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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Europe
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Europe community on dbzer0. Intended to be a place to discuss European news, politics, or just general topics from a European perspective. Since this is on dbzer0 expect the community to lean more leftist-anarchist but a wide range of views are accepted here (within reason).
Rules:
1. No Bigotry or Hate Speech
Any forms of Homophobia, Transphobia, Queerphobia, Racism, or Ableism will be met with swift and harsh action and will not be tolerated here whatsoever. Bigots will be banned immediately on-sight. This includes apologia of it.
Trying to be politely or intellectually bigoted i.e. "Just asking questions" won't be tolerated.
2. No Zionism
Any forms of Zionism or Zionist rhetoric will not be tolerated here, this includes Zionist apologia, accusations of antisemitism towards anti-Zionists, or blatant denial or downplaying of the genocide towards Palestinians. Any attempt to uphold or prop up the IHRA definition of antisemitism, will be treated as Zionism.
Anyone engaging in Pro-Zionist sentiment or apologia will be actioned in accordance with its severity.
Apologizing for Germany's compelled speech laws in any way here is also considered a violation as these laws uphold the IHRA definition of antisemitism. You will be banned if you apologize for Germany's speech laws. No questions asked.
Note: Trying to find loopholes or whataboutery to see what is or isn't genocide denial or Zionism will be treated as a violation of this rule. Don't test us.
3. Stay Civil
Please maintain civil discourse in the community. Do not engage in arguments with others, name-calling, or insults. Note that calling out bigotry or Zionism is not considered an insult. In heated arguments users are encouraged to or even required to disengage failure to do so will result in mod action.
4. No Misinformation
Spreading of misinformation intentionally in this community is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Spreading misinformation hurts the credibility of the community and can mislead people sometimes in dangerous ways. Users who intentionally post misinformation as articles, comment answers, or in attempt to win arguments will be actioned swiftly.
Note: This includes Russian and Chinese propaganda. Users with a history of such posting will be banned on sight.
5. No AI Content
Please do not post articles or content primarily created using generative AI. Generative AI content may contain misinformation or be lower quality and thus is discouraged. Posts and comments featuring it will be removed. However this community does not allow or tolerate Anti-AI trolling or hostility and users who engage in such behavior will be actioned for it, additionally Anti-AI trolling violates Rule 3 and often Rule 4 so it is generally unacceptable already.
Note: Rules 1 & 2 may be subject to preemptive mod action due to their severity, and they apply to a user's entire post history. Not just this community.
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I think you make a very good point that Germany has always been anti free-speech thus this is not a "crackdown".
Also the really funny business in there is how the IDF is somehow a protected group but not, for example, the Russian Army (when was the last time that an Ukranian was denied entry in Germany for voicing a desire for the death of the Russian Army?!).
Of course, if we dig down further, we end with IDF being representative of Israel, a nation which according to the German Authorities represents the Jewish People. This last bit is what's really interesting: you see, plenty of Jews have very explicitly said that "Israel does not represent me", so here we are with Germany, once again, telling Jews what Jews are supposed to be like, not to mention the small detail that believing that a nation represents an entire ethnicity (especially when most of them don't even live there) requires one to believe that "they're all the same" about that etnicity (otherwise it would represent "some" but not "all", hence being against Israel would not be the same as being against the Jewish People), in other words, the good old traditional German "Jews are all the same" trope used to justify exterminating an entire people.
No matter which way you follow the logical chain you end up with Germany still being more Authoritarian than most of Europe and still being very big on treating people differently depending on their ethnicity, i.e. Racial Discrimination.
That Germany still operates on the same foundations as in the "good old days" - "the use of force to silence dissent is right" and "race dictates how people should be treated" - explains how easy it was for AfD to rise and is seriously worrisome for the rest of Europe.
The people posting here that Germany is still Nazi, are at least partially correct: Germany still operates based on the exact same principles on how it's acceptable to use the force of the state to silence people, that race is what defines how people should be treated and that certain races are "good" and others are "bad", all at a level so extreme that even Genocidal mass murdering of children is acceptable when done by those of a "good" race.
Your first sentence is my whole problem with that framing: Germany is not anti free-speech. It just does not subscribe to the US/UK view that you are allowed to say anything. Maybe voice your opinion without threatening or inciting violence? Maybe the US would be better off if some prosecutor could actually charge Musk after showing the Nazi salute?
I disagree with most of your remaining text but this is too far away from the original topic, I will not comment on that.
That's what being anti free-speech means. It means controlling speech at the nation level and beating and arresting people for saying things that are offensive but ultimately not physical threats. I.e. "I hate X minority" versus "I'm going to blow up X space of minority" That second one is illegal in the UK and US, the first one is not.
Arresting people for opinions or ideas is literally, and definitionally Orwellian. It's the principle of what George Orwell's 1984 is about. I know the right weaponize this to compare being banned on Reddit with that, that is a disingenuous use. States controlling the narrative is a problem because you cannot hold them accountable. Germany absolutely takes advantage of its position in being able to control and suppress speech at the state level with police, by adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and using it to silence criticism of Israel
People apologizing for it in this community will be treated as Zionist apologia in and of itself, no matter if it is because of being brainwashed or pushing an agenda. If you choose to start listening to some of these "UK/US positions" and stop apologizing for Germany's laws, you will be welcome back here. Otherwise you aren't welcome here, and will be banned again if you come back.
@Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com I hope that I'm being clear. I am not promoting a free speech community, nor do I accept what right-wing shitheads. People who engage in bigotry and harmful rhetoric (including Zionism) here will be banned from the space. I simply think they shouldn't be arrested for it. Cops have zero accountability, you can't correct them, you can't legally fight against them. People already weaponize the law against protestors in places where speech is a protected right.
Speech itself being policed is beyond dangerous, and unneeded since we as a society have systems to control hateful speech through ostracization and social stigma. Using force and law only when safety or physical boundaries are transgressed (i.e. forcing their way into a store after being asked by the owner to leave).
Armed resistsnce is a right so fuck off wirh your bullshit. Death to the occupation force comitting genocide
Well, this specific action of the German authorities is a wonderful example of how a bit of creative interpretation can be used to apply legislation which is supposedly anti-hate to actually support extreme racist violence.
It's not the anti hate-speech legislation (which, by the way, the UK also has) that makes Germany against free speech, it's claiming IN CONTRADICTION TO MANY JEWISH PEOPLE than the nation station of Israel represents the Jewish People and hence that voicing a want for the army of the nation state of Israel to be stopped WHEN THEY ARE COMMITTING A GENOCIDE, INCLUDING TARGETING CHILDREN is hate speech.
It takes a disturbing amount of very intense, very purposeful twisting, distortion, selective interpretation and even denialism of the agency of the very people one claims to be protecting, to shove the square peg of the wanting the destruction of a military actively mass murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians into the round hole of hate-speech.
It's the actual actions of the authorities of Germany which show their opposition to speech which does not align with their political interests.