An Open Letter to Markus Günther: Correct the Record

Since our initial exchange, we have heard nothing back from Markus Günther regarding his article that suggests Americans are hypocrites who suppress their own history of slavery and oppression of Native Americans. (Mr. Guenther is the Washington, DC correspondent for a major German newspaper chain.) We at Davids Medienkritik have therefore emailed Mr. Günther this open letter:

Dear Mr. Guenther:

Since I have not heard from you since our last email, I can only assume that you have no intention of addressing the obvious problems and mistakes with your article "Gedenken and Verdrängen." Once again, I openly request that you address the obvious problems with your work (that we have identified on our blog) in a follow-up article - one that corrects the false and misleading innuendo of the first piece. Otherwise, I will see myself forced to directly contact your editors in Germany. I will also post an article on my blog encouraging readers to do the same.

We simply will not allow this form of disingenuous America bashing to go unanswered - it has gone on for far too long in German media and it needs to change. You of all people should know that - and stooping to satisfy the outrageous appetites of those virulently anti-American members of your audience is no excuse for publishing sensational distortions.

If you refuse to act to correct your work and set the record straight - we (the community that follows Davids Medienkritik) will take action.

Sincerely,
Ray D.
Managing Editor
Davids Medienkritik

We demand that Mr. Guenther publish an article directly addressing our criticisms and setting the record straight. We will no longer sit back and accept this sort of "journalism" in German media - we will no longer quietly discuss the problem on this blog. We are serious about action on this. Read all about the problems with Mr. Guenther's work here.

Comments

[GringoTex]

Could you post the e-mails and mailing addresses of the editors? Thanks.

[wf]

Günther has written anti-American tirades for years; there is really nothing else to his work. The amazing thing is how uneducated and provincial he really is. His articles are so free of background or analysis that I have sometimes wondered if he really is in Washington at all. A pimply teenager who reads Michael Moore and lives in his parents basement could write just like that.

Don´t believe me. Here is his latest excretion (in German, link may not last):

http://www.morgenweb.de/service/archiv/artikel/624678746.html

What this has to do with journalism I cannot say. But let´s not forget that "liberal" Americans are feeding him the hate for partisan reasons - have they no decency or shame?

[Alex K]

I applaud you, Ray, for not letting the man off the hook after his initial email and persistently working for things to change.

[Orbit Rain]

...more jibber-jabber from self-promoting liars...and some Germans and Europeans on the left wonder why we Americans don't care what much what they think...go ahead, lie, keep your countries stupid, you on the left who want to game humanity for your own ideals can keep crying about whatever it is you cry about, you're keeping your own countrymen stupid, brainwashed and poor...

you rot in the swill you've brewed

[FranzisM]

wf - Unfortunately I can only read the opening paragraph of this latest article, if you are a subscriber to that newspaper please post it all. But from what I get to see, he is trying to portray the Democratic Party as a source of hope.

This is a mutual relationship. The European leftists are seeking the attention and agreement of the American leftists. The American leftists are seeking the attention and agreement of the European leftists. Both prop up each others delusions. And together they believe they were the vanguard of the transatlantic relationship if not the international community.

The earlier this symbiosis of delusion falls out of balance the better.

[wf]

FranzisM - Here is the article. I bet it is even worse than you think.

Given that it was published in large regional papers such as Augsburger Allgemeine and Mannheimer Morgen, this has reached over a million readers.

---

Gibt es "das andere Amerika" überhaupt?

Die deutsche Hassliebe für die USA bringt manche Selbsttäuschung mit sich, wie der Besuch einer Gartenparty beweist

Von unserem Korrespondenten Markus Günther

Samstagabend, die jährliche Gartenparty bei Pat und Sally: 60 Amis und wir. Bei Burger und Budweiser wird hier immer viel über Politik geredet. Wer ist hier noch für Bush? Keiner. Und es will auch keiner mehr über ihn reden. Bei den letzten sieben Gartenpartys ist dazu längst alles gesagt worden. Jetzt ist der Blick nach vorn gerichtet: Jerry, ein einflussreicher Lobbyist, will Hillary Clinton wählen. "Es muss sich etwas ändern in diesem Land", sagt er nachdenklich. Er hat seit Jahrzehnten keinen Demokraten mehr gewählt. Andere wollen Barack Obama oder Al Gore. Sie schwören an diesem Abend, mit dem Glas in der Hand: "Bloß nicht noch einmal einen Republikaner!"

Darauf trinken wir noch ein Bud Light. Vielleicht ist das hier das "andere Amerika"? Schließlich sind hier alle gegen Bush und den Irak-Krieg. Wenn es darum geht, sich politisch in den USA etwas wohler zu fühlen, ist man bei Pat und Sally im Garten nicht schlecht aufgehoben. Mitten im liberalen, gebildeten, gepflegten Washington, 47. Straße, Ecke Brandywine Street. In der Hauptstadt haben bei der letzten Präsidentschaftswahl 89 Prozent gegen Bush gestimmt. Das wäre auch so etwa sein Ergebnis in Deutschland gewesen.

Aber ist mit dem "anderen Amerika" tatsächlich eine politische Positionsbestimmung gemeint? Wer hat sich das eigentlich ausgedacht, diese Geschichte vom "anderen Amerika"? Bekannt ist eigentlich nur der Fall des "anderen Deutschland". Das war der kleine, aber immerhin trostreiche Versuch, dem Führer- und Blockwartstaat ein menschlicheres Deutschland wenigstens symbolhaft und andeutungsweise entgegenzusetzen. Ist das mit dem "anderen Amerika" ähnlich gemeint? Solidarität mit allem, was Anti-Bush ist? Michael Moore ein Held des Widerstandes?

Während wir noch darüber nachdenken, hat der schwarze Kellner im Smoking noch ein kalorienarmes Budweiser gebracht. Mag das hier auch eine Insel des anderen, besseren, anständigen Amerika sein, das ändert nichts daran, dass die Gäste hier ausnahmslos weiß sind (obwohl 60 Prozent der Einwohner Washingtons Schwarze sind) und die Kellner direkt aus dem Schwarzen-Ghetto kommen. So war das immer schon, und niemand findet etwas dabei. Aber zurück zum Thema: Die Idee vom "anderen Amerika" macht sich offenbar die schlichte Tatsache zunutze, dass die USA nicht nur aus Bush und Bibel, nicht nur aus übergewichtigen Waffennarren und schlecht angezogenen Todesstrafenbefürwortern bestehen, nicht nur aus Prüderie und Energieverschwendung, Militarismus und Egozentrik. Das ist wahr.

Schon Sartre stellte irritiert fest, dass in den USA irgendwie alles stimmt und von allem auch das Gegenteil. Schon deshalb hat jeder recht, der behauptet, es gebe ein anderes Amerika. Es gibt nämlich immer noch ein anderes. Aber offenbar sind hier seltsame Kräfte am Werk: Wahrnehmungsstörung, Einbildungskraft und Selbsttäuschung. "Die meisten Amerikaner, die ich kenne, sind auch gegen Bush", sagten viele Deutsche schon zu einem Zeitpunkt, als Bush in den USA noch populär war. Das heißt, sie hatten Amerikaner kennengelernt, die eher untypisch waren.

Überraschend ist das nicht. Die Deutschen lernen die USA in New York oder Miami kennen, sie lesen "Fahrenheit 9/11" oder Philip Roth, sie treffen amerikanische Austauschstudenten oder Geschäftsreisende. Das typische Amerika kennen sie nicht, und deshalb haben sie Mühe, die Eindrücke richtig einzuordnen. Hinzu kommt die psychologische Funktion, die die Idee vom "anderen Amerika" erfüllt: Sie rechtfertigt, dass man sich trotz Bush, Kyoto und Abu Ghoreib immer noch hemmungslos für Amerika begeistert, sich amerikanisch anzieht, amerikanisch isst und trinkt, amerikanische Filme sieht und amerikanische Musik hört.

Die deutsche Hassliebe für und gegen die USA braucht die Idee, dass es ein falsches, dummes, verachtungswürdiges Amerika und ein anderes, anständiges, menschen- und umweltfreundliches Amerika gibt, vor allem aber, dass man beides voneinander trennen kann. In der Praxis ist das schwierig. Das eine und das andere liegen oft so verdammt nahe beieinander.

21.45 Uhr, die Gartenparty geht zu Ende. Man geht früh, trinkt wenig, raucht gar nicht und sagt keine unanständigen Wörter, auch nicht, wenn gerade über Bush gelästert wird. Die schwarzen Kellner fangen an, das Plastikgeschirr in große Säcke zu stecken. Was die Party an Müll abwirft, ist in jedem Jahr wieder erstaunlich. Auch so ist Amerika, das eine wie das andere.

[FranzisM]

Sounds like some ethnologist reporting about a misunderstood tribe performing an enigmatic ritual with plastic dishes.

Well, let´s decrypt it. They could have been using different china plates the family has accumulated over the decades, with some being broken and others being added until the assortment tells a story for itself, but for some reason they didn´t, and to that journalist that fact was worth a story.

I suggest the plastic dishes are a chiffre for consumerism:

What we’ve got here is not true materialism, because material things are considered, “expendable assets” for the sake of money. And money is wasted on all manner of “things” which mean absolutely nothing, and which have no practical value whatsoever. Rather than actually being material, consumer society is really EGOTISTICAL. People waste their lives on such Enquirer nonsense as high-heeled shoes, neckties and reputations, not because they truly value objects or even life itself, but because they have egotistical images to uphold. Mind you, the image has little to nothing to do with the real person underneath. The ultimate mistake in the social setting is honesty…if you want to speak to the modern person, talk to their projected image, not their true selves! For this reason people spend most of their waking moments fixated obsessively upon how other people perceive them, and THIS REASON ALONE is why they commit slow suicide hoping to impress that imaginary crowd inside their heads. Meanwhile, everyone else is doing the same and not really paying attention. It’s all just an absurd game played for the sake of false ideas of the self, and every living thing on the planet suffers for it. I often wonder what the average devout consumer, (product-fixated egotist) would say about playing, “The Game” if they looked ahead 20 years into the future and saw splintered skulls and burnt piles where humans used to be. I wonder if they’d have the good sense to stop now and get real, and the answer is a very probable “NO”. The future is of no real concern to those who secretly hate their lives, and who commit suicide in ever more creative ways, to pass the time with as little pain as possible…

This is the spiritual vacuousness whose combination with vain self-pity is so susceptible to Islam.

[Fred H]

Here is an excellent translation of Mr. Günther's article as it appeared in the Maerkische Allgemeine:

A Penchant for Forgetfulness
Washington commemorates the victims of Communism, but US pays little heed to its own skeletons in the closet
MARKUS GÜNTHER

WASHINGTON Why isn't there a memorial in, let's say, Wuppertal dedicated to the victims of American slavery? And why aren't there monuments in Berlin, Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen to honor the American Indians driven from their homeland by settlers, prospectors, and Conquistadors? Are such questions, well, bizarre? It depends on your point of view. The USA has about as many memorials as telephone booths, the latter of which are getting rarer, while memorials are springing up faster than Starbucks coffee shops. Wherever the heroic deeds, victims to mourn or humans suffering, the US pays them heartfelt homage, albeit based on the following rule of thumb: the further away from the USA the suffering is, the more passionate the remembrance.

There are already more than 100 holocaust memorials in the US. They serve as a reminder of the millions of Jews systematically murdered by the Germans under Hitler. There are also 27 markers to commemorate the genocide of Armenians between 1915 and 1918, though most of them are fairly small and unobtrusive, owing to the always swift diplomatic machinations with the Turks (who dispute the genocide).
A memorial was erected in Washington for Mahatma Gandi, of course, and there is more than one memorial to the victims of despotic rule in Cuba, especially in Florida.

From that perspective, the dedication of the Victims of Communism Memorial by US President Bush in Washington was long overdue. The total number of those who fell victim to the Stalins and Maos of this world far exceeds any single genocide, even if it isn't exactly clear how the sponsors of the memorial arrived at the perfectly round number of "100 million dead."

The memorial was seventeen years in the making. The final result is a kind of mini statue of liberty, nothing monumental, praised by the "Washington Post" for its "modesty." George W. Bush attended the dedication himself, not wanting to pass up another opportunity to take a jab at the Russians and the Chinese. On the following day, angry statements about American "arrogance" flowed swiftly from Peking. It is true that the Americans find it easier to memorialize victims of far-off regimes than the skeletons in their own historical closet. Such profligate commemorating and memorializing is attended by a special penchant for denial and forgetfulness. A memorial to the victims of slavery in Washington? A museum documenting the expulsion of the American Indians? Or perhaps a marker for Abu Ghraib? There's nothing of the sort. Nor is any such thing planned.

Now the Communist party in the Ukraine plans on turning the tables: it announced its intention to build a museum in Kiev dedicated to the victims of American imperialism.

[Helian]

@fuchur

"Their most important point is that there is no "grand explanation" for anti-Americanism. Forget about all those beautiful pop shrink explanations that skillfully talk about "inferiority complex", "projection" etc.: reality is much more complicated than that. Which is not really surprising: We're dealing with all kinds ressentiments from people from different countries, cultures, social backgrounds etc - why should there be some grand explanation for them all?"

It would seem to me that the notion that there is no "grand explanation," for the worldwide phenomenon of anti-Americanism is ludicrous on the face of it. How is it rational to believe that "all kinds of ressentiments" should have arisen among "people from different countries, cultures, social backgrounds, etc.," all of them, if you believe their own rationalizations, suddenly and virtually simultaneously on a historical timescale independently and for a plethora of different reasons deciding that the United States is the great Satan? Are we really to believe that there is no common thread to this worldwide manifestation of hate, that each hater's "reasons" for hating must be scrutinized using the best and most approved rules of logic to determine whether, in each case, that particular individual's irrational hatred is "justified" or not? How is it logical to go over all these different "reasons," scrutinizing each in turn to determine whether it is a "rational" explanation for a phenomenon that is fundamentally irrational?

Let's leave off the grandiloquent "grand," and simply inquire whether there is a simple explanation to the phenomenon of anti-Americanism. In fact, there is, it is staring us right in the face, and the only reason so many of us cannot see it is that we are standing too close to it. It's hard for us to accept the fact that we are normally irrational creatures whose actions and thoughts are dependent on emotional responses to the world around us, but we are. We have proved it over and over again throughout history. One way in which that irrationality has been clearly manifested for at least as long as our recorded history is in our predisposition to view our fellow humans in the context of in-groups and out-groups. The members of the out-group are the enemy, dirty, vile, evil, infidel, and loathsome.

The psychological cues that lead us to identify the Jews, the blacks, or the members of some other group as the evil enemy are probably many and complex. However, we have just unwittingly conducted a psychological experiment on the outgroup association phenomenon on a worldwide scale. History has provided us with a perfect laboratory. Following the fall of Communism, the United States suddenly appeared on the world stage, in the perceptions of most of the world's citizens, as the one remaining superpower, the hegemon, a dominating, worldwide power unprecedented in human history. For the citizens of other countries, this great, dominating power was already "the other," a group distinct from one's own. The result of this combination of events is now history. That common, uniform, predictable result has been the identification of that great, controlling power as the out-group, as the hateful enemy. The anti-Americanism that this blog has documented is an expression of that irrational hate in one country. It is not unique to that one country, but has manifested itself throughout the world.

It is uncomfortable to accept the reality of our own irrationality. It is much easier to believe that the Jews are really monsters bent on world domination, or that the blacks are loathsome and stupid, or that the byzantine Blues of the circus are a manifestation of the vilest evil (if one happens to be a Green.) It has been much easier for us to believe that all of the stupid, irrational wars we have fought, the countless massacres of "the other" that have occurred and recurred through history, the burning, hanging, and torture of "infidels" has, in each instance, had some "rational" explanation that must be individually scrutinized to determine whether it was really logical. Let us, for a moment, focus our attention on the nose in front of our face. There is, in fact, one explanation for anti-Americanism. It is our irrational predisposition to perceive the world in terms of in-groups and out-groups. The "reasons" given for anti-American hate in each separate country, ethnic group, party, or culture are legion. However, they are linked by a common thread, and are a manifestation of a single, overriding phenomenon. Unless we finally understand that, all the cures anti-Americanism, racism, anti-Semitism, or any other kind of bigotry will never amount to more than palliatives. We will never cure the disease until we finally understand its true cause.