“1. (reflexive, informal) to feel secondhand embarrassment; to feel ashamed about something someone else has done; to be embarrassed because someone else has embarrassed themselves (and doesn’t notice)“
and rightfully so. I’m referring to this article, written by a German about (some of) us Germans. It’s about song lyrics which are sexist, or “loud in volume, unsophisticated in tune and often offensively bawdy in content” as the author has it. Or that they even play down on things like rape. And what’s totally embarrassing about it is the reaction from some of our media, like “Bild” (not a newspaper at all, but dangerous opinionated arsonists), complaining about “censoring” – that is Trump-like dumb, sorry guys.
I’ve seen the word “Fremdschämen” used in English media before, it’s explained in this article for instance.
And yes, not only are these lyrics and German Schlager music in general (or “us” Germans always clapping on the “1” and “3” only) a reason for my own embarrassment, but even more so that reaction of “Bild”.
Sorry about the rant…
P.S.: in Wikiloops, where I am one of the moderators, we have tendencies like these as well, regarding inappropriate content and lyrics. And trust me, decisions of banning and about the deletions of a song don’t ever come easy, but we do have a code of conduct which handles topics like the limits of free speech. Maybe some recording companies should have or at least consider the same before they publish any crap?
Oh, and one nice thing about the article which lead to this blog post is the photograph of the city of Würzburg which they’ve used – very pretty.