Germany's young conservative Turks - migrant edition

Liberal-ish German weekly DIE ZEIT has a Campus section for younger readers. As used here, Campus still retains the old meaning of university infrastructure in spite of "the other use" of the term in the business section of papers, on web sites, and in management seminars.

ZEIT Campus has two companion sub sections "Young and Conservative" and "Young and Left".

As one might expect from a liberal publication, the paper started out with the Young and Left one last year and added Young and Conservative this February.

Did the labels strike you as odd? What happened to the expected pairings of left and right, conservative and progressive? The blogster could not find a justification for using the labels picked by the editors. Just as in English, the German konservativ is a nicer word, not quite reaching the murky depth of "rechts" (right), and the same goes for "progressiv" and "links" (left).

The only reference to "the Right" on the Campus pages is in the old lede for the Young and Left section, where Left is defined: In earlier days, being Left meant to dream of utopias and to fight the state, if needed with violence, And today? Leftist ideas have become mainstream, the Right is reinvigorated, and we ask ourselves: What does being young and left mean today?*

The blogster wishes the editors had put together an introduction like this for the Young and Conservative section. It would have been fun to read. All we find is a note that the series is designed to be a portrait of Germany in the year of the general election, later in 2017.

The visuals used in the two sections are striking in their differences. Unless ZEIT goes and writes something about violence on the right, these two images in the Young and Left section stand unchallenged:



The photos on the Young and Conservative page are peaceful and serene to the very last one.
The content of the articles under the two sections covers the expected topics. The two most recent articles in the Young and Conservative section are surprisingly combative. Why the best students are conservative proclaims one, while an even more self congratulatory one almost shouts at readers with Migrants - we are the new conservative elite. 

The latter piece betrays utter historical ignorance and is astoundingly sanctimonious in ridiculing (German) neighbors on the basic means tested benefits and a child named Heinrich, whose main problems in life are the choice of luxury cars and universities (US or Australia?).

Had the author done some homework, she might have mentioned recent examples of conservative immigrants, from, well, "that guy" to the bitching Mr. Pirinçci.
Or noted how Russian immigrants, many of German ethnicity, tend to be more conservative than much of society.

To the blogster, all of this is moot anyway because it** is convinced that the convenient "left/right" concept is bad for people, distracting from critical fundamental behaviors.

* Links sein, das hieß früher, von Utopien zu träumen und den Staat zu bekämpfen, notfalls mit Gewalt. Und heute? Inzwischen sind linke Positionen Mainstream, die Rechte erstarkt wieder und wir fragen uns: Was heißt es, heute jung und links zu sein? 
** Gender neutral!