopped immediately. Today Gaza is waiting for urgent and vital humanitarian aid. According to international law, the Palestinian liberation movement Hamas is fighting the occupation and has a legitimate right. Mr. President, according to our negotiations Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners. On the other hand, the world should support the release of six thousand Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.”
Transcribed by TGP.
Speaking in Farsi, Amir-Abdollahian said Iran was working with Hamas for Iran to take custody of the non-military hostages as part of negotiations invovling Iran, Turkey and Qatar as mediators to get the release of 6,000 Palestinians being held by Israel.
Hear this 👀
Iranian FM in UN General Assembly speech says Hamas “voiced their readiness” to hand over all the civilian hostages to IRAN who would then negotiate, along with Qatar and Turkey, their release in exchange for the release of 6,000 terrorists in Israeli jails. pic.twitter.com/CnI7HmJPGn
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) October 26, 2023
Video of Iranian drones launched at U.S. forces in Syria earlier this week:
Iranian-backed terror group “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” say they have attacked multiple U.S. bases in Syria (reportedly Al-Tanf and al-Rukban) with HESA Ababil-2 suicide drones made in Iran.
Footage ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/r8F58AI5sB
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) October 23, 2023
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) called on Joe Biden to revoke the visa for Amir-Abdollahian and kick him out of the country for his threatening remarks, “.@POTUS: Revoke his visa now. He is not welcome in America. The United States cannot tolerate threats to our nation from terror-sponsors.”
.@POTUS: Revoke his visa now. He is not welcome in America.
The United States cannot tolerate threats to our nation from terror-sponsors. https://t.co/2gc4uitMAT
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) October 26, 2023
UPDATE: A senior defense official briefed reporters on the U.S. strikes, saying their were intended to send a message to Iran to tell its proxies to stop their attacks on U.S. troops. The official said 2 F-16s carried out the mission on two bases used by the IRGC and their proxies. No casualty assessment has been released. It is not known whether any Iranian personnel were at the IRGC bases. The strikes were not coordinated with Israel and was not directly related to the Hamas-Israel war.
ABC’s Matt Seyler: “NEW from a senior military official: US struck a weapon storage area and an ammunition storage site using precision munitions launched via F-16. The official confirmed the attack sites were Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated facilities, saying, “the people that occupy these locations are Iranian-aligned militia groups as well as IRGC personnel,” but not whether any Iranians were present at the time….”We hit exactly what we were aiming at,” the senior military official said…A separate senior defense official said “Iran is the center of gravity for what we’re seeing” regarding attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. “Iranian fingerprints are all over this.”…More from SDO on Iranian culpability for proxies in Iraq/Syria attacking US troops: “Iran is trying to hide its hand and maintain some level of deniability, and we are not allowing that to happen. We hold Iran accountable for the actions of groups that it’s trained and equipped.”
NEW from a senior military official: US struck a weapon storage area and an ammunition storage site using precision munitions launched via F-16. https://t.co/mGADavjH05
— Matt Seyler (@MattSeyler) October 27, 2023
“We hit exactly what we were aiming at,” the senior military official said.
— Matt Seyler (@MattSeyler) October 27, 2023
More from SDO on Iranian culpability for proxies in Iraq/Syria attacking US troops: “Iran is trying to hide its hand and maintain some level of deniability, and we are not allowing that to happen. We hold Iran accountable for the actions of groups that it’s trained and equipped.”
— Matt Seyler (@MattSeyler) October 27, 2023
VOA’s Jeff Seldin: “Strikes carried out by 2 US F-16s, per the senior US military official…US now says 19 attacks have been carried out vs US troops since October 17 – w/3 new attacks today…US strikes were carried out within the last 1.5 hours, per senior US military official, pressed on casualties “We’ll let the dust settle” per the official, noting “there were people on the target at various points during the day. Again we know that they were not civilians”…”#Iran might see them as linked [to #Israel]-That’s up to Iran” per senior US defense official on #Friday’s US airstrikes vs #IRGC-linked weapons/ammo facilities in #Syria “What we want is for Iran to take a very specific action to direct its militias & proxies to stand down”…Which #Iran-linked groups were hit-“They have certain names one day, another name another day” per senior US defense official “The main message is that it all goes back to #Tehran…#Tehran & #Iran|ian senior leaders are funding arming, equipping, training & directing a whole plethora of militia groups across the region” per senior US defense official “And they have escalated attacks against US forces…which is why we took self-defense action tonight””
US now says 19 attacks have been carried out vs US troops since October 17 – w/3 new attacks today
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) October 27, 2023
“#Iran might see them as linked [to #Israel]-That’s up to Iran” per senior US defense official on #Friday‘s US airstrikes vs #IRGC-linked weapons/ammo facilities in #Syria
“What we want is for Iran to take a very specific action to direct its militias & proxies to stand down”
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) October 27, 2023
“…#Tehran & #Iran|ian senior leaders are funding arming, equipping, training & directing a whole plethora of militia groups across the region” per senior US defense official
“And they have escalated attacks against US forces…which is why we took self-defense action tonight”
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) October 27, 2023
The post Breaking: US Bombs Iranian Proxy Forces in Syria Hours After Iranian Foreign Minister Threatens US on US Soil in United Nations Speech appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
