Fuzzy Leapfrog"Independent bookshops are dangerous because they interrupt us. They do not optimise our curiosity. They derail it. Is that the reason why Germany’s culture commissioner, Wolfram Weimer, is now consulting the domestic intelligence agency before approving funds to bookshops?"
"Weimer, by the way, is a publisher himself. He founded the conservative monthly magazine Cicero, whose trademark themes are anti-wokeness and hostility to immigration. Weimer’s obsessions are no secret – they were probably the reason Christian Democratic Union chancellor Friedrich Merz appointed him as commissioner for culture and the media."
"With no party-political affiliation, Weimer avoids using words and phrases associated with the far right. But he understands very well that influence is most effective when it appears administrative. There is no need to ban books if you can redefine what counts as worthy of support and funding."
Jens Finkhäuser@fuzzyleapfrog I did Nazi that coming.
Joking, sarcastically. Our current "conservative" regime is only better than Trump's, because they haven't had as much time to do damage.