Comment by ryanbrunner
9 years ago
I think there's two paths that seem like they might be worthwhile to pursue:
1. Remove the "imminent" requirement of the incitement restrictions on free speech. Currently, speech is already prohibited if it's an incitement to imminent lawless action and is likely to result in lawless action. I personally don't see all that much reason why "Go kill that specific jew with this bat" is substantially different than "All jews should be killed".
2. Ban specific iconography such as swastikas, white hoods, etc. I don't think frankly this is all that effective, supremacists can easily just take on a new symbol. But there's precedent in other countries and I don't think there's a slippery slope if every icon requires seperate prohibitions.
Note in both of these cases these ban the speech / symbols themselves, and not the groups. I don't think there's any way you can ban an organization altogether in any reasonable way.
> Ban specific iconography such as swastikas, white hoods, etc
Funnily enough the ADL has done this for a long time (well, not specifically ban but add icons to their list of hate symbols) and have been criticised for recently adding Pepe the frog to their list. I'm sure we've all been on the internet long enough to see someone with a Nazi Pepe profile picture so it clearly is used in reference to the alt-right, but at the same time it's just a generic crap meme that's been hijacked. What stops other symbols that have more meaning than a stupid meme (like the swastika, which originates from Hinduism I believe) being banned in legitimate use because it's been hijacked by Nazis?
That has very little to do with banning the symbols or not though. The swastika was highjacked regardless of whether the symbol was banned. It's unfortunate, but I don't see much of a solution beyond resisting any attempt to highjack important symbols before they're associated primarily with Nazis / white supremacists / whatever.
If your point is that banning will also restrict the non-racist interpretation of that symbol, context and reasonable interpretation when enforcing these laws can be used. I'm no expert on Germany / other places that ban iconography, but I would guess that a swastika clearly used in it's original context would be allowed to be displayed.
FWIW, Hindu swastikas are legal in Germany: https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Hindu-swastika-permitted-in-Ger...
Sounds reasonable. Here in Sweden we have both, through we also have organization which people would identify as Neo-Nazism, and they also demonstrate and get into fights with counter-demonstraters.