Comment by delusional
1 day ago
>German politicians are not too bright has been criminalized now.
Haven't insults like that been illegal in Germany since the 1800s? This hardly seems new. It's just how the Germans like to run their laws.
1 day ago
>German politicians are not too bright has been criminalized now.
Haven't insults like that been illegal in Germany since the 1800s? This hardly seems new. It's just how the Germans like to run their laws.
Most European countries criminalize insults, and there might be some merit to this among private individuals.
But the EU, and Germany in particular, has upped the ante criminalizing obvious satire against politicians in a manner obviously meant to shield a very unpopular political class.
Ok? That just seems like a democratic law. I'd have to see an actual case of misuse to feel any alarm. What's the point of insulting/degrading politicians anyway?
Is that last sentence in good faith? What is this, the Middle Ages? Is there any reason not to be able to insult a politician if I feel like it?
3 replies →
No, not OK.
Even if we admit the criminalization of insults among private individuals, what makes it pernicious to criminalize insulting politicians is that they are powerful.
Politicians, as a class, effectively control mass media, state violence, and the purse. One of the only effective curbs on their power is ridicule.
In America this is called punching up.
Pray tell me, would you be OK if a EU police arrested a comedian for mocking [1] Putin or Trump? If not, your position is strictly partisan therefore not universal, and therefore self serving.
Anyway, we found the EUist.
[1] I said mocking, not encouraging violence
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