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> This might be difficult for Americans to understand, but the freedom of speech has certain lines that cannot be crossed in Europe, and it's mostly about clear
by ls15 5y ago
> This might be difficult for Americans to understand, but the freedom of speech has certain lines that cannot be crossed in Europe, and it's mostly about clearly hateful symbols and/or words. You just can't put a swastika on your sleeve and expect no repercussions in Germany, like it or not.
As a German: It is worth noting, that the swastika is not only a nazi symbol (Hakenkreuz), but an ancient religious icon in Indic religions and it is commonly used across Asia to this day without symbolizing nazism. The "Z" symbol is coincidentally also a letter and a symbol that I played with as a kid when I was a Zorro fan. No Kremlin-Connection or Soviet-Ideology, I swear!
I think that banning such symbols while ignoring the context is ignorant and pointless, because A) it criminalizes non-nazi use and B) it is easily evaded by using drop-in replacements that everyone in the nazi scene knows, but that aren't banned, such as "88".
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsextreme_Symbole_und_Zeichen#Abk%C3%BCrzungen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsextreme_Symbole_und_Zeic...