Oh cmon, afaik §103 StGB was copied from older law, never used then quickly removed the linked issue occurred.
I'm not familiar with the second case, but feel confident in someone writing "Kill Pope Francis" on his car being not acceptable anymore.
> Germany has been governed by the SPD/CDU coalition since 1974
This is just ridiculous. Like saying the US is governed by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans.
Actually, there is a difference: Our system allows more than two parties to exist practically. This pushes extremists into their own parties... NPD (+ now AfD) for Nazis, Linke for Communists. This makes our two big parties actually represent common people. But yeah, they are closer to each other than I'd like. Hope SPD will find a more socialist platform. If not... well, they are already on the way to be replaced by Grünen. Something that could never under the US two party voting system.
The Democrats and Republicans are bitter opponents. They would never agree to form a coalition like that between the SPD and CDU.
Yes, the SPD and CDU are just two of Germany's many parties - two who have long cooperated in order to gain a majority. In the US, political groups that cooperate that closely join into a single party (like evangelicals and business leaders in the Republican party). So I think that if Germany had a two-party system, the SPD and CDU would form a single party and it would be more obvious that one party has ruled for 40 years.
Regarding the limits on free speech, I could list many more examples. There's a law banning public dancing on certain holidays, for example. Infamous censorship of movies and video games (many need a separate German edition). And so on...
No, if Germany would switch to the US voting system, those two parties would quickly absorb all others on their respective "sides". [0] is a 6min youtube video for those unaware why FPTP voting is bad. And just like in the US today, we'd end up with a vote for smaller government also be a vote against brown immigrants. Yeah, i prefer our current system.
Or any system were politicians have to pander to a large block of voters in the middle instead of to extremists.
Yes, the swastika is a touchy subject as a result of what happened under it. I have little problem with it being banned. I understand it can be annoying, especially when the cut version of the game only includes german audio. Thankfully the USK seems to ease up a bit on swastika usage recently.
I'm sure there are lots of cases of stupid law leading to stupid situations. Then press will report about it and the law gets improved... hopefully.
But you were claiming "In Germany, they ban ideas.". With they exception of rewriting ww2 history (as mentioned a touchy subject), what is an idea I'm not allowed to communicate a civil manner?
I've given you quite a few examples, criticizing foreign leaders, blasphemy, blood and gore in games, even dancing on Good Friday. And that's without even touching on "hate speech" laws.
Can you call Mohammed a pedophile? The fact that that's not allowed in Austria was big news recently.
I've also heard that you can get fined for insulting a civil servant.
This discussion could go on a long time, but it seems clear that you don't have free speech in Germany. You're only allowed to say what the government permits.
Not really a thing according to wikipedia [0]. But doing so is dumb in the same way you shouldn't sue a lawyer... he is fighting on home turf.
> Can you call Mohammed a pedophile?
The recent Elon Musk case has shown you shouldn't just call someone that under US law as well [1]
I never claimed there is "free speech" in Germany, where "free speech" is defined being allowed to say the same or more than the united states government permits. Germany choose a more restrictive approach that will probably lead to better outcomes for society. That doesn't make your claim "In Germany, they ban ideas." less wrong.
It is kind of telling to me that my understand of "free speech" is the freedom to criticize (especially the government), while you apparently value the freedom to insult.
I'm not familiar with the second case, but feel confident in someone writing "Kill Pope Francis" on his car being not acceptable anymore.
> Germany has been governed by the SPD/CDU coalition since 1974
This is just ridiculous. Like saying the US is governed by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans.
Actually, there is a difference: Our system allows more than two parties to exist practically. This pushes extremists into their own parties... NPD (+ now AfD) for Nazis, Linke for Communists. This makes our two big parties actually represent common people. But yeah, they are closer to each other than I'd like. Hope SPD will find a more socialist platform. If not... well, they are already on the way to be replaced by Grünen. Something that could never under the US two party voting system.