I have an anecdote regarding this that some might find interesting: Not too long after the fall of the Berlin wall, my dad was visiting Eastern Germany. He picked up a phone book from a public place and was looking through it to find something. A man approached him and said he couldn’t do that. My dad, not wanting to cause trouble, apologized and said he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to. Other people in the area told the man that he didn’t get to tell people what to do any more, that they’d been doing that for forty years and they weren’t going to take it any more, that my dad could look through the phone book all day if he wanted. The man who originally confronted my dad slunk away, in true bully fashion.

I never thought I’d have to think this, but I hope Americans are able to do that one day. It also does not escape my notice that Eastern Germany is where the most support for extreme far-right politicians is in Germany now. People forget so easily.