At first glance, one is a little disappointed with the list of participants. The traffic light negotiators in Berlin are making a rapid U-turn when it comes to Corona. And then in “Hart aber fair” nobody from the front row of the possible future coalitionists is sitting. It would have been interesting to see how a high-ranking FDP representative (the FDP doesn’t have that many high-ranking representatives) would have writhed on his high chair under the persistent inquiries of moderator Frank Plasberg.
The FDP not only has the farthest way into the traffic light coalition, but also the farthest way to recognize the seriousness of the situation in the matter of Corona. Wolfgang Kubicki, the free radical of the liberals, has that with one mirrors-Interview has just been impressively demonstrated again.
But it can also be very exciting if those are not always invited who are always invited to say what they always say. In most cases it is then that arguments meet arguments. And not only do the participants know each other, but also agree that each other is right. This time it’s different, as facts meet crude theses and give an idea of why so much irrationality is involved when it comes to the corona vaccination.
The big question that stands in the room: Is politics too cowardly to decide on a mandatory vaccination in view of the huge fourth corona wave? The journalist Georg Mascolo, head of the research network of WDR, NDR and Süddeutscher Zeitung, considers it a “gross political mistake” that any compulsory vaccination has been excluded from the start. Lower Saxony’s SPD Prime Minister Stephan Weil is more cautious. A general vaccination requirement is “constitutionally a demanding task,” says Weil. Instead, he advocates a different line: significantly restricting the opportunities for unvaccinated people. “This actually amounts to a lockdown for the unvaccinated.” Wolfgang Kubicki won’t be so happy to hear that again.
A large portion of “egg egg”
Two of the other guests, the immunologist Carsten Watzl and the Tübingen emergency doctor Lisa Federle, make it clear that when it comes to Corona, it is more like five past twelve than five to twelve. The crisis is there, you can’t talk for months about whether you want to go to the right or to the left, says Federle. Slowly you have to “pull yourself at the belt”. Watzl points out that the proportion of those who have not been vaccinated is far too high. “If we don’t make it now, we’ll have the same problem next winter.”
Only one of them sees it very differently. The philosopher Svenja Flaßpöhler counters the unpleasant facts with a lot of perceived truths, in a sense a large portion of “egg” for those who refuse to be vaccinated. They find it “wrong and fatal” to “criminalize” the unvaccinated. The political failure is now being passed on to people who do not want to be vaccinated and who have very different motives for doing so. Some simply had bad experiences with other vaccinations. Yes, yes, a bad feeling can be the reason to “terrify” the majority, as Weil puts it.
Flaßpöhler locates the mistakes in politics and the media. “The policy of paternalism leads to people forgetting how to behave sensibly.” It does not occur to her that it is possibly exactly the other way around, namely that politicians have to dictate rules to people because they are not behaving sensibly. As a current study has shown, the media would also report unilaterally about Corona. And in general, it is anchored in society that people behave unreasonably. As examples, Flaßpöhler motorcycling and smoking come to mind.
Flaßpöhler openly turns everyone else against him, including the moderator. Plasberg always makes it clear when a guest gets on his biscuit. His inquiries then become all the more provocative. This leads to an open exchange of blows between the two. “You are trying to push me into exactly this corner,” Flaßpöhler snaps at the moderator, referring to the lateral thinkers. “I would never assume that you do that,” he replies smugly. When Plasberg finally wanted to know whether the program was a discussion to their liking, Flaßpöhler returned: “You can’t call it balanced here.” Could have been due to their positions.
Peter Fahrenholz hopes that talk shows don’t always invite the same guests. Because political discussions need exciting arguments instead of well-known points of view.
(Photo: x)