The Situation In Germany

[Ryan]

@Ryan the main point I was trying to make is that there are authoritarian followers everywhere. Their authorities can be anyone. You have many who choose to be led by those against the elected government leaders. Or they can be led by popular musicians, movie stars, etc.

Sure, and the main point I was trying to make is that the above fact cannot be used to claim the moral/psychic hygiene of one nation is just as inherently bad as another. There are qualitative differences and it's fairly obvious that such differences exist between Western and Eastern nations, to use a broadly general brush. A nation that contains significantly more psychopaths per capita is likely to be far worse off than a nation with less of them, regardless of if there's an equivalent percentage of authoritarians.

 

[genero81]

I've been following this blogger from Germany for a while now. He's quite good and keeps me posted on all the shenanigans going on in Deutschland.

Zombie Traffic Light: The German government teeters once again on the brink of collapse, but in truth it is already dead

The government that rules Germany is colloquially called the “traffic light.” This is because it is a coalition of three parties that are represented by the colours red, yellow and green.

www.eugyppius.com

 

[axj]

I also think that resorting to personal experience or expertise to add gravitas to one's argument is a sign that the argument is inherently weak.

I disagree. It is not about gravitas but what sources of information you rely on. And there was not even an argument from you, just the claim that there is plenty of free speech in Russia. That is why I asked what this assessment is based on.

From time immemorial there has never been "freedom of speech" on this planet and the current US notion of such is pure idealism used for cynical political motives.

That is a good point. It does depend a lot on what kind of "free speech" is restricted and why. The restrictions in Russia are quite different than in places like the UK and seem to make more sense.

The argument that freedom of speech never existed on this planet is a weak one though, since this is obviously a 3D STS planet. While I agree that "complete freedom of speech" on the level of society is impossible here, this idealism may become reality in an STO environment.