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The rule of law, combined with the broadest possible free speech, is the best defence as had been shown in Western democracies for quite some time now. Democrac
by stormdennis 6y ago
The rule of law, combined with the broadest possible free speech, is the best defence as had been shown in Western democracies for quite some time now. Democracy in Germany in the thirties was in a very weak condition for a variety of reasons which allowed the Nazis to undermine it fatally.
- shadowgovt 6y agoAnd it's probably worth considering that democracy after the forties in Germany includes Strafgesetzbuch §86a.
- zozbot234 6y agoNotably this law perpetuates on a daily basis the Nazis' coercive and violent appropriation of a number of traditional religious and cultural symbols, and with it their unnatural exploitation as emblems of the most evil and despicable ideas ever contrived in modern history. All things considered, a very fitting example of parent poster's point.
- shadowgovt 6y ago> unnatural There's nothing natural or unnatural about human interpretation of abstract symbols.
- zozbot234 6y agoIndeed; there's nothing "natural" either about taking a symbol that has literally been used from time immemorial throughout the Northern hemisphere (including in Europe up until the early 20th c.!) and treating it as an inherent reference to a bunch of folks who anyone sensible regards as enemies of everything that civilized society stands for. But that's not what one would assume, given that this law exists!
- shadowgovt 6y agoUnfortunately, law exists because we cannot rely on only what the sensible people do and understand.