> In general AfD voters are considered right-wing and terrible people. But on the other hand, the AfD enjoyed quite some success in the elections, so what does this tell us about German society?

I think it tells us that the fight against racism and fascism is perpetual, even in countries that otherwise have strong legal frameworks for combating them (as Germany does).

> Furthermore, a society which is willing to ostracize a significant number of its own for holding specific opinions instead of working through its differences - like many Western European countries or the US wrongly do - is weakening itself.

I think the idea of a country "weakening itself" is both a red herring and a dog whistle (although I don't know if you intended the latter). It wasn't very long ago that the US used state power to physically ostracize and divide its citizens by race and religion. That, for whatever reason, isn't considered an act of self-weakening, but (occasionally misdirected) observations on social media about the former are. That, to me, is telling.