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This incident happened because after WWII Germany distanced itself from all practices that were misused by the Nazis. If at all, it is maybe representative for
by wsy 9y ago
This incident happened because after WWII Germany distanced itself from all practices that were misused by the Nazis. If at all, it is maybe representative for Germany's reaction to its own Nazi history. It is surely not representative for fundamental European values.
- V-2 9y agoFirst-hand experience of various dictatorships - not limited to the Third Reich, whose impact reached well beyond Germany anyway - has played a strong role in shaping European mindset, and is a significant difference between the US and Europe.
- wsy 9y agoWould you care to elaborate which European values exactly have been shaped by of dictatorship experience, in your opinion? The only one that comes to my mind is shared with US: that power must be distributed among several institutions so that it becomes difficult to establish a dictatorship.
- V-2 9y agoEg. much greater ease of banning fringe political groups, ideologies, websites etc. This is one example of "freedom to" (everyone has right to express their opinion, even if it's hateful and extreme) valued less than "freedom from" (these loonies might get to power one day, we gotta protect ourselves against it). Off the top of my head: https://www.theblaze.com/news/2012/03/22/simply-visiting-terrorist-websites-could-mean-jail-time-in-france https://www.theblaze.com/news/2012/03/22/simply-visiting-ter...
- ben509 9y agoGerman anti-Semitism was very much reflective of fundamental European values, and in countries where there wasn't a big denazification effort it's quite persistent. And, alas, steadily coming back.