some Germans tend to find the Americocentrism on Reddit, but also to a lesser degree, on Lemmy, boring and at times nerve wrecking.
Based. I concur and approve. Wish I could do the same and steer away from it all. Not easy, though :(
Comment on Why are there so many german communities on Lemmy?
philpo@feddit.org 2 days ago
To give a more serious answer:
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Germans are a bit more privacy focused than most other nations (if you want to know how much read up on the google street view controversy). Germans tend to be much more aware how Meta/Google,etc. abuse their data (and while the average German won’t care there are enough of them that you actually note it)
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There is a very strong “antiITestablishment” subculture that is very active since the 80ies. The Chaos Computer Club and its congresses,etc. but also the recent trend toward digital sovereignty has increased the amount of people who see Reddit and (to a much much larger extent) Twitter in a critical light - and due to the close links of Mastodon to Lemmy that helps both.
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German speaking people, especially in the,on Lemmy, overrepresented Tech field tend to understand English fairly well (but underestimate their ability to speak it themselves often). That enables them to consume English speaking content as well, not forcing them into other media formats that do cater more for smaller languages.
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And let’s face it: There are a freaking lot of German speaking people. Around 100 Million people speak German in Europe - and while that of course is nothing compared to other India or China it’s the largest non-english language block in Europe. That gives one a large enough “crowd” to actually find an audience for a sub - while it’s rather hard to get enough people for an Italian speaking niche sub it’s far easier to do so if it’s German speaking.
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There are also some cultural issues at play - to quote an old German saying that says: “Three Germans meet - they found an association (Verein)”. Germans tend to self-organise extremely proactively. Which is often tiresome, believe me. Additionally some Germans tend to find the Americocentrism on Reddit, but also to a lesser degree, on Lemmy, boring and at times nerve wrecking.
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Lastly the German main instance, Fediverse.org is operated by a pretty robust foundation who knows what it is doing. Which of course keeps the community more stable and hosts a lot of European (non German) subs as well.
Source: Am German, lived abroad for quite some time.
Yes, I am fully aware this question wasn’t totally serious.
No, contrary to common believe we don’t have to go to the basement to laugh. Germans go to the basement for sauerkraut and to watch German dungeon porn, Swiss to clean their bunkers and Austrians,well, I’d rather not talk about that.
lemmyknow@lemmy.today 1 day ago
philpo@feddit.org 1 day ago
Yeah. Personally I try to visit non-American subs for that quite often here. Australia, Canada,etc. provide different views and influences as well and are English speaking.
lemmyknow@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Knowing other languages isn’t a problem for me. The difficulty is finding stuff I like online in other languages. I am mainly a YouTube person, and I have the ones I like. Most are in English, though. I’ve tried expanding to other languages, but to find stuff I like (and can comprehend) is not easy. A subset of a subset.
jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 1 day ago
Das Schnitzel is oder is nicht? Was denn nun?
philpo@feddit.org 1 day ago
Verdammte Autokorrektur!
Verdammte Grammatischeafdler!
Verdammt!
misteloct@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Funny story about the language ability. I had a German friend in college. He had moved to America 1 month prior and never lived in an English speaking country. He had a perfect English accent and was overall better than some of my native born friends. I required proof of his German heritage, lol, thought he was making it up. And very bashful about his incredible language ability!
Recently I met a Dutch person traveling in the US for a week. He had a flawless Southern Californian accent, my friends and I didn’t believe him. His language skills were literally better than most Americans.
I can say the same about mant Indians I’ve worked with as well.
Blasted non-Americans and their superior education!!!
4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Wanted to comment with a few of these points but this comment is way better than anything I could’ve written. This is the right answer!
paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Can you elaborate on the self organizing thing? I don’t think I have a strong intuition on what you mean.
philpo@feddit.org 2 days ago
Germans have a tendency to associate in a formal association (called Verein). From sports clubs (often even the smallest rural villages have multiple), allotment plot gardening, hiking, environmental protection, neighbourhood based one, as parental associations, cars owners, professional ones to old folks and widows, etc. etc. These are all registered with the local court (e.V.), have a formal operations charter,etc.
As people tend to be multiple clubs/associations there are far more club members than people in Germany. Germany holds the world record in that regard since 1945. (Personally I am a member of…12 I think. Maybe more. Car, School of the kiddos, sports, sports of the kiddos, a few very niche professional ones, environmental ones, a local food one,etc.)
This tendency to formalize things also sometimes is visible online in terms of subcommunity formation.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Thanks! This sounds like community building to me. The peer pressure seems to be a double edged sword, and I can see how it might become burdensome in some cases.
philpo@feddit.org 1 day ago
Yes and no. The zealousness of Germans to stick to rules but also to create rules is the issue.
Just a few mid 50 friends kicking a ball once a week in a public park to stay fit and have an excuse for a beer afterwards? Nope, that’s regular use, join a club, get into a 50+ team and kick there, but don’t forget that you need a player pass, pay club fees and often have to do 24 work hours per year.
Or even worse: Allotment gardening. Heavily regulated in most clubs by a few boomers (think HOA2.0) that will cite you for fallen leaves. And if you have the wrong type of hedge in your garden. Or if it’s to high. They will then mandate that you cut it. Which you aren’t allowed from March to October due to environmental protection laws. And of course if you sleep more than one (or two) nights in your garden it’s also forbidden. And beware if they find another salad in that part of your patch,that one is only for flowers. (It’s so bad that it is a meme in Germany)
There is a German word for all that, of course: “Blockwartsyndrom”. A Blockwart(officially Blockleiter)was the lowest position with (very little) power during the Nazi times - they were literally responsible for a building block (around 40-60 flat). They were the ones who spied on their neighbours, organised the Volkssturm later on(aka sending poor kids and old folks to their death) and generally pestered their neighbours. Blockwartsyndrom simply means: Give a little man a little power and he will everyone’s life hell.
richardwonka@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It is very burdensome if you just try to do stuff.
E.g. some friends and I wanted to train freediving, but we couldn’t book a lane in the local pools, because we don’t have a Verein registered for the activity.
In Germany, admin overhead is not something to reduce, it’s a requirement.
polle@feddit.org 1 day ago
This is especially funny because feddit.org actually is a verein.
philpo@feddit.org 1 day ago
I know. But an Austrian one.
One could say they are more German than the Germans, but… well…that didn’t work out well before…so we don’t say that anymore I think.