Ultimately it’s because of corruption. When chancellor Kohl was incumbent it was clear that fibre optics is the future. He instead pushed for the technically inferior alternative of cable internet to satisfy his business buddies.

That being said, Germany’s not only lagging behind in connectivity but in digital infrastructure in general. Many businesses and especially the administration are still stuck in the previous century. Plus there’s a considerable lack of IT knowhow (and herhaps interest) in the general populace. Travellers from countries like Estonia or Finland must feel like having traveled back into the past 20 years.

I’m still using a fax machine to send messages to the local government cause they can’t properly handle email yet, lol. Called the hospital the other day due to some info missing on their website. Had a very confusing convo with their staff cause the lady genuinely didn’t understand the difference between a website, a browser, Google and a search bar widget and kept confounding them. That’s where we are at 🤷🏽.

I mean he’s not the first to claim this:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book

It’s unlikely tho that the Kreml ever foresaw him becoming president. No-one did really.

According to the study 37% of participants verify information before sharing it on social media.

There you have it folks.

Disinformation campaigns don’t need to be super convincing with the latest tech or elaborate fake outs, although it certainly helps. For the masses (ie election interference) it’s easy enough to to establish narratives, vibes by users simply sharing headlines to fake or manipulative reports. The people that bother to deep check and cross reference sources you typically couldn’t convince anyway. Sadly enough, most users never read beyond the head lines (75% this Facebook study estimates).

Think of your own feed: how many head lines // posts do you just scroll by w/out ever opening them? Even if you don’t share actively it still can influence the your perception of the world today and shape your mood.

Social media is eating away at the fundamentals of Democracy 🫠, change my mind!

As the saying goes: listen not to what politicians say, but watch what they do.

By his own previous public proclamation anyone cooperating with the extremist AfD is to be expelled from his party. If he had decency he would now self-expel.

p 698 of project 2025 document:

The federal income tax system heavily taxes capital and corporate income and discourages work, savings, and investment. The public finance literature is clear that a consumption tax would minimize government’s distortion of private economic decisions and thus be the least economically harmful way to raise federal tax revenues.

more riches to capital and corporations, consumers will pay for it. it’s all in there

I think in that scenario it’s more likely that they would “buy the dip” then that they would up and leave. Some of the billionaires also want to found their own techno-fashist fiefdoms. This could be a good catalyst for that.

Saw a policy expert say it’s a mixture of 3 things really:

1. Trump likes to blame outsiders for problems and this is well received by his loyal base and gives off strongman vibes
2. long term plan to switch from income tax (scales the more you earn) to consumption taxes (the poorer you are the more you pay for for consumption, relatively speaking) which benefits the rich at the expense of the poor. this wealth transfer is easier to sell when the populace is focused on outsiders
3. Trump doesn’t understand basic economics

source: https://youtu.be/2I1L1fXaYDs

This feels quite politically motivated. Trump appointment aside, the CIA specifically uses the words “low confidence”, so even if they deem it the most likely, it’s still only the most likely from several low confidence options.

But look at how lawmakers exploit it:

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton said he was “pleased” the CIA concluded in the Biden administration’s final days that the lab-leak theory was the most plausible explanation of Covid-19’s origins, and commended Mr Ratcliffe for releasing the conclusion.

“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Mr Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said in a statement. BLOOMBERG

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/cia-now-favours-lab-leak-theory-to-explain-covid-19-origins

So reportedly this guy got caught in a right-wing echo chamber of conspiracy Youtubers. That’s why his coup came so out of nowhere:

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/inside-south-koreas-right-wing-youtube-world-openly-embraced-by-yoon