Sue me, I humorously paraphrased what I felt was the most egregious talking point because I didn’t feel like running through every single fallacy I found in the full response. But if you want it, here’s my full breakdown:
“Außerdem haben sich die Kulturen inzwischen anders entwickelt, auch wenn es minimal erscheint. / The cultures have evolved differently, even if it appears minimal.”
I think this is a wild thing for a German to say. Yes, certainly, German Americans have evolved a separate culture from Bavarians, but Bavarians also have a separate culture from Berliners and Westphalians and Holsteiners. The idea of a unified German identity is only about 150 years old, and an actually unified German nation in is current form isn’t even 40 years old. Germans have been evolving differently from each other in minimal and not-so-minimal ways for centuries. The country already has a huge amount of sub-cultural diversity, even predating a West/East divide that can be seen in every data-driven map of the nation and can literally be seen from space. What’s the issue with accepting the German-American diaspora?
“Für manche erscheint es auch so, dass Amerikaner sich über uns lustig machen. Wenn ich über Oktoberfeste in Amerika höre fühlt sich das wie eine Parodie auf Deutschland an. Da fällt es einem schon schwer, zu glauben, dass es ehrliche Identifikation mit uns ist. / For many of us, it seems like Americans are making fun of us. When I hear about American Oktoberfests, it feels like a parody of Germany. It’s difficult, then, to believe that they’re actually identifying with us.”
The above is a paraphrase of the second paragraph, which is in its entirely the Oktoberfest point. And oh, G-d, there are so many things wrong with this, mostly to do with the hasty generalization and slippery slope fallacies. Not all German Americans participate in Oktoberfest. Some German Americans participate in it because, despite being a parody, it’s the semblance of actual cultural connection they can get— it’s not like your average American can spend much of their free time in Europe. Some German nationals participate in it because they believe the parody is in good jest and they want to be in on the fun. And none of that actually, substantively prevents German-Americans from being able to connect to their German heritage.
Plenty of Oktoberfests, including the one in my city, are run by local German heritage groups and completely devoid of parodies. I promise you that if you compare photos of my city’s Oktoberfest against, you know, Munich’s, the actual German Oktoberfest is gonna look a lot more like a tasteless parody. And let’s not pretend that not a single German from another cultural region goes to play dress up in Bavaria when September rolls around.
I think there are genuine concerns expressed in the original reply— there is a language barrier. Plenty of German Americans do only get exposure to American media, which does not always portray Germans in a positive light. But those are issues that also affect every other diaspora population in the world. That’s what a diaspora population is. Jews and a whole continent of native Africans and hundreds of indigenous groups around the world are usually able to look past those things and encourage good-faith attempts to reconnect with one’s culture and heritage.
It is completely understandable on its face to look at American Oktoberfest and feel as though German culture is being mischaracterized and flattened out into a stereotype. That’s not my issue here. My issue with that response is that it, in turn, uses a singular event to mischaracterize millions of German Americans and flatten them out into a stereotype. Which ranges somewhere between not being very sporting and being actively xenophobic.