• Ephera@lemmy.ml
    ·
    9 months ago

    I understand that it's supposed to be a shitty comic and not a balanced, reasonable take, but if you'd like to hear a German perspective anyways:

    I'm not aware of any official representative lobbying other countries to end nuclear, except of course in nations that build their totally safe reactors near our border. I'm also not aware of us being awarded or recognized for our stance. Individual Germans, like me, will of course have been fed different propaganda than you and will argue accordingly.

    No one here likes the coal generators. And with how much cheaper solar is these days, they're definitely on the way out. But we don't have a dictatorship anymore, luckily, so even obviously good paths will face pushback, like from entire regions whose jobs are in the coal industry.
    We've just been able to get a consensus on abolishing nuclear much more quickly for multiple reasons:

    • Chernobyl directly affected us, including the people running our country. Russia also attacked nuclear reactors in the Ukraine, which certainly reminded people of Chernobyl.
    • At the start of the Ukraine war, it was unclear whether Russia might also launch attacks on us, including our nuclear reactors.
    • Russia also cut off our natural gas supply. We have practically no own Uranium deposits either, so reducing dependence on foreign nations was definitely in our interest, too.
    • Kieselguhr [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      Just a couple of sidenotes

      At the start of the Ukraine war, it was unclear whether Russia might also launch attacks on us, including our nuclear reactors.

      RU attacking Germany is as unlikely as RU shelling London, NY, or Tokyo

      Russia also attacked nuclear reactors in the Ukraine, which certainly reminded people of Chernobyl.

      I think the news was that someone shelled Zaporizhzhia "Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for shelling the Russian-controlled plant." Now, I'm not Hercule Poirot, but if RU controlled the plant at the time, wouldn't that make UKR the most likely culprit?

      Russia also cut off our natural gas supply.

      Surely Russia turning a tap is less pertinent than USA literally bombing the pipeline?

      We have practically no own Uranium deposits either,

      So where are you buying from the rest of your resources? Surely nuclear is more feasible than coal from a purely geopolitical/economic point of view? I guess good luck with the solar panels.

      You seem to be a bit confused about the situation.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
      hexagon
      ·
      9 months ago

      At the start of the Ukraine war, it was unclear whether Russia might also launch attacks on us, including our nuclear reactors.

      Russia hasn't attacked any nuclear reactors in Ukraine for obvious reasons. The notions that Russia would attack nuclear reactors in Germany is pure absurdity that no sane person could believe.

      Russia also cut off our natural gas supply. We have practically no own Uranium deposits either, so reducing dependence on foreign nations was definitely in our interest, too.

      That's a straight up lie. Russia never cut off gas supply to Germany, and in fact has repeatedly stated that one of Nord Stream pipelines is operational. German government is choosing to buy Russian LNG through third parties instead of buying pipeline gas directly.

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
        ·
        9 months ago

        Well, I don't know what to tell you. These things have been broadly reported here in Germany. Whom of us was mislead, doesn't matter for explaining why us Germans have a different stance on things.

        Here's two random articles, but I can send a whole list of links, if your search engine isn't turning up anything:

        • https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60613438
        • https://taz.de/Ende-der-russischen-Gaslieferungen/!5953386/
        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
          hexagon
          ·
          9 months ago

          Ah yes, "Ukrainian officials say", very credible source. Weird how IEA never found any evidence of Russia shelling ZNPP though. And yeah, once you stop paying for a product the delivery stops. That's how business works.

    • TheBroodian [none/use name]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Russia also cut off our natural gas supply.

      I think you mean America cut off your natural gas supply when they blew up the Nordstream

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
        ·
        9 months ago

        No, Russia had already stopped delivering natural gas at the end of August 2022. The pipelines got blown up on the 26th September 2022.

        • SoyViking [he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          Yeah... Suppliers tend to do that when you stop paying them.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
      ·
      9 months ago

      What does Chernobyl have to do with Germany deciding to appease a few billionaires and burn more coal?

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
        ·
        9 months ago

        I'm not aware of those billionaires caring whether they get paid to burn coal or paid to build solar farms.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      No one here likes the coal generators. [...]so even obviously good paths will face pushback, like from entire regions whose jobs are in the coal industry.

      This in itself is contradictory but even despite that, there's 20.000 people left with jobs in the coal industry. You could give everyone over like the age of 50 their pension as if they worked till the regular pension age and then re-train everybody else with very generous benefits for the interrim time of like 5 years and it would be orders of magnitude cheaper than keeping that system rolling.

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
        ·
        9 months ago

        Well, if you've got a plan worked out for that, maybe you'd like to present it to our government. That sounds like something they would love to know about.

          • Ephera@lemmy.ml
            ·
            9 months ago

            Yeah, this whole comment section annoys me. So many people who don't get that likely all of us have been fed propaganda. And even if you believe that you're the one person who knows only the truth, then still the absolute worst thing you can do, is to ridicule others who've been told a different story.

            The only winning strategy is to share what you've been told and listen to what the others have been told. That's what my initial comment tried to start off. And like, I agree that the guy's comment wasn't even bad, but it was just immediately back to "Here's the absolute facts!". Like, what the hell am I even supposed to do with that comment? There is no reason provided why I should believe it, so honestly, they could have just not written it.

            • commiewithoutorgans [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              9 months ago

              Well we at Hexbear like to assume, rightly or wrongly, that shame is the best to convince some sorts of people to rethink. People have wasted much energy trying to nicely convince these types when it turned out they were entirely unwilling to consider that they are misinformed. Your comments have mirrored how those look with a very reddit-like demeanor. If you're sincere, consider commenting as if you're not on reddit and looking to figure out what's true and people will engage happily. I've learned a lot by doing that.

              Remember, the US have spent tens of times more money on propaganda around the world than any other country (remember, US propaganda is different in form than e.g. USSR, but mostly because their way is MORE effective). Europe+the US has spent more in 40 years than the rest of the world ever. Imagine the impact this has on your worldview before reading any news or positions taken in politics around the world.

            • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              I personally ridicule people on the Internet because it's funny. I don't think I'm going to change any minds and I don't care. I do stuff in real life when I want to change people's minds. I go online for catharsis.

        • 7bicycles [he/him]
          ·
          9 months ago

          Plan's right there mate. Early retirement at 0 loss after an age cutoff, 5 year former wages for the rest, have some of the boffins at the Wirtschaftsministerium calculate where the cut-off makes sense economically, done. Fuck just reuse the plans from when you dismantled any given organisation in the 90s - 2000s, I'm sure they're still around, could be used for good for ones. This is not a hard thing to do, logistically.