"I don't know" should be the most common answer in any survey.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
261 points (98.2% liked)
Europe
8482 readers
712 users here now
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: Al Mayadeen, brusselssignal:eu, citjourno:com, europesays:com, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox, GB News, geo-trends:eu, news-pravda:com, OAN, RT, sociable:co, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the primary mod account @EuroMod@feddit.org
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Poll: Should "I don't know" be the most common answer to any survey?
- Yes
- I don't know
- No
Yeah, keyword “thinks”. There was a “study” last year thar said exactly the same garbage about Paris. How people “feel” about their safety. Why is this presented as newsworthy and an implication as to people’s actual safety?
I reckon it probably is "fairly unsafe" compared to Devon or some other random part of the UK, even if it's pretty safe in absolute terms.
It’s difficult for us to grasp statistics. So we hear about every crime being committed under the sun in London, from murder to rape to robbery… statistically the boonie smaller towns and cities are more dangerous but it doesn’t “feel” like it.
Statistically, women are more likely to be assaulted by men they personally know, but they “feel” afraid of random strangers walking by. Probably because of movies and other media, and stories and anecdotes we’ve all heard.
Almost like some group of people is stoking unfounded fears...
Right wingers like to stoke those fears.
Right wingers are the symptom, not the cause. The cause is a much smaller group.
They keep saying it's the worst it's ever been, when the reality is violent crime in London is basically the lowest it's ever been
These are all people who can vote, yet are not operating with accurate information.
Same in the U.S. These people don’t give a fuck about violence, they’re just racists who don’t like multiethnic enclaves in their country, and resent that the “blue” cities have the best education, food, style, that we are the cultural drivers, and that we live in relative harmony.
Yeah last time I checked, nowadays most of the unsafest cities in the US are in red states.
As an American who is very familiar with this kind of trend, I came here to comment about wondering how these views correlate to respondents' openness to foreign cultures ("is it basically racism/xenophobia like it is in the US?").
I think this applies for nearly everywhere on earth. I moved to Germany and the Germans talked about their crime as if it was a serious problem. Coming from the US, relatively speaking, statistically Germany is unbelievably safe. But because we remember the existence of crime far more easily than the absence of crime, because of the modern information age, and because it's so easy to be independent these days (and therefore a homebody that meets so few new people) it's easy to become fearful.
I would highly recommend everyone look up their statistical crime rates and realize how much safer the world is. That alone should quell a meaningful chunk of immigration fears imo, if the fears are rational and honest.
It also depends on who you ask in German. If it is an AfD or CSU voter, they already shit themselves when they just see brown people. Probably same case with Reform UK voters in the UK.
I just did that. My city has a crime index of 1. 100 is the safest. Whelp.
I can only find something called ‘crime index’ on Number and it's 11–83 for all cities in their DB, with 11 being the safest
I cant really show source without doxxing :/
I guess, if the source is eveb possible to find, you already did
I just find it interesting that you live in the most dangerous city on the planet, it seems. I hope you'll be alright
Then you live in a statistically unique situation compared to most people (in the western world I guess, I actually don't know the crime rates for the most populace places in the world - India and china).
Have you asked if crime is right for you? /s
Have you yourself become fearful despite a lower crime rate?
I'm not certain I understand the intent of the question but yes, totally!
I haven't told this story before but the first week I moved here I had a moment of panic. I moved to Germany with my best friend and roommate. We rented bikes to get around town and we were heading to a grocery store a ways away. We went through an industrial part of town, like warehouses and vans and workshops. Somehow we got split up, I think she took a right when I went straight, and I couldn't find her.
I rode the path google maps suggested for a bit longer, couldn't see her on the horizon, turned around and rode backwards the way we came, couldn't find her, called her, didn't answer. And in that moment I had a serious "Taken" panic. I knew Germany was incredibly safe, I'd traveled the world already, but having just moved there and feeling vulnerable, I reimagined the industrial area as scummy. What was a plumbers can was now something to kidnap people in, the graffiti on the walls which I don't mind turned into a warning signs about this place, I absolutely thought she had been kidnapped and I was going to have to explain to her parents that I lost her somewhere in a medium sized town in Germany.
So I decided to fall back on planning, if you lost your parents, be predictable, go to where they'd expect you to be. So I rode on the parrelel street over (cause I'd already covered the main street), and biked to our destination. Sure enough, she was waiting at the intersection right before the grocery store, happy as a dog on a walk. She had taken the parrelel rode after her turn all the way and didn't think about me or getting lost or nothing. Didn't check her phone, was just totally in the moment (that little shit).
And the moment I saw her, I realized what had happened emotionally to me. How American movies like "Taken" had primed me for terror, how vulnerable I felt, how not worried she was in any given moment (even if she was far more fearful than I in the big picture concepts), and how despite having traveled extensively I was ready and able to believe the worst if I suffered a personal experience irrespective of the data.
I've lived here for nearly 3 years now. Haven't had any scares like that since. A couple of city experiences that can make you feel unsafe, but nothing that made me forget and disown the data or my rational self. If I hadn't looked up the data, if I hadn't been rational, left leaning, etc I have no doubt that would have been a scarring moment despite it turning out fine. That's why I recommend everyone look at the data and challenge their fears with real world observations.
That's an encouraging anecdote.
The problem is that the crime rate is measured by suspects, so if it is not a clear switch like in your case, it doesn't help to know that the crime rate has fallen.
You also hadn't developed general fears despite a lowering crime rate. You reacted with your unaltered fear level. It's related but not the same.
I swear to God, I'm trying to understand what you mean but I'm not getting your point. What are you trying to say? What is the message you're trying to convey?
I cannot make your statements relevant to the conversation and it sounds like you're trying to make a point against crime data being powerful or correct so I'd like to understand your intent.
I would highly recommend everyone look up their statistical crime rates and realize how much safer the world is. That alone should quell a meaningful chunk of immigration fears imo, if the fears are rational and honest.
That doesn't work. There are regularly messages to the population along those lines but they don't convince because they are slightly missleading. Then the next arguments are that people don't change because they are racist. That ends the discussion. However, the numbers have to be made solid first. This doesn't happen for years which seems intentional to me.
E.g. the main number is number of suspects. Nobody takes it serious, especially about foreigners, because the police could be racist, and screen more foreigners. Maybe many were innocent and not convicted? But then, why not change the number?
I just explained how it worked for me - which means it works for some percentage of the population. I don't what media you're looking at but the overwhelming majority is fear exasperating, it's telling everyone all the time to be afraid - not that we're in the most peaceful era of existence.
I don't know what you mean by the data is misleading, you'd have to provide a specific example, because nearly every crime statistic shows Germany as incredibly peaceful and nearly ever crime statistic cannot be "slightly misleading". For instance the number of homicides in Germany in 2023 is 0.9 per 100,000. Compare that to the US which is 5.8 per 100,000, a literal 6x value, and anyone can see that Germany is 6 times safer than the US in this one category. As someone from the US that's powerful, because I lived fine in the US and now I'm even more safe. That statistic isn't slightly misleading imo. You could argue some number of homicides are going unreported or that the population numbers are way off - but you'd have to show that as a cause for only one side of the equation, something I don't believe you can.
I don't fundamentally understand your second paragraph, what do you mean "the main number is number of suspects"? The number I provided is not suspects, it's actually homicides, for example.
So I think you're wrong about:
- data not being effective at helping people fight their biases
- that the media is conveying a peaceful or accurate message consistently
- that the crime statistics, all of them, are "slightly misleading"
Don't let my remarks diminish your story. It's powerful and something to remember and to forward to other people.
the overwhelming majority is fear exasperating,
True.
I don’t know what you mean by the data is misleading
The unit is suspects, not convicts.
Compare that to the US
But people in Germany compare themselves to Switzerland and Poland.
The people in place X should compare themselves to people in place X, first and foremost. Germany has almost never been safer than it is today, with all of the immigrants, with all of the fear, with all of the psyops, it's an incredibly safe place to live by global standards and by German standards.
That's my point. The data shows it, living in Germany shows it, and I think this is true for most places on earth.
Unfortunately for 2023
Welt am Sonntag, which gained exclusive access to the data, said violent crime climbed 8.6%, to 214,099 cases — a 15-year high.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-violent-crime-reaches-15-year-high-report/a-68758122
Coming from 150,000 in 1993. https://www.gut-leben-in-deutschland.de/indicators/security/crime/
So you're correct in saying the crime rate went up in 2023, but saying it's a 15 year high is misleading, including comparing it to 1993 because there's a difference in population.
Looking at macrotrends.net the crime rate per 100k in 1993 was 1.67. The data here only goes up to 2021 but it's 0.83. Even going back a few years to the highest peak, 2016 that's still 1.17. So based on this data Germany was 1.5-2x more dangerous in 1993 than it was in 2021. There's just more people living here than there ever has been. Like even if you take the 214k number and look back for the last time it was that high, it was 2007. The population hasn't grown that much but the demographics surely have changed, and it's now as bad as it was in 2007.
Now I didn't live in Germany in 2007, but I'd bet I'd struggle to find someone who honestly believed 2003-2010 (when the # of reports was above 200k) was a dangerous period in Germany. Like it's all just the news cycle mate, they get to slap a big 8% on the year over year change and they get to run that for a couple of weeks throughout the year. In reality, it's not the migrants or the cannibis laws I saw one article suggest, it's the fact that wealth inequality has continued to worsen not just in Germany but globally and that will cost us (and everyone) something fierce.
We're seeing it in the US, we saw it in Germany last century, and we are marching onward to more inequality with the CDU and Merz leading the way.
You must be talking about homicide: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/deu/germany/murder-homicide-rate
As you can see, those 90ies numbers were a peak. The best explanation that I have heard was that those came from eastern European mafia wars. That's not the German baseline. For that you must go further back.
In the 80ies there were 800 homicides per year for 60 million in the west which is a 1.3 rate. The east had 2263 homicides in 30 years for 16.5 million which is a rate of 0.46. So for the east it's still almost twice their baseline now.
I have put the violent crimes in relation to the size of the population.
2023: 84.7 million - 254.0 per 100,000 1993: 81.3 million - 184.3 per 100,000
I agree with you that wealth inequality is the major problem and it's wrong to blame immigrants for the increase in crime. But it is not convincing to argue that there are no problems and that the current situation has to be accepted.
Jesus Christ what do reform voters think is happening in London?
Oh, actually... Can reform voters even think, the stupid, easily-led, insecure, weak, bigoted little losers? I doubt it.
They store their brains in Wapping.
I love that "alpha male" conservatives are scared shitless to be in a place where "feminised liberal males and woke women" feel safe.
Conservatives are such cowards, they're scared of their own shadow, talk about a weak character!
London is unsafe for rightwingers: it hurts their feelings.
TBF most of them left londinium during the blitz, wich in their mind was yesterday. So its more of a dementia thing
Did you forget to add a /s or something?
The Blitz was 85 years ago, most of those who were old enough to remember it are dead by now.
Conservatives are driven mainly by fear so this makes sense
As an Ex Londoner and Someone who visits a number of times every year I can say that as times gone on I've felt more and more unsafe. That said the experience is similar in most places but its just because of the struggle and social decline we are all feeling in the last 15-20 years.
Last time I went to London I was immediately offered drugs and when I said 'No Thank you' I was surrounded by 5 people under the age of 20 who tried to mug me, right outside of Camden train station but thankfully others came to my rescue.
So yea, For now, I think I'll stick to the rolling green hills of Wales. Let the rest of my family deal with that.
In this case, congrats to the people who “don’t know”. I imagine that some of them refuse to parrot the news, but also don’t have any personal experience living in London. There’s no shame in admitting that you don’t know when it’s the most accurate, honest answer you’re able to give.
Spent a quick decade in London. IMHO the biggest issue by far are kids drinking and/or doing drugs and causing trouble.
I was commuting during night a lot to work, regularly went to concerts/gigs/pubs and its not worst than any other big city as far as I can tell. With some common sense its a fairly safe destination to anyone who is not actively looking for trouble.
Actual question: is it unsafe? Last time i was in london was more than a decade ago, and other than being pretty boring(i will die on that hill) it didnt seem particularly unsafe. Tho a lot can change in a decade.
It actually has the lowest crime rate for violence against the person amongst English and Welsh police regions. It has higher-than-average homicide and total crime rates, but it's not the highest and it's comparable to other cities
No, it's pretty safe. The perception that it isn't is due (at least in part) to propaganda.
But is it safe?
Very
Been there and it is okay. It also depends on where you go and whether you look wealthy. There are however certain spots where you find pickpockets such as certain crowded tourist attractions. There are also parts of London that are generally safe.
load more comments
(3 replies)
view more: next ›