The German leftwing party Die Linke won the state elections in Berlin on 20 September. It’s unclear whether the party will be able to form a coalition, appoint its lead candidate Elif Eralp as mayor, and follow through on her core campaign promise: to socialise the housing stock of the city’s biggest real-estate companies. A barrage of accusations started to circulate immediately after the results came in. Even by the standards of present-day polarisation, the pitch was extreme.

On the basis of one leaked chat and one rapper’s performance, the party was described as schmoozing with criminal clans and endangering the lives of Berlin Jews. Accusations of antisemitism prompted the Greens and the SPD – potential coalition partners – to question any potential cooperation, while “alt-right” opinion-makers suggested that “Hamas and Hezbollah” had won the elections, or that the German Democratic Republic (the old East Germany) was about to come back. Alice Weidel of the rightwing AfD alleged that Die Linke intended to “shoot the rich”.

Our liberal capitalist orders are designed to protect property. Touch one bit of it, and the whole thing is apparently on fire. And yet, nerves aren’t always this raw. The current flare-ups reveal a deep crisis. Sober-sounding commentators have pointed out that the accusations against Die Linke are simply a strategy to stop the socialisation agenda. But that account of moral panic as deliberate strategy can hardly explain everything. Why do so many people want to believe the smear campaigns, especially while the simultaneous wins for the AfD are swiftly normalised?

The frenzy becomes less surprising once we understand the way in which liberalism is under........

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