More on the German President, the AfD and "Rats"

Since publication of my report on German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier referring to the opposition AfD party as “rat-catchers” and hence, by implication, to its supporters as “rats”, I have been seeing many responses in social media supposedly debunking the report and insisting that Steinmeier was merely alluding to the legend of the Pied Piper. The original German title of the legend is Der Rattenfänger von Hameln or ‘The Rat-Catcher of Hamelin’.

But to get a sense of just how disingenuous these responses are, just have a look at the above historical postcard from precisely Hamelin. And even if Steinmeier were comparing AfD supporters to little children, infantilizing them instead of dehumanizing them, how would that be any better anyway?

For more pictorial evidence and a discussion, see my follow-up post at The Daily Sceptic here.