80 years later and I'm happy to hear the Germans are rearming... my grandfather must be looking down wondering if the world will ever make sense.
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
265 points (99.3% liked)
World News
50145 readers
2328 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
- Blogsites are treated in the same manner as social media sites. Medium, Blogger, Substack, etc. are not valid news links regardless of who is posting them. Yes, legitimate news sites use Blogging platforms, they also use Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and we don't allow those links either.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures
Germany is already one of the biggest military spenders in the world, they are not "rearming" the government is arming even more and you shouldn't be happy about it.
From the lastest US executive order that labels antifa as a terrorist organization:
"All relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations”
Any cent dumped on war can also be used against you, keep this in mind when you cheer up military spending.
Germany is also a large, wealthy country. If you compare it to its peers the picture is completely different. It spends about 1.9% of GDP on the military.
Any cent dumped on war can also be used against you, keep this in mind when you cheer up military spending.
Personally I am 0% worried about Germany's military spending being used against me.
I am much more worried that an overall more belligerent tone is being created in the world that will make it more dangerous for everyone, including me, but failure to respond to belligerence doesn't make us safe either. Don't forget what's at stake: by shipping Ukrainian children off to Russia, Putin is carrying out ethnic cleansing. If his testing of boundaries reveals he might be able to take another slice of salami for himself, he is likely to. That slice will mean another attempt to extinguish a culture.
Personally I am 0% worried about Germany’s military spending being used against me.
You assume the germany government is a bunch of good guys that will never use weapons against you. Ever heard about afd?
Even if the AfD takes power, there is no chance they're using Germany's military against me.
as long as you are not a "terrorist"
Do you think I am German or something? The AfD is never even going to know my name.
All they have to do to know your name is type your ip in a database
So you think the AfD is going to
- take real power in Germany
- decide I am someone of interest
- find my IP
- look up that IP and connect it to my real identity
- decide to use military assets against me
None of this chain of events is likely. Yes, it's possible to find people's real identity from their online identity, but what about the rest of it?
What makes you think there is any chance that the AfD is going to carry out war-on-terror style extrajudicial killings on me?
You don't even know anything about me or my circumstances; you clearly don't think this is actually likely because that would be stupid. I, with knowledge of my own situation, can tell you it is vanishingly improbable.
You started this subthread because people were in favour of Germany increasing military spending to counter the threat from Russia. Russia carrying out extra-judicial, extra-territorial killings, waging wars of conquest, carrying out ethnic cleansing and mass repression is not a possibility - it is happening right now.
When we assess whether the risk of future misuse of military assets is worth it, we need to be clear about what it is those military assets are for - they are precisely to prevent the misuse, as we see it, of the military assets of foreign states against our own citizens. When such aggression is rare, such as between 1991 and 2014, it is better to reduce the size of the military. When aggression is on the rise, it is necessary to increase it again.
That spending really isn't accurate, as the way I understand it many of the programs get cancelled at 12 monthly funding reviews.
[warning 1 hour video essay, from 3 years ago] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jDUVtUA7rg
AfD is also tied for the lead in the polls. So temper your happiness. Nazi rising again.
Not only Germany rearming. Worse is that the USA turns Nazi. They just re-enacted the Reichsparteitag 1934 in Glendale...
they still have thier own problems, like the AFD becoming more popular.
Not to mention, their chairmen alice weidel praises past while having a literal nazi grandfather. Iirc she literally said "the time of our grandparents was so great..."
If AfD comes to power, the weapons will have to be interoperable with Russian systems.
In the first place they must not be compromised with dead man switches from the US.
This article is trash trying to sell you something that is not true and actually disproved in the article itself :
According to U.S. government data, Berlin signed off on more than $17 billion in foreign military sales between 2020 and 2024, hitting a $13.9 billion record in 2023, highlighting increased demand following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
So what this paragraph is saying that in 2023 Germany spent 13.9 billions, and about 800 millions in average for the other four years (and that's consistent with the linked source).
So the "drop" to 6.8 billions is actually five times the spending from 2024. And it's double the average spending from the last five years. Germany buys more American hardware than ever (except 2023).
foreign military sales
Doesn't mean that money went to America.
I had the same question, that was what prompted me to click on the source link. No it's sales from the US only. I also realized, that even if it was that would mean that the increase in spending is even more dramatic.
The actual issue I realized today is that those are sales from the US government, not sure if Germany buying from an American company counts. So I'm not sure it can actually be compared. This does not improve my opinion of that article. Misrepresenting irrelevant data is not better than just misrepresenting data.
Well, if we have to waste billions on weapons, the least we can expect is that those responsible for purchasing ensure that the money ends up mainly with European industry.
If you're in Europe, the money is hardly wasted. You have a ravening wolf on your doorstep, and as it gets hungrier it's going to have to lash out to keep it's wartime economy going.
Some decent news
Ok, yes, all for the Germans skipping any dealings with the US here and into the future.
HOWEVER, would feel better if the AFD weren't polling at a higher number than any other party right now.
Please fucking God can we not have a repeat of the 20th century?
Too late. We've got another Gilded Age of billionaires vs. all, fascism on the rise in the West, American tariffs hurting everyone, economic depression in the next few years, and all of that leading to another world war.
The Silent Generation is all but completely dead and apparently our history education has failed us.
America is all but over. This century belongs to China, and they've been planning on it for decades.
As it should be
Ooh, starting to mess with the pockets of the Military Industrial Complex. Bad move Donny… Haliburton and Raytheon have overthrown governments for less than that.
He already has been, the amount of money Lockheed Martin has missed out on due to countries turning away from the F-35 is eye-watering
sidelines US
Of course they will favor European industry. The reason we're taking on massive debt now to increase our defensive capabilities is that the US is looking increasingly less dependable. Why would German then spend all that money for military equipment over there?
America has shown itself to be an unreliable ally. No one wants to support that economically if they can, no one wants just the export version of advanced tech, and no one wants Trump to have kills witches or denial of software updates for US weapons.