The discussion in Ukraine about ORF “ZIB2” raised a lot of dust on Tuesday. Afterwards, moderator Armin Wolf criticized viewer reactions.
It was an explosive but factual discussion late Tuesday night on ORF “ZIB2”: with moderator Armin Wolf, German political scientist Hajo Funke and military strategist Walter Feichtinger talked about a possible end to the war in Ukraine. For Feichtinger, new deliveries of weapons from the West are necessary, Funke, on the other hand, vehemently rejected the delivery of fighter jets and was also one of the first to sign the “Manifesto for Peace” petition. In this manifesto by leftist politician Sahra Wagenknecht and women’s rights activist Alice Schwarzer, thousands call for an end to arms deliveries to Ukraine and negotiations with Vladimir Putin.
The manifesto is seen by many experts as a call to submission and an outrageous demand. On the other hand, studio guests on “ZIB2” soberly discussed this. Funke was not wholly opposed to arms deliveries, but the issue is not likely to escalate through fighter jets and talks with Putin are possible, as the past has shown. Funke’s rationale for his support of the manifesto: there shouldn’t be 250,000 more deaths and Ukraine couldn’t win the war.
“The Really Boring and Also Scary”
Feichtinger agreed with Funke that negotiations would have to take place in the future and that it was not foreseeable, at least this year, that Ukraine would be able to reconquer the areas that existed before the start of the war. However, he declared: Without the arms deliveries, Ukraine would have been invaded and there would be nothing left to negotiate. E: Both sides, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, would not be willing to negotiate as long as they still believed they could gain ground. Outsiders can judge a lot of things, on the spot the reality is different, it was said.
The conversation, which was factual despite the explosive topic, apparently caused just as much emotion after moderator Armin Wolf finally spoke out on Twitter. “The really annoying and also scary thing about Twitter and a lot of recent public discourse is the complete reluctance of so many to listen to other opinions. How aggressively can you react to a totally civil discussion about Ukraine?” Wolf said. A manifesto was “not uncontested and unquestioned” read, but debated “civilized and thoroughly differentiated”.
“Quasi Religious Fundamentalism”
“This quasi-religious fundamentalism in more and more debates is getting harder and harder to bear. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t or shouldn’t criticize other opinions, on the contrary, but you have to listen to them first. which I don’t mean pure aggression – Anonymous troll polemics, obviously agitprop and conspiracy nonsense (QAnon, etc.), that doesn’t interest me either, but factual and civilized counterpoints in political debates. Social media really messed up the speech,” said the moderator, dismayed by the feedback.
rfi navigation account Time 15.02.2023, 17:14 | Act: 02/15/2023, 5:27 pm