Widespread Prejudice and Intolerance in Europe

The good news is that Germany is a model of tolerance compared to Hungary and Poland.  The bad news is that intolerance towards immigrants in general and Muslims in particular is widespread throughout Europe.  These are the findings of a comprehensive study by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) that was recently published.  The study examined attitudes towards different racial groups, gays and lesbians, Jews, and women.  The results are pretty depressing across the board and the political implications are alarming.

The study can be downloaded in pdf format in both English and German here.

More than 50% of Germans expressed anti-Islam prejudice, while the percentage in Poland, the Netherlands, and Portugal was even higher.  The overwhelming majority of Poles and people in Hungary agreed with the statement that "Jews are taking advantage of the fact that they were victimized during the Nazi period," and even 48% of Germans had similar anti-Semitic views. Intolerance of gays and lesbians is especially pronounced in Catholic Poland, while 30% of Europeans across the continent believed in a "natural hierarchy of races."

What does this strong evidence of prejudice and intolerance mean politically?  Large segments of the population are especially susceptible to right-wing populist rhetoric (witness the celebrity of Thilo Sarrazin in Germany and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands).  There is a strong dissatisfaction with democratic institutions and parliamentary maneuverings coupled with a deep desire for a "strong leader" who stands above the political parties.

"According to the study, citizens are not fundamentally disinterested in politics but feel subjectively detached from the political system. Gains made by right-wing populism show that citizens are blaming immigrants, Muslims and other minorities rather than directing their ire against the established political system. This underlines the need for intervention and prevention strategies to combat the collective formation group-focused enmity directed against “the others”. Taking the challenge of increasing diversity in Europe seriously at the political level also means acknowledging that all members of society need political participation and involvement."

Just what these "intervention and prevention strategies" might be is not mentioned in the study.

Comments

[Hattie]

Huh. Well, that's too bad, but we can't point with pride to our record of race relations in this country either.

[David]

Hattie,

That is true, but Europeans consider themselves more enlightened than Americans. This study proves otherwise.

[Volker]

"Jews are taking advantage of the fact that they were victimized during the Nazi period,"

In what way is that anti-semitic? You can argue about if this is true or not, you can even argue that many who hold that view are in fact anti-semitic, but you can't say that everyone who thinks that way is just being racist.

Btw. using a cover of a well known satire magazine isn't really helping your case.

[dz alexander]

"Jews are taking advantage of the fact that they were victimized during the Nazi period,"

In what way is that anti-semitic?

Read the study --
// Group-focused enmity is widely disseminated in Europe. It not a phenomenon of the political margins but an issue at the centre of society //

"Group focussed emnity"
If you were to criticize, for example, particular examples of exaggerated reparations demands, or of evoking the Holocaust to silence criticism of present political actions, that would be different.
Unfortunately, the expression "anti-semitic" has itself become a political football.

[Zyme]

A strong leader that frees us from the political establishment? When? Where? I volunteer for carrying out the imprisonment of our current leaders! :-)

The developments in Europe make a lot of sense I would say. The native peoples are fed up with cultural changes and are becoming ever more assertive. Just what will become out of this, nobody knows.

[David]

"The native peoples are fed up with cultural changes and are becoming ever more assertive."

Just who are the "native peoples". The Hungarian and Greek Jewish Sarkozy,perhaps? Or the Huguenot Sarrazin clan?

[Zyme]

I would rather not count on the minorities ;-)

A good bet instead would be to look at the biggest homogenous groups!

[Attie Schutte]

Zyme: You mean the Han-Chinese of course; they are indeed the biggest homogenous group. Except in Tibet, but that is changing fast as they are selling "diversity" to the Tibetans. I am not sure of there slogan but I would go with: "love diversity, resistance is futile".

As for the study not finding prevention strategies, why did they not ask me? I have great ideas, example: 1) Take a thousand primary school boys and ask them to dress as girls and then hug an African. Every child that refuses clearly has a psychological/cultural inherent "biased". To correct this connect electrodes to there frontal lobes while they are forced to scream "hate the hate…kill the fascists" repeatedly and force-march them in egalitarian epileptic solidarity marches. I should probably not make jokes with lunatic ideas on a leftist blog because next week I might just read a newspaper and wonder: where do these fools get these stupid ideas. LOL