Graeme Wood, a staff writer at The Atlantic and author focusing on geopolitics, discusses alarming trends in Germany's politics. He analyzes the rise of the far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AFD) party, exploring its shift from anti-EU to anti-migrant. Wood shares firsthand experiences of racism in both urban and rural settings, contrasting multicultural environments against the tighter-knit communities of Eastern Germany. He also touches on the complex demographic dynamics and how economic woes are further polarizing society.
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Thuringia Visit
Graeme Wood visited Thuringia, Germany, a region with historical significance but economic depression.
He noted that it lacked the appeal of other German areas he'd visited previously.
insights INSIGHT
AFD's Exclusion from Power
The AFD, despite winning a plurality of seats in Thuringia's state parliament, has been excluded from government.
Other parties formed a coalition to keep the AFD out of power.
insights INSIGHT
Demographic Shift and Cultural Anxiety
Germany's demographic landscape has visibly shifted, particularly in cities, since the 2015 migration crisis.
The influx of migrants, especially those visibly non-German, has sparked cultural anxieties among some Germans.
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In 'The Way of the Strangers', Graeme Wood provides a comprehensive analysis of the Islamic State, exploring its theology, emotional appeal, and the reasons why thousands of people have joined the group. Through interviews with supporters and scholars, Wood offers a detailed understanding of the group's ideology and its implications for global security.
On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Graeme Wood. Wood is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he usually covers geopolitics and international affairs. His work ranges from a profile of Richard Spencer, the American white nationalist public figure with whom he went to high school with, to the Islamic State. He is the author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State. Wood grew up in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from Harvard College. He also studied at the American University in Cairo, Indiana University and Deep Springs College.
Today Razib talks to Wood about his piece in The Atlantic, Germany’s Anti-Extremist Firewall Is Collapsing. Wood addresses the economic malaise of contemporary Germany, in particular, the former East Germany, and how that is impacting the national cultural climate. More concretely, they consider why the right-wing Alternative For Deutschland (AFD) party is so popular, and its transformation from an anti-EU party to an anti-migrant party. Wood emphasizes that Germany has become a highly polarized society when it comes to ethnicities, with very cosmopolitan cities, but small towns in rural eastern provinces where he recalls feeling like possibly the only non-white face at the local beer hall (his father is a white American while his mother is ethnically Chinese). Razib muses whether German multiculturalism as an ideology has allowed for more, not less racism, while Wood reflects on his multi-decade experience visiting the nation as an outsider.
Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning 