Old youth tweets by the new spokeswoman for the Green Youth have given her a shit storm and death threats. The network doesn’t forget anything. It forgives even less. Another reason to get really excited.
There was a time when I wore a Russian belt, a belt with a brass buckle like the one used by the Red Army soldiers. Why? I thought it was cool when I was 14. Fortunately, there are no videos from these days of what we called a party back then. I am also very grateful that (as far as I know) there are no photos of our nocturnal forays through anarchic Berlin Wall. And luckily, even I don’t know exactly what I said when I was 14, sometimes even roaring.
We just had luck. I call it the grace of early birth – to paraphrase the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl. What we scratched on Formica tables with a compass or left behind on the school toilet with the Edding has long since been exchanged, painted over and erased – disappeared in the fog of oblivion.
Sarah-Lee Heinrich has a harder time. She bears the burden of late birth. She was also once 14, which unfortunately wasn’t that long ago. Her phase as a crazy hormone-triggered teenager fell into the age of social media, which is why parts of her statements at the time are well documented to this day, at least they were. Shortly before the 20-year-old Sarah-Lee Heinrich was elected the new spokeswoman for the Green Youth on the weekend, she deleted some tweet.
Sarah-Lee Heinrich: Withdrawal from the public for a few days
She knew why. It was of little use to her. The network doesn’t forget anything. It forgives even less. And so various statements by the young and very young Sarah-Lee Heinrich were immediately passed around excitedly on Twitter. And so a full-blown shit storm, cheered on by right-wing circles, swept over the woman. Massive death threats included. On Monday the office of the Green Youth announced that they would therefore withdraw from the public for a few days “for their own safety”.
There is no right to be treated fairly in social networks – they are anti-social networks, as has been complained often enough. As some of Heinrich’s youth tweets show in the most embarrassing way. Would she have shouted the same thing out loud through a train compartment? Or tagged with name and date on the wall of your school toilet?
On the net, however, the very young (and sometimes quick-tempered) Heinrich has taken up a language that would not have survived the Woke-Tüv of the Green Youth in any case, to say the least. There were homophobic, sexist and political insults.
Anyone who wants to can find outrage in it. Because the Greens themselves like to be so super-correct. Because the Alerte Green Youth would probably have raged just as much if the new JU boss kicked a cat at 14 (which he doesn’t have) or if the boss of the Young Liberals once sent a classmate lewd WhatsApps (which he also doesn’t have).
And so this shitstorm could also be derived and explained, like everyone else before and after it. The real reason for such excitement is often far more mundane. And more dangerous. It reads: Because we all revolt with great pleasure! Because we have become a society of constantly aroused outrage.
The main thing is outrage
In the society of rebels, the top rule applies: the main thing is indignation, the main thing is excitement and relentless reproach. Anyone who is outraged is on the right side, with the good guys, those who always know what is proper and what is not at all. We rebels are addicted to it. That is why we are not simply outraged, we are literally looking for occasions that allow us to be outraged. That give us the right to rise above others who have once again done unforgivable things – and who deserve nothing other than public punishment. Unfortunately? No, fortunately!
The cause is therefore completely irrelevant to us outragers. We’ll take anything, a stupid remark, a slipped gesture. Inappropriate laughter in the flood area, incorrect information in the curriculum vitae. Stupid tweets from a teenager? Bring it on!
We rebels do not allow anyone the right to be young and stupid. We do not indulge, we do not forgive. Anyone who messes up has to face the consequences. At first it is only open what this consequence ultimately consists of. Is an apology enough or only after suffering a shit storm? Does it have to be a resignation or does it have to be the annihilation of bourgeois existence? Perhaps it would be best if in future every person who wants to run for public office makes a comprehensive youth confession. A general apology for all eventualities. The only open question is whether this already applies to the post of student representative or only from the level of local politics.
“Don’t put every shit on the net”
We rebels hereby read out their rights to all who still want to become something in this life: “Everything you say from now on or have ever said can and will be used against you.”
Or we Heinrich himself wrote on Twitter on Sunday (!): “Moral of the story: Don’t put any shit on the net!”
This is generally recommended for all situations. It would be even nicer if we indignants could leave the mosque in Mülheim for once. When we treat trivialities as trivialities again. And scandals as scandals again. Six-year-old tweets by a then 14-year-old are not included.
Incidentally, when Kohl was 14, I was a member of the Hitler Youth, and I was a member of the Free German Youth and the Society for German-Soviet Friendship. Then that would also be confessed. Just in case I should run for something. After all, you never know.