American reacts to Germany's MANY Political Parties

[@hjhuber7929]

The S In CSU stands for "Social" not "Socialist". Quite a little difference...😅

[@fabiansaerve]

Even if it was socialist it wouldn’t matter. The CSU is against fundamental Christian values (the og values like Nächstenliebe, Vergebung, Gleichheit) and not even close to social.

[@andrear.4030]

BIG difference.

[@alessandrof.1359]

kleiner Unterschied D:

[@purrpurr6618]

for most of the americans, even democrats, the eaquation is like this: social = socialist = communist = satan

[@magicleo3505]

Wer kennt sie nicht immer diese CSU leute auf ANTIFA demos

[@ralfsstuff]

Confusing "social" and "socialist" is such an American thing.😅

[@SoneaT]

Yeah I'm always flabbergasted, bc all of them do!

[@ralfsstuff]

@@SoneaT Not all but absolutely. It's annoying beyond belief. Mostly when it's used to fuel Strawman argument.

[@SoneaT]

@@ralfsstuff yeah and ignorant.

[@miriamweller812]

It's not that Europeans are any better. Most peopel here don't know the difference, same for what political left and right means. Many here believe that left is about a strong state that takes your stuff, while left simply stand for equal rights and worth of humans in contrary to right that is all abot elitism, abotu an elite ruling over the petty masses. Leads to germans voting for right wing parties all the time against their own goods - and this includes the Grüne and the SPD, which are like the US Dems, just having that image of being the social, left wing party, while being the same shit as the Reps.

[@theyabib3323]

we need socialism though

[@arleccio]

You can be social without being socialist. You can be socialist without being communist. You can be US American and still know the (subtle) differences. ;)

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Yup. And so far we managed to include socialist ideas pretty well, without falling into the communist dictatorship trap.

[@fabiansaerve]

Well being social is part of being a socialist. And socialism is a wide spectrum of different ideologies. In Latin countries like France, Spain or Portugal the social democratic parties (like SPD) are still called socialists. So it’s not that easy either. But in case of CSU it’s very easy. They aren’t even social to begin with.

[@arleccio]

@@fabiansaerve I didn't say you can be socialist without being social. But we do live in a society. We're social creatures. Somehow the US has taught its citizens that the very word denotes the wirst possible world you can live in while forcing unfettered capitalism down their throats like it's the healthiest and tastiest thing with no downsides ever. The CSU might not be the most social oriented party ever, but they're more socialist than the average US American knows how to deal with. And we're slowly drifting their way.

[@Mike8827]

And you can be conservative without being fascist . Looking at you, MAGA republicans!

[@nevillelongbottom7687]

@@HappyBeezerStudios WEF much

[@modtec1209]

Hears "social" thinks "socialist" 10/10 american points scored for today, lol.

[@sockosophie3132]

everyone knows that muricans have no political education :D

[@hattinah6176]

There are even more parties, but we also have the "5 % rule" which means in an election the party has to get at least 5% of the vote to earn a seat in the parliament. So many of the smaller parties don't get 5% and don't make it to parliament. It has advantages and disadvantages to have so many parties. You can find someone who aligns better with your own views. But also the parties who do make it to parliament often don't have the majority and have to compromise. Like the "Ampel Koalition" = "traffic light coalition" is SPD (red) FDP (yellow) and Greens (green). They have to find a lot of compromises to make new laws and policies. Which is sometimes seen as betrayal by their voters.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

5% or 3 direct seats.

[@annekekramer3835]

In the Netherlands the only minimum we have is that you get one seat. That is 1/150th of the votes, or around 0,67% of the votes. And yes, that sometimes brings problems, especially if those parties never ever want to be party of a coalition, that makes forming a coalition a lot harder.

[@annekekramer3835]

But still a lot better than only having two options.

[@somederp8915]

@@HappyBeezerStudios True, the left was at 4.9% and would have dropped a ton of seats if they wouldn't have gotten the 3rd direct seat. Once the 3rd seat is secuted, you get an proportional share of seats, even if you are below the 5% hurdle.

[@arturobianco848]

Well at least you know you never will get what you voted for. Wich means that peeople who feel betrayed are exceptionaly stupid. Disappointed ok that i can understand. I m dutch and a long long time ago i voted on D66 they had a nice program with 2 things in it that i really was not in favor for, a chosen major and an elected referendum. They got in goverment and went yeah. they compromised and dropped evrything except for those 2 points. I didn't feel betrayed but now i knew what there priority's where. Needless to say i never even voted for them again. Democracy only work by doing the right compromises and its up to voters to decide if they do a good enough job. If not choose differntly next time. I voted on plenty of party's that i didn't really like but where good governing party's. So the kept the country healty and stable if not exactly moving where i thought the country should move to.

[@cdhagen]

I have never understood why in the US every fast food place has 20 different soft drinks to choose from, but at the same time only 2 political parties... 🤔

[@ruvik1256]

The powerful and capital owners want to stay in power and not share too much, so it‘s convenient to have just two parties. And why are there too many products? It‘s called capitalism and consumption. They numb the sheeple with a lot of cheap addictive food and promise them a better life as long as they vote for dogshit policies that are against the ppl‘s own interests. This is why Republicans are successful: they promise you an ideal America that never existed and build up enemies you can shout at while you’re stuffing dogshit into your body. Fox News and others poison your brain to spend your time thinking about other women‘s wombs instead of health care.

[@westelaudio943]

You could easily merge all the German parties into two, and no one would even notice any difference. SPD, Linke (former East-German "unity party"), Greens -> Dems. The CDU and FDP would make up the more milquetoast, compromised (if you will,) faction of the Reps (many of them might as well be Dems), while the AfD would be the more hard-line Reps. So in reality you only have two options as well. At least you can usually tell a Rep from a Dem by views alone, while you cannot do the same or members of the Greens and the SPD, for example. The same is true for all other old world countries with a similar parliament.

[@TheFeldhamster]

Look up the video by cgp grey about the first past the post voting system - which is what the US uses. This system always ends up with two parties over time because smaller parties are basically driven out by the system automatically.

[@wiggle1957]

There has to be a video out there explaining the difference between social and socialism, esp. for american viewers, influencers and people in general. If not, please someone create one and we all boost it till everybody has seen it :)

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

And the difference between liberalism and libertarianism. ad just as much as social and socialist parties have a long history in Germany, are the FDP in the tradition of a long line if liberal parties.

[@rainertuominen4242]

Yes indeed. Social is nothing more controversial than "related to the society" , something that probably applies to nearly all parties (unsure of the Donald Duck party if found also in Germany...)

[@y4playiny4self]

There is far too much propaganda a out there regarding this, especially in the USA. The key difference is simply that a social democracy supports capitalism while democratic socialism doesnt.

[@flibflob2785]

@@y4playiny4self Eh, social democracy is a form of democratic socialism. It has slowly devolved into this pathetic neoliberal CDU-light party but originaly the social democrats were simply reformist socialists in contrast to revolutionary socialists.

[@marcomobson]

​@@HappyBeezerStudios Calling the FDP a liberal party is misleading euphemism! To put it short, it's mainly a neo-liberal party. The rest is populism...

[@MUC-35]

And for your question about the coalition’s names: Great Coalition (also referred as GroKo): CDU/CSU + SPD (the two traditional big parties) Ampel/Traffic light: SPD (red) + FDP (yellow) + The Greens (green) Jamaica: CDU/CSU (black) + The Greens (green) + FDP (yellow) So that are just the names given by the different colors working together. So you can might derive from that the coalition, which is referred to.

[@baronbrummbar8691]

you forgot kenya ---- and German coalition (both are just extensions of the groko)

[@sheevpalpatine1105]

Also: RRG or RotRotGrün: SPD (Red) + Die Linke (Darker Red) + The Geens Kenya: GroKo + Green Deutschland Koalition: GroKo + FDP Sozialliberale Koalition: SPD + FDP (the governments of Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt are notable examples) Kiwi Koalition: CDU + Green (state government of Baden-Württemberg, NRW and Schleswig-Holstein)

[@MegaManNeo]

And all of these coalitions suck.

[@remmidemmi496]

@@MegaManNeo Too much negativity sucks without offering a serious alternative. What's your dream coaition then?

[@hansmuller1846]

Knowing "all the people" isn't that bad, usually you know the 2 or 3 parties you kind of relate to, and often it's not very personalized either (people talk more about what "the greens" or "the liberals" are doing than their representatives)

[@Backfisch64]

I agree. If it were about the political figures, I probably wouldn't vote at all because I don't really like the candidates most of the time. I don't really like the personality of politicians in general, so finding someone I actually like is pretty hard.

[@arnewengertsmann9111]

@@Backfisch64 How was that saying. No one who wants that job, should have it?

[@tim47758]

@@arnewengertsmann9111 @Arne Wengertsmann was genau soll "how was that saying" bedeuten? Englisch ist es zwar von den Wörtern her, die Grammatik ergibt allerdings weniger Sinn. Meintest du vllt "how was that meant" oder "what are you saying" (wobei man hier eher "what are you talking about" sagen würde)? Die andere Sache ist, niemand hat gesagt das man den Job nicht haben kann wenn man ihn will. Tatsache ist aber, wenn dich keiner mag, weil deine Persönlichkeit, welche du in der Öffentlichkeit Preis gibst, einfach unsympathisch ist wird dich auch keiner wählen. Da einige Menschen eben all jene die an der Spitze der Parteien stehen unsympathisch und/oder nicht vertrauenswürdig finden, gehen sie eben gar nicht wählen (was ja theoretisch auch ihr gutes Recht ist, bringt dann aber evtl. auch diejenigen an die Spitze, die du am wenigsten leiden kannst. Wenn viele sich denken sie gehen aus diesem Grund nicht wählen, die stimmen summiert aber wahrscheinlich zu einem ganz anderen Ergebnis geführt hätten). Sonnige Grüße ☺️☀️

[@tim47758]

@@Backfisch64 But is it important that you find someone where you think he is friendly or isn't it much more important that you vote someone who can try to help our country in questions like "how can we reach the climate target", "how can our social system be made to run properly so it's fair for everybody" or "how are we solving the problem of too few educators, teachers, hospital stuff and professionals". Sometimes you have to pick the least bad option so that the bigger idiots don't have to say. Otherwise you can get a Trump at the top and we all know where this could lead 😅☺️

[@arnewengertsmann9111]

@@tim47758 Es sollte bedeuten, wie ging das Sprichwort nochmal: .... Mit dem Wählen hab ich persönlich kein Problem. Da ich hauptsächlich Programme und keine Persönlichkeiten wähle. Schöne Grüße

[@gecgoodpasi1654]

One of the more interesting things in our politics compared to america is that these parties have to form a majority with eachother so they will actually "win" as a group not alone which means we usually got a decent mix that runs the country instead of 1 party that might make drastic changes

[@tigriscallidus4477]

And still there will be a single chancellor which has no maximum time they can be elected, which is quite strange in a country with such a past

[@NoMementoMori]

@@tigriscallidus4477 one thing that has to be understood is that the german chancellor has BY FAR less powers than an american president. Its mostly explained as the equivalent to the US president for conveniences sake, however really isn't in terms of legal authority.

[@tigriscallidus4477]

@@NoMementoMori still definitly a flaw, when you can have a Führer for an unlimitef amount of time. And angela Merkel had at least enough power to get rid (on a political level) of most of her political enemies.

[@wolftrem4206]

Technically they do not have to form a majority. It is possible that a minority government is formed. It simply hasn't been done on national level, but has seen some success in regional governments

[@Justforvisit]

@@wolftrem4206 Yeah, but every other political party would have to agree on that, and how likely is that when they can already smell the cake for themselves? A great comparision is the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie where they held the pirate vote for who shall become the new King of the Pirates and everybody votes for themselves. You know it takes a VERY SPECIAL Jack Sparrow that would NOT vote for him- / herself :D

[@francescogallina2559]

Every democracy have more than two choice. Usa system is so far from democracy in every social aspect. Job regulation, healtcare, cult of country, etc.

[@bentchristiansen8795]

and i would say that more than two choices is called freedom .. not locked into two like lemmings

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

And it's hard to change that. Those in power would like to stay in power. So the two parties that have success do what they can legally do to keep the status quo.

[@plainText384]

It's one of the reasons communist single party state aren't really considered democracies, even if you ignore corruption and voter fraud. They only had three choices "for the party", "against the party" or not voting at all. The US is barely better, since third parties are somewhat of a joke.

[@Medjed-pi5pw]

America is far superior to Germany in general. I'm German btw

[@atomanni-k5m]

its not good it leads to minorities having way more influence than the number of their voters

[@hellkitty1442]

If you want to learn more about political parties in Germany, I suggest the video from the Black Forest Family, an American couple living in Germany. Ashton is doing a great comparison of the American and German systems using ice cream. ;)

[@michaelburggraf2822]

Oh, yes, I strongly support your recommendation.

[@Fred2303]

That was a really great video and it is worth watching for sure!

[@MarabuToo]

Hi, Ryan, your frequent mention of the "traffic light" and the "Jamaica" coalitions wasn't really addressed in the video, so... -In Germany, traffic lights have three colours, red/yellow/green, and the current government has been formed as a coalition of the "red" Social Democrats, the "yellow" Free Democrats and the Greens. -"Jamaica coalitions" are between the Greens, the Yellows and the "Blacks" - the colour associated with the two Christian parties, who, when they were founded, were basically seen as a party for the black-frocked Catholic clergy.

[@rosetoren3881]

"for the black-frocked Catholic clergy". 50 years old and today I learned, thank you.

[@jackiegerlach]

Also the parties have to form coalitions 'cause you have to have more than 50% of the votes. And in germany, that's just not possible for only one political party

[@huffelpuffwerewolfgirl5811]

Then we have 1. The "Groko", wich stands for "Große Koalition" and means big coalition. Made from the two largest parties CDU/CSU and SPD Then we have the Afghanistan Coaliion made on the GroKo parties plus the greens

[@NeoLetsPlay]

No, the catholic party was and is till today the "Zentrumspartei" (party of the political center). The CDU/CSU were formed as an alternative to that for all christians...

[@GamesbiteRtDL]

The Green Greens?

[@Robertmaus]

A huge difference with the US voting system is that all votes count. It's not 'winner gets all'. Every party gets roughly the percentage of seats that that percentage of people voted for. That's what makes this many parties coexisting possible.

[@Jackmaaaan]

So the reason we "only" have 5-6 parties in the parliament is that they have to reach 5% of the votes to get a seat there. Or 3 direct votes in their electoral districts

[@usernamenotfound80]

Unless your party represents a national minority. That's how the SSW got one MP.

[@olgahein4384]

Yep, that's how we got several years without the FDP and despite the CDU being in power, at least financially it were good years. Now they are back and everybodies wallet should have noticed by now.

[@Zero_Aquila]

@@usernamenotfound80 SSW - the most importent partie in the bundestag

[@Pidalin]

We have the same system here in Czechia, it is also 5% and many parties had like 4.8% after elections, so many votes are wasted. We have 7 parties in parliament now, I think it's record, today coalition is made from 5 parties which is pretty crazy, but it somehow works because if this coalition will not work, far right party or populists can make a government or it could lead to new elections (which would populists or far right probably win because of energy crisis and war in Ukraine) so parties of so-called "democratic block" have to keep their crazy coalition, nobody believed it will survive more than 1 year. 😀

[@matthiascerebri3315]

@@Pidalin in Austria ist normally 4%

[@JorlinJollyfingers]

The Bertelsmann Foundation "Bertelsmann Stiftung" is a lobby organisation located on the neo-liberal/conservative spectrum. Just to keep in mind whenever watching/reading something from them. You can see that in the visual presentation of the parties and the music used. But other than a subtle bias, the description is quite correct.

[@Homunculusable]

Auch wenn ich spät dran bin: Danke, dass du diese wirklich wichtig Info eingegeben hast!!!

[@dragons4thchild]

We have helping tools to choose who to vote like the "Wahlomat" (play on words which incudes "Wahl" vote and "Automat" (vending) machine). Its a program that asks you on certain current politcal topics simple "do you agree or do you disagree" questions and then suggests suitable voting options.

[@m.h.6470]

oh boy... if you rely on the wahlomat for your vote, you shouldn't vote at all! The wahlomat is based on what the parties are promising, not what they actually stand for. So many parties tweak what they "promise", just to get a lot of positive results in the wahlomat.

[@iwilltubeyouall]

@@m.h.6470 you seem to forget that for a coalition with another party you have to go through compromises. Only stupid people think that the parties "don't follow promises".

[@hero_jonashdjp9562]

Pov: 40% AFD I would never vote for them xD

[@stella_s]

@@m.h.6470 you should always read what the different parties actually *say* about all the statements. look at many different opinions for each question, and make up your own mind on the topic. wahlomat can certainly be a useful tool, but you have to use it well

[@thomasmuller9368]

According to "Wahlomat" you can get results like choose between MLPD (something like Karl Marx, Lenin Party) and AFD (fare right party). I'd say the Wahlomat is just for fun and maybe to look into some smaller parties that you do not know.

[@Karl_der_Genosse]

I don't know if you read this, but one suggestion: A lot of your questions could be easily cleared up if you were livestreaming. You could either have Chat clarify stuff for you or even do something like a reverse Q&A, picking random people and asking them questions about Germany. Your channel (just like every channel talking about Germany) has attracted a lot of Germans which would make this format possible and maybe help in creating a nice community. Just a thought. Anyway, great video!

[@HalfEye79]

One big problem is that people often vote for a specific party for the one reason, that they always voted for them. They don't acknoledge, that the parties could change.

[@kuessebrama]

Yeah you are right. I was voting for the CDU but they got to hard left that i cannot vote for them anymore. So i voted for the FDP but they get more and more left too and insteat of trying to stop the SPD and die Grünen that they don't destroy our country they are mainly on their side. I need to make a decision next time and i think i will make a decision that i never wanted to do.

[@Pidalin]

That's what I like here in Czechia, when some classic old big party is not liked in this period of time, voters will just remove them from parliament for few years to let them think about what they did wrong. Our the oldest political party (social democratic party) which exists since 19th century always had like 20%, but now, they had less than 5% because of their last leader was just totaly stupid and they did everything wrong during pandemy, so people switched back to our the biggest right wing party and also voted for many smaller and newer parties, like pirates. And some projects from the past disapeared completely, like green party, they are considered just green version of communists and nobody votes them, they are leftist extremists by opinion of many people. Some people (mainly far right) say this even about Pirates, but they are more like center and they are 100% democratic, they vote about everything, there is no some boss who makes all decisions like in some other parties, which I like.

[@LeChuck1717]

@@kuessebrama so what is it you dont like about "left"? I dont think left and right is the same as it was in 1960. Its basically just words now. I vote rather for the parties Wahlprogramm, then if someone 60 years ago said we are left/right.

[@olkoamnesiahaze4all219]

Richtig

[@2eanimation]

​@@kuessebrama Lack gesoffen? CDU hard left? Hold my "kleine Paschas".

[@Matriarch456]

in the Netherlands we also have many political parties we also have something that's called " kieswijzer" that would translate to "voter guide " it sums up what every party stands for but also has a questioner where you can answer many questions on where you stand on issues and it will give you the best party's for you . that's very useful for voters who haven't made their minds up and who are not really interested in politics .

[@berndhoffmann7703]

3:37 it was social or social democratic - not socialist. The socialist party would be "Die Linke" (The Left). If you think center right as in "Republicans" - they would be here considered far right, maybe even extreme right-wing :)

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

To be fair, the SPD started out as a marxist workers party in the 1860s, voted against the enabling act, was banned by the nazis and, after the war, took until 1953 to drop the marxism part and fully commit to a center-left position.

[@phantomlordmxvi]

Lol no. The CSU is not far right... If you call the CSU far right, then the greens are far left

[@Backfisch64]

It is hard to classify how far right the Republicans are, because in the two party system, the different wings of one party become more relevant. However, even the most "left" wing of the Republicans would be considered far right if they competed in Germany (just comparing their views to the AfD). Looking at the Trump cult and the Q Anon BS, some parts of the Republicans may as well be considered as a N*** party here in Germany.

[@stella_s]

@@phantomlordmxvi they were saying that the american Republicans would be considered far-right here, which is true. id say the Dems are comparable to CDU or SPD while the Reps are comparable to AfD

[@steave1425]

​@@phantomlordmxvi I think OP was saying, that the "Republicans" would be considered far right here. Although I do believe, that the CSU is also pretty far right. However of course that depends on your frame of reference and since our society is also based on a lot of dogmas, that are rather right, the CSU doesn't seem that right within our current culture in Germany.

[@ErklaerMirDieWelt]

The Bertelsmann foundation is not neutral. They are a very influencial policy advisor and lobbyist. The widow of the founder is a close friend of Angela Merkel. They are responsible for many "economy friendly" policies over the last 20-40 years.

[@avsbes98]

There is actually one tool provided by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, that can really help to decide who to vote for - the Wahl-o-mat (Vote-o-mat). For each Election each participating party is asked to answer a couple questions with agree, don't agree or neutral (some parties don't participate, for example for the Federal Election 2021 only 39/40 parties participated). You can then use the Wahl-o-mat to alsoanswer these questions and it will tell you which parties agree with you the most. But as the website itself already says, it is a tool to help you, not a recommendation who to vote for, it is more about you discovering which parties on paper most agree with you so you can then go ahead and inform yourself in detail on two or three parties that you consider instead of 40.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

It's basically a suggestion machine that tells you which parties align with your answers, but doesn't tell you who to vote for.

[@m.h.6470]

So many parties tweak what they "promise", just to get a lot of positive results in the wahlomat. It isn't even funny anymore. It is mainly a way to exploit lazy voters by now.

[@0raj0]

I think that a better concept than your "Wahlomat" is something that has been put up a few times before elections in my country (Poland), but this was run by volunteers, not by government. It is called "electoral lighthouse keeper" and it similarly asks you a bunch of questions, but it doesn't align the answers with what the parties are promising "on paper" on a particular subject, but with how they have actually already voted on that subject in parliament. The downside of this approach is that it can cover only the parties that actually are represented in parliament (so no possibility to introduce any new party), but the advantage is that it evaluates what the parties have actually done regarding particular subjects, and not what they promise.

[@wito6855]

@@0raj0 wow, I like this. With the 5 percent hurdle, it wouldn't even be much of a downside because small parts have it hard getting over it. Wish we would have something like this in Germany

[@0raj0]

@@wito6855 But there's nothing to be excited about, as this doesn't help much. People mostly don't go into much details in choosing how to vote, they usually look at what the politicians say on TV and vote for those who look more convincing...

[@nobodx]

something worth mentioning, we dont have the "winner takes it all" like in the us - in germany, each represented party gets a fraction of the seats depending on the fraction of votes they scored (if a party got 20% of all votes, they will have 20% of the seats) and the parties must find a coalition-partner (or partners) to gain the majority of all seats (>50%)

[@DaniArrow]

It's so unsatisfying that they don't tell you about the colour stuff (Ampel = red, yellow green or Jamaica = green black yellow) though XD

[@SomethingDiabolical2]

when it comes to voting here in Germany you usually know the parties by then, which align most with your view. But if you're still on the fence about who to vote for there's an online tool called "Wahl-O-Mat". It is published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and you take a sort of a multiple choice test. All questions are related to the policy agendas that are on the ballot or part of the program of a specific party. You can choose if you agree, disagree or are neutral to that specific topic. Afterwards the tool suggest you a party that most closely resembles the view you have on these specific topics and it can be a starting off point to make a decision. I've used it for pretty much all the elections that I've taken part in and it helped find a party for each election that I think should deserve my vote.

[@jasperzanovich2504]

8:34 That's why we got a "Wahl-o-mat". It's a website that can help you decid who and waht to vote if you have no clue at all. Also most people just pick one partie and stick with it, I think. My grandpa used to be a diehard CDU voter.

[@saschaschneider9157]

The problem is - at least for me - it considers only the election manifestos not the party manifestos, which is not the same. I mean when in recent years did politicians kept their promises? Promises in politics don't make sense, it comes all down to negotiatons and compromises. What the party stands for in general is what counts in my opinion.

[@peterfischer2039]

@@saschaschneider9157 I think it is a great tool to get a general feel for things. Especially if you read why a party said yes or no to a certain issue. Then afterwards if the party you are now considering voting for was in government already, you can do a quick google search and see if what they are saying lines up with what they were doing in the past. If you do it like this, then the Wahl-o-mat is a great tool.

[@imrengarotp3802]

"Also most people just pick one partie and stick with it" I agree that this is a big problem, they vote for one party, then they get disappointed and they vote for the same one again over and over again. And when they finally stop voting for the same party, they start voting for whatever the party they voted for before tells them to vote for. "Oh no the greens kicked me out of my house so illegal refugees can live there, time to vote for the CDU who literally supports this"

[@Superbus753]

What makes this diversity possible (also here in Switzerland) is a proportional election system where the seats are distributed proportionally to the votes each party got (in germany it is a bit more complex than simple proportionality). A majoritarian election system with a winner takes it all logic necessary leads to a two party system where there is no space for diversity in the political competition for votes. In my opinion there are many downsides to twoparty systems, but it isnt easy to change such a system since the governing partieswould have to agree with such a change but they are also the biggest looser when a proportional system would be introduced.

[@VoloxTV]

I can really recommend the channel of Lucas Bender if you want a comprehensive English explanation of German and European parties. He does a great job at presenting them.

[@xcoder1122]

The main difference in Germany is that there is no "the winner takes it all" principle. Unless the strongest party gets over 50% of all seats, they will need the assistance of a smaller party to dominate the lower house. That's why you get coalitions of two or three parties working together, which is a bit like "If you help us to get this law through, we will help you to get that law through". Yeah, it's a bit of haggling but in the end everyone can profit to some degree and get things of their list; nobody gets it all but everyone gets something. Also keep in mind that the lower house elects the chancellor, so even the strongest party usually requires help to get their candidate elected, so again, it's "If we vote for your candidate, what do we get?" and usually they will get ministerial positions, like "We vote your candidate but then we decide who becomes foreign minister and minister of finance." and then the other side might say "Foreign minister is okay but finance is out of question; how about minister of labor and economics instead?" This system prevents one party becoming too mighty and all politics heading only in one direction.

[@chrismacaber4531]

I think it's time.....landscapes, history, life, politics....almost everything has been covered. The only thing missing is an understanding of "Bernd das Brot" Anyone knows a good explanatory video either dubbed or well enough subbed to show the greatest piece of cultural German heritage? 😅

[@ignoronb7880]

Thats....... a good point actually MIST ~Bernd the Bread(Bernd das 🍞)

[@borstenpinsel]

Let him make up his own mind. I don't think even the creators have an explanation

[@ignoronb7880]

@@borstenpinsel He Should watch german DAUERWERBESENDUNG

[@somederp8915]

Was "Die Sendung mit der Maus" already covered as well? Think both should be, as it shows how children TV can be quite educational and interesting.

[@Anthyrion]

@@somederp8915 The Channel "Luxtroy" made one. James Bray already reacted to it

[@grandmak.]

Ryan, it's not that hard to keep track with what all those parties have on their agenda. We don't concentrate that much on one single person like you do but more on the party platform which is also accessible online. On the other hand we also have lots of "simple minded" people who don't care about politics. Those either don't vote at all ( just like most of the Jan.6 attenders in the US) or they vote like their friends or family without really knowing what they're doing. What both our countries have in common is that mostly those cry the loudest when disagreeing with anything the new administration decides. Real democrats try to change things with their vote and cope with what the majority voted for. You can always try harder next time.

[@RickTheClipper]

SOCIAL and SOCIALIST is a different pair of shoes

[@ebbhead20]

Yeah, Americans don't really get that whole thing at all. They always end up talking about things that's made up by them.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

After all, the US have social security numbers, not socialist security numbers.

[@fabiansaerve]

@@ebbhead20 Social -> socialist -> communist That’s basically the American brain. 😅 wait until they actually read their holy praised bible and it’s many social teachings lol

[@ebbhead20]

@@fabiansaerve well, im not quite sure where you're going with this. But my point was that they dont really have a grasp on what the fact of the matter is regarding a lot of things in Europe. How countries are run or lets say operated is something they just dont get, and tend to use names like.. A socialist country or whatever. And the countries they talk about are never that. There's some values going on, but Denmark is not a socialist country. Thers nothing red about it. But we like to treat people better than they do, so if that's what that is to them then fine.. 😏

[@fabiansaerve]

@@ebbhead20 when they hear social, they think about socialism, when they think/hear socialism they think about communism. Denmark is a social democratic country. Americans hear social. Therefore Denmark is a socialist country. And for Americans socialism is the same as communism. In conclusion for Americans Denmark is a communist country 🥳 If you still don’t get the joke, I’m saying the same thing you did just in a joke

[@HenningStummer]

The best thing about that many parties is, that it's (nearly) impossible for one to get the majority and to lead alone. So you always need the stay kind of open minded to allow coalitions. That's one reason why the parties in the US become more and more radical in their positions.

[@adihila7141]

Best way to make a decision is to use the Wahl-o-mat. It´s an online tool very common in germany and popular to do reaction videos. There is no translated version but give it a try !

[@chezratte1357]

Not really. Questions there are done in a way that leave a lot of room for interpretation.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

It is more of a suggestion device. You answer questions and it gives suggestions about which parties align with your answers.

[@Backfisch64]

I wouldn't use it to make a decision, but to get more information on the party's views about specific topics. But most of the time, it's just political hogwash and shouldn't be taken too seriously. In the end, I am not a psychic and cannot predict what the politicians will actually do if I vote for them.

[@hero_jonashdjp9562]

Pov 40 % afd Just because they have few similarities in the support of family even if they define family completely differently to modern standards. I could never vote for these guy's.

[@moluvkbalalala8878]

best way to make a decision is to use the brain and dont vote^^

[@akteno2796]

Germany now has over 70 party's, but most are very small, there are also many super small ones that are basically just local parties.

[@cas1557]

technically speaking,the CSU would also be just a local party...

[@akteno2796]

@@cas1557 idk if you can count Bavaria as "local"

[@HolgerJakobs]

-party's- => *parties*

[@akteno2796]

@@HolgerJakobs nah in Germany they all host Events with beer. Therefore its Partys.

[@jameyspielt]

One german word every american should check out and think about is: "Weltfremd". ;) Love your stuff Ryan.. sometimes I am just flabbergasted on what some americans, sometimes including you, don´t know. ;)

[@themuzeman]

In Germany we have the so called „Wahl-o-mat“ which is some kind of a election helping machine. You will get asked many questions and depending on your answers you will get a result which shows which parties fit your opinion the most. It is quite fun to do. :)

[@fenjaslife1215]

I feel like its also Important to mention the 5%-Hürde, which means that a party has to get at least 5% of the votes to get into Bundestag to prevent complete chaos with too many parties who have to agree on things

[@turwaith]

Wait until he learns about Switzerland where you can not only vote for candidates of different parties but where basically everone can create a bill and if enough people want this too, the entire country holds a vote to pass or reject that, and if it passes then the parliament will work that out as a law. (Very simple explanation, it is a little bit more complicated)

[@MrCranebay]

Hi! It's interesting to watch your videos about Germany, although I am from Finland. I like to see how you perceive Germany and Europe in general from your point of view. I think one big issue with U.S. politics from the European point of view is the huge problem with the two-party system. In Finland we have similar coalition system as in Germany - at least in general. Each party brings it's own nuance to the government and as a voter you have to understand at least in general what are the goals of each party. And I can say the green party is not all about environment - at least not here in Finland. Here in Finland the Green party is leaning on left and have somewhat similar agendas as Social Democratic Party - trying to get better living conditions to workers, students, families and lower income / poor people too. Then again there are a lot of business owners too in the Green party that have a bit more right wing mindset but also think that sustainable businessa and nature conservation is a good thing and not only against the corporations. And in many conuntries there is a more conservative right wing or center-right wing party that usually get more support from business owners, CEO:s, doctors, lawyers and other people with high income... and in most countries there is populist far-right parties that might have some opinions that are debatable at best and in many cases just blatant lies. They get their support from a bit more simple minded people that come in many cases from lower income and lower educational backgrounds. The thing is that in Europe those populist parties might get anywhere from 5 to maybe 20% support from voters, but rarely they get higher support base on that and usually after they have failed doing good job in the government they lose at least for a while their support. By getting coaltion of different parties that people have woted you get more nuanced governing that isn't thinking in a too black and white manner. Majority of votes are still counting and making it a democratic process. But in the US - at least how here in Finland and Nordic countries in general it is perceived - is that when you have a two party system, the thinking is so black and white that it polarizes the debate (and many times on wrong issues) and a lot of work is hindered by constant lawsuits, trying to undo the other parties work and rebuild almost from scratch new policies again and again. I feel that if there was more parties in US, currently Trump and his supporters would fit in one populistic party, a bigger group would be Republicans, another bigger party would be Democrats but the liberals and part of the Democrats would be actually be able to form a more liberal and green thinking party as well. However as the members of the two main parties are just afraid to lose seats in the different levels of government, they stick to this system, even if it means having some really wild and non intellectual people in your party as well... Also please, please try to understand that there is a huge difference is the idea of socialism communism or social democracy. I dont think there are many people in Europe that would like to have communism or some far far left socialistic country as they are basically proofed to be failed ideas. A welfare state that helps, educates and protects the people and enables capitalistic framework and equal opportunities in a sustainable manner is probably the idea what people mostly want.

[@gadnuk666]

German here. Our Green Party has undergone many policy changes over the past decades. Starting as a weird peace, anti-nuclear, environmental protection party and home of the paedophile movement in the 80s, to a social democratic follower party in coalition with the "big ones", to what it is today. A mixture of extreme climate protection and intersectional feminism. The target group of "our" Greens was never the "little people" and workers but always the academic upper middle class. In the meantime, the "big" parties aligning themselves with the Green agenda because its current goals, at least in the (social) media, are seen as "the big thing" of today, even if this by far does not reflect the opinion of the whole people and voters. But coalitions sadly make it possible.

[@TheQeltar]

Sustainable capitalism, that's a joke.

[@johnnyringo80]

Yes, you were right about the green party, and that is because the US green party is modelled after the German green party. In fact, almost all parties with green in their name follow the example of the successful German original.

[@germanCrowbar]

The Greens in Germany are only successful because they are supported by an ideology that currently prevails in Germany. The Greens in Germany are fascists, communists and other anti-German ideologues who also wanted to legalise sex between children and adults and secretly still dream of doing so. They are also friends of terrorists like the Red Army Faction. Furthermore, they are destroying our economy completely.

[@johnnyringo80]

@@germanCrowbar you mind telling me which party is not founded on a political ideology? And how it is wrong in a democracy that people vote for the party which endorses their political views? And how the rest of your talking points are not demagogic nonsense?

[@germanCrowbar]

@@johnnyringo80 Sie haben weder meinen Kommentar noch das politische System in Deutschland verstanden und über die Vergangenheit und die Gegenwart der Grünen wissen Sie auch nichts, nicht im Geringsten!

[@johnnyringo80]

@@germanCrowbar Ähem, ich habe Politikwissenschaft studiert und schon zur Parteiengeschichte der Grünen geforscht, also über so einen Quark muss ich echt nicht diskutieren.

[@user-wr9hc6gf2n]

The greens represent green capitalism, which will fail in its mission to save this planet, most scientists know this. I reccomend voting left, because they dont take corporate money and actually care about the people. Lobbyland is a good read.

[@MtheHell]

Good suggestion, indeed. You always come across the "Ampel" thing or some memes targetting "Yellows" or "Greens". So there you got the foundation. 🙂 There are especially two 'problems' you have to take in concern when elections are set in Germany. The first is, if you tend to vote for one of the smaller parties (we call it still that way, but in numbers they all don't differ so much than in former times anymore), you have to think about "with whom they will form a coalition preferably and will the others get enough votes?". Just like any TV show, even the best candidate may not get the most votes, because everyone thinks "He will have enough for the next round, I vote for another one". The other concern, especially for a chancellor election: You don't vote for the candidates in person, you always vote for the party and their politics. It' s hard when you don't like the candidate, but want the party ruling for the next 4 years. In my opinion this happened in the last election. Nobody wanted the candidate of the one party, so the votes were spread and so the candidate of the other weaker party was elected - but now we have to deal with his party in command... 🤗

[@DJone4one]

Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, headquartered in Gütersloh, is an international media group; it is also active in the services and education sectors.Carl Bertelsmann founded the company as a book publisher in 1835 4:08 On the podium with the glasses and the moustache, that's our mayor Melf Grantz.

[@alx314]

Additional: because there are so many partys, no one has above 50% and can rule alone. So the partys have to talk after an election and 2 or 3 partys have to work together. Currently, its the "Ampel" (SPD,FDP,Grüne), others are the "Große Koalition" (great coalition, SPD and CDU), "Jamaica" (CDU, FDP, Grüne; from the colors of the flag), "Rot-Rot-Grün" (SPD, Linke, Grüne).

[@elitehenrylegio]

FunFact: we Germans likes soccer so much that the trainer of our national team has technical a political position. He is one of the guys who vote our president.

[@feli-the-sunfairy]

No. Only because he is a member of the Landtag. Löw wasn't so he didn't vote. Only members of the Land- and Bundestag can vote for the president. Bacause, FunFact: We Germans like organization so much that absolutely everything has hard and/or soft rules. There even is a list how far your toilet is allowed to be from your workspace. Not in a thousand years would we break a set rule to have some random guy no one voted for vote for the president. You now how gullible Americans are, so I would appreciate if you correct your statement.

[@Jojo_Held]

in germany we even have a party that is called the Beer drinker Party

[@strasbourgerelsass1467]

And the fun party DIE PARTEI that is even in the European Parliament.🕺

[@FrogeniusW.G.]

The difference lies between "social" and "socialist". Socialist is "left" (socialism), but social is just social..

[@ElmarLecher]

Netherlands has 12 parties in the Parliament. Most countries in continental europe have somewhat the same system than germany. Actually the American system is rather rare. CGP Grey made a video over the problem of the british / american system: Minority Rule: First Past the Post Voting

[@WTplayer_no1]

Until 2010 i think, there was also the DAP, it was just a "friendlier" copy of the NSDAP, but then i got banned

[@franksoddbehaviour3238]

Might be worth checking out a video on the mixed member proportional system (which is what we use in Germany). It is also used by e.g. New Zealand

[@atdynax]

I voted the last 3 Elections for the Pirates. And deciding which party to vote for is helped through the vote-bot "Wahlomat", where you answer questions and then see which party fits the best for you.

[@kleinshui9082]

We have a very different understanding of center-right then you do. You Democrats and Republicans would BOTH be far right in Germany, Republicans probably extrem-right oO You can vote for all parties that are inlisted in your Bundesland. However they need at least 5% of all votes to enter parliament. And idealey the government constists of a coalision that holds >50% of seats in parliament. Right now or traffic light coalision thus consists of the social democrats SPD, environmentalists Die Grünen and the neoliberals FDP -> red, green, yellow.

[@kleinshui9082]

Sorry for all the typos, stupid keyboard. Hope this is still comprehensible!

[@TheQeltar]

I really don't think the democrats would be far-right in Germany. They're centrists through and through and already running German foreign policy.

[@vivalavivaldi]

We have this neat little tool called the Wahl-O-Mat. You basically go through a survery on your opinion on the most controversial, current topics and each party gets to upload their answers with little text blurbs. The tool then spits out which party you share most of the answers.

[@PrueferAuge]

8:26 you can find quizzes on the internet to help you to choose a party, and you should do several different kinds just in case some of them are weighted weirdly. might be a fun video idea to do something like that

[@hilpi75]

Patiently waiting for Ryan to come to Germany so I can buy that man a Beer ✌ loving your videos. Keep up the great work 👍

[@miridroge6043]

This was a good explanation! Important as well is the constant emphasis on compromises in the governing parties, because no single party has be able to get a majority for a long time. As for the many different candidates... tbh, I don't care as much about the people themselves (as long as they aren't corrupt), more the party they stand for!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

And the coalition-single party question is basically the same as a parliament-dictator question. One governing organ can make faster decisions, but when more are involved, government has people checking what they're doing. Oh, and all Bundestags sessions are live on TV and can be watched later on the public broadcast channel phoenix. Yes, we can directly see and hear what our politicians are talking.

[@kayemm_86]

​​@@HappyBeezerStudios Isn't that what C-SPAN is for in the US?

[@EnchantingCat8365]

we dont need to use flash cards, because we have the "Wahl-O-Mat". its an online tool, from the state, thats created to help you decide what party fits best to your preferences.

[@ninab7626]

Well, we can always use the "Wahl-O-Mat" to check what political parties best suit our world views and interests😅👍🏽

[@baronbrummbar8691]

if you go by the wahlomart berlin would be majority AFD ..........

[@ninab7626]

@@baronbrummbar8691 idk what to tell you but even though it's sad obviously, that's still kinda the truth then 😅it doesn't mean you have to pick what the thing tells you, it just means that (if that's true) the majority of Berlin sucks😬

[@baronbrummbar8691]

@@ninab7626 it is just that the wahlomart sucks ... and only consideres the programm of the party ...... the base programm of the AFD is very moderat ...... whie the left partys have some radical promisses in thers that ther programms ............. - on the politican level it is the exact opposite but that ain.t considered in the wahlomat

[@ninab7626]

@@baronbrummbar8691 I honestly haven't really used it since we had to do it in school but that was a couple of years ago 😅 it sure has its flaws and if it is like you say, that's definitely not great but I'm not sure if they would even be allowed to put anything in there that's not in the program of the party...i think it's a good thing to use if you really don't have a clue what to do and who to vote for, if you do your own research on the parties after the test. Obviously not everyone will do that but that's the general idea I think 🤔

[@lyaneris]

​@@ninab7626 I'm not into politics at all and I use it to look at the parties answers :) (and then do a quick google search after)

[@colosatron8964]

Fun Fact about Voting in Germany: There is a Site called Wahlomat, basiclly a Voting machine that that gives you quetions and than gives you the Party you are most alinged with. It makes Voting a lot less complicated PS: Dont know if the is a Vid that explains it, but if you find one react to it

[@Soguwe]

What probably helps with all those diverse parties is that, though we aren't immune to identity politics as the Naziparty AfD has proven, German politics is a lot dryer than American politics. It's not about wanting to see your team win at all costs, it's about reflecting on what politics matters to you personally and casting your vote accordingly. That's why tools like the Wahl-O-Mat are so popular; that's a tool that quizzes you on your political ideas and gives you both a vague idea how much they correlate with the programs of the parties and further resources to do your own research.

[@ralfjansen9118]

Slippery slope... The Greens are very deep into woke identity politics... Feminism, genderism, identity quotas, that's their thing.

[@Soguwe]

@Ralf Jansen it is Is there a point to your comment, or are you just content with stating the obvious?

[@ralfjansen9118]

@@Soguwe I answered to your implied argument that it is AfD which rides big the identity train. Sure they are the big racist party, but identity politics is more than that.

[@Soguwe]

@@ralfjansen9118 there's a difference between the foundationless crap the AfD does and the ideas for which the green stand

[@studiosus8931]

absolutely lost

[@madness9651]

It should be added that DIE LINKE's logo is not violet as shown here. Instead it is red, like with the SPD, but colored differently for convenience reasons. You see, DIE LINKE is a merger of the PDS, the successor party of the SED, the state party of the GDR, itself a forced merger between the eastern SPD and KPD, which itself was an offshoot from the SPD, and the WASG, itself an offshoot of the SPD so their histories are very convoluted.

[@Seamus.Harper]

3:19 "Social" doesn't equal evil. 😐😂

[@Maaaggii]

In Germany there is something called a Wahl-O-Mat. Which you can use to help you to vote. There are around 40 questions around the campaign and general interest with multiple choice answers. Like do you think there should be a general speed limit on Autobahn? Yes / No / neither. And after finishing these questions it will show you to which party you got the most accordance. On which question did you agree or not agree with which party. Really helpful.

[@buurmeisje]

Democrat doesn't mean 'affiliated with the Democratic Party' in any other country other than America, it just means being in favour of democracy.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The interesting thing is that in the US they have a democratic and a republican party, and germany is a democratic republic...

[@fabiansaerve]

Surprisingly back in history, the Democratic Party was actually the Republican Party. That’s why Abraham Lincoln who fought for abolishing slavery against the southern states was in the Republican Party because the Democratic Party was the party full of racists and pro slavery. So „democracy in their name means favouring democracy“ isn’t true. It’s just a populist phrase. Also the CDU isn’t at all the most democracy loving party. Remember the German DEMOCRATIC republic aka DDR or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea aka North Korea?

[@katii1997]

@@HappyBeezerStudios i don't understand what you're on about ? the "republic" just means that there is no monarch rulling the country. ..

[@thisismetoday]

Our election campaigns are muuuuch shorter thna in America, so we don't have to deal with this stuff for two years, just a few weeks.

[@omegapirat8623]

In fact, you only have two options in Germany: 1. Neo-SED (grüne, Linke, CDU, SPD, FDP) 2. AfD It doesn't matter if you vote for Grüne, Linke, CDU, SPD, or FDP. You will always get the same politics with different flavors in the most crucial areas like illegal mass migration, EU integration, or climate politics. Grüne, Linke, CDU, SPD, or FDP are far-left and most comparable to the US American democrats while the AfD is most similar to the republicans. From that point of view the US system is just more honest while in Germany diversity is just pretended.

[@ItsaMe444]

That's what fascists say

[@omegapirat8623]

@@ItsaMe444 Define fascist. Throwing labels around with no explanation is no argument.

[@TheQeltar]

Calling something like the FDP far-left is demented.

[@emanuelezanon4262]

7:57 I don't think that's the case. I would assume that in Germany it would be highly illegal to fire someone due to their politics. I'm not sure though.

[@quasar_78]

No matter if you choose between two fools or we between many more fools... thats not the difference at all....

[@alvinmjensen]

There are other European countries with even more parties in parliament. Look at Denmark with over 10 - and there are others with twice as many.

[@SchmigatheSoulja]

The AFD is a good comparison to the republican party

[@BoboKing07]

Ja schon 😂 Beide sind nicht gut

[@dreamcaster143]

@@BoboKing07 Doch beide sind (Björn Höcke mal ausgenommen) erzkonservative demokratische Parteien, die weder als "gut" noch als "schlecht" eingeteilt werden sollten.

[@Ganjor420]

To be fair, the CDU/CSU is "center-right" wing for german standards. In the US, they would be something like the left wind of the Democrats. (edit: same goes for the greens by the way. They're "center-left" in germany, but fox news would 100% call them Socialist/Communist in the US)

[@felixstuber8046]

In theory you would have to keep up with lots of different people but in reality you don't since it is in general one of the big parties i.e. SPD or CDU/CSU (aka the Union) who will provide the chancellor. In the last election some polls showed that the green party might be amongst the strongest so you had three people to keep up with (Olaf Scholz from the SPD, who eventually became chancellor, Armin Laschet from the CDU and Annalena Baerbock from the Greens). The key feature is, that no party will be able to gain a majority on there own, so they almost always have to build coalitions with one or two minor partners. Therefore also the interests of such smaller parties will be influencing the politics of the 4 years between elections. This was pretty crazy after the last election: Neither SPD nor the Union were strong enough to have a majority with at least two coalition partners if they did not want to work together in a so called "big coalition". In principle the SPD would have been able to build a coalition with the Greens and the Lefts, but because the Left has too many delusional, moronic communists in their rows (especially in the west), SPD and Greens preferred the FDP. A coalition of Union and Lefts was no option at all but the Union also considered a coaliton with Greens and FDP. This brought the two smaller parties in a situation that they were esentially the "chancellor makers" and especially the FDP under the lead of Christian Lindner abused this position during the coalition negotiations. The previous legislative period there was a similar situation and the FDP all of a sudden stopped the coaliton negotiations saying it would be better not to govern than to govern wrongly. So this time SPD and Greens were way more passive with what they demanded. Long story short: You do not (only) look which incompetent idiot might be in charge after the election but you can focus more on the lies in the parties' programs since even a small party might be part of the government after the elections.

[@ThorDyrden]

What imho should have been added in this video is the process of forming a coalation after the election. With so many parties you usually have none, which has a majority at the end. So they would not be able to make decisions on their own and everything would last longer to find a majority in Bundestag for every topic. So the parties negotiate (except AFD) and find the best match to reach a majority in Bundestag. At the end of this process usually lasting a few week after election these parties have negotiated their "coalition-contract" which in deed is a contract describing the compromises they agreed on and will strive for the next 4 years. Currently we have the "trafficlight-coaliation", which consists of Red (SPD), Yellow (FDP) and Green (Greens). Btw.. all the very small parties of the 40+ we have are usually not represented in Bundestag, as there is a 5% hurdle. Parites, which not reached 5% of the votes are out. So usually we end up with the 6 parties shown in this video.

[@caccioman]

Bertelsmann foundation is a bit controversial (big business, right leaning media consortium) itself, but I cannot complain in that regard about this video. Bit short though.

[@temujinjones658]

Well, equating die Linke and AfD as equally extreme was a bit off, but exactly what you would expect from Bertelsmann.

[@Laurinwookie]

@@temujinjones658 I agree, since "Die Linke" is basically the version 2 of the main party in the GDR (SED, later PDS).

[@Nepheos]

green is probably the worst example for "as we use blue and red", since its the only one actually called green (Bündnis 90, die Grünen) because it USED TO be a hippie party

[@mel_ooo]

i wish afd voters would keep it to themselves lmao but they're like the closest thing we have to trump supporters

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Every time I see them, I think about the DP. A "national-conservative" party in the 1950s with nationalistic and monarchistic tones that pretty much took in all the far right voters and moved them away from the extreme right. Basically eroding all the potential nazi voters into more acceptable directions.

[@chrisigoeb]

Yes we support trump at least the most of us

[@torkakarshiro5170]

The interesting thing is, that by having more than 2 parties they have no need to antagonize each other like crazy. It is better for constructive politics, and you can change one party's direction by voting for some smaller party they HAVE TO COOPERATE WITH in a coalition to be able to lead the country together.

[@carpediem4091]

"socialist" isn't necessarily a left wing thing... America is just so far to the right that anything moderate seems like leftist extremism. You people think liberals are left wing... In the majority of European countries your "left wing" is mostly right wing. Heck, our extreme right wingers are quite moderate in comparison to your right... Tldr: socialism is not communism. There's a world between them.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

That's why I like to describe our system as "free market economy with socialist policies and government oversight, but not control"

[@TheQeltar]

Lecturing Americans while not understanding much about the fundamentals of political ideology is pretty funny.

[@jeanyluisa8483]

No, "green" has nothing to do with the traffic light.Same like in the US, the "green" in the green party stands for ecology and saving the environment. If several parties build a coalition to govern together, we use their colors to name or describe that coalition. So Ampel (trafficlight) stands for a coalition of the red + yellow + green party.

[@KlausWeiss-t6b]

I would like to say that Bertelsmann is the world's largest publishing company and works for the current government. That's why Bertelsmann describes the AFD so negatively. The AFD is currently the only party that does opposition work. All other parties are working towards an eco-fascist society. Her credo: "No one will own anything and everyone will be satisfied." The AFD is working against this. I just wanted to use this example to explain what's going on here.

[@TheQeltar]

You don't have to become a fascist to oppose neo-liberalism.

[@silasadler3464]

U dont have to study every person depending on their political standpoint will only consider to vote between 2-3 prties maybe. Me personally would never vote right of the Spd so I wobt consider cdu cdu afd or fdp in the first place. Maybe i would vote a smaller party as protest since everybody is doing sth terribly wrong but that is really it

[@blondkatze3547]

There are a few groups in Germany that are against German democracy and unfortunately like to mix between peaceful demonstrations and always cause trouble and unrest there. That bothers you a lot for people who are in favor of democracy.💜

[@gnorfdwargrimson786]

Not against democracy in general, just against _this_ form of democracy that leads to nowhere or where decisions take forever.

[@anthemsofeurope2408]

@@gnorfdwargrimson786 Exactly. Like AfD wants a swiss democracy, which is more direct and the civilians get more power. But that is something most politicians of traditional parties dont want

[@marcomobson]

​@@anthemsofeurope2408 Don't fool yourself...! 🙄🤦🏼‍♂️

[@anthemsofeurope2408]

@@marcomobson Have you looked in their voting program?

[@real_doombastic]

@@anthemsofeurope2408 Did you? Most points in their voting program are anti-democratic and anti-social.

[@Cornu341]

Also Chancellors in Germany are head of government, not head of state. That is the president.The president has more representative functions, while the chancellor is running the day to day business.

[@littlemissleeches]

Wanted to say the same. Quite a big mistake to make in a video like that.

[@KevinFeegers]

Very good video, once again. Feel free to check out the new video of GSG9 from Germany. It gave me goosebumps. I would be interested in your reaction to it. :) Bundespolizei | 50 Jahre GSG9 (Federal Police | 50 Years GSG9) - Watch it with Subtitles then. Keep Going, Ryan! :)

[@KevinFeegers]

That's the link btw: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aonGpJ2Ma96fedU&t :D

[@speku87]

Wtf. Hab mir das Video gerade angeschaut? Wie bekommst du von sowas Gänsehaut? Langweiliger gehts ja wohl nicht. Da kann ich mir auch ne N24 Doku über Produktionsstraßen für Leberwurst anschauen. Die werden im gleichen Stil produziert. Absoluter Waste-of-Time mit Null Informationsgehalt außer Selbstbeweihräucherung

[@KevinFeegers]

@@speku87 Das ist ja okay dass du das so siehst. Ich find das Video allerdings unfassbar gut. :)

[@jazzguitar3441]

Funny that you mention the flashcards for voting time, there is the Wahl-O-Mat which is an app fed with all the parties' "Wahlprogrammen" which define their choices, although these statements are unfortunately not binding, election campaign promises so to speak, more like mew years resolutions, they "try their best" but that is universal problem it seems. Anyway, you can take this quiz and answer some 63 questions to all sorts of topics ('Do we need a European Union army' and 'do we need to bring back military duty again' etc.) and at the end it will tell you by how many percent your answers align with all the answers of the most popular parties, it's over 30, so not just the top 5. And then you can do a deep dive on those parties you seem to agree with the most. But yeah, it's a liiiittle bit more work, but I'm glad it is that way. And you can vote only either CDU or CSU. CSU if you live in Bavaria cause they always gotta do their own thing "Extra-Bratwurst" and CDU in the other 15 federal states of Germany. Hope this helps!

[@Suballi4004]

Neither Kohl nor Merkel were heads of state, chancellor is the title for head of goverment. In Germany these are two different positions with the chancellor wielding more day to day power and the president being mostly reprensentative and functioning more like a "neutral" oversight (like the monarch in Britain). He is also elected, but mostly a consensus canditate of the major factions, often with no political affiliation.

[@temujinjones658]

Often? Gauck was the only president with no political affiliation to date.

[@Suballi4004]

@@temujinjones658 Right, thanks for the correction.

[@franzkissel1369]

There's actually a mistake in the video he's watching. The Chancellor (Merkel, Scholz, Kohl) is the head of government, NOT the head of state. The head of state is the President (Steinmeier rn), who basically only serves a representative function without much political power.

[@yvonnel.9133]

I think it doesn‘t matter if you have to choose between only two idiots or some much more idiots…🤷🏻‍♀️

[@fabiansaerve]

That’s the most stupid comment I’ve ever seen.

[@yvonnel.9133]

@@fabiansaerve You‘re welcome 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@fabiansaerve]

@@yvonnel.9133 You’re welcomed to dictatorship. It doesn’t matter if you have to choose between two idiots or only one idiot

[@yvonnel.9133]

@@fabiansaerve My experience in Gernany is that no matter which party you vote for, ultimately everyone who enters the Bundestag throws their values overbord and lobbying and corruption rule. That is only marginally bettet than dictatorship 😕

[@fabiansaerve]

@@yvonnel.9133 the thing about representative democracy is that you HAVE TO make compromises if one party alone doesn’t get the absolute majority. Which means you have to throw some of your values over board. Otherwise you can’t form a government. Of course you could say it’s a bad thing but looking at the bigger picture it’s way more democratic because most voters didn’t vote for certain policies. „Lobbying and corruption“: we have two big parties that are openly lobbyist parties. Voting for them and being mad about lobbyism or corruption is just naiv. Of course lobbying is also a thing in other parties but there it’s not a big deal. „this is only marginally better than dictatorship“ do you listen what you are saying? Having a choice and a voice, being able to demonstrate, strike or criticising the government are one of the best things we have in our country. People from actual dictatorships like China or Iran would kill to have so much freedom as we have. You’re not happy with the current political situation in our country? Then stop complaining, join a party and change the world. You are able to do this in a democracy. Of course being a grumpy couch potatoe is better than actual doing something against it. That’s why we have democracy. If you aren’t happy vote for someone else or do it yourself. A democracy works until people mistrust the system like in the US, Brasil or 100 ago in Germany… we should learn from our past, shouldn’t we?

[@michaelschmid2311]

8:50 in Germany and Switzerland you can take quizzes about your political opinions and then recommends candidates that align best, that makes elections a lot easier

[@dannymarc3438]

(AfD) - "has the ugliest logo, like a really cheap rental car" - 😆👍👍👍 unfortunately not only the logo is ugly. Their ideas are too.

[@herrsonnemann3182]

Ryan Wass, that writes a left-wing terrorist friend who hates Germany and also hates himself. Just ignore such birds.

[@chrisigoeb]

Haha, i like the AfD and vote for it

[@dannymarc3438]

@@chrisigoeb 89,7 percent did NOT 👍😁 (Bundestagswahl 2021)

[@chrisigoeb]

@@dannymarc3438 oh ye the famous logic of most didnt vote for it, which applies to every party lol

[@dannymarc3438]

@@chrisigoeb A miracle, now they are different parties. Usually they are just one green-red-left cartel party for AfD Voters 🤔

[@svenschutz2692]

we have a very simple solution for the "keeping up problem", its called "Wahl-O-mat" which is a list of questions that cover the current relevant political issues. After answering all questions you receive a recommendation which party to chose.

[@vaadwaur4460]

Thanks @Ryan. "It looks like a really cheap rental car logo" 🤣🤣🤣 Made my day!

[@Thurasiz]

American hearing the word "social": "Ahhhhhh communists, run run run, the red flood is coming!"

[@DASPRiD]

When it comes to voting, it isn't that hard. There are a few different online tools which survey you on your opinions on specific issues, and the tools will give you a few recommendations of parties to vote for.

[@jan-matthisweng4437]

Reading comments on videos like this confirms my opinion why modern democracy produces the results it does every time... :(

[@sylviawaise7424]

in case you are wondering which party represtents you best: you can ask the "Wahl-o-mat", there you answer how you stand to recent political questions and then it tells you with which party you most align and which party answerd how. Great tool, I always do it before elections, even though I tend to always vote for the same party anyway, but just to see if I need to change that its great :)

[@jensraab2902]

Interesting video. I agree that the presentation you watched was informative and neutral; your reaction to it was interesting to watch as well. One remark that I don't see in the comment section yet is that in the end you say there's a lot of people to keep straight when voting. It's not exactly like that because over here, we generally don't vote for candidates, we vote for the parties. (It's a little bit more complex, but that's mainly it.) So, you don't have to know each candidate for the most important vote. Our chancellor, for example, will traditionally come from the ranks of the strongest coalition party and each party (with realistic chances) will have nominated their "chancellor candidate" but ultimately, we don't vote for the chancellor but the party. Consequently, there's also no primaries because the chancellor will be decided by party members (not people who are merely registered Democrat or Republican; I'm using the American example because party registration doesn't exist over here). Also, even though we have several dozen parties who are eligible in elections, most parties don't have a realistic chance because of the so-called 5% hurdle. When projections are given by the big news channels, you'll usually only see some 5 to 7 parties; all others are grouped into an amorphous "Others" category. However, if a party manages to gain exposure and traction, there's nothing to prevent them to eventually emerge as a new force on the political spectrum. This happened with the Greens in the 80s, the Lefts (Linke) in the 90s, and the AfD in the 2010s. The presentation actually omitted the genesis of the AfD. The party was founded as a Euro-skeptical party. That is, opposed to pan-European currency "Euro", not opposed to Europe or the EU. It then drifted continually to the political right and their founder was ousted by a more right-wing figure in the party, who was then herself ousted by even more right-wing figures, who are yet again under political threat by yet more right-wing folks in the party. So while it started out with an agenda that was focused on a niche economic question (by a professor for macro economics) it has now sadly transformed into a party on the far-right end of the spectrum some of whose "thought leaders" are effectively neo-Nazis. It's a disgrace that such a party gets the amount of votes that it does get.

[@Nikioko]

In a proportional representation system, you can also get representation if you only get 5 % of the votes. So, there are more than just two parties.

[@pixelbartus]

having more partys doesn't mean more important politicians. it only means between this politicians is more political diversity and that nuances get more important. And it has in my peranal opinion one big difference to the system you are used to: while a two party system has a dividing effect, is a system that is based on coalition not as confrontative. As a politician you can't constantly make an other party to an total enemy, because mabe in a few years you have to build a gouvernment with them. So you have to fight for your views, but while you are doing that you have always to think about the compromise too. And a party having the complete political power in germany is nearly impossible, so there is always a corrective, that protects the country against extremes.