Stealth Hunter |
07-07-10 08:32 PM |
Godwin's Law really isn't much more than a humorous internet "law" pertaining to arguments and debates, to which my point was regarding neither.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
Shall the calling each other "Nazi" begin?
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Not really what I was going for as far as the people are concerned, but I know it's going to come to name-calling.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
*my right arm raises because as a German I cannot stop it*
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I'm so sorry to hear it.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
From your signature I see that you are an US army veteran,
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Army veteran. But not from the United States army.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
does this make you a Nazi too?
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Not anymore than it makes me a Fascist.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
Regarding that the Nazi-US army together with other Nazi armys
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Was that even a sentence?
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Originally Posted by Penguin
and Nazi-resistance fighters suppressed the poor Nazis?
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Again, was that even a sentence/question?
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Originally Posted by Penguin
First of all: The guy, who had the Hitler-ringtone on his cell, will probably get not more than a fine, no jail time, no star on his jacket, no torture, no extermination, see the difference?
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We're not discussing punishments. We're discussing censorship. And there is indeed vagrant censorship in Germany, especially towards the issue of National Socialism and the government under the NSDAP, which is what's so humorous about it all.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
Second: I think the memory of Nazism in Germany is quite alive and healthy.
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But we both know that the people and indeed government would like to forget it... exactly why they still use these denazification laws that have been around since the late 1940s (the Strafgesetzbuch's Article 86).
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Originally Posted by Penguin
Third: You can march
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I should certainly hope they'd let you move around with your legs as you'd please.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
and hail all you want in your private home in Germany,
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Again, I should hope so. "Sieg Heil" just means "Hail Victory".
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Originally Posted by Penguin
no one kicks your door in, no Gestapo takes you away -
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Though they do censor what you can and cannot own and create in your house.
http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/StGB.htm#86a
(1) Whoever:
. . . .
2. produces, stocks, imports or exports objects which depict or contain such symbols for distribution or use domestically or abroad, in the manner indicated in number 1, shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine.
(2) Symbols, within the meaning of subsection (1), shall be, in particular, flags, insignia, uniforms, slogans and forms of greeting.
This is exactly why I cannot own or play or sell a game in Germany with one swastika in it, make or own or sell a model of the KMS Bismarck (made from scratch) as she was when she sank (because, oh my god, it had swastikas painted on it!), etc. in the privacy and comfort of my own home. I remember the fiasco they had about Valkyrie (not the part about Tom Cruise playing Stauffenberg) because of the scene with the dozens of swastika flags flying as the Berlin reserves storm the Army Ministry building.
And I also know that as far as the web is concerned, they censor videos and images you can view on places like YouTube, websites you can access, etc. in the privacy of your own home because I had a friend on YouTube who lives in Hesse, Germany and was making videos about both World War I and World War II, and he had the government complain to him and make him take down one of his videos that had the Horst Wessel Song played on it. He told me that, asides from this incident, he couldn't listen to the DJ Himmler remixes of speeches given by various German figures (not just Hitler or the Nazis, but also Kaiser Wilhelm II, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, and a total remix of Der Koniggratzer. I guess they were figuring all this stuff out and able to block these videos because of his IP address.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
if you do it outside is a different story
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If I do inside I still have to be careful who sees it and what I do with it.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
Fourth: I'm all against censorship, we have ridiculous censorship laws here regarding nazi symbols and propaganda.
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Yes.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
You don't become a Nazi from looking at a swastika or reading a book.
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Quite right.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
I even think the literary masterpiece "Mein Kampf" should be allowed here,
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Yes, not only on the basis of it being an important literary work, but because censorship is something Western nations are supposed to be against.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
prohibition makes it only interesting and the pro-Nazis can whine: "We are so suppressed!"
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I whine about it just because it's stupid censorship. I mean, when I can be fined or imprisoned for having a copy of a video game that shows a swastika in it, you know there's something very, very wrong with the government when it does nothing to abolish this ridiculous law that was created clear back in the 1940s after World War II ended as part of the denazification program of Germany.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
However showing Nazi symbolism in the public is a kick into the face of all victims of fascist crimes and their families
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But how far does this extend? How far should it extend? I mean, why are model ships and planes that have swastikas on them equated to being no better than a full-sized Nazi flag being used as a public political statement, and therein banned? Even if it's just a flag on them, smaller than a penny? Why is it that swastikas in World War II-themed video games and films are banned or receive a lot of controversy as to their legality? Why do you even have laws governing this nonsense anymore? I mean it's 2010, not post-war Europe in 1945!
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Originally Posted by Penguin
They can march all day or just sit around and hate. The problem is: they don't stop there. After getting bored with themselfes they like to expand and look for some "Lebensraum", or just beat down the next un-aryan person around them.
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If the neo-Nazis in Germany really are that serious of a problem today as you make them out to be, and really do have that much momentum, then the denazifcation laws you're using that prohibits swastikas from appearing in video games and on models and on replicas and whatnot and censor videos containing images of the NSDAP movement, etc. are not working and have no purpose.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
We had this little experiment here, that they had their country, the result is well known.
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I don't know if you're aware of this or not... but it's 2010, not the 1930s or 1940s. Western nations are supposed to be against censorship, Nazism is not a real threat, the war's over, Hitler's dead, and that's that. On that note, if the neo-Nazis really are this big of a threat to your way of life and have a serious chance of gaining control of the government as they did previously (which, for the record, anybody who reads the news knows they aren't and don't have a chance of gaining control), your laws failed to stop them from resurfacing, and you should anticipate Germany to be viewed as the sick man of Europe once again.
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Originally Posted by Penguin
if you give the enemys of free speech the freedom to abolish it, they will try do so
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Yet we in the United States get around just fine. Yeah we have the occasional controversy pop up, mostly about the ultra-nationalists here or something to do with the Confederate States of America, but we still have free speech and they haven't gotten in control yet. Not the KKK, not the neo-Nazis, not the White Nationalists over at Stormfront, the South has NOT in fact risen again, and there's nothing going to change that. All you do when you try to suppress them is give them more momentum to work with, by making it seem like they have a legitimate reason to be pissed off.
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