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As I have reduced my social media activity considerably since turning my back to Instagram at the beginning of 2020, I am spending more time listening to podcasts and reading news on the internet, mostly after finding interesting links in their shownotes, in several newsletters I have subscribed to or in my timelines on Twitter or in the Fediverse.

Sometimes there are topics which captivate my attention, so that I plounge even further into the stories or reports by looking for other posts or pages in the web. I think that Twitter is a good source for knowledge-hungry people as notably threads or discussions permit to discover more about happenings, people or their actions. On the one hand hashtags can help in the search for related content, on the other hand they make it possible to network these topics even more, sometimes culminating in global movements. Those movements however subsequently risk to divide people’s opinions in either pro-hashtag or contra-hashtag groups.

As the impeachment of Donald Trump has finally led to Trump’s acquittal, the division between Democratic and Republican senators could not be more clear with Mitt Romney being the first (and so far even only) senator in U.S. history to vote to remove a president of their own party. All faint hopes that the danger a man like Trump represents for the Liberal democracy could be countered by at least a small minority of Republican senators recognising that the impeachment procedure was justified thus evaporated. The arrogant attitude of the GOP’s senators was even so pronounced that they refrained from summoning witnesses.

In Germany meanwhile, in the so called Free State of Thuringia the election of the leader of the smallest parliamentary group as Minister-President with the help of the liberal-conservative and right-wing members of parliament has created a political scandal reminding the darkest times of German history. In the aftermath of this shocking event the main public service TV stations unfortunately contribute to the polarity fuelled by fascist politicians of the AfD by inviting them to their main talk shows. It definitely makes NO SENSE at all.