I am in Germany and I don’t need troll farms to poison my worldview. It’s enough to go to the local school where swimming pool is closed, because there is no money. It’s enough to go to all hands meeting at work to get new location in best cost country presented. It’s enough to try finding specialized doctor and realizing, that my public health insurance allows me to see the doctor in April 2026. I just don’t think it’s the way it should be in a first world country. Obviously something does not work despite people actively voting in every election.
Yes, all of this is true. But it is also true that the poisoned discourse makes things look much worse than they really are.
To reframe it: changing these bad situations is easier than it seems. It’s not easy, but many people feel as if change were impossible.
I believe this feeling of hopelessness is one of the main reasons why political and financial fascists can rise. They yell that the world is falling apart and that they have the (final) solution. Russian bot farms amplify this narrative, helping massively to weaken democratic societies.
This is an information war and Europe has been losing it for about 10 to 20 years.
I don’t know if any change is possible. I definitely can’t repair school, nor make the Deutsche Bahn trains run on time. Health and retirement “insurance” are getting more and more expensive every year. The single thing I can try is to accumulate some wealth despite government squeezing me out. Then get some car and avoid dysfunctional public transportation. Pay doctors by myself and not through failing public health insurance. Buy rental real estate and don’t wait anything from failing retirement system.
There are just too many objective things that can be well measured. Grocery shopping bills, utility bills, payslips. Even job ads for hardware developers like me. I quit television as a teen and newspapers during 2014 Ukraine war. The west makes ruzzian troll farms easy life.
Does democracy still work? I often provoke German colleagues and ask who voted for 5 millions new immigrants into welfare system during last 10 years. Nobody gave me positive answer. So what’s happening? Voters obviously get what they don’t want. Nobody voted for falling apart infrastructure. I started thinking about offroad suspension and tires for my car. I regularly visit my older neighbors and have a chat, old people see the same. And have statistics. They remember the years when there was no train at all. When the train run every 4 hours, when the train came every 30 minutes and when chaos started 2 decades ago. Maybe there are enough internal factors that weaken so called democratic societies and ruzzian trolls are only very minor factor. Deindustrialization in Germany can be seen on plain sight and well paid positions will never come back: https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/news/mercedes-benz-v...
Edit: probably wrong link. Sprinter production goes to Poland. Apparently German production is too expensive.
Germany just has terrible demographics. Fill a country with old people and you get Germany, of course things are falling apart. It doesn’t mean democracy doesn’t work, it just means the elderly are voting for higher and higher pensions at the cost of everyone working.
