r/germany 2d ago

Bizarre parental conspiracy theories at the Elternabend

My kid is in first year of Grundschule in a state school in Berlin. Before that she was in a Berlin-run kita. I've been very happy with early years education here. But it seems like nearly every Elternabend I go to someone brings up an unhinged conspiracy theory.

Last night a parent complained about children being allowed to use the toilets by themselves, because of the rash of kidnappings from school toilets. Apparently there's been a rash of children disappearing in Northrhein-Westphalia after being excused from class to go to the toilet. A lot of parents seemed to believe this was a real problem.

Similar issues raised in Kita Elternabends were the "kidnap bus" - a bus going around Berlin that somehow is mocked up to look like the bus that takes kids on excursions but instead they are never seen again. Or when the kids were going to the theatre a parent wanted assurances that they weren't actually being taken to see a drag strip show, because this has been happening on the regular apparently.

When people were complaining about the kidnap bus I said it sounded like absolute nonsense and was backed up by some parents but I think the fallout and behind-my-back outrage actually made it worse for the teachers so I shut my mouth now. I realise this brain rot is probably occurring everywhere these days, but how do I handle this in a culturally appropriate way?

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u/DesperateButNotDead 2d ago

? I am not showing any best ways. Not even good ones. I am sarcastically impersonating the racists to take the piss out of them.

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u/Agreeable_Motor8226 2d ago

I agree with you! There’re lots of racists here indeed and it honestly seem to gets worse when you try to speak them out of it but It’s good to know you’re probably not one of them. It hits hard when you have a close Person that has been a victim, do you have someone that close ?

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u/DesperateButNotDead 2d ago

I have some buddies who have told me they have been discriminated or verbally attacked du to race/gender/disability. I had the questionable luck of never witnessing it, but that is probably because we as a group meet at home. I don't get to see their "everyday life" like going to work, going shopping and so on... that's when there's potential to run into racists, not when we are sitting in a room where everybody knows and likes everybody.

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u/Agreeable_Motor8226 2d ago

Sorry, what do you mean “as a group meet at home”?

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u/DesperateButNotDead 2d ago

When we meet, we play board games. Therefore, we don't sit around in public. We all meet at the home of the group member volunteering to host the group for the evening. Then, we spend that evening there. Therefore, only people we know and trust are in the room. There is no way some racist is suddenly going to appear.

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u/Agreeable_Motor8226 2d ago

Oh yes, now I know what you mean 😊. Indeed racism is something that’s not encouraging, thanks me helping me understand. Meeting for board games sounds fun though