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Anyone surprised? This is exactly how it went in East Germany where everybody was encouraged to rat out their neighbors to the authorities about "staatszersetze
by CptMauli 9y ago
Anyone surprised? This is exactly how it went in East Germany where everybody was encouraged to rat out their neighbors to the authorities about "staatszersetzendes Verhalten", just like what China is doing to its citizens still.
This stuff is the hallmark of a police state.
- emsy 9y agoI loathe the comparison of Trump's presidency with fascism or now eastern bloc denunciation. I would appreciate it if we could criticize bad policies on their own merit, without the exaggerated historic comparisons. In my opinion, this is just fuel for division.
- CptMauli 9y agoI don't see that as a Trump specific thing. As mentioned in other comments, other facilities for the same purpose existed before. VOICE just makes it much more visible. I totally disagree that this is an exaggerated historic comparison. As someone who grew up in East Germany, all the measures which restrict the individual freedoms, which were put into place, over the years, make me sad and angry. And having historical examples which show the bad effects of such policies in a very striking manner is in my opinion a very useful shorthand, instead of elaborately discussing a policy (with an expected outcome). Especially the effects of Stasi methods are well researched, so they are a very useful comparison indeed. I just wanted to pint out that what the article discusses has very close parallels to what we know about the "usefulness" of the same methods in e.g. East Germany.
- majewsky 9y ago> "staatszersetzendes Verhalten" For those who cannot speak German, a literal translation would be "state-dissolving behavior". It sounds more dramatic in German, though. :)