Talk Elections

Or: How German politics are becoming more and more Americanized.

Social Democratic representative Johannes Kahrs from Hamburg is pretty active on Twitter (@kahrs). He uses the social networking service, inter alia, for viewing pornographic content.

Tweeting is obviously fun for Johannes Kahrs. The Social Democratic member of the Bundestag usually starts the day on his Twitter account @kahrs (https://twitter.com/kahrs) with a "Moin!" (colloquial salutation in Northern Germany). Then he lets us know who or what he is vexed about in politics ("needs no one", "harmful", "good", "was unbearable"). He lets his followers - he has over 6,000 - know what he is doing, from the reception of a visitor group in the Bundestag to a barbecue with friends ("fabulously beautiful"). The verified Twitter account of the fifty-year-old Social Democrat gives us a good insight into his life and activities.

Kahrs has been a member of parliament since 1998. He is a member of the Budget Committee, the speaker of the right-wing Seeheimer Kreis within his party faction in the Bundestag and the faction's spokesman for the interests of gays and lesbians.
Kahrs made his homosexuality public when he was elected to the Bundestag.

He makes no secret of his preferences: On Twitter Kahrs had followed 1,382 accounts until Monday morning - many ministers, journalists, politicians.

But also a wide range of accounts which are not related to politics, but to quite other things: sex and pornography. In these accounts, which Kahrs has joined as a follower, homosexuals spread pictures of naked men, from behind and from the front, while having sex, some in group formation.

The salacious images are garnished with references to "hot asses" or "tight guys". Even pictures of erect penises are shown. The persons shown are almost tens of years younger than Kahrs. Whether they are already full-aged cannot always be said with certainty.
From most accounts, the images are sent in rapid cycle sequences - Kahrs must therefore have been aware of what arrives on his account as a "short message".

When asked by the right-wing Tagesspiegel Kahrs said: "I follow all and sundry." In reply to the question as to whether the followed accounts also include pornography, he said: "Maybe. I need to check. I haven't noticed yet. If they cause trouble, I'll delete them." But he does not really understand the question: "I do not exactly find it shocking."

A few minutes after a request of the Tagesspiegel at the press office of the SPD parliamentary group Kahrs was calling from his cellphone. He had "not scrolled through" the list of people followed by him so far. Some of the accounts were "really a bit weird", he admits. But "I did not know that this is a political issue," Kahrs says. The SPD politician has deleted 30 accounts from his list after the Tagesspiegel research. "Hence this incidence ought to be history", he says.
The SPD leadership would not comment on the case.

Source (http://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/spd-politiker-johannes-kahrs-bei-twitter-porno-im-kurznachrichtendienst/10258038.html)

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Who cares. He's openly gay, so it's not like he's an anti SSM Conservative Republican doing this.

By the way: The text above is a translation of an article of the right-wing Tagesspiegel which I repudiate in the strongest terms.

He's gay, what kind of porn should he otherwise watch??

Gay guy does gay stuff. News at 11.

Granted, he could follow all that with another private account if he's a relatively influent politician. But it's no one's business what he follows. I particularly dislike the way the columnist tries to make this a pedophile scandal...

The fake outrage in that article is hilarious. Especially the statement that the dudes in the pornographic pictures were "in almost all cases decades younger" (!) than Johannes Kahrs. Did the author seriously expect that Kahrs would look at gay porn with 50-year-old men???

If this "journalist" had to choose between watching porn with 20-year-old women or with 50-year-old women, what would he most likely pick, mhm?

Granted, I'd attribute the existence of this article to the fact that it's silly season at the moment...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZrzg62Zj0

Well, at the very least it could be seen as an example for a decline of quality standards in journalism. :P

And here's an editorial from the Taz, attacking the Tagesspiegel for attacking Kahrs:

http://www.taz.de/!143238/?fb_action_ids=10204745744189950&fb_action_types=og.recommends (http://www.taz.de/!143238/?fb_action_ids=10204745744189950&fb_action_types=og.recommends)