Dialog International

German Neo-Nazis Flocking to Putin's Facebook Knock-Off VKontakte

Recently I wrote about how Facebook had come under criticism in Germany for allowing users to post racist and hateful messages against refugees.  Facebook was also being used to organize violent protests.  Things reached a climax when Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and she expressed her concerns.  Since then Facebook has aggressively sought out and shut down accounts with racist content. But that hasn't stopped the neo_Nazis: they found a welcome new home at the Russian socail media site VKontakte or VK.com.  VKontakte is now seen as the "Nazi-Netz":

VK.com ist russischen Ursprungs und behauptet das am schnellsten wachsende Soziale Netzwerk Europas zu sein. VK ist hierzulande offenbar ein Profiteur von Facebook-Flucht – oder von den Aufräumarbeiten, die das Netzwerk angesichts der Hasswellen im Netz begonnen hat. Denn die Plattform scheint unterwandert von Rechts, wie der BR-Journalist Christian Alt festgehalten hat. Nutzer bekennen sich dort in Profilbildern und Beschreibungen nicht nur zur rechtsradikalen Partei NPD, sondern lassen auch ihrer Begeisterung für Adolf Hitler und Ausländerverfolgung freien lauf. Wie Alt schreibt, haben sich bei VK – das in seiner antiquiert wirkenden Aufmachung an Studi- oder SchülerVZ erinnert, auch „Promis“ der „Netznazis“ niedergelassen.

("VK.com was started in Russia and claims to be the fastest-growing social network in Europe. In Germany VK has profited from the flight from Fracebook - by the efforts to clean up the network in view of the wave of hate that had begun. For the platform appears to be infiltrated by right-wing groups, as the journalist Chrisitan Alt has discovered.  The users not only use their profiles to announce their loyalty to the right-wing extremist party NPD, but also openly express their enthusiasm for Adolf Hitler and their hatred of foreigners. The most prominent "Net Nazis" have found a home at VK.")

VKontakte was started by the young Internet entrepreneur Pavel Durov, but in 2014 he lost control of it to a group allied with Vladimir Putin: 

Russian president Vladimir Putin has essentially taken control of VKontakte, the home-grown Russian social network which is that country's version of Facebook.The founder and CEO, 29-year-old Pavel Durov, posted on his VK page that he had finally given up control of the company to two investors allied with Putin, Buzzfeed reported:Generally, Putin has maintained his control of Russia by allowing his allies to control vast chunks of the economy, like Rosneft. This appears to be an extension of that control into social media.Durov come into conflict with the Putin regime back in December, when he refused a request by the FSB (the agency that replaced the KGB) to use VK to spy on its citiziens, according to Bloomberg.

Among the many neo-Nazi profiles on VK.com I found this one (click on image to enlarge):

At Home with Adolf

One of the nice benefits of having a digital subscription to The New York Times is that it also allows access to the vast archives of the newspaper, dating back to the 1850s.  The Times Machine feature also permits you to view actual images of each page of every edition. I much prefer that, since the ads and photographs really transport the reader back in time.  A warning, however: this feature can become addictive.  I sometimes look for a specific article on a certain date and then end up reading the sports, society pages, obituaries etc. and suddenly realize that hours have gone by. And then there are the unexpected things one finds...

The Sunday, August 20, 1939 edition of the New York Times is full of ominous headlines.  Europe was on the brink of war.  Here are some of the headlines from the front page:

"Reich Calls Slovak Troops to Army at Polish Border"

"British Ministers to Meet"

"War Moves Go On"

The Developments in Europe"

"Pontiff Still Sees a Chance For Peace"

And on the editorial pages:

        "Herr Hitler is Testing Europe's Nerves Again"

        "Propaganda Machinery Beats Up Hate Against Poland"

        "Fuehrer Speaks Next Sunday"

        "British Voter Rules Out 'Second Munich'"

        "Appeasement Would Now Be Suicide"

But, turning to the magazine section we find the featured article: "Herr Hitler Alone in the Clouds" with a spectacular photograph of Hitler's "country house", the Berghof. The caption reads:" In a setting of Alpine grandeur sits the Berghof, Herr Hitler's country house."  In this amazing piece of Nazi propaganda we learn much about the "softer side" of the Führer. Was this a misguided attempt of the New York Times to present a "fair and balanced" image of the German dictator?  Or were they simply satisfying the insatiable interest of Americans in the private lives of celebrities.  After all, Adolf Hitler was a celebrity. 

We learn about the tasteful decor of the Berghof:

We learn quite bit about the dining habits of der Führer:

And Herr Hitler likes to take his exercise in vigorous walks in the mountains:

 Was the Führer lost in thought as he gazed towards the east?  Or was he imagining the glorious victories that were awaiting the Reich in Poland and beyond?  The readers would learn the truth in just twelve days.

Movie #Spotlight: Priestly Celibacy and Child Rape

We went to see the feature film Spotlight, in my opinion the best American movie of 2015.  Spotlight is about the team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe who wrote a series of articles that exposed the role of Catholic Church in covering up a massive scandal of priests sexually abusing children.  What I especially appreciated was the way the movie showed the reporters doing their jobs - no heroics, no melodrama - just the hard work of reporting: doggedly interviewing victims and perpetrators, poring over phone directories, hanging around courthouses and lawyers' offices.  And also noteworthy is the role of the managing editor, who, instead of publishing sensational articles about individual pedophile priests, waited until there was enough evidence to reveal the systemic criminal cover-up of crimes that could be traced to the Vatican. The movie is not fiction; read the story behind the Spotlight movie. 

Spotlight also raises the uncomfortable question: why the epidemic of child rape among Roman Catholic priests?  Not just in Boston, but everywhere the Church has a presence - even Germany. One of the characters in Spotlight - a psychologist who works with pedophile priests - states bluntly that Church doctrine, namely the celibacy requirements for priests, is a root cause of sexual abuse of children. 

Church officials and their apologists always deny a connection between celibacy and child rape by priest, but two highly respected German theologians - Hans Küng and Eugen Drewermann - have been consistent in their criticism of the celibacy requirement.  Küng sees celibacy as a contributing factor; it reflects the Church's distorted view of human sexuality:

Nicht zu bestreiten ist zwar, dass solcher Missbrauch auch in Familien, Schulen, Vereinen und auch in Kirchen ohne Zölibatsgesetz vorkommt. Aber warum massenhaft gerade in der von Zölibatären geleiteten katholischen Kirche. Selbstverständlich ist nicht allein der Zölibat schuld an diesen Verfehlungen. Aber er ist der strukturell wichtigste Ausdruck einer verkrampften Einstellung der katholischen Kirchenleitung zur Sexualität, wie dies auch in der Frage der Empfängnisverhütung und anderem zum Ausdruck kommt.

And Küng had harsh criticism for his former classmate and friend Josef Ratzinger for his pivotal role in covering up the worldwide sexual abuse scandal, essentially allowing these priests to move from Diocese to Diocese where they raped other children:

"There is no denying the fact that the worldwide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics was engineered by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger (1981-2005). During the reign of Pope John Paul II, that congregation had already taken charge of all such cases under oath of strictest silence. Ratzinger himself, on May 18th, 2001, sent a solemn document to all the bishops dealing with severe crimes ( “epistula de delictis gravioribus” ), in which cases of abuse were sealed under the “secretum pontificium” , the violation of which could entail grave ecclesiastical penalties"

Eugen Drewermann is a former priest and trained psychotherapist who is not as well known in the US as Hans Küng.  Drewermann has psychoanalyzed the priesthood and written extensively on what he considers the dehumanizing aspects of Catholic Church doctrine.  His seminal work Kleriker: Psychogramm eines Ideals (1991) has unfortunately not been translated into English, but many of his key ideas can be found in A Violent God-Image: An Introduction to the Work of Eugen Drewermann by Matthias Beier (2004). Drewermann sees the celibacy requirement as one component of a cruel system of psychological oppression which, in some priests, will manifest itself in deviant sexual behavior:

"A system which (for centuries!) has forced people again and again to choose between God and the love of a human being - what is this system but a really inhuman and ungodly system, because it is literally loveless and caught up in the purely external structures of power and administration! It is not disloyal priests who were courageous enough to 'lose' themselves to a woman against all the censorship of the superego who need to confess and repent before the system of the Catholic Church, but the Catholic CHurch itself is accused and has to confess before humans (and then also before God) its intentional inhumanity and mental cruelty."

 Pope Francis has shown some refreshing willingness to discuss openly the need for fundamental reforms in the Church.  It is unlikely, however, that priests will be allowed to marry anytime soon.  Until the celibacy requirement is abolished, children will continue to be at risk and lives will be damaged.

My Message to Paul Krugman Concerning NachDenkSeiten

For several years the Website NachDenkSeiten has been publishing translations of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman's columns in the New York Times. 

I sent the following message to Dr. Krugman, who is a professor at Princeton University:

"Hi Professor Krugman,

I follow the German media and notice that your New York Times columns are routinely translated and republished in their entirety in the very popular but controversial Website NachDenkSeiten (www.nachdenkseiten.de).

Here is a link ( I could provide dozens more):

http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/upload/pdf/151030-springtime-for-grifters.pdf

NachDenkSeiten is an anti-American conspiracy Website, which blames the United States for every calamity that happens on the planet. Typically, it is the CIA behind every event – from the WTC 9/11 attacks, to the Ukrainian Maidan protests, to the flood of refugees from Syria.  The content is sometimes reprinted on the Kremlin propaganda network Russia Today (German outlet RT Deutsch).

Nachdenkseiten also provides a forum for “anti-Zionist” activists who routinely question the legitimacy of the state of Israel.

My question is: did the publishers of NachDenkSeiten obtain your permission to reprint your columns?  If so, are you aware of the anti-American, anti-Israel slant of the site?

Best regards (from a big fan),

(DV)"

Dr. Krugman responded that he never gave permission to the publishers of NachDenkSeiten, had never even heard of the site (until now) and will forward my message to the legal department of the New York Times for follow-up.

Albrecht Müller on Russian media outlet RT Deutsch: There is no press freedom in America

We are now officially in the Alice in Wonderland Through the Looking Glass territory when a prominent German writer and blogger uses a Russian propaganda outlet to attack the United States for suppressing freedom of the press. 

Albrecht Müller, publisher of the NachDenkSeiten, has long believed that the United States is the source of all misery on the planet, and that the New York Times is controlled by the US government.  So RT Deutsch was more than happy to provide Herr Müller with a platform to go after the NY Times:  

Die New York Times (NYT) arbeitet auf das Engste mit der US-Regierung zusammen. So unterstützte die Zeitung laut Ray McGovern den illegalen Angriffskrieg gegen den Irak, indem sie z.B. im Auftrag der Regierung gefälschte Hinweise auf ein Atomwaffenprogramm veröffentlichte. Dieser Krieg kostete Hundertausenden Menschen das Leben. Das hält den damals verantwortlichen Reporter, Michael R. Gordon, nicht davon ab, heute desinformierende und bewusst irreführende Artikel zur Ukraine zu schreiben, die Russen und Präsident Putin zu dämonisieren und damit erneut Propaganda zu verbreiten, die einen Krieg mindestens billigend in Kauf nimmt. Seine Kollegen in der Redaktion stehen ihm in nichts nach.

Fast täglich veröffentliche die NYT Falschmeldungen im Auftrag anonymer Regierungsquellen

It is true that the New York Times did some bad reporting in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But to insinuate that the publisher of Pentagon Papers is controlled by the US government is absurd. Exactly one year after the invasion, the New York Times published a mea culpa concerning its earlier reporting on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: 

But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge.

The New York Times was a loud and consistent critic of the Bush administration's Iraq War policy and the War on Terror. 

More importantly, with respect to the broader issue of press freedom in the United States, fully one third of US newspapers opposed then President Bush's push for war with Iraq.  How many Russian media outlets opposed Putin's Anschluss of Crimea, or his active intervention in eastern Ukraine with weapons and troops? None. But that is not important to Albrecht Müller.

 By lending his name and his writing to RT Deutsch, Albrecht Müller spits on the graves of Anna Politkovskaya, Ilyas Shurpayev,Yury Shebalkin,Konstantin Borovko,Leonid Etkind and scores of other journalists - all of whom were murdered by Putin's thugs for daring to report on the widespread corruption in Russia.  And, according to Freedom House, the situation for journalists has gotten much worse following the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine: 

Physical assaults on journalists were reported in a range of Russian regions in 2014. Several reporters investigating the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine were threatened and attacked. In August, Lev Shlosberg, a Pskov-based newspaper publisher and member of the opposition Yabloko party, suffered a serious assault that left him unconscious. Shlosberg said the attack was related to his paper’s investigation into the secret deployment of Russian troops from the Pskov region to eastern Ukraine.

I won't go into the dire position of journalists in Crimea following its "liberation" by Russian forces in 2014.  Suffice it to say that all reporters critical of the situation in Crimea have been either beaten into silence or imprisoned.

But the truth is, Albrecht Müller doesn't really care about press freedom.  He has lost most of his credibility and is seen by most serious journalists in Germany as a conspiracy nut.  To lash out at his former colleagues he has gone over to the dark side - and in the process become a latter-day Lord Haw-Haw.

 

Blogger/Journalist silenced after neo-Nazis threaten his family

The refugee situation in Germany has unleashed a wave of extreme right-wing violence.  I wrote about Til Schweiger's battle against racists on Facebook and the arson attacks on sanctuaries for asylum-seekers. But now it has escalated to attacks on journalists and anyone who sympathizes with the refugees. 

Heinrich Schmitz is a lawyer who frequently bogs about civil rights and in a recent article condemned the arson attack on a refugee center in Freital.  The result was that police received an anonymous call from a "Heinrich Schmitz" that he had just murdered his wife and the body could be found at his home (address was given).  The police broke into his home and informed Schmitz's daughter that her mother had been murdered.  The event traumatized the whole family and Schmitz, in a piece published in Der Tagespiegel, stated he has given up all political commentary: 

Als Bürger fühle ich eine Verantwortung für unsere Gesellschaft und für den Rechtsstaat, die ich mit meinen Kolumnen wahrzunehmen versucht habe. Schreiben, argumentieren und erklären ist nun mal das, was ich am Besten kann. Als Ehemann und Vater habe ich eine Verantwortung für das Wohlbefinden und die Sicherheit meiner Familie.

("As a citizen I feel a sense of responsibility for our society and the rule of law - which I tried to illuminate in my columns. Writing, arguing and explaining- those are the things I do best. But as a husband and father I am responsible for the well-being and safety of my family")

So another voice of reason has been silenced by bullying and threats of violence. Schmitz ends his "capitulation confession" with a scathing criticism of Angela Merkel for "standing by" while neo-Nazi's prevail:

Ich habe kapiert, dass die „schweigende“ Mehrheit der Bevölkerung am liebsten „schweigt“. Dass sie keineswegs mit dem Hass auf den Straßen einverstanden ist, aber lieber hinter den Gardinen steht, statt selbst auf die Straße zu gehen. Dass die Frau an der Spitze dieses Landes das Schweigen zur Regierungsmaxime erhoben hat und sich gerade deshalb alternativloser Beliebtheit erfreut. Dieses Schweigen wird über kurz oder lang zu einem „Schweigen der Lämmer“ werden. Es soll dann nur niemand behaupten, er hätte nichts gewusst oder er habe nichts tun können. Ich habe es oft genug gesagt. Das ist jetzt vorbei.

("I can now see that the "silent majortiy" prefers to stay silent. That they may not agree with the hate on the streets but they'd rather stand behind the curtains instead of confronting the hate on the street. I can now see that the woman at the top of our nation has elevated silence to the maxim of her administration and enjoys high poll numbers. No one can say that they didn't know about this or that nothing can be done about it.  I've said plenty about it - but that's over now.")

Is Schmitz over-reacting?  Are the neo-Nazis just making idle threats?   Hardly.

A couple in eastern Germany who spoke out against neo-Nazis in their village have been given police protection after a fire gutted their barn. Artists Birgit and Horst Lohmeyer live in Jamel, near Rostock - a village that has become a neo-Nazi meeting place. No-one was hurt in the fire. Chemical evidence of arson was found after the big 150-year-old barn was gutted on Wednesday night.The couple had earlier reported harassment by neo-Nazis.Their anti-Nazi stand has earned them national recognition, German media report.

Chemtrails and other conspiracy theories

Die Zeit has a good piece (english, deutsch) on the growing phenomenon of conspiracy theories and the threat that they pose to our open liberal democracy: 

Never before has so much information been available, and never before could so many people state freely what they believe to be true. Everyone can construct their own reality that can shake up the power structure. This is actually good news, because it is dangerous for dictators and despots. But on the other hand, never before has it been so difficult to attain a clear picture out of the flood of contradictory information. Anyone can find confirmation for their own truth and perspective. Rumors and conspiracy theories spread rampantly. We are experiencing an unleashing of thought fueled by conviction, a new kind of culture war.

The absurd "chemtrails" conspiracy is stupid, but relatively harmless.  But not all conspiracy theories are so benign.  The authors discuss the Kopp Verlag and its star (fake) journalist Udo Ulfkotte, about whom I have written extensively.  Ulfkotte and his colleagues at Kopp relentlessly attempt to discredit the mainstream media in Germany as totally controlled by outside forces - the CIA, the Federal Reserve, Jewish bankers, etc. - poisoning the public debate, while getting quite rich in the process.  The result is the Pegida movement, which is now morphing into violence against asylum seekers in Germany: 

What is dangerous in all this is not only the hate that divides society. Danger arises when a conspiracy theory becomes a justification for engaging in violence — when the conspiracy theorist believes that he must use other means to finally open the eyes of everyone else. And when a conspiracy theorist believes that he is not only being persecuted by the "power structure," but will also be eliminated at some point, will he not then attempt to preempt his opponents — and eliminate them first? "In the parallel universe of their forums and hate-filled books, the prophets of the great media conspiracy already now are constructing a wartime situation that leaves no time for thinking in alternatives," says the media scientist Mr. Pörksen. That is ultimately the manner of thinking of suicide bombers.

The Zeit authors are right to point out that conspiracy theories are not just a threat to Germany, but also to the United States:

America is the land of the free, but it is also the land of the apocalypse. Here distrust of authority is a basic institutional orientation. Americans have organized their country so that the individual states have power, and not the elite in Washington. The opinions of individuals are traditionally given just as much weight as the majority opinion. But the rejection of scientific results has another basis. It is the fear of losing control — not only over the world, but also over one's own life.

The presidential campaign of Donald Trump can be seen as a triumph of conspiracy theories.  Trump has been the biggest proponent of the "Birther" theory that President Obama was actually born in Kenya, and therefore not eligible for the office of president.  Now he is winning huge support by stating - without a shred of evidence - that the Mexican government is sending rapists and murders over the border to the US as illegal immigrants.  Fortunately, no demagogues like Trump have emerged (so far) in Germany, but the violence against asylum seekers from Kosovo, Africa and the Middle East - especially in eastern Germany, is very disturbing. 

#NachDenkSeiten now a Russian propaganda outlet

 

 

 

 

Germans who want to know the official Kremlin position on current events no longer have to turn to Russian state-controlled media outlets such as Sputnik News or RT Deutsch.  They just have to log onto to "the critical Web site" NachDenkSeiten.  Over the past year, the influential Web site has regurgitated every piece of misinformation and conspiracy theory published in the Russia-controlled media, often just linking to articles or videos on the propaganda channels RT Deutsch or Sputnik News. It is ironic that the publisher of NachDenkSeiten - Albrecht Müller - is constantly attacking the mainstream media in Germany and western Europe for its reporting on Russia and Ukraine; Müller is fond of using the Nazi word Gleichschaltung (roughly "coordination") to describe Western media:

Wenn ich zum Beispiel des Abends im Heute Journal Claus Kleber über den Ukraine-Konflikt moderieren höre und sehe, wenn ich eine halbe Stunde später den Tagesthemen-Moderator Thomas Roth verfolge, dann kann ich Gleichschaltung am lebenden Objekt studieren: Der Russe ist das böse, der Westen ist das gute. Das Schema liegt fest. Und nicht nur bei diesen öffentlich-rechtlichen Sendern, sondern auch beim Gros der anderen Medien. Was nicht in dieses Schema passt, wird weggelassen. So zum Beispiel Informationen über das Engagement der USA in der Ukraine mit 5 Milliarden $ und mit Militär und die Promotion des jetzigen Ministerpräsidenten durch die USA. Das Böse in Moskau wird mit Hähme überzogen. Nicht berichtet wurde und wird vieles, was darauf hindeutet, dass die neue Konfrontation zwischen Ost und West von westlicher Seite angetrieben worden ist.

But Müller refuses to criticize Vladimir Putin's real Gleichschaltung of the media in Russia, the elimination of all newspapers, blogs, television stations, social media that dare to criticize the government, the murders of Anna Politkovskaya, Ilyas Shurpayev,Yury Shebalkin,Konstantin Borovko,Leonid Etkind and many others who dared to practice investigative journalism in  Putin's Russia - none of that interests Albrecht Müller. 

Müller has consistently celebrated Putin's illegal Anschluss of Crimea by military force, calling it a "reunification" (Wiedervereinigung), but has he has not written one word about the Gleichschaltung of the media in Crimea under Russia's control:

The Kremlin has seized control of the peninsula's media, taking Ukrainian TV channels off the air and replacing them with state-backed Russian ones. In August, Crimea's authorities raided the independent Chernomorska broadcaster, impounding its equipment and computers, and sealing off its building. Elsewhere, journalists have been pressured to toe the Kremlin's line. According to Kyiv Post, an English-language newspaper, the Ukraine-based Center for Investigative Journalism recorded 85 incidents of harassment and censorship against reporters in Crimea during March 2014 alone.

Human Rights Watch has reported that the peninsula's pro-Russian paramilitary groups are implicated in the disappearance of a number of pro-Ukrainian activists. In March, Andriy Shekun and Anatoly Kovalksy were abducted from a train station in Simferopol, Crimea's capital, and held for 11 days in detention where they were beaten and shot at with low-velocity handguns (designed to cause trauma but not kill). Mr. Shekun was subjected to electric shocks on two occasions, according to the rights group.

But none of this will ever appear on "the critical Web site" NachDenkSeiten.  Instead, it is the Western media that deserves scorn for daring to report on human rights violations in Russia (see Albrecht Müller's defense of Russia's persecution of gays and lesbians).  

Fundamentally, Albrecht Müller despises Western liberal society, much preferring authoritarian countries such as Russia, China and Cuba.  Concerning his hero, Vladimir Putin, Albrecht Müller recently told a reporter that "we should be happy that we have Vladimir Putin."

Ich bin der Meinung, dass wir großes Interesse an einer Stabilität Russlands haben.Wenn ich verantwortungsbewußter deutscher Politiker wäre, dann würde ich so handeln und sagen: wir können eigentlich froh sein, dass wir Putin haben. Jemanden, der das zusammenhält, auch wenn es manchen westlichen Interessenten nicht passt.

Oh yes, "Stabilität Russlands"  - how many writers, politicians, artists, minority activists have been imprisoned, exiled, even murdered to achieve this "stability"?

Til Schweiger rages at the racist comments on his Facebook page

German celebrity star Til Schweiger learned the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished:

Schweiger, 51, best known to international audiences for his role as a Nazi hunter in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", had on Saturday posted on Facebook a Hamburg newspaper's appeal for donations to help new asylum seekers.

"My call to Hamburg: everybody take part!!!" he wrote, drawing more than 19,000 "likes" and over 1,000 "shares" on other Facebook pages.

But within minutes the post also drew dozens of viciously racist comments with several questioning why a wealthy celebrity should urge the less fortunate to give money to charity.

"There's room for 1-2 refugee families in your Swiss villa," a Facebook user named Milano Verde wrote in one of the milder entries.

The deluge of negative comments prompted a furious response from Schweiger: "Oh man, I was afraid this would happen!! You make me want to throw up! Get off my page you pitiless people! You make me sick!!!"

Hey welcome to the internet,Till.  

Later, Til blamed the deluge of hateful comments on reality television shows:

"Wir haben eine Menge Leute, die nicht nachdenken, weil sie keine Fantasie haben. Weil sie den ganzen Tag vor dem Fernseher sitzen und in irgendwelchen Reality-Show sehen, wie sich irgendwelche Leute gegenseitig beleidigen, runtermachen, dissen, und das prallt nicht an einem ab. Also ich finde, das deutsche Fernsehen trägt dazu bei, dass die Leute so abgestumpft sind.“

I don't find that convincing. Rather, the trolls are spending day and night on the multitude of conspiracy Web sites - creating a giant echo chamber of hate.

Journalists in Germany Threatened by Trolls and Readers

I often read the reader comments on the online editions of American, UK and German news outlets.  Sometimes the comments are thoughtful, even informative, but most are simply snark and invective.  However, I find the comments on the German media sites especially vicious. In particular, any article or opinion piece dealing with NATO, the United States, Russia or the Ukraine crisis is sure to elicit the most vile and offensive comments.  To be sure, some of these comments are contributed by the Russian troll factories. But most are certainly coming from German readers who are influenced by the many conspiracy sites that dismiss the entire mainstream media in Germany as Lügenpresse - a term used by the Nazis.  A book by the fake journalist Udo Ulfkotte - Gekaufte Journalisten - in which he accuses the German press of being in the pocket of the CIA became a number one bestseller in Germany.  

The result of this poisoned atmosphere is described in detail by Götz Hamann in Die Zeit:  

Die Botschaft könnte vom "Islamischen Staat" stammen: "Man möge ihm die Hände mehrfach brechen oder gleich abhacken." Doch sie stammt nicht vom IS, sondern von einem deutschen Bürger, einem Leser. Er erging sich in Verstümmelungsfantasien, weil er sich über einen Text von Steffen Dobbert geärgert hatte. Dobbert, Redakteur bei ZEIT ONLINE, hatte über Russlands Präsidenten Wladimir Putin geschrieben.

(The message could have come from the Islamic State: "I wish someone would break his hands repeatedly, or just chop them off." But it wasn't from ISIS; it was from a German citizen, a reader.  He reveled in his fantasies of mutilation because he was angry about a piece Steffen Dobbert had written.  Dobbert, an editor of Die Zeit Online had written about Russia's president Vladimir Putin.)

Es kommt sogar vor, dass einer Journalistin mit dem Tod gedroht wird. Nachdem Ronja von Rönne in der Welt einen Essay über den organisierten Feminismus geschrieben hatte, richtete der Frankfurter Pfarrer Hans-Christoph Stoodt die Worte an sie: "Adel ist was für die Laterne. Ça ira, von Rönne." Der Theologe spielte damit auf ein französisches Revolutionslied an, das von dem Wunsch handelt, der Adel möge verrecken, sei es am Baum, sei es auf dem Schafott. Beim Cybermobbing, so der Medienwissenschaftler Burkhardt, gehe es dem Angreifer stets darum, den Betroffenen "durch öffentliche Isolation symbolisch zu töten".

(It also happens that a journalist is threatened with death.  After Ronja von Roenne wrote an essay in Die Welt about organized feminism, a priest in Frankfurt - Hans-Christoph Stoodt commented: "Aristocracy belong on the lanterns. Ca ira, von Roenne." The theologian was referring to a song from the French Revolution, which expressed the desire that the aristocracy would be wiped out - hung from a tree or the scaffold. According toe the media researcher Burkhardt, cyber-bullying has the goal of "symbolically killing"the affected party by public isolation.") 

But maybe it's not always "symbolic" killing.  Recently some journalists in Dortmund received death notices from neo-Nazis, and their private addresses were made public in the hope that they would be harassed - or worse.  '

On a personal note, I am not a journalist but I was recently "cyber-bullied" by Albrecht Müller - publisher of the anti-American conspiracy site NachDenkSeiten - when he published my name, address, telephone number and e-mail address - in clear violation of the German Privacy Law (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz). So far, I haven't received any death threats - Sorry to disappoint, Herr Müller.