3 ms·
contrary to what most people think, Weimar Germany did have hate-speech laws, and they were applied quite frequently. [..] Leading Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels
by MikeUt 5y ago
contrary to what most people think, Weimar Germany did have hate-speech laws, and they were applied quite frequently. [..] Leading Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels, Theodor Fritsch, and Julius Streicher were all prosecuted for anti-Semitic speech. Streicher served two prison sentences. Rather than deterring the Nazis and countering anti-Semitism, the many court cases served as effective public-relations machinery, affording Streicher the kind of attention he would never have found in a climate of a free and open debate.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27417789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27417789
- anigbrowl 5y agoStreicher was indeed sentenced to (short) terms in prison but it's not recorded that he ever had to serve any of them, being able o take advantage of criminal amnesties and later the privileges of a Reichstag deputy. https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/4_an/4_Anti-Semitism_September-October_1940.pdf https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/4_an/4_Anti-Semitis... To be sure, courts are meant to handle individual or corporate matters, and not ideal or even effective in the maintenance of polities. But it is a mistake to compare the Weimer-era standards with current hate speech laws in Europe since theya re separated by the facts of WW2 and the Holocaust.