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If we dont let our enemies have freedom of expression why should we have it. If he was explicitly calling for violence arrest him but an offensive hand guesture is just hurt feelings.
Oh woe is me, society is ruined when racists can’t freely spread hate.
Fuck off wanker.
First they came for the xyz, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a xyz.
And yes i get the historical context behind that funny how u can apply it to everyone.
"I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise." - Karl Popper
Banning certain kinds of speech doesn't prevent the thought behind it. The speech will continue, it just won't be where you can police it.
Countering fascism by rational argument and keeping it in check by public opinion has been tried. It hasn't worked.
The Third Reich started with exactly that 'offensive hand gesture'.
It culminated in war and mass murder. Learn your fucking history.
So i draw the line before war, mass murder, and violance u obviously draw it before free expression.
Since you're so eager to grant free expression to fascists, you probably don't realise that if they get into power, the first thing they will take a way from you is free expression. And they won't stop there.
Go figure.
Imagine living in a police state.
Nazi Germany was, among other things, a police state.
Imagine that.
Gotta become the Nazis to protect yourself from the Nazis, right? What's that quote?
"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”—Friedrich Nietzsche
You people really are ultra-keen on another era of fascism, aren't you?
Read and understand the paradox of tolerance before you continue simping for fascists. When they get into power, they won't browse Lemmy and check who's been good to them. They'll take your freedom, your human rights, no matter how much you fought for theirs.
Democracy is pretty much the only form of governance that can be used to dismantle itself. That's what happened in 1933. It's happening again. So it has to defend itself, and the first line of defense should be to not tolerate fascism. It's really not that hard. So next time, before you google a fancy Nietzsche quote, maybe go to Wikipedia instead and start in 1933, see how the fascist state came about that later brought war and genocide to the world.
Why the fuck do neo-nazis get to march through Ballarat (or any other place, really)?
I'm not Australian, but...
If you let the baddies march, you can identify them later and tie them to the hate-crimes when they happen.
If I was the government, I would absolutely let people show me who they are. I'd rather know what I'm up against, how many, and who amonsgt them I can dig dirt up on
I... don't even know where to start with this.
Also, this has fuckall to do with Australia. Fascists are marching everywhere. Do we really need a repeat of 1933-1945 before we learn our history lesson?
Interesting. So, do you think that if something becomes illegal, it simply goes away?
So, for example...lets take something I feel is a natural. Homosexuality. If suddenly homosexuality suddenly became punishable by death by everyone in the world would it vanish? Would all people just be straight? No.
People are all wired differently.
Instead of repressing who people are, we should seek to understand what fears people have, what brings them comfort, educate them, highlight the ways in which we are similair as people. We should fight fascism not with oppression but inclusion.
Facists gain power by division. It's "us" vs "them"
They lose power when "us" is all there is.
Anyway. My original point is that I would rather see the wolf for what it is and watch it, than allow it to hide amongst the flock, undetected
I normally try to engage at eye level and not be condescending. But if this following bit comes across as condescending, then that is with full intent.
I cannot possibly express in words how utterly naïve the notion of 'fighting fascism with inclusion' is. I've been around for long enough to see that it doesn't work. Neo-Nazis haven't been around since yesterday. The whole inclusion shtick has been tried, over and over and over. And what's happened? They've become more emboldened and more omnipresent. Some 30 years ago there were massive Neo-Nazi marches and violent incidents in Germany, when Neo-Nazis set fire to asylum seeker housing in several places. Back then there were many shocked faces, and outrage, and yet we had the same voices urging calm and to engage them at eye level and not oppress them. Did it work? Fuck no.
And that whole idea of sunlight being the best disinfectant... yeah nah.
The only way to fight fascism is to make unequivocally clear that it has no place in modern society. None whatsoever.
And since you brought homosexuality into the mix, there is a key difference here: being a fascist is a choice - being homosexual is not. You are born with your sexuality, you can't choose to be not homosexual. But you can choose to not be a fascist. However, in spite of all attempts at inclusion and meeting these people at eye level over decades, more and more of them decide they want to be fascists. How much longer would you like to try for?
I understand your frustration, and also the need to come across as condescending. You're probably the downvote on my comment. You want to punish me, don't you?
See, that feeling you are feeling... that frustration. It isn't unique to you.
The primary driver in fascism is emotion. Fear, anger, frustration. Stong human emotion that lead to feeling like other people are lesser than yourself. The bad guy. The evil one. The ones that must be stopped.
Those strong feelings and the desire to shush the words of the other are exactly the kinds of things that lead to extremes.
Having strong feelings toward other people are as natural and normal as homosexuality.
When I say inclusion, I'm not talking about inviting the Nazi to roast the Jew at dinner. I'm talking about inviting everyone, Jew, Christian, Atheist, Hindu, Muslim, everyone, to dinner and giving each a timer to talk.
It sounds hokey as fuck, but we need to learn to love each other as we love ourselves. Only then, can Nazi's cease to exist. If you repress people, it only makes the hate stronger.
Anyway, there is a portion of the population that is incapable of what I mentioned above. For them, there is no cure. For them, they must be watched. If -and only if- they cause harm to others, then they need to be jailed to protect everyone else. But... I believe they're (thankfully) rare. For everyone else, there's hope
I understand your frustration, and also the need to come across as condescending. You’re probably the downvote on my comment. You want to punish me, don’t you?
I did not downvote you, and I don’t want to punish you, so there is no need to give me a lecture.
If -and only if- they cause harm to others, then they need to be jailed to protect everyone else.
You do not understand that by the time they're causing harm to others, it's too late. By then you've let them do their thing long enough that they feel strengthened, emboldened and justified. And that time has passed. It passed when they invaded the Capitol on 6th January 2021. It passed when the Neonazi ploughed his car into the crowds in Charlottesville. It passed when Neonazis firebombed asylum seeker homes in Germany 30 years ago. Fascists and Nazis are actively doing harm, everywhere in the world. This is what they're here for. And society has failed to stop them. They're here to stay now.
I'm not lecturing you, I apologize if it seemed that way. What I was trying to do is allow you to recognize that your own biases, to help explain why people jump on the fascist boat
I'm not gonna continue arguing, because it seems like you're upset. I just hope that you can remember thenold adage: you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
Damn straight I'm upset. I'm upset, no, fuming, that people seem to think fascists are just naughty kids who you let be and watch, and only when they do something really wrong do you take action. I'm upset that nobody seems to have learned the lessons history is so readily and urgently trying to teach us. I'm upset that we are sleepwalking into another era of fascism and people seem to want it that way.
And you have a right to be upset. It's good that you're voicing that opinion, it's good that you're standing up for what you believe in. The more voices there are that speak up about injustice, the better!
I wonder if this all sounds contradictory to the person you may think you were debating/arguing with, but it's not. Having voices heard is part of what I believe in. It's just that I don't think silencing opposing voices (no matter what garbage they spew) is the right way to go
This is where, in a verbal conversation, you'd hear a deep sigh.
You're so hung up on the idea that we shouldn't 'silence voices'. This isn't about that. And even if it was, it's way too late for that. For better or worse, fascists are now a part of the public discourse. But no, it's not about 'silencing voices'. Again, they're not here to debate. Their voices are a distraction.
What it is about is preventing the next steps, which will follow as sure as night follows day, as history has shown us. Prevent the incitement, the stochastic terrorism, stop them from getting a foothold in politics. Again, I fear it's already too late for that. As a society, we didn't shut them down the moment they poked their heads out of their holes, and we will pay a heavy price for that.
I will posit to you that if this was about extreme leftists - say, Stalinists, Maoists, Red Front - marching, displaying the hammer and sickle, seeking violence and talking about hanging politicians, we wouldn't even have this discussion. Most people would be more than happy to shut that down, there would be none of this pearl-clutching about "we shouldn't silence them". The police and intelligence services would be all over it.
And with that, I will withdraw from this thread. There will come a day when the people who have tried to warn about fascism all along, will get to say "I told you so", but on that day we'll all be too busy fleeing the country or going underground.
Less than a year since introducing the law and it’s already been made useless. “oh there was nothing racial about the Nazi salute during a Nazi rally”, fucking acab.
He's a 15yr old kid!
Can you only be racist at 18?
Likewise being a teen doesn’t change the bullshit excuse by the courts.
Criminalizing opinions is fucking stupid.
Learn the difference between opinions and actions.
Sorry, my mistake. Criminalizing expressing opinions in public is fucking stupid.
You have to be a special kind of uneducated to think that throwing the Nazi salute or displaying Nazi symbolics is merely 'expressing an opinion'.