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John Carper's avatar

It seems strange to me that anyone could miss the topic of “99 Luftballoons”; I recall discussing it at the time as “that German song about getting nuked”.

Per the “Ufos aus dem All” line, I’d be curious for a native-speaker of the era’s sense whether most would have initially processed that as “flying saucer, perhaps from Mars” rather than a lyricized indicator of “unidentified return consistent with warhead re-entry”. I agree that to whatever extent the former bleeds in, it’s detrimental.

The Captain Kirk reference is also interesting in that context. I always took it as a comment on the United States’ white knight self-image, but if it further pushes a listener away from then current events to science fiction thematically, it too might be problematic.

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