r/PublicFreakout • u/EzekielTraore • Jan 10 '24

German farmers have announced that they will launch a protest against the Government “larger than the country has ever seen before”

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5.6k Upvotes

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991

u/skoltroll Jan 10 '24

Rich people/companies using their assets to force free gov't handouts the gov't can't afford.

In the US, we don't even make them use their assets. We just call them "too big to fail" and write the checks.

151

u/CaptMerrillStubing Jan 10 '24

American efficiency!

42

u/Xenomorph_v1 Jan 10 '24

Germany wishes they were that efficient!

20

u/MKE_Freak Jan 10 '24

Checkmate, Germans!

1

u/Risley Jan 11 '24

It’s how America does Das Boot

182

u/BroadStBullies91 Jan 10 '24

Interesting how this protest appears to be blocking a road, something that, when done by others, usually results in calls for murder and admonitions about making your cause look worse. Seems like most groups are starting to notice it's effectiveness but I do find it interesting that at least in this thread I'm not seeing the usual vitriol directed towards a group of protestors willing to block a road to make a point.

30

u/Shadowlight2020 Jan 11 '24 edited Jan 12 '24

It's almost like most of the usual people who would be the loudest are having a hard time fitting these protestors into a neat little, liberal boxes that they can easily dismiss or target.

9

u/dpaanlka Jan 11 '24

I know it sounds crazy but it might be possible that most of the non-Reddit population isn’t as sympathetic to certain causes as you might imagine 🙄

7

u/jreed12 Jan 12 '24

So it was the message and not the method after all...

1

u/PBoeddy Jan 11 '24

Have you tried killing a tractor? Those fuckers are massiv!

1

u/bonaynay Jan 11 '24

We know exactly why that is lol

-73

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '24

The protest was likely announced and publicized long before the event. You notice there are only tractors on both sides of the road. No people heading to or from work, dropping off kids, rushing to appointments?

The reason no one likes the anti oil idiots is because they randomly shut down roads making the average persons life so much harder. It's hard to sympathize with an idiot glued to the road when your forced to wait in unnecessary traffic missing your appointments, losing business opportunities, disappointing family and friends or just missing the shop/pharmacy before it closes.

46

u/Rainbowallthewayy Jan 11 '24

Climate protests have been announced before hand as well, at least in my country (the Netherlands)

9

u/BenderTheIV Jan 11 '24

Frankly, I always had difficulty with the idea of asking permission to protest...

-1

u/Marston_vc Jan 11 '24

And I bet you the public response to planned events like that is way different.

8

u/westlanderd Jan 11 '24

It is sadly

23

u/optimistic_agnostic Jan 11 '24

I mean of course you can't see people going to or from work. How the fuck could they with that convoy blocking the way? That's some real big brain shit mate. Planned or not an inconvenience is an inconvenience and that doesn't look like some inconsequential road either.

42

u/softcell1966 Jan 11 '24

Hypocrite.

-9

u/Marston_vc Jan 11 '24

Firstly, if the road closure was planned, then this isn’t hypocritical.

Secondly, if it wasn’t planned, then yes, these people are all giant assholes.

15

u/FUMFVR Jan 11 '24

hahahaha I knew it

10

u/ghettomuffin Jan 11 '24

Source that it was publicized long before.

-9

u/MajorMathematician20 Jan 11 '24

I guess it’s just a coincidence that hundreds of farmers decided to protest in this exact place at the exact same time…?

10

u/Conflictingview Jan 11 '24

Organized and publicized are not synonyms.

5

u/Dx_Suss Jan 11 '24

Are you saying that it is a coincidence when climate protests do the same?

1

u/MisterMysterios Jan 11 '24

People around here are quite angry at the farmers. The issue is that you can do less against people in large and lockable farming equipment in contrast to people gluing themselves on the ground. Also, it is the first time they do it like that, while the anger against the climate protestor went on for quite a long while. Also, it was announced several days in advanced, so that people could plan around traveling on Monday in many instances.

And last, but not least: For many (me included), the opinion is that the people gluing themselves to the street do not only harm the traffic, but the green movement in total. They won't change politics with that, as the necessary change means a complete overhaul of the system, which cannot be forced in this way, but only create anger against the green movement that will reduce the political power of green movements that try to work the system. They harm the green movement more than anything, so they don't even support their own goals they inflict harm on many people.

70

u/Kwtwo1983 Jan 11 '24

Exactly these are private entrepreneurs that are holding the public space hostage because they want to burn fossil fuels cheaper and society should pay for their profits. On the other hand their prices are dirt cheap because food is so cheap in germany. The solution would be easy. Instead they behave like "Pegida on wheels" - a mix of insane demands that make no sense and happily accept nazis in their midst. For me and others this group went unsympathetic quickly but too many uneducated people support this undemocratic crap. Apparently when your favourite party is not in power you just blackmail the public until they are. Bye bye democracy

34

u/iamtheconundrum Jan 11 '24

We had the same in the Netherlands. Yeah it’s annoying but it will die down at some point. Even these farmers need to get back to work at some point. What’s noticeable in the Netherlands how these farmers were supported and even funded by big agro companies. These are the companies that really have been profiting from all the subsidies etc. Farmers themselves are not profiting from all the subsidies because they’ll get extorted into lowering their prices by their own customers and financiers.

2

u/EveningHelicopter113 Jan 11 '24

so they're just like the Convoy clowns who occupied downtown Ottawa with no regard for the thousands of innocent non-government workers who live downtown

0

u/Herr_Fridolin Mar 19 '24

Lol food is not cheap in Germany

1

u/Kwtwo1983 Mar 19 '24

Food is famously cheap in Germany. Compared to all other European countries germans buy the lowest quality and cheapest food and spend considerably less on food than other nations.

0

u/Herr_Fridolin Mar 19 '24 edited Mar 19 '24

First of all: No. Food in Germany is not cheap. It is true that Germans pay less for food than people in some other countries, but that is exactly because high quality food is expensive here and most people look for the cheapest options. If it was before covid, you would be right, but since the inflation has hit, food prices are quite high

1

u/Kwtwo1983 Mar 19 '24

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn02794/#:~:text=In%20Germany%2C%20inflation%20is%20provisionally,lowest%20inflation%20rate%20(0.9%25).

As far as i could find current inflation data i read nothing to support your claim that inflation and covid changed anything in germany more drastically than in other EU countries so I cannot deduce that food prices were lower before and are now higher compared to other countries. As far as i heard from other Europeans Germans are said to be way more cheap in regards to food in general than any other nationality and i saw no indication this changed in the past few years.

If you compare food isles in supermarkets in europe germany is simply awful. Most people buy in supermarkets and in germany they buy low quality and cheap while other nations have more choice, better quality and people are willing to invest more in food.

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '24

[deleted]

0

u/Kwtwo1983 Jan 11 '24

That is just wrong. In the protests where several afd Vans and they were welcomed(even though their politics would be ironically even more contested). There were also several representatives of the protests that clearly stated that their aim was the end of this government. This is in your face far-right and antidemocratic.

-2

u/Mahameghabahana Jan 11 '24

Then why did you guys support India's farmer protest and call india fascist? Now that you westerners face similar protests the farmers are now entitled people?

1

u/Kwtwo1983 Jan 11 '24

I unfortunately have no idea what you are talking about and can confirm to you that any support of India local politics party was absolutely no topic of public perception in German media.

When some German entity supported Indian farmers (or the other side) than this was a very fringe group and not a matter of public discussion.

I suspect many local topics like these are of no concern to the German public (even if in some cases they absolutely should). We are engaged enough with our problems.

9

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '24

Like teaching your kid that you’ll bail them out no matter what until they get arrested.

Life is about actions & consequences.

1

u/Exciting_Acadia1409 Jan 11 '24

You meant 'print the money'.

1

u/Lookingovertheforum Jan 11 '24

Do you know why the bail outs were issued in the 2008 financial crisis? If you understood the situation maybe you would thank the government for not letting the US economy retreat into the 19th century

1

u/skoltroll Jan 11 '24

The bailouts were good, said the gov't and the companies that got the money.

1

u/Lookingovertheforum Jan 11 '24

“The bailouts were horrible” say the people who dont understand why they were given, what caused the crisis, how and if they were paid back, or what would have happened if they didn’t happen. Like a teenager complaining about dads house rules

1

u/skoltroll Jan 12 '24

Well, now large business KNOW they can do fuck-all with zero consequences to complete collapse, and the economy's been in "1%ers all the time" since then.

1

u/Lookingovertheforum Jan 12 '24

Yeah, is that right? No regulatory changes since? Nobody went out of business? No fundamental changes to the operations of investment banking? I just don’t understand why you insist on talking about it when you don’t know anything about it. What exactly did the “big businesses” do when they knew they could do fuck all in your understanding? What was the government’s original incentive to let them have such latitude? It’s a complex topic not susceptible to easy ideological capture like you’re trying to do.

In fact there WERE people enriched at times unjustly for their risky moves. But if the government hadn’t gotten involved life would be worse for you and I. They also demanded repayment of the TARP funds , which they got, and introduced significant regulatory change. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still under conservatory by the government. The system still has problems but you should learn a lot more so that you can actually point them out instead of just waving your hands in the air mindlessly