• SharkEatingBreakfast
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    942 months ago

    Met a guy at a German language meet-up who let me know that I was first person who didn’t ask him any questions about / discuss WW2 or nazis.

    He actually grew up in East Germany in the 80’s— also not great, but no one he talked to even knew that Germany had once split. They only wanted to talk about WW2. It made him very uncomfortable.

    We got to discuss a lot about American culture and people’s weird obsessions and developed a close relationship. It was fun!

    • Tar_Alcaran
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      422 months ago

      If I had a dollar for every American mentioning Germans/WW2 when I told them I’m Dutch, I would be retired now.

      • @ChickenLadyLovesLife
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        122 months ago

        You’d rather they ask you about Anne Frank or the wooden shoes?

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        as a northern european I’d ask how many dikes do you own

        edit: dikes is not a spelling mistake (i think)

        • Tar_Alcaran
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          92 months ago

          “dyke” is British English and “dike” is American English for a levee or flood bank. I don’t own any of those because they belong to the government.

          Both spellings are also slang for butch lesbians, and owning those has been illegal for about 160 years now.

    • @[email protected]
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      112 months ago

      That’s weird. Germans are used to that. In my experience it’s especially brits that ask about it.

      Every German I know has the answer memorized: yeah, it was terrible but we are a different population now and we are making sure it won’t happen again. Do you want a beer?

      • Hanrahan
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        62 months ago

        Every German I know has the answer memorized: yeah, it was terrible but we are a different population now and we are making sure it won’t happen again

        And yet the rise and rise of the AfD…

      • SharkEatingBreakfast
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        52 months ago

        We’re in the US. I just don’t think he was used to the amount of extended ignorance, sometimes purposeful.

      • @tzrlk
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        122 months ago

        You mean the ability from C&C: Red Alert? What does that have to do with Germany? It’s a Russian superweapon, and Einstein removed Hitler from that timeline.

      • @[email protected]
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        542 months ago

        Jokes about nazis are fine, maybe getting a little annoying because I heard them all, but if you do a nazi salute I’ll punch you.

      • @Metz
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        362 months ago

        I can guarantee you that is very wrong. In fact we do it all the time. All the time, really. We even make whole comedy series and films about Hitler. And it is a very popular topic for jokes and e.g. stand-up.

        Humor is a good way to process the past.

        However what the greentext descibes is just low-effort and simply lazy and unfunny. Put a little effort into your Nazi jokes ffs.

      • @Klear
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        212 months ago

        What are the odds she’s German and not American with a German grand-aunt, though?

      • @[email protected]
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        92 months ago

        And yet i can tell you, as a German, that i heared more good Hitler jokes than jokes about USA (there are a lot of both)

      • Diplomjodler
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        -42 months ago

        We don’t really. We also aren’t trying to bring fascism back. At least not as hard as some other places.