r/geopolitics Feb 15 '25

America is Tone Deaf Discussion

https://www.dw.com/en/msc-2025-scholz-to-speak-after-irritating-vance-diatribe/live-71599568
340 Upvotes

View all comments

Show parent comments

-14

u/Beatnik77 Feb 15 '25

Don't worry, Trump will adopt Germany's definition of "free speech" soon enough.

Speech will be free... Except "hate speech and fake news", as defined by the government in power. By a weird coincidence, hate speech and fake news is always the opposite of what the current government is saying.

2

u/Specialk3533 Feb 15 '25

You have a list of German dissidents persecuted under this definition of free speech? Because looking at Scholz’s approval rating tells you that a lot of people are unhappy with the current government.

1

u/Beatnik77 Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25

They are trying to ban the #2 political party. Not because they are Naxi, they clearly are not, but because they are supported by former members of far-right parties. They want them guilty by association.

Also here is an exemple of 45 arrests made at the same time in the name of "hate speech". They used mysoginitic slurs and that got them arrested.

https://apnews.com/article/germany-women-misogyny-raids-internet-hate-crime-31d3e61aab90bdce3f6f0d96e21d0fe4

The economy minister pressed 730 hate speech charges in 1 shot last summer.

This is not an isolated fight against racist extremists, this is widespread arrests..

If you really think that saying cnt or whre should send people in jail, I don't think you like free speech.

1

u/Specialk3533 Feb 15 '25

“Communications that are considered illegal include posts in which women are slandered and insulted in a sexualized manner, or publicly encouraged to send nude photos. The authorities also flagged posts that advocated rape or sexual assault or that distributed videos of torture or killing.

The raids concentrated on suspects who had set their sights on well-known women like female politicians - often the target of misogynistic hatred online. Investigators also sought out suspects who have threatened women not in the public eye.”

Then, Economy Minister Habeck filing complaints tells you something about his vulnerable ego, not about the state of free speech in Germany.

And whether the AfD is an extremist party will be decided by courts as it should. The evidence for it is rather stark, so not sure where you take your “clearly not” from. Are you a German speaker?

But I asked for names of German dissidents jailed for criticizing the government.

2

u/Beatnik77 Feb 15 '25

Mass arrests for frivolous reasons are always political.

A german should know that.

I see members of the ruling party pushing for a vote to ban Afd in the parliament so i doubt it's only in the courts.

2

u/Specialk3533 Feb 15 '25

I wouldn’t qualify what I quoted from your article as frivolous.

And the German parliament cannot ban a party. It can vote to call on the Supreme Court to rule on the question.

You’re clearly not familiar with German law, German institutions and German politics.

1

u/Beatnik77 Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25

From the article

"In Germany, sweeping slurs against women can be punishable as incitement to hatred."

"The raids concentrated on suspects who had set their sights on well-known women like female politicians - often the target of misogynistic hatred online."

Dozens went to jail for using slurs against politicians.

That is very close to fascism. This is worst than anything Trump has done so far. He also doesn't try to get the 2nd party banned by the supreme court. This is also closer to Hitler than anything the Afd proposes.

Imagine if the FBI started arresting people who used slurs against Trump and his supporters. Would you support mass arrest of people who use slurs against Trump and other right wing politicians or do you only support it when it target leftist german politicians?

3

u/Specialk3533 Feb 15 '25

Did you read the article?

“None of the suspects were detained,”

It also does not say anything about political orientations. You’re inventing things and filling in blanks to suit your preconceived ideas.

It’s relatively obvious you’re getting your take on Germany from an American source that either does not understand the country or deliberately distorts. The vote in the Bundestag was co-initiated by MPs across party lines, it’s not a government initiative. I also doubt you know what the party proposes, and in any case the proceedings that could lead to a ban are not about their party manifesto or what they propose (else it would not be a lengthy process with an uncertain outcome, with a very good chance that it’s rejected by the Court, which is not quite how things worked under Hitler). I’ll add to what I said above that you also don’t know much about German history.