Politics & Stuff

[YorkshireBlue 3,268]

6 hours ago, Vesper said:

Absolutely not. Misogyny and oppression based off it runs riot on a global basis.

It’s a word that’s used by so many people that don’t even know what it means, it’s now the go to word because it’s the “in” word.

[Vesper 30,123]

1 hour ago, YorkshireBlue said:

It’s a word that’s used by so many people that don’t even know what it means, it’s now the go to word because it’s the “in” word.

When I use it I do so in an entirely proper fashion.

[YorkshireBlue 3,268]

21 minutes ago, Vesper said:

When I use it I do so in an entirely proper fashion.

Shame that can’t be said about 90% of the people that use it.

[Vesper 30,123]

16 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

Shame that can’t be said about 90% of the people that use it.

It is not that high a percentage of misuse.

99% of the time it is applied to Trump, for instance, it is a factual claim.

Trump is a brutal, public (and in private as well) misogynist, one who has a decades long history of it, especially when it come to women of colour, and even more so when it come to black women in particular (it is then called misogynoir).

 

Of course, millions of his POS supporters heed the call of their master's voice and feel empowered to let their misogyny flow freely as well.

 

[YorkshireBlue 3,268]

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

It is not that high a percentage of misuse.

99% of the time it is applied to Trump, for instance, it is a factual claim.

Trump is a brutal, public (and in private as well) misogynist, one who has a decades long history of it, especially when it come to women of colour, and even more so when it come to black women in particular (it is then called misogynoir).

 

Of course, millions of his POS supporters heed the call of their master's voice and feel empowered to let their misogyny flow freely as well.

 

Trumps just one extreme example, i am talking the misuse in normal everyday people, you get called a misogynist these days because you won’t buy a random slapper a drink in a bar.

Edited August 29, 2024 by YorkshireBlue

[Vesper 30,123]

Does capitalism make ‘non-playable characters’ of us all? An uncanny exploration

 

https://aeon.co/videos/does-capitalism-make-non-playable-characters-of-us-all-an-uncanny-exploration

‘There will never be enough nails in the wood.’

The ‘pseudo-Marxist’ Austrian art collective Total Refusal creates short films with visuals generated entirely from within popular video games. In Hardly Working, they train their focus on just a few of the hundreds of non-playable characters who populate the background in the western action-adventure game Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). These often-seen, rarely scrutinised carpenters, laundresses, stable boys and street sweepers occupy a circular, uncanny reality centred on the repetitive tasks that hardly make a mark on the world around them. At first dryly humorous, the proceedings grow disquieting as the narrator prods the viewer to consider the ‘infinite loop of labour performance’ of life within a capitalist system.

Directors: Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf

Website: Total Refusal

 

[Vesper 30,123]

Vance tells Harris to ‘go to hell’ for cemetery criticism she didn’t give

Trump and his allies are known to flout political norms, but the crass language Vance used to criticize a political opponent Wednesday is particularly unusual in modern politics.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/29/vance-trump-comments-attacks-harris/

Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance said at a campaign event on Wednesday that he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris “can go to hell,” adding to the increasingly personal attacks former president Donald Trump’s campaign has lodged against the Democratic presidential nominee in recent days.

A reporter at the campaign event asked Vance about an altercation involving Trump campaign staff that took place at Arlington National Cemetery, which the former president visited Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Islamic State bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation from Afghanistan.

Federal law prohibits election-related activities at military cemeteries and as The Washington Post previously reported, a cemetery employee tried to enforce the rules as provided to her by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years, according to a senior defense official and another person briefed on the incident. A larger male campaign aide insisted the camera was allowed and pushed past the cemetery employee.

Vance said at his campaign stop in Erie, Pa., on Wednesday that the press was “creating a story where I really don’t think that there is one.” He said the family members of fallen service members in attendance “invited [Trump] to be there and to support them.” But the Ohio senator, a military veteran, then used the question to tie the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal to the Democratic presidential candidate.

“Kamala Harris is disgraceful. We’re going to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives? It’s that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened,” he asserted, though there have been extensive federal investigations into the Abbey Gate bombing.

 

Vance accused Harris of criticizing Trump’s visit to the cemetery, saying: “And she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up? She can — she can go to hell.”

Harris, who began a two-day bus tour in Georgia on Wednesday, did not bring up the issue on the campaign trail. In an interview with CNN that aired earlier Wednesday — before Vance’s campaign events — Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said the cemetery incident was “pretty sad” but “not surprising coming from the Trump team.” The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment about Vance’s comments about the Democratic nominee.

Trump and his allies have been known to push past the boundaries of political norms during the former president’s nearly decade-long political career. But the type of crass language Vance used to condemn a political opponent Wednesday is particularly unusual in modern politics.

Defense officials said the confrontation occurred when an Arlington National Cemetery staff member warned people employed by the Trump campaign that while they were permitted to take photos and videos in the cemetery, they could not do so in Section 60, the final resting place for many U.S. service members killed in recent conflicts.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to the first report of the altercation, from NPR on Tuesday, by baselessly accusing the employee of “suffering from a mental health episode.” Defense officials said the employee was trying to do her job and the claim of a mental health episode was false. On Wednesday, Cheung said the employee “initiated physical contact that was unwarranted and unnecessary.”

Cheung also said the campaign would release footage to support his claim, but it has not. The Trump campaign on Wednesday posted a video to TikTok that was recorded at the cemetery; in it, Trump is seen at the Tomb of the Unknowns and walking among marble headstones as soft guitar music plays and the former president’s words are heard criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal.

Vance’s harsh language Wednesday came hours after Trump went on a posting spree, sharing increasingly conspiratorial and sometimes vulgar posts on his Truth Social profile aimed at Harris and his political opponents.

Trump shared another user’s post with an image of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Harris, amplifying a vulgar joke about a sex act — an apparent reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Harris’s short-lived romantic relationship with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Another repost showed an AI image of his political opponents — including Harris — in prison. One image called for military tribunals aimed at former president Barack Obama. He also reshared other users’ three QAnon-related images and posts, including an image depicting Trump holding a “Q+” symbol.

QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory that imagines Trump in a battle with a cabal of deep-state saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex. Its devotees shared their claims in online conservative forums during much of Trump’s presidency, and the radical ideology has been credited for helping fan the flames of extremism that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s reshares on social media came on the heels of special counsel Jack Smith’s filing of an updated indictment against Trump. Trump faces the same four charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Many of the posts Trump shared were related to the case — including one that superimposed red eyes and horns over Smith’s face and another saying Smith should be prosecuted.

[Vesper 30,123]

Trump campaign and Arlington Cemetery staff clash at event

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgwnn11x18o

A wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery turned contentious when former President Donald Trump's campaign staff got into an "altercation" with cemetery staff over filming at the burial site for military members.

Cemetery officials publicly offered few details, beyond saying "there was an incident" and a "report was filed".

The incident occurred when a Trump staffer attempted to film in a restricted area and a cemetery employee tried to stop them.

The Trump campaign denied the allegations and said it received permission from families of fallen service members to film. But federal law prohibits political campaign activity at military cemeteries.

Trump was at the memorial to honour the 13 US military service members who were killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago Monday.

An unnamed source told NPR that Trump staffers were attempting to film and photograph a section of the cemetery where the recent US casualties are buried.

Federal law restricts recording there. Trump staffers were told beforehand that they could not photograph or film that part of the grounds, cemetery officials said.

When the cemetery employee tried to stop the campaign from entering that section, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, the unnamed source told NPR.

Defence officials told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that some Trump campaign staff were unprofessional and both verbally and physically aggressive towards the cemetery official.

Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, disputed that there was a physical altercation and said the campaign was prepared to release video to confirm its account.

The campaign did share some footage of the visit on social media on Tuesday, but the alleged altercation was not included.

In his statement, Mr Cheung said: "The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony."

Arlington National Cemetery said it would not release further information or the identity of the worker involved in order to protect the person.

The employee has declined to press charges over the matter, US media report. They feared retribution from Trump's supporters, according to the New York Times.

Questions over the filming

In a post on Truth Social, Trump shared a statement from family members of the fallen soldiers honoured at the event, expressing their approval.

“We had given our approval for President Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event, ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured and so we can cherish these memories forever,” the families said in Trump's post.

But that goes against federal policy, an Arlington National Cemetery spokesperson told the BBC.

US law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities on the grounds of military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators or anyone directly supporting a partisan political candidate's campaign, the cemetery spokesperson said.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox, who is running for re-election, also attended the ceremony and posted a photo on X of himself with Trump and the family of Staff Sgt Darin Hoover, of Utah, who was killed during the withdrawal.

But he later came under fire for using the photo in a campaign email, forcing an apology post via X on Wednesday that acknowledged it should not have been sent: "This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign."

Sgt Hoover's grave is next to that of Master Sgt Andrew Marckesano, who died by suicide after six tours in Afghanistan in 2020.

Sgt Marckesano's sister said that despite her family's support for the Hoover family, Trump campaign staff "did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit".

She urged visitors to remember that those buried there were "real people" who should be "honoured and respected".

[Vesper 30,123]

Call It What It Is — Trumpflation

https://washingtonspectator.org/call-it-what-it-is-trumpflation/

Sharply rising prices in 2022 and 2023 made “Bidenflation” a Republican talking point. Inflation, Republicans claimed, was due to a 2021 Democratic spending bill that gave substantial money to people while the US economy suffered the effects of Covid. As this money was spent, prices rose.

Reality repudiates this Republican fiction. Presidents have limited control over prices charged by firms. The main responsibility for controlling inflation has fallen to central banks. If anyone is to blame for our recent inflation, it should be Jay Powell, Trump’s appointee to lead the Federal Reserve.

A simple test also shows that the Democratic spending bill did not cause high inflation. In 2021 few nations provided people with considerable additional money. If Republicans are right, inflation should have been much higher in the US than other developed nations.

US inflation was 8% in 2022. In Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, and the UK, inflation ranged from 6.8% to 7.9%. On the other hand, Belgium Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden had inflation rates of between 8% and 10%. In these nations, and in others, inflation rose from around 2% to around 8% (plus or minus a little). By early 2024, inflation rates had fallen from 8% to around 3% in these countries — within striking distance of the 2% target set by most central banks.

Clearly inflation was a global phenomenon. It was not due to misguided US policy. Supply-chain problems in 2022, which largely ended by late 2023, were mainly to blame. The Democratic spending bill didn’t cause inflation; but it did keep US unemployment low compared to other developed nations (see “A Tale of Two Policies” in the March-April 2024 Washington Spectator). Rather than Bidenflation, we have in fact had Bidengrowth.

Nonetheless, we could have done better battling inflation. Our failure to do so however was not Joe Biden’s fault. Despite its limited power, the Biden administration’s targeted policies helped restrain inflation.

President Biden released oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve and got other nations to follow suit, leading to lower gas prices. He called out the National Guard to help unload ships on the west coast when Covid reduced the supply of dockworkers able to unload boats. He lowered prescription drug prices by allowing imports from Canada and negotiated with big pharma to limit prices on drugs sold in the US (including insulin).

Even more telling, President Trump had signed a bill in 2017 allowing hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter rather than through a doctor (which cost around $5,000). Most experts agreed a doctor visit was unnecessary. The Trump administration though then failed to issue rules to make this cheaper option available to millions of Americans. It was left to the Biden administration to make this happen.

Spending on these goods and services, however, constitutes a small part of what people buy and cut inflation by only a few tenths of a percentage point. The big picture concerning inflation is that since the 1990s, foreign goods and immigration kept US inflation low. The Trump administration sought to restrict both, thus opening the door to higher inflation in the US.

Fewer foreign goods deprives consumers of low-priced goods, reduces competition, and increases inflation. So does a reduced labor supply resulting from immigration restrictions. Inflation remained low during the Trump administration because the economy was not really booming, there were no massive supply-chain problems pushing up prices, and the Trump administration was relatively ineffective in keeping out foreign goods and immigrants. When economies began to reopen following the Covid pandemic, a labor shortage exacerbated by Covid pushed up wages as firms sought to hoard workers. In conjunction with supply-chain problems, these factors led to increased prices.

In fact, Trump’s policies were pushing up prices even before Covid. Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, but also on goods from Canada, Mexico, India and the European Union. In contrast to nearly every economist, he believes that foreign firms pay this tax, just as he believes that Mexico paid for his “glorious wall.” In fact, the wall was not built because Mexico, understandably, wouldn’t pay for it, and Congress wouldn’t allocate the funds. Tariffs get added to the price of goods coming into the US just as sales taxes get added to the price of purchased goods. Consumers pay the tax and face higher inflation.

Consumers, of course, buy many things besides foreign-made goods. That’s why a 10% tariff doesn’t lead to 10% inflation, but something closer to 1 percentage point of additional inflation. The largest household expense by far is housing. Housing costs have risen more than just about anything else over the past half decade. Several Trump policies contributed to housing inflation.

When the housing bubble burst in 2008, housing construction tumbled in the US. That business sector shut down and construction workers found other employment or retired. The housing industry never really recovered. Nearly a decade later, when the supply of excess homes disappeared, there were not enough construction workers to build the new homes that people wanted. Trump’s immigration policies, which sought to keep foreign workers out of the US labor market, increased labor costs for constructing new homes and raised home prices as a result. Covid then made things much worse, as people sought larger homes and additional homes in more rural areas.

Climate change also contributes to housing inflation. Hot and humid weather makes it harder to labor outdoors. Lower worker productivity, in turn, increases labor costs and prices.

In addition, climate change directly increases prices (see “Will Inflation Crush the Biden Presidency” in the March-April 2022 Washington Spectator). The cost of home (and car) insurance rises with weather-related disasters, including torrential rain and wildfires. Warmer water hurts the fishing industry, increasing the price of fish; higher land temperatures reduce crop yields and increase food prices. Climate change also makes home building more expensive. Housing construction requires a substantial amount of lumber. With milder winters, trees don’t grow as strong, and the lumber needed to build homes becomes more expensive. Higher prices for new homes then push up the cost of used homes.

Remarkably, Trump refuses to believe that climate change is real. He complains about wind turbines killing birds and toilets that don’t flush. His main anti-inflation policy is “drill, baby, drill”. The fossil fuel consumption he promotes generates climate change and increases inflation. Housing has been a major casualty of this folly, with home prices now far greater than what middle-class Americans can afford.

Finally, the major Trump policy achievement, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also increased housing costs. Besides giving large tax breaks to large corporations and the rich, the bill increased the standard deduction, leading to a sharp drop in US households itemizing their deductions. Many households can no longer deduct mortgage interest on their tax returns. Further, the $10,000 limit on the SALT (state and local tax) deduction means that many middle-class homeowners cannot deduct all their property taxes. These changes increased the cost of owning a home and also sent more people into the rental market, thereby increasing rents.

Things look much worse for inflation if there is a second Trump Presidency, as 16 Nobel laureate economists recently warned. Trump wants to devalue the dollar, which would make all imported goods more expensive. He vows to increase tariffs further, and even suggested he might replace the income tax with higher tariffs, something that would require tariffs exceeding 100% just to keep government revenues from falling. More worrisome, Trump promised to rescind Biden’s policy to prohibit junk fees and to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which saves low- and middle-income households thousands of dollars a year on health insurance. And he plans to expand his 2017 tax cuts, even though this would push up the national debt and create the same demand-side inflationary forces Republicans blame on President Biden.

Tax cuts for corporations and the rich, as well as restrictions on immigration and imports, lead to higher US inflation. This is not Bidenflation. It is Trumpflation.

 

Steven Pressman is a part-time professor of economics at the New School for Social Research, professor emeritus of economics and finance at Monmouth University, and author of Fifty Major Economists (Routledge, 2013)

[Thor 2,693]

Why does  Harris talk about fixing all these problems - when they've been in power for 3 of the last 4 terms? 

Who is advising her with her language? She has gotten caught out so many times. One party has been in power for 75% of the time, talking about a new time is coming, proper change and leadership, when that party has been in power for so long and it is where it is. 

 

She needs a better team - not that I care who wins, but dear lord the whole campaign is poorly run. The more she is out and about, the weaker her case gets. 

[Pizy 18,877]

9 minutes ago, Thor said:

Why does  Harris talk about fixing all these problems - when they've been in power for 3 of the last 4 terms? 

Who is advising her with her language? She has gotten caught out so many times. One party has been in power for 75% of the time, talking about a new time is coming, proper change and leadership, when that party has been in power for so long and it is where it is. 

 

She needs a better team - not that I care who wins, but dear lord the whole campaign is poorly run. The more she is out and about, the weaker her case gets. 

You do realize that in order to enact big changes you need control of both the Senate and the House, right? And not only do you need control of both but you need solid majorities. Which in this day age is nearly impossible. 

A President here in the States isn’t a king or an authoritarian (as much as Trump wishes he could be) like Putin or Xi who can just snap their fingers and do as they please. 

A Democrat president can propose these very big, popular things like she is but the likely Republican controlled Senate will block and prevent her from doing most of it. Which is precisely what they’ve done to Biden these past 4 years. Big, hugely popular legislation gets proposed, it polls at 70% approval, and then the Republicans block it.

And as for her running a poor campaign, that’s simply nonsense. She has been fantastic having had to spin up a whole campaign operation at lightning speed with mere months to go. Hence why she has shot up the polls and is ahead of Trump in many places that Biden trailed.

[Thor 2,693]

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

You do realize that in order to enact big changes you need control of both the Senate and the House, right? And not only do you need control of both but you need solid majorities. Which in this day age is nearly impossible. 

A President here in the States isn’t a king or an authoritarian (as much as Trump wishes he could be) like Putin or Xi who can just snap their fingers and do as they please. 

A Democrat president can propose these very big, popular things like she is but the likely Republican controlled Senate will block and prevent her from doing most of it. Which is precisely what they’ve done to Biden these past 4 years. Big, hugely popular legislation gets proposed, it polls at 70% approval, and then the Republicans block it.

And as for her running a poor campaign, that’s simply nonsense. She has been fantastic having had to spin up a whole campaign operation at lightning speed with mere months to go. Hence why she has shot up the polls and is ahead of Trump in many places that Biden trailed.

I know how it works - but to suggest the inability to enact any significant change despite the tenure over the last 4 terms is disingenuous. Just don't have the election at all then...

I'd hope she would poll better than the most polarizing figure in political history in the USA. The fact its close with all the advantages she has is testament to a lacklustre campaign.

[cosmicway 1,333]

FIND A WIFE FROM VOLOS CITY
--------------------------------------
Those of you who are in search of a wife, forget the French girls. the English girls and the Eskimo girls you are looking for.
Find one from the city of Volos.
Riches guaranteed plus wife.
What is then about the famous Achilleas Beos, the mayor of Volos ?
These days we have a freak emergency in the town.
Some of the nearby dams failed to hold the water from the lakes and the lake water which was contaminated with pollutants reached the sea.
As a result millions of fish died and the sea is full of dead, decomposing fish.
The mayor blames other authorities but naturally the citizens of Volos blame everybody for this.

But let's go back 20 years ago.
Beos was the president of Panionios FC of Athens and there was a series of peculiar, almost bizarre results.
The UEFA investigators accused Beos as well as another for match fixing.
Beos was punished for this, resigned from Panionios but amnestied after a while.
Then makes his comeback.
This time he travels to the city of Volos and becomes the president of the local club, Olympiakos Volos.
Asked about his gambling habit he said "it is legal to bet on football, so it's none of your business".

These days I 'm not sure he can do it openly.
I think but I 'm not sure people who are under the rules of a sports federation are not allowed to gamble on betting events of the same federation. Or maybe they are allowed, I am quite uncertain this has become law or not and I know only that it was being discussed. In any case it is not much of a deterrent.

But the other think he did was to get himself elected as mayor of Volos.
It's his third term now and wins by landslides !
He is not New Democracy, socialist, left or extreme right, pro European or anti European !
He calls all of them "clowns" !
But wins by huge majorities and this story with the fish now I 'm sure won't even touch him.
Tell me how ?

Latest results of Volos FC.
First week of the Super League against Olympiakos Piraeus they lose 2-0. Nothing out of the ordinary. Piraeus are back in strength to win the title.
Second week. Away to Asteras Tripolis. Asteras finished well above Volos last year but in the first week they had performed the giant killing act of defeating Panathinaikos inside their castle in Athens by 1-0. Result this time Volos wins by 1-0 ! From last season it appears Volos and Asteras are frequently doing this thing.
Yesterday, third week, Volos at home against OFI Crete who are weaklings. Volos lost 1-3 !

So forget the rotten fish if you live in Volos.
Back in 2005 with him again at Panionios that time there was the famous match against Dinamo Tbilisi.
Half time away win, full time home win they were shouting from the terraces is the rumour and indeed Tbilisi were 2-1 ahead at half time but in the end lost 5-2.
What is important about that match is that I live fairly close to Panionios football ground but on the day of the match I was in bed with a really bad dose of flu.
The next day having recovered I meet some locals in the pubs and they say to me "where were you yesterday ? we were going to make you rich". They are liars but that's what they said.

I do believe however those huge majorities in the municipal elections of Volos. Definitely bigger than Papandreou could do in his days of glory.


n.b. Beos is famously anti-gay so if you are LBGTQ do whatever you do in secret

Edited September 2, 2024 by cosmicway

[Vesper 30,123]

On 01/09/2024 at 02:36, Thor said:

I'd hope she would poll better than the most polarizing figure in political history in the USA. The fact its close with all the advantages she has is testament to a lacklustre campaign.

Biden has trailing Trump nationally by 4 to 6 points on average in most polls

look at Harris now:

(and Biden was doing even worse in most of the swing states, and Harris has completely flipped most all)

[Vesper 30,123]

Success of far-right AfD shows east and west Germany are drifting further apart

Likely win in Thuringia and second place in Saxony highlight how eastern voters are asserting their own political identity

• German far-right party AfD poised for state election victory in east

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/01/success-far-right-afd-shows-east-west-germany-drifting-further-apart

After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, the former West German chancellor Willy Brandt predicted that reunification would finally allow “what belongs together to grow together”.

How optimistic that image of organic healing sounds 35 years on. Tonight’s historic election results from Thuringia and Saxony paint a picture of a Germany whose eastern and western regions are, if anything, drifting further and further apart.

The far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is riding a populist wave across Europe’s largest economy. If federal elections were held tomorrow, recent polls suggest the party could become the second strongest group in the Bundestag.

But only in the eastern states can the AfD claim to have a mandate to form the next government, as its Thuringian leader, Björn Höcke, has already done after emerging top in a state election for the first time ever, on at least 30% of the vote.

And in none of the western states do polls predict that the far right would challenge the established parties of the centre right and centre left as seriously as in Saxony, where projections have the AfD in a head-to-head race with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with the latter slightly ahead in exit polls.

In Brandenburg, the state that surrounds the capital, Berlin, the AfD is also expected to emerge as the strongest party later this month.

As long as the remaining parties manage to uphold the cordon sanitaire around the far right and prevent it from gaining a majority, its dreams of seizing power will probably remain merely aspirational. Nonetheless, the AfD’s establishment as a dominant regional force raises serious and troubling questions about Germany’s political identity and how it contain the rise of such forces in the future.

For years, the assumption in Germany has been that once the eastern states had “caught up” with the rest of the country economically, their political outlook would align. According to such reasoning, the rise of the AfD is cast as a protest vote against continued disparities in income, employment and living standards.

But economics and demographics only go so far to explain the outcome of Sunday’s votes. The population of the east is older than that in the west, but it is no longer demographically “bleeding out” as it was during the last years of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the two decades that followed. In fact, every year since 2017, more people have migrated from the west to the east.

Unemployment is higher, but only by a fraction – the real contrast here is between northern and southern Germany. For the last two years, the economies of the eastern states have been growing faster than those in the west, as global players such as Tesla and Intel have set up factories in the eastern lands. Levels of immigration in the eastern states that went to the polls on Sunday night are among the lowest in the whole of Germany.

According to a survey published by Olaf Scholz’s government at the start of this year, about 19% of east Germans say they feel left behind. That is twice as many as in the west (8%), but would still suggest that 80% of the population of the five eastern states do not feel they are losing out. Yet a sizeable number of them cast their votes for a party that, in its Thuringian branch, has been certified as rightwing extremist.

The eastern-born sociologist Steffen Mau has coined the term ossifikation for this trend – a play on the slang term for former GDR citizens and the biological process by which tissue hardens into bone. Far from still “catching up”, Mau writes in his recent book Ungleich Vereint (Unequally Unified), east Germany is voting differently from the west precisely because it has already caught up and now claims the right to assert its own distinct identity.

In her book Tausend Aufbrüche (A Thousand Starts), which won this year’s top German nonfiction prize, the GDR-born historian Christina Morina says the AfD is winning in the east because it has managed to tap into a distinctive understanding of what democracy entails, which was shaped by 40 years under communist rule and remains different from that in the west.

This might sound paradoxical, since the GDR was a single-party dictatorship without free elections and no division of state powers. Yet the GDR’s regime claimed the concept of democracy for its own purposes, and emphatically so.

“East Germany too claimed for itself to have found a democratic response to national socialism,” Morina told the Guardian in a recent interview. “It’s just that the communists’ story of how democracy worked was a deeply populist one, which claimed to be truer and more representative of real people than democracy in the west, which they said was merely organising class hierarchies and representing the interests of capitalism.”

The historic experience of that kind of pseudo-democracy, she argued, was one explanation for why the AfD was managing to mobilise so many more previous non-voters in the east than other parties.

Unlike the established centrist parties, the AfD has not only held rallies on the campaign trail, but organised spaziergänge, “strolls” through town centres, which are designed to evoke the peaceful Monday protests that accompanied the unravelling of socialist East Germany. It is the only party in Germany that calls for the president to be directly elected by citizens rather than through a federal convention, and has advocated for a Swiss-style direct democracy of regular referendums.

“In its election campaigns, the AfD very effectively tapped into an experience that is widely shared among east Germans,” said Morina. “That you don’t make yourself heard through voting, by engaging yourself in political parties, civic groups or unions, but by mobilising the masses for street protests.”

There is every reason to distrust the AfD’s claim to merely represent a different democratic tradition. Underlying its story of empowerment lies a deeply racist strand of thinking, which casts easterners as more pure Germans because they resisted multiculturalism and all the ideas that entered the West German discourse after the student revolutions of 1968.

But both Mau and Morina suggest that winning back voters from the far right can only work by engaging them directly through unconventional and creative means, such as local citizens’ assemblies. To halt and eventually reverse the drifting apart of Germany’s east and west, the political centre needs to start thinking outside the box.