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Før 2017 var Tyskland eit av få europeiske land utan noko populist­isk ytre høgre-parti i parlamentet. No har det delvis høgreekstreme partiet Alternativ for Tyskland (AfD) fått oppslutnad på over 10 prosent i to forbundsdagsval, og Bundesamt für Verfassungsschütz (BfV), stats­organet som har ansvar for nasjonal tryggleik, karakteriserer ytre høgre som det fremste trugsmålet mot Tysklands demokrati og nasjonale tryggleik.

Grunnen til at Tyskland lenge ikkje hadde noko slikt parti, har delvis å gjere med at det i store delar av samfunnet var ein sterk skepsis til ytre høgre på grunn av historia. Men det kjem også av at historisk revisjonisme og politisk revansjisme hadde god plass innanfor det kristendemokratiske partiet CDU før Angela Merkel vart partileiar.

— Den kortaste historia om Tyskland by Astrid S. Dypvik, Silje Breivik (Narrator) (Den kortaste historia om, #2)

To many, relying on markets and the pricing mechanism to drive the transition away from fossil fuels – which, in terms of broad approach, is what the world widely and increasingly is doing – is itself problematic enough. Markets are not only impersonal and faceless; they are also unaccountable. Should not someone, or rather some democratically elected institutional collective of someones, be taking responsibility? One of the big problems, surely, with market-coordinated processes is that people cannot ask markets why they are doing things in a certain way. Nor can people ask markets why they messed up when things go awry. Market mechanisms preclude accountability. But arguably, relying on a small coterie of big-tech companies, and their idiosyncratic energy-purchasing habits, to drive the transition away from fossil fuels seems, in political terms, even more problematic. One can quite imagine that, for many environmental and anti-monopoly activists, perhaps the only thing worse than nobody being responsible for driving and shepherding the energy transition would be Amazon, of all firms, being so responsible. Yet, to the degree that corporate PPAs are indeed being called upon to supplant government support mechanisms in catalysing renewables investment, this, effectively, is more or less the reality with which we increasingly are faced. It would be difficult to conceive of a more ironic statement on the warped political economy of contemporary green capitalism.

— The Price Is Wrong by Brett Christophers

He lies freezing, wondering if the bedsprings will give him away. For possibly the first time he is hearing America as it must sound to a non-American. Later he will recall that what surprised him most was the fanaticism, the reliance not just on flat force but on the rightness of what they planned to do…

— Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, George Guidall (Narrator)

"Slothrop!" Here's Bloat ten feet away offering him a large crab. "What th' fuck . . ." Maybe if he broke the bottle on the rock, stabbed the bastard between the eyes—"It's hungry, it'll go for the crab. Don't kill it, Slothrop. Here, for God's sake—" and here it comes spinning through the air, legs cocked centrifugally outward: dithering Slothrop drops the bottle just before the crab smacks against his other palm. Neat catch. Immediately, through her fingers and his shirt, he can feel the reflex to food. "O.K." Shaking Slothrop waves the crab at the octopus. "Chow time, fella." Another tentacle moves in. Its corrugated ooze touches his wrist. Slothrop tosses the crab a few feet along the beach, and what do you know, that octopus goes for it all right: dragging along the girl and Slothrop staggering for a bit, then letting her go. Slothrop quickly snatches up the crab again, dangling it so the octopus can see, and begins to dance the creature away, down the beach, drool streaming from its beak, eyes held by the crab. In their brief time together Slothrop forms the impression that this octopus is not in good mental health, though where's his basis for comparing? But there is a mad exuberance, as with inanimate objects which fall off of tables when we are sensitive to noise and our own clumsiness and don't want them to fall, a sort of wham! ha-ha you hear that? here it is again, WHAM! in the cephalopod's every movement, which Slothrop is glad to get away from as he finally scales the crab like a discus, with all his strength, out to sea, and the octopus, with an eager splash and gurgle, strikes out in pursuit, and is presently gone.

— Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, George Guidall (Narrator)