Jew star comparison: Boris Palmer is not a Nazi

Boris Palmer has had to deal with the Jewish star before. It was during the Corona pandemic, and it was about wristbands that those tested got as a day ticket in Tübingen. The star was posted umpteen times on Palmer's Facebook page, with the note that the bracelet was a precursor to the Jewish star. Palmer strongly criticized this. He wrote: "Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis." It would not occur to anyone to use a Jewish star to defame testing or vaccination "that is serious about our history or, like me, lost relatives in the Holocaust." One can expect, Palmer said, that people will not abuse the Holocaust in such a shabby way.

Palmer was undoubtedly right. And yet he himself has now used the Jewish star. Although he knows exactly how shabby it is – and that such comparisons remove you from the democratic discourse. In view of the Jewish Star posts on his Facebook page, he had also correctly stated that trivializing the Holocaust in such a way was only conceivable in one milieu. It is the milieu in which one wants to push the boundaries of what can be said, in which the Holocaust is just bird, in which victims are turned into perpetrators and perpetrators into victims, and in which blacks are considered "Negroes".

Ideological blinders

But if Palmer was aware of this, why did he do it anyway? The video of the scene is like a symbol of the excitement and indignation with which verbal attacks are increasingly being made in this country. On the one hand, there are demonstrators who, foaming at the mouth, shout "Nazis out" and harass just about anyone who stands up against cancel culture and exaggerated political correctness in public. On the other side is Palmer, who insists on the word "Negro" of all things and finally accuses the Nazi-out-roarers themselves of Nazi methods. Madness on both sides. The mind falls by the wayside.

Palmer, of course, is not a Nazi. Anyone who claims this has no idea about Palmer and no idea about Nazis. Palmer is also no idiot. And precisely because this is the case, he should not have gotten so lost when hatred is shouted at him from the left again. He should have seen it as an incentive to continue to fight against the grievances that he has repeatedly clearly named. These grievances are indeed present, even if many Greens and Leftists do not want to admit it, but continue to wear ideological blinders and unceremoniously label critics as racists. It's that simple. The word Paschal is enough.

A firewall to the AfD

Palmer rightly addressed the mistakes in migration policy early on and warned that we can't just do it. He called for a refugee realism, starting with the recognition that not everyone can be helped, to clearly identifying the problems, such as the increase in crime when many young, male and violent refugees enter the country in a short period of time. Palmer also criticized the ever-increasing identity politics for what it is, namely divisive and anti-democratic. And he also spoke out clearly against the Last Generation, which is trying to override the basic rules of coexistence with its actions, and warned against radicalization.

All these issues concern the people of the country. Many have the feeling that their fears are not taken seriously by the parties, especially the governing parties SPD and Greens. Instead, renunciation is still being preached and the future of private households is being played with, keyword heating transition. In this situation, Palmer was a firewall to the AfD, populists and right-wing extremists: in him, citizens could find a foothold without turning their backs on the democratic parties, as is happening more and more often. By the way, this usually has nothing to do with being a Nazi, but much more with the feeling of not being taken seriously.

With the grotesque fixation on the word "Negro" and with the Jewish star comparison, however, Palmer has placed himself in a row with Sarrazin or Maaßen. He has crossed the line – made a mistake, as he himself admitted, and fatally made it even more difficult for those who think similarly to him when it comes to migration policy or identity politics. What is frightening is that even an experienced and intelligent politician was not immune to being carried away by the outrage – to the point of a situation in which it is only a matter of empty shouting, in which one insults oneself as Nazis without reason. Every argument and every necessary debate is lost. And in the end, among the many supposed Nazis, at some point you no longer recognize the real ones.