http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/09/europe/time-person-of-the-year-merkel/index.html

Quote :

"n a year in which terrorism, refugees and protests of many stripes dominated headlines, Time magazine tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its Person of the Year."

Interesting choice, though i'm just grateful and would have lost full respect for the magazine had they choosen She-Male Bruce Jenner or #BLM "activists"

12/9/2015 11:01:49 AM

^The fact that those 2 were even in contention is a problem.

12/9/2015 12:13:29 PM

Sanders won the online poll

12/9/2015 12:23:12 PM

^

and then didn't even make the top choices. fuck time magazine

12/9/2015 12:26:27 PM

Bernie Sanders didn't make the top few because he hasn't been one of the most influential people of 2015. (Though admittedly he should be ahead of Jenner) The poll is a joke. Online poll skewing is the domain of young, reasonably educated, tech-savvy people: exactly the kind of people who love Sanders, but not the people who vote in real-life elections. He has not had a really substantive impact on the election or Democratic party.

Merkel was a reasonable choice. Globally she's wielded enormous influence for years, far more than most Americans realize. Unfortunately the only other good choice would have been Donald Trump, who has had a far bigger impact on the election and civil discourse in this country than Sanders or any other candidate. It has been a bad impact, but Person of the Year is theoretically about their influence, not their quality. See: the first German chancellor to win PotY. (I was surprised to find that Merkel is actually the fourth; Adenauer and Brandt were also in there. That gives them the second most heads of state after the US)

12/9/2015 8:33:43 PM

If we're talking about influence, shouldn't al-Bakr (however you spell the head of ISIS) make the cover? Putin has also been pretty influential this past year.

12/9/2015 9:05:06 PM

So she drug the Greeks and pretty much the rest of the EU around by the nose because Germany is the only country over there that actually works and that was person of the year worthy?

What the hell else did she do noteworthy this year?

12/9/2015 9:12:10 PM

Trump should be Person of the Decade!

12/9/2015 10:04:28 PM

^^Ive seen folks credit her with working diligently on the refugee crisis as well as standing up to Putin. I'd say she's been pretty mediocre in both respects.








I wonder (aloud) if this is what leadership is really coming too. By a bunch of different measures, I fully believe we are experiencing a crisis of leadership on multiple different fronts. Our politicians are ass clowns, our business leaders are visionless, greed whores, media and a majority of entertainers are spineless garbage (and boorish to boot), our religious leaders are mostly hypocrites, etc etc etc.


There are some notable exceptions, but when you survey the field of current leaders, ya come up pretty Damn short. So you give person of the year to a mediocre, film flam politician, personally I would have given it to the "vacuum of leadership."

[Edited on December 9, 2015 at 10:10 PM. Reason : Super flattering picture too]

12/9/2015 10:09:35 PM

Quote :

"Bernie Sanders didn't make the top few because he hasn't been one of the most influential people of 2015. "

actually they just don't chose presidential candidates

12/9/2015 10:23:44 PM

Fuckin Krauts.

12/9/2015 10:25:54 PM

12/10/2015 9:44:18 AM

Quote :

"actually they just don't chose presidential candidates"

I thought about that as soon as I hit "post reply." It makes sense; they never have before, and I guess it wouldn't be kosher anyway.

Quote :

"What the hell else did she do noteworthy this year?"

Well, aside from being the dominant EU figure -- not just in regards to Greece but more broadly in promoting European unity -- she's been by far the most prominent pro-refugee leader, and taking in a million people is a pretty big deal. She's also one of the more vocal resisters of Putin. It hasn't accomplished much, I'll grant, but it's one more thing that she's the European face of.

Quote :

"If we're talking about influence, shouldn't al-Bakr (however you spell the head of ISIS) make the cover? Putin has also been pretty influential this past year."

I think Putin would have been a better choice last year -- I've got serious respect for the Ebola fighters, and I was close enough to that whole mess for the respect to be personal, but they weren't global influencers. Putin, meanwhile, launched the first blatant land-grab invasion since 1991 and walked around giving the entire established foreign policy order the finger. He should have won 2014. This year, I'm not so sure.

Al-Bakr is a weird case because I'm not sure how influential he himself is. Obviously ISIS itself has been hugely influential, but the "caliph" doesn't really speak much and I'm not sure how instrumental he is in directing operations, or was in forming the organization itself. Then, there's also the fact that in the past couple of decades Time has been pansy-ass when it comes to recognizing bad guys. The most notable example being 2001's selection of Rudy Giuliani over Osama bin Laden.

12/10/2015 11:29:37 AM

Person of the Year would be sweet if you got it in January.

12/10/2015 12:25:45 PM

should've been bag daddy daesh

12/10/2015 1:05:03 PM

Quote :

"she's been by far the most prominent pro-refugee leader, and taking in a million people is a pretty big deal."

I was going to ask the same question that prompted this response, and damn I didn't know they took in that many.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/625525/Germany-crisis-Angela-Merkel-refugee-promise-backfires-EU

12/10/2015 1:10:14 PM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/14/angela-merkel-multiculturalism-is-a-sham

Quote :

"Multiculturalism is a sham, says Angela Merkel The speech that followed, however, may have surprised supporters of her policies: "Multiculturalism leads to parallel societies and therefore remains a ‘life lie,’ ” or a sham, she said, before adding that Germany may be reaching its limits in terms of accepting more refugees. "The challenge is immense," she said. "We want and we will reduce the number of refugees noticeably." Although those remarks may seem uncharacteristic of Merkel, she probably would insist that she was not contradicting herself. In fact, she was only repeating a sentiment she first voiced several years ago when she said multiculturalism in Germany had "utterly failed." "Of course the tendency had been to say, 'Let's adopt the multicultural concept and live happily side by side, and be happy to be living with each other.' But this concept has failed, and failed utterly," she said in 2010."

I don't get it, if that's how she feels, why did she take in a million people?

12/14/2015 6:34:06 PM

she's saying they should come in and become part of the german culture.

immersion is the answer, not multiculturalism.

She's not expecting these people to setup a Syria Lite (tm) inside of Germany but to become Germans who happen to be from Syria. That is what they haven't done though.

12/14/2015 7:04:25 PM

so you are saying she was implying that only in her country multiculturalism has not failed (because it has led to immersion)? i don't know much about germany, but i do know it is definitely more integrated than france and probably italy too. i don't know, that's quite a tall indirect claim she is making.

12/14/2015 7:30:08 PM

no she was saying that it HAS failed and is not the answer.

That doesn't mean you have to give up on bringing refugees in.

An idealist acknowledges the truth, provides an alternative, and pursues it.

She also said something about a two way street. Essentially calling on Germans to promote inclusion at the same time as encouraging immigrants to acclimate.

12/14/2015 7:38:12 PM

So if it *has* failed so far (previous immigrants in the 90's) in Germany, what reason is there to believe it will *not* fail this time around? (i.e, that multiculturalism will turn into immersion this time around)

I like her optimism with this wave of immigrants, but I--and hundreds of millions of others--don't think it bodes well for the future of Germany.

12/14/2015 8:40:41 PM

They don't really have a choice. Without immigration, Germany's future is bleak.

12/14/2015 8:46:13 PM

I was hoping for Jenner. Just to watch republicans' heads explode. OH IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MAGNIFICENT.

[Edited on December 15, 2015 at 2:04 PM. Reason : s]

12/15/2015 2:03:51 PM

Not that I care about Jenner or the Time Person of the Year, but why would they give that award to a reality tv star?

12/16/2015 1:47:45 AM

Because a reality tv star shows real life, and real life is far more important than an actor playing in a movie... would you rather it went to an actor/actress playing in stupid action movies or romantic comedies?

12/16/2015 1:49:38 AM

Time's person of the year has never gone to an actor of any kind.

Well, besides Ronald Reagan. But I assume he didn't get it for his acting.

12/16/2015 1:53:19 AM

LOL I was obviously kidding... DUH!!!

12/16/2015 2:38:47 AM

maybe Cam should get it next year for convincing white people that black dude's can play QB in the NFL

12/17/2015 3:02:17 AM

Multiculturalism has worked in the USA to the tune of 5th generation Irish guys getting shitty shamrock tattoos and Italian neighborhoods painting their fire hydrants green white and red.

It's worked out ok?

12/17/2015 7:05:13 AM

Quote :

"They don't really have a choice. Without immigration, Germany's future is bleak."

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they'd be just fine without it. Certainly fine without mass refuge immigration (and rather traditional immigration). Germany basically runs the EU and everyone knows it. The EU as a whole's population has leveled off, so since it's something happening across the board I don't see how this would hurt Germany's position.

[Edited on December 17, 2015 at 12:27 PM. Reason : ]

12/17/2015 12:27:32 PM