I understand people who worry about escalation. I respect the need to weigh decisions carefully.
What I do not respect are people prioritizing domestic political gamesmanship over strategic thinking, and people who think doing nothing at least absolves them from doing something wrong.

The point is to understand people who live/ feel/ think very differently from oneself. One does not have to imitate them.

Thanks for being so honest. I can't recommend Kairos enough as both a parable about being a young person in the DDR and at the same time a raw description of the arc of a relationship. Her prose often tries to convey the complexity of life in the DDR. 🤞for today's elections.

Thanks for that. Have you written anything on the political aspects of Jenny Erpenbeck's work? She's my current literary hero, but I can imagine her nuanced take on growing up in the DDR annoys some.

Scholz is from Hamburg. He is about as likely to wear Lederhosen as Suella Braverman.