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Comment by boffinAudio | Hacker News Reader

20 years - I left just after 9/11, during which period I witnessed the USA collectively shitting itself, and during which I decided to play no part in the USA's continued economic survival. Far better to have moved to Germany and get things happening in a country not inclined to blood-lust because it was finally attacked the way it had been attacking countries, with impunity, for decades prior. The German culture's proclivity for peace-making, and especially on the subject of forgiveness, far outweighs any of the gung-ho American enthusiasms that might be fashionable ..

Honestly, it took me 5 years to feel comfortable speaking fluent German - mostly because Germans just refuse to correct German-speaking expats, instead choosing to switch to their English ..

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> The German culture's proclivity for peace-making

I had hitherto been unaware of this proclivity, thanks for educating us all.

You might want to pay a visit and get to know some modern Germans.

It’s actually become somewhat of an issue nowadays. Germany has such low acceptance of any military action that even in a situation like right now, where Ukraine is at risk of being invaded, the vast majority is against any action.

Germany is still doing cleanup of WW2 damages today, everyone has experienced at least one evacuation due to old leftover bombs being found. It’s hard to support war when its damages are still deep in the collective consciousness

Germany is refusing to help protect Ukraine because its industry is completely dependent on Russian energy, not because of some lingering WWII guilt.

I think the germans’ peaceful ways are more about compensating for what came before than about innate qualities of them as a people. The U.S. response to 9/11 was indeed abysmal, with no self-examination at all, and I know several people who since then refuse to travel to the U.S. because they basically consider the whole country to have gone mad. There is this very odd thing where if you talk to Americans they are mostly sane and reasonable people, and then you see their political system and it is like an episode of game of thrones.

>German culture's proclivity for peace-making

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitali_Klitschko#Political_car...

>UDAR is supported by the German government and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation[93][94] and received support in particular from Angela Merkel and also politicians from the conservative European People's Party. According to information gained by the German magazine Der Spiegel, the target was to "set up Klitschko purposefully as a new strong man in Kyiv—in order to counter this way the Kremlin's growing influence".

>Klitschko was one of the dominant figures of the Euromaidan protests.

Germany hasn't exactly kept their hands clean over the last few years. But I'm glad you enjoy the propaganda.

Wow talk about rose colored glasses… history is longer than your lifetime my friend.

Germans teach and learn from their history. The USA is busy trying to bury their history and pretend it never happened.

I’ve found Germans to be very humble and accommodating to people that try to speak the language. I would know; I’m still terrible at it. But might be different depending on city etc.

> The German culture's proclivity for peace-making ...

Oh boy, this gave me a good chuckle. Thanks for that.

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