I think it also has a lot to do with the influence of patiarchy and toxic masculinity on the grieving person.

If you managed to push back against some of society’s expectations on men, know how to express more emotions than “angry” and “horny” and have shown vulnerability in the past, people will find it much easier to approach you.

On the other hand, if someone is working super hard to keep up their “manliness”, you may realize that they’re struggling, but you’ll have reservations about tearing down the crumbling facade they’re desparately trying to preserve.

People don’t dislike neoliberalism, they dislike the effects it has on society. But they fail to connect the dots.

I think one of the main problems is that there’s no “home” for people leaning left. The SPD has long dropped the “S” from it’s name, it’s just another conservative party representing those who are already well-off, without any ideas or plans to improve life for those who are exploited in our current system. Die Linke is completely detached from reality and too busy with fighting between themselves to address the giant issues that they should have the answers for. Greens are a climate/environment party first and they’re too elitist to pick up any of the angry people who (rightfully) feel like they’ve been cheated by the system.

So when you have a well organized, populist party on the far-right that provides (wrong) answers for those people, it’s no wonder they flock to them. Of course, you’ll always have those who are actual fascists and will always vote for a fascist party, but a strong left could easily draw a lot of the other voters away from the AfD.

I’m also a bit heavy and I know the struggle. I use a lot of energy just do prevent popping back up like a cork. I’ve considered using a little bit of lead, but what I like about freediving is not having a bunch of belts and vests and other gear on me. So I’m currently also trying to lose weight.

In the same vein, freediving is easy to learn up to a certain point and safe as long as you don’t hyperventilate and stay away from caves. Most people can learn to dive to 10-15m and look around a bit before they have to resurface. That’s far from breaking any records, but enough to have fun and see some cool stuff that you can’t see from the surface.

Plus, you don’t need any special gear, besides snorkel, mask and fins.

I agree, Scholz is an idiot but Merz fucking terrifies me. Every time I see him on TV, it sends shivers down my spine. I don’t get how other people don’t feel the same way, it’s like Lord Voldemort sitting in a talkshow and everyone just going along with it…