St. Martin is taking place: Old far-right lies in new AI packaging

This year too, Saint Martin’s processions are taking place everywhere, and nobody has a problem with that either. But right-wing liars want you to think that there is a problem. A current fake is part of the annual cycle of fanciful lies: Allegedly, Saint Martin’s processions organized by daycare centers are said to have been canceled or renamed out of consideration for “other religions and cultures.” The circulating photos and videos are false reports and AI-generated. These are racist fairy tales intended to deliberately stir up hatred against our fellow human beings. Enjoy the Saint Martin’s procession. There is no reason to hate your Muslim neighbors for it.

Fake News: Saint Martin’s processions are taking place, the right wing is lying

Today, November 11, is Saint Martin’s Day, and throughout Germany kindergartens are taking part in lantern processions and celebrating the Festival of Saint Martin with the little ones. Throughout Germany? Yes. Apart from one well-known cancellation for organizational reasons, the Saint Martin’s processions are taking place just as they have for decades. Why is this worth an article in Volksverpetzer? Because for more than ten years, right-wingers and internet trolls have claimed that Saint Martin’s processions were being canceled or renamed because of “other cultures and religions.” So that nobody misses out on the beautiful German tradition because of these fakes, we have researched the facts for you.

In November, photos and videos of alleged daycare notices appeared on various social media platforms, some of which went viral. These supposed notices claim that this year’s Saint Martin’s procession was renamed “Festival of Lights” or canceled altogether. “Other religions and cultures” are given as the fabricated reason, or, more vaguely, “so that ALL children in our daycare center feel invited”"”. These insinuations are enough to get the comments boiling. “Disgusting, this is submission to Islam, voluntarily and gradually, too...”"”, one comment says, followed by “I would deregister my children and take a walk in the park with them.. damn word police" and “Finally stand up against this nonsense!” Friends, you are being “oppressed” here by a few AI images and your own imagination, don’t you realize that?! Saint Martin is taking place. They are lying to you. You don’t need to get upset for no reason.

Images have been manipulated with AI

So, the usual right-wing wave of outrage, painting the downfall of the West on the wall and preferably calling for revolt against it at the same time. It is so exhausting because there is simply NOTHING to it. It is completely fabricated and lies. For more than ten years, it has been the same garbage clogging up the internet. The circulating photos and videos were very likely generated by AI. This is what fact-checkers from ZDF, Correctiv and Mimikama have determined; we too found an indication of Gemini, Google’s AI, using the SynthID Detector.

No reliable sources for canceled processions

Such detectors cannot offer one-hundred-percent certainty, but false positive results are rather rare. There is even more in the images pointing to an (AI) fake: The ZDF fact-checker found one of the images in a short YouTube video, in which an Instagram watermark from an account is displayed. The account can no longer be found, but according to ZDF it was an account that, by its own description, posted AI content.

Correctiv points out that in an image where the daycare center’s name is supposedly pixelated, the line is missing from an unpixelated “P,” a typical AI error when generating text.

The content also points entirely to fakes: No specific daycare centers are named, or pixelation makes the information impossible to verify. Specific locations or dates are also missing. Google’s reverse image search returns only further social media posts, but no verifiable sources. There are no other reports about these cancellations against which the posts could be checked. Such a change would certainly be a godsend for any local newspaper. But nothing. There is nothing from reliable, verifiable sources. There is not a single real case in which anything like this happened. No, it is completely made up!

Fake news about Saint Martin’s processions serve a far-right narrative

If you Google “Saint Martin’s procession canceled,” you will find only one current report from the Westfälischer Anzeiger: In Frechen, some Saint Martin’s processions had to be canceled this year. But the organizers cannot do anything about it; they are even annoyed about the reasons. This year, the city can provide only one police officer per procession, which is why the organizers have to arrange more stewards: one for every 50 participants. The schools say they cannot meet this requirement. Annoying, but it has absolutely nothing to do with religion, culture, or some supposed downfall of the West. The angry citizens could volunteer instead of getting worked up on command from their sofas over fabricated lies.

The images are circulated by opaque accounts with AI content, but also by real people such as the “intellectual right’s thought leader” Rainer Zitelmann. And even though some of the traffic around these posts certainly comes from bots, they gain reach, reach people, and spread the narrative of the “dangerous foreigners who are taking our traditions away from us.”"” Complete nonsense, of course. But dangerous nonsense containing the racist narrative of the “Great Replacement”. And it is intended to divide and incite us and make even the most open-minded people doubt diversity and human rights.

This strategy is not new. As already mentioned, fact-checkers have been dealing with this topic since 2013. Back then, there was a huge commotion about a daycare center where the “Sun, Moon and Stars Festival” was mentioned UNOFFICIALLY because there had once been a soup with sun, moon and stars in it. A poorly written article by the local press apparently turned a misunderstanding among parents into a scandal that other media outlets reproduced without questioning it. Nobody was interested in the fact that the daycare center and the parents denied the reports. NOBODY, including Muslims, particularly cares what our children do with lanterns on November 11 or what it is called.

It is always the same pattern

Whether by picking up on classic newspaper hoaxes or through AI posts: It is always the same fake news, and it will not become any truer this year or next year. And it is part of a large-scale strategy by the right wing to stir up hatred against migrants and racialized people. If you receive this, remember: These people are brazenly lying to you so that you get angry. To instrumentalize your anger for their perfidious purposes. If the phenomenon were real, why would they have to invent the examples?

You can already put it in your calendar: In spring, it will be claimed that the Easter Bunny will now be marketed as a “Traditional Bunny,” at Pentecost there will supposedly only be “Traditional Roses” instead of peonies, and in November Saint Martin will allegedly be abolished. In December, the right wing then completely loses it and outdoes itself with alleged renamings of Saint Nicholas figures, Christmas markets and Santa Clauses. All completely made up, of course, and every year anew, like a broken music box.

Anyone who has had all this in their timeline for ten years develops a reflex: If something allegedly disappears somewhere, it was Islam. This works not only with traditional celebrations, but also when a burger is removed from the product range. We have written down this completely crazy story for you here:

https://volksverpetzer.de/faktencheck/mcrib-fake-afd-blamiert/

It is not about traditions at all

It is not about cherished traditions or food. No, it is always about teaching people that there is an enemy lurking everywhere. And an enemy image that simply consists of your neighbors, colleagues, and fellow citizens. But there is no problem! Saint Martin is taking place. Nobody is complaining, nothing is being canceled or renamed. They make these incidents up so that you waste your time and anger on such things. And so that you get distracted from the real problems. Is your rent cheaper or your groceries less expensive because you dutifully responded to an AI fake on Facebook with an angry emoji?

All these reports are completely absurd in themselves, and many people could probably expose them as such individually. But it is about the sheer volume. The hateful reaction that clouds every clear thought is being trained. Over years. And even before the fact-checks have been written, at least the vague thought, the possibility that some traditions could be lost through immigration, has been put into people’s minds.

Instead of letting these campaigns fill your brain with garbage on the internet, today would be a good day to light a candle in the darkness, with or without children, and let yourself be inspired by the humanity in the story of Saint Martin. Saint Martin shared his cloak. That is the spirit of the day. THAT is the tradition. If these lies make you abandon compassion and fellowship, then they are the ones destroying this tradition.