Even with sunglasses, Friedrich Merz could not have appeared incognito at the Transatlantic Forum of the Tholos Foundation and The Republic.
Image: dpa
Friedrich Merz and his office acted unprofessionally: The American hosts, not the German guests, are the most disconcerting thing about the canceled “Transatlantic Forum”.
Mhe Cancel culture is like the “Bild” newspaper, according to the often quoted words of Springer boss Mathias Döpfner: Whoever takes her up in the elevator also takes her down in the elevator. Friedrich Merz now had to experience this. A week ago, the CDU chairman was still highly praised in Springer leaves and related media because Anna Schneider, a “Welt” editor with the title “Chief Reporter Freedom”, had elicited a confession from him in an interview against the supposed culture of rejection .
on Twitter “The Republic”, a company based in Berlin that was founded after the federal elections were lost by the Union parties and advertises itself as a “bourgeois” think tank with internet columns and newsletter distribution, assembled a striking message from the relevant key words of the interview. Next to a traffic sign with the inscription “Cancel Culture”, which is irritatingly a copy of the sign for the road with priority, only without a white border, is the Merz quote: “In my opinion, the greatest threat to freedom of expression is now the culture of censorship.” The tweet on the collage read: “CDU leader Friedrich Merz accuses left-wing activists of misusing the term ‘fight against the right’ to take action ‘against completely legitimate opinions of the democratic spectrum’ or ‘scientific knowledge’. He sees this as a threat to freedom of expression.”
