German police raid 36 homes over hateful postings on social media

[Karon]

Decent human being, defined by your Government. Any country that follows this sort of philosophy is doomed to totalitarianism.

It doesn't need a government to know that treating other human beings like animals is below a humans dignity.
Our judges can still think on their own.

If they couldn't, we would give people for possession of Marijuana a ten year sentence or let random citizen hint other citizen for shits and giggles. You know, like the USA does.

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Glad I live in the United States where there are laws of freedom of speech.

Low IQ mouthbreathers fit right in there it seems.

[Muh]

We hear a lot of talk about how America is losing its place as the most liberated and free country in the world to Germany. What a joke. This is a flagrant attack on the German people's right to free speech. This would never be tolerated by Americans, and as for Germany, it's happening again. Learn from your history and fight against the Government attacking your liberty.

Well those people were rightfully arrested...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksverhetzung

[Scathbais]

Not another one of these threads that lead me to inevitably say: "Thank God, I live in the United States" where there is no such thing as "illegal hate speech".

[Freighter]

Political Correctness.

Proves nothing. And it is very unlikely that the PC police didn't make up ideas who the racists and haters are like your average liberal do. We know though, that at night they look themselves in the mirror with great doubt. That's what you get with politically charged law and order.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory.

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Not another one of these threads that lead me to inevitably say: "Thank God, I live in the United States" where there is no such thing as "illegal hate speech".

That's not something good.

[Freighter]

The moment you place any sort of restrictions on Freedom of Speech it stops being Freedom of Speech.

No country has this absolute freedom of speech that you think to be what freedom of speech is.

[Freighter]

That's dishonest - "illegal hate speech" laws, like they have in Europe, just encourages people to go underground and collaborate in secret, rather than express themselves publicly and be ridiculed for their awfulness.

Speech can and often does lead to action. That's why it should be restricted.

[Freighter]

Again, you're being dishonest or daft - any of the things you could list as being "not freedom of speech" or "hate speech" are already not considered Free Speech. Any kind of speech that calls people to violence or to take an action is not protected. Maybe you should take some time to read the Constitution and review the legal opinions of the Supreme Court?

How can you not see that different countries extend this to cover hate speech among other things? Claiming that other countries does not have freedom of speech because they consider more things as not protected is just silly. USA is USA and the laws there are not universal.

[Eldar45]

Zeig Heil?

Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech, not Freedom of Speech, but...

[Freighter]

You know, I feel as though Germany could be spending the money and resources chasing down people who say mean things on the internet towards their "mysterious" rise in crime and sexual assault and attacks and, golly gee, things that ACTUALLY HURT PEOPLE?!

Do you think the police can only be on one case at a time?

[Freighter]

The fact is that the USA has the "gold standard" of Free Speech because we allow people to criticize others in ways that people on the "Left" like to claim is "raycism" and therefore, under the draconian laws of these "other countries" get people arrested, fined and sent to jail.

No country should strive to be like USA in that regard. Funny how you use the word criticize for racism and threats.

Just try have a discussion anywhere in Europe or the UK about the migrant crisis and it's relationship to crime, sexual assault, etc and see how quickly you wind up arrested, fined or permanently banned from the internet (if that isn't restricting someones speech i don't know what is).

I very much doubt that.

[Sharein]

The only threat is from liberals. Like proven in this very case.

Oh, god, those braindead lefties.

Do you even know what "liberal" means?

Speech can and often does lead to action. That's why it should be restricted.

What is happening is very selective. People should be able to express themselves, for as long as it isn't a direct call to violence.

[Freighter]

The USA is literally the safest, most prosperous country in the world. The President is referred to as the leader of the free world. The USA is considered to be the "police force of the world" and the archetype of modern Western Civilization. Why am I starting to get the impression you are either from Russia or China?

USA is safest? What measure are we using here to establish the level of safety? Crime rates? If so, Singapore beats USA by miles.

[Freighter]

Singapore is ruled over by a totalitarian, authoritarian government with zero concern for human rights. You lose.

I doubt you've ever been to Singapore. I have no idea why people portray it as some dystopian hell on this forum, it's a nice place to live in.

[Eldar45]

No country should strive to be like USA in that regard. Funny how you use the word criticize for racism and threats.




I very much doubt that.

See, the thing is that people can say stupid stuff all they want to, but until they act on it the Government shouldn't be able to do anything except maybe watch people closer who are hurling out death threats.

Very, very few of the people who hurl out death threats actually act on them. Very few racist bigots actually act on their beliefs. Fining and or jailing these people doesn't help anyone.

The next problem is where is the line drawn? Is strong criticism a threat of violence? Liberals in America like to call any criticism of the Social Security system racism even when it is not. If we had an Anti-Racism law then that kind of criticism would be punishable.


My point is that anti-hate speech laws are to easily manipulated for political gain and are most definitely not a good thing.

[Freighter]

Until you break a rule that the powers that be don't like. Or are living somewhere said powers suddenly decide they want for their own. People living their have no rights and if they don't toe the line they are punished, severely. Like most places outside of the West, in fact.

You probably shouldn't talk since you obviously have no clue what life is like here. Just because human rights aren't praised by the leaders here doesn't mean we have no rights.

[Sharein]

The next problem is where is the line drawn? Is strong criticism a threat of violence? Liberals in America like to call any criticism of the Social Security system racism even when it is not. If we had an Anti-Racism law then that kind of criticism would be punishable.

The problem is that the bar is set lower and lower. I do think we are slowly moving towards de facto dictatorships. Give it about twenty years.

[Freighter]

By your logic you shouldn't talk either - you don't live in a society with Free Speech being sanctified as a part of both the law and the culture.

Freedom of speech is part of the constitution here, so...

How does the opinion of someone who has never enjoyed the benefits of such a law have the right to criticize it? I'll tell you how - because you want to undermine it to further your world view.

So you think I never lived elsewhere, that I have never traveled? The USA version of freedom of speech is pure bullshit, no nation should allow that much.

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Kindly name one place in the world with a higher quality of Free Speech rights?

Being allowed to say racist things isn't high quality, it's low quality.

[Sharein]

As long as Democracy exists "de facto dictatorships" are impossible. Elections happen on time and if a President refused to leave power the military would kindly escort them out.

I'd say there are some things that disqualify most European countries as "true" democracies.

Sure, we have elections, but since no party is big enough to form a government on its own, you never truly get what you voted for. In my country a party that was -utterly decimated- by the voters with the latest election can still take up a seat in the ruling government and will still have some ministerial rights. How is that democratic, exactly?

Another thing is the prevalence of EU law. As is known, the EU is not exactly the most democratic or transparent body out there. While the parliament is "democratic", the other institutions are only "somewhat" democratic, with the council (the top dog) being the least democratic of all. European integration also reduces the democratic value of a member country.

The excuse "hate speech" will probably be used more and more often to crack down on people who criticise the government, migrants, and other government aligned institutions. Each time this happens we move a tiny fraction closer to not having the right of free speech anymore.

I'd say most European countries are post democracies.

http://monumenttotransformation.org/...avrakakis.html

[Freighter]

"No nation should be allowed that much" - said the Tyrant. Your very nature is oppressive it would seem - or do other people fee fees really matter that much to you? Fun Fact: Reality doesn't care about feelings. Also, since you are the one defining what is and isn't racist, we can just discount your opinion again. You've already established that you view all criticism as racism. Most likely because "feels".

I care about having a stable society, not feelings. Racism serves to cause friction, thus less stable society. Therefore racist speech should be banned.

[Sharein]

Your very nature is oppressive it would seem

True lefties hate freedom, as history has proven countless times before. It is their way or the gallows.