Then one wonders why it was so incredibly important to ban it.
Perhaps it wasn’t important at all. Perhaps it was just (a) exposed to lawfare, simply by virtue of the fact that it was being printed in Germany by German citizens and (b) too small to defend itself. It therefore represented a low-cost, low-risk example of what happens to you if you get funny ideas.
Well, thanks for the link, but it doesn’t have any more information than the newspaper articles. It’s just opinion and handwaving. At no point in that rambling, incoherent statement were they even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. It certainly doesn’t describe exactly what they did to bring summary judgement upon themselves. And since all the evidence has been shoved in the memory hole, we have no way of making our own assessment.
And do you not find that a little bit suspicious?
Several people have been accused over the last few years of being ‘far right’, ‘holocaust deniers’, or similar crimes that only exist in Germany. They have at least been given the chance to stand in court and defend themselves. None of them have just been overrun by the State apparatus, with no right to habeas corpus, and thus no trial and no right of appeal. One woman, in this case, has appointed herself judge, jury, and executioner. Is that the way civilized societies are supposed to work?
Personally I don’t, but apparently Germans do. So the thing is this. If you’re going to ‘draw the line’, it would be prudent not to draw it in a place where you’re hoist by your own petard. In 2020-2021, the government of Germany was busy publishing content that was outright false, in order to terrify everyone enough to accept unconstitutional impositions, and then transitioned into spreading hate against a certain subsection of the population. The untermensch were marked out for social exclusion, and the ubermensch were issued with cards to show that they had, as it were, been de-loused.
Even if the entire premise of this hatred had been true - that the untermensch were a threat to the others - the wording of the COMPACT judgement suggests that you can’t do this. If you’re not allowed to point out, for example, that people from violent, lawless countries are actually prone to committing violent crimes so horrific that native Germans don’t do such things, then surely you’re not allowed to socially exclude the lousy, either?
As for not being allowed to criticize the Constitution, that’s not a useful basis for a functioning democracy - and in fact seems to miss the whole point of democracy. You must be able to critique it, at least; to be able to point out things that aren’t working.
As for what happens in the UK - it’s apples and oranges. The UK has a very different government and regulatory regime. Parliament is all-powerful - you may have heard the idea that UK governance is constrained by nothing more than the notion of “good chaps” being in charge, and “good chaps” would never abuse their powers.
In theory the UK has a strong tradition of free speech. You could deny the holocaust or say that far too many immigrants are criminals. You’d have a robust debate on your hands, and perhaps the air would be cleared. That was then; this is now. You’re very likely to have the police harrassing you if you say those things today.
Yes indeed. But I’m really wondering: does it really matter, practically speaking, if a government or organisation is “extreme left” or “extreme right”? Both are authoritarian. Both aim to have State power supported by the entire might of the economy and concentrated in a small number of hands. There are some very slight differences, but the ultimate outcome is the same.
Were COMPACT advocating for a single-party government? Is it even illegal to advocate for the overthrow of the government? The thing is, “overthrowing the government” happens at every single election - by means of rhetoric rather than violence. Perhaps it’s time to put a stop to electioneering that results in a change of government? Maybe elections should just be done away with altogether?
