Culture crisis or necessary argument? Fixed weeks debate violently!

Culture crisis or necessary argument? Fixed weeks debate violently!

In a kick-off on the festival weeks and congresses in Vienna, the Swiss director

The event is divided into three sessions that deal with explosive topics, including the war in Gaza, the political scientist Ulrike Guérot in the eastern neighboring countries of Austria. Also noteworthy is a planned discussion on Sunday afternoon, in which a jury of the "Free Republic of Vienna" will discuss questions about "genocide" and "attempted genocide" in the context of the Israeli forces.

polemics and applause

On stage, the author and actress Mateja Meded with a sharp criticism of the patriarch. She described the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as "idiot", which met with great applause in the audience. In contrast, the journalist Ulf Poschardt was forced to deal with buffs and praised the Israeli armed forces and anti-Semitism in German culture denounced. Poschardt criticized a "ritualized denunciation race", which in his opinion is directed against the cultural policy of Viktor Orbán.

The linguistin Ruth Wodak also provided insights from her lecture trip in the USA, where she described a prevailing fear in the science company. These fears are not unfounded if you look at the developments in the United States that are shaped by increasing political censorship.

the cultural context

The term “cultural struggle” has gained in importance in both Germany and the USA in recent years. It is increasingly being used by rights and reactionary forces to defend social and cultural sovereignty. In the United States, a kind of Cancel Culture has developed, in which conservatives are faced with the accusation that their freedom of expression is not respected, especially with regard to Wokeness that emerged from the political correctness of the 1990s, as Deutschlandfunk Kultur reported.

Republicans in the United States have implemented their own Cancel Culture through legislative measures, such as the restriction of teaching content on the subject of gender identity and sexuality. This development affects not only the schools where over 1,400 books were banned in the school year 2022/2023, but also medical treatments for trans people and other areas that are closely associated with the discrimination against minorities.

These tendencies, some of which are legitimized with the protection of children, are not just a US phenomenon. In Germany, politicians warn like Friedrich Merz and Markus söder Wokeness and the Cancel Culture for freedom of expression. The term is a reaction to a supposedly superior left ideology and is used to stir up a social climate of fear and exclusion.

Overall, it can be seen that the cultural struggle is not only obvious in the debates of the festival weeks, but is also a widespread phenomenon that can take different facets both in the United States and in Germany. The challenges that companies face concern the freedom of expression and the fundamental principles of pluralistic democracy.