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Comment by PaulMcCartney | Hacker News Reader

I'm led to believe that societally they are repressing their anger and aggression in reaction to WWII. The lack of bar fights and the number of shootings are strangely low. I think this is the most compelling explanation. It is known that the atrocities committed by their people during WWII weighs heavily on their psyche.

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Despite what you may think, the war crimes during ww2 were not the result of a culture unique to Germany. For example, in my country, Holland, relatively more jews were killed, because the dutch people gave them less shelter than the german peope did, and were more likely to rat them out. Nazis got to power in Germany, but as a cultural movemet was a lot larger than just germany. And nobody cared about the jews: for example, not a sinle rail road track was targetted by any of the thousands of bombings by allied forces.

What happened should be in every euopean nations consience, and generally is.

Yes but I believe that psychologically these other European countries and peoples aren't as haunted by the identity of being vicious killers or conquerers. They see themselves as mere sidelines players and thereby sidestep the psychological burden that looms over the Germans, of being active and causal forces in the war and in the murdering of millions.

You do realize that the overwhelmingly vast majority of Germany citizens were not alive during World War II, right?

Are the numbers strangely low? In many parts of Europe the numbers are similar.

Generally in the German society there is a wish for security. The local authorities are made responsible for it. Other forms security are similar important: Not being poor, staying heathly, having enough to eat, ... These are also typically the more important topics at elections.

There is some background influence from WWII. The wish for security (not the security where the individual is responsible) and good government is a reaction. Another reaction is the work ethic.

That's probably the dumbest thing I've read this year and the year is far from over. Congratulations.

Again, comments like these are why the down vote was created. Please be constructive with your feedback. Where do you think my assessment falls short?

It falls short by being rather incredible to start with — it's just plain weird to imagine that drunk Germans are spoiling to fight but are stopped by the thought of National Socialism — and lacking evidentiary support to lend it any additional credibility.

Down voting without providing a response to my comment or a without furthering the conversation in any way is the type of meaningless emotional response that down voting was meant to combat in the first place. You have not helped the conversation in any way and have not provided me with a reason to reconsider my assessment.

I did not downvote your original comment (only this one), however, here is why I think it might have been downvoted:

a) Your comment does not make sense: People only very few people who commited any war crimes in WW2 are even alive anymore. Germans these days learn about it in history class. While it still has some influence on their attitude towards nationalism, it is unlikely that it has any influence on their general aggressiveness.

b) This is a sensitive issue. It might have been considered offensive.

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