"The Left" on Freedom of Speech and why we do not have it in Germany
Secular Talk has been my go-to channel to see what the actual people on the left think about the current state of affairs and while I do think that Kyle maybe does not touch often enough on the topic I am glad he did it with such determination in the following video.
Hate Speech
Hate Speech is forbidden in Germany. This is a direct a consequence of the NS Regime, since it only validity derives from "preventing this shit to happen ever again". When you see Germans argue that they need to "take responsibility for past crimes" they are usually also referring to the following law. There are much more explicit parts of this law that describe how endorsements of mob violence should be prevented, however the following part of the law is so broad that pretty much everybody is a racist - sounds familiar, right?
Wer in einer Weise, die geeignet ist, den öffentlichen Frieden zu stören,
- ...
- die Menschenwürde anderer dadurch angreift, dass er eine vorbezeichnete Gruppe, Teile der Bevölkerung oder einen Einzelnen wegen seiner Zugehörigkeit zu einer vorbezeichneten Gruppe oder zu einem Teil der Bevölkerung beschimpft, böswillig verächtlich macht oder verleumdet,
wird mit Freiheitsstrafe von drei Monaten bis zu fünf Jahren bestraft.
The source is the German wikipedia , but it is a quote from the German Law about Ethnic Hatred (Volksverhetzung), the literal translation by me:
Who in the way that is sufficient disturbs the public peace,
- ...
- attacking the human dignity of others by insulting a predetermined group, parts of the population or an individual because of his association with a predetermined group or parts of the population, ill intentionally making them (portraying them as) despicable or slandering them,
will be sentenced to prison for three months to five years.
Since disturbance of "public peace", "part of the population"and "predetermined group" are such vague words I see a lot of problems here. I am not allowed to say "Americans are idiots", "Christianity is stupid", "British liberalism is the foundation for imperialism". This could all be prohibited under this law, however the law is usually only enacted if jews are the target. It is meant to prohibit NS-Propaganda after all.
Cultural Marxism and Bolschewism
Demonizing the state socialist movement, that is quite openly out their as IWA and the likes, as some sort of jewish plan to enslave the world, is a pretty naive approach to the problems of the modern day world. It got its foundation from the NS Chief Ideologist Alfred Rosenberg who is rumored to be a jew himself.
Peddling the narrative of a jewish communist world conspiracy that asks for a cleanse of all jews is the very foundation for the crimes of the NS-Regime and you should be very carefully to jump on the bandwagon just because some of the corrupt bankers happen to be jews. It is exactly what the german laws try to prevent.
While I hate racism as the spirit that has rotten reasonable movements like the AfD and grass root national socialism, I do want to have the arguments out in the open.
After all that rambling and ranting about free speech and Nazis I want to end with an uplifting German Song about the Freedom of Thoughts. The Original Decentralized System that truly nobody can control. (english subtitles in the video)
Wow I would be in trouble quick for my mouth.
upvoted and followed.
Do all religions count as a 'predetermined group'? So being against, for example, the enslavement of women at the hands of Islam can land me in jail?
Germany need to remember that European civilisation was built of the foundation of religious criticism. That's how we left the dark ages.
There is a famous example
the images were printed separately in a German newspaper. For the one with the jewish caricature, the paper had to issue an apology.
So yes, if you go by the law any criticism towards Islam should be illegal however in reality it is decided more case by case for the Islam
The German History is full of us refusing christianity and finally defeating its influence on science and state. The song that I embedded is 200 years old and roots back to the German Philosopher and Artists (Dichter und Denker). Those German Philosophers would turn in their graves if they could see the political correctness of today.
I personally think that there should be a legitimate avenue for "hate speech". Out-dated laws like the one that you reference prevent this and it merely takes those with seeds of doubt and forces them underground.
The problem with forcing an idea underground is that it is more likely to fester rather than evolve.
This is pretty much in line with my thoughts expressed a couple of months ago.
Thank you kindly for choosing to touch upon the subject @thatgermandude - as the climate is indefinitely and artificially hyper-sensitive.
I do think the subject is also extremely important, maybe that is why it is so hyper-sensitive ;).
Good to see that most actual people I talk to (real-life and social media) seem to share the sentiment that freedom of speech is not something made to discuss flowers and ponies, but to discuss the controversial topics.
I am a student of consistency. ;c)
In a sense that makes me a student of a level of law higher than those written as rules calling themselves laws that are inconsistent are not worth the paper that they are written on.
That doesn't make me special - just an early adopter. ;c) The water is warm.
But yes, the subject is quite important if we value the right to exercise our nature-given faculties.
Ah yeah, I remember. Consistency is something that I do advocate as well. If you claim to have certain believes but don't act accordingly then that makes it almost impossible to have a valueable discussion with someone.
I remember there being a lot more to your way of consistency, I am not quite certain what it is, but I like what I read so far ;)
Interesting post @thatgermandude