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.

 

[Cosmos]

German government has “collapsed“ over night now and it almost certainly has something to do with Trumps win IMO. I really hope we get at least a bit more sane people there soon. What current nutjobs have done has brought Germany close to impeding collapse (for german standards).

 

[Cosmos]

Interesting that now all off a sudden all those nutjobs see a reason to cancel the government and propose a new election in March or January next year!

The clear dislike of the german people against what our government is doing to this country expressed a number of months ago by throwing them out in big local elections apparently gave them zero reasons to go the hell out, but now, that it is clear that Trump will be in charge soon, they suddenly find all their not existing backbones and cancel the government. What a bunch of sickening hypocrites devoid of any connection to the ordinary population! Go the f**k out already!

 

[heinrich]

German government has “collapsed“ over night now and it almost certainly has something to do with Trumps win IMO. I really hope we get at least a bit more sane people there soon. What current nutjobs have done has brought Germany close to impeding collapse (for german standards).

yes.PLEASE: get rid of stupid habeck, of stupid greens, continue to rely on oil, listen to the hundreds of qualified demonstrations that co2 is INNOCENT to any possible warming. let real engineers and physicists expose their demonstrations, allow factual science again, do not let incompetent and unqualified laypersons set our policies which are destructive to our civilisation. keep common sense, realize that individual death is our destiny. why not, while waiting for this event, lead an intelligent and knowlegible life?? indeed, knowledge, real knowledge, protects.
amen

 

[Keit]

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.

This discussion probably better moved to another thread, because it's not about Germany. So I will be super brief. I did some research regarding restrictions on "free speech" in Russia, specifically fines or supposed jail time for likes or reposts, and apparently (which was suprising to me as well) it is actually nothing extraordinary and falls under the same definition of things that are not "free speech" in US, for example. In US "the categories of unprotected speech include obscenity, child pornography, defamatory speech, false advertising, true threats, and fighting words."

If you search and read Russian legislation, they talk about the same. And so what seems to me that it is primarily a matter of "optics", nothing more, and also the fact that contrary to US, where people are quite sure that they have a freedom of speech and all the rest of the supposed "benefits" of the "free society", in Russia we have a lot of people who will be the first to blame the government for every evil possible. So the "optics" here is being "negativly distorted" by Russians themselves. While in reality there is not much difference.