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A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

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Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#31

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

djrogers wrote: post #13
jimmaswell wrote: post #7

And as an American, Germans/Australians/etc. will still insist they're more free than me because of something arbitrary like free healthcare. I don't think there's anywhere I'd feel particularly more "free" all things considered aside from maybe Mars.

It would be hard to argue that a country where it's illegal to call someone a dick is particularly free, if that indeed is the case.

Then most of the world isn't free I fear.

Why should it be legal to publicly insult someone? You can't punch people in the USA. Does that make the country not particularly free?

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#32

Post by lmm »

jimmaswell wrote: post #7

And as an American, Germans/Australians/etc. will still insist they're more free than me because of something arbitrary like free healthcare. I don't think there's anywhere I'd feel particularly more "free" all things considered aside from maybe Mars.

Are they wrong? Which is more likely to affect any given individual? Which country do you have the best chance of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in?

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#33

Post by cf_ »

What I don‘t understand is how they differentiate this sort of „insult“ from “satire”. There are some protections around artistic freedom and you should be allowed to make fun of someone. There was a well-known [“Böhmermann vs. Erdogan”](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Böhmermann-Affäre) case, where more serious insults than “Pimmel” were used, but the prosecution was terminated - probably due to a huge amount of public pressure - but it’s still strange and feels arbitrary.

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#34

Post by mc32 »

jdavis703 wrote: post #17
jimmaswell wrote: post #7

And as an American, Germans/Australians/etc. will still insist they're more free than me because of something arbitrary like free healthcare. I don't think there's anywhere I'd feel particularly more "free" all things considered aside from maybe Mars.

It’s possible for a democratic political system to exist, and still prohibit insulting politicians. It’s quite possible to criticize any politician without resulting to ad hominem attacks. Even the former US Vice President Dick Cheney nearly faced consequences for violating senate rules by telling a senator to “go f___ himself.”

What goes around comes around. Mr Cheney got a nice cold serving of revenge by a constituent in Miss. who, apropos, was inspired by mr Cheney's own exchange with sen. Pat Leahy. Around the :24s mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmhmYYjrVUY To his credit Cheney took it in stride.

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#35

Post by slapfrog »

paulpauper wrote: post #30

i dunno pick your poison: 1st amendment but militarized police and huge sentences and awful prison conditions or ppl summoned for making jokes but justice system better in every other respect

Why do you think either necessarily requires the other, in either circumstance?

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#36

Post by tomschlick »

lmm wrote: post #32
jimmaswell wrote: post #7

And as an American, Germans/Australians/etc. will still insist they're more free than me because of something arbitrary like free healthcare. I don't think there's anywhere I'd feel particularly more "free" all things considered aside from maybe Mars.

Are they wrong? Which is more likely to affect any given individual? Which country do you have the best chance of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in?

> Which country do you have the best chance of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in?

Judging by immigration numbers, the US.

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#37

Post by [deleted] »

lmm wrote: post #32
jimmaswell wrote: post #7

And as an American, Germans/Australians/etc. will still insist they're more free than me because of something arbitrary like free healthcare. I don't think there's anywhere I'd feel particularly more "free" all things considered aside from maybe Mars.

Are they wrong? Which is more likely to affect any given individual? Which country do you have the best chance of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in?

[deleted]

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#38

Post by Retric »

charia wrote: post #22
jdavis703 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s possible for a democratic political system to exist, and still prohibit insulting politicians. It’s quite possible to criticize any politician without resulting to ad hominem attacks. Even the former US Vice President Dick Cheney nearly faced consequences for violating senate rules by telling a senator to “go f___ himself.”

Do you genuinely believe that laws that try to separate criticize versus insult can work? I can't see anything other than laws like that being abused by politicians and government officials to quell speech and create a chilling effect amongst the populace.

Dueling used to be acceptable in the US and that didn’t prevent free speech. As long as it’s limited to reasonable fines simply requiring civility is unlikely to significantly quell free speech even if it did get abused by government officials.

Re: A Twitter user insulted a German politician, then police raided his house

#39

Post by tomschlick »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #31
djrogers wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be hard to argue that a country where it's illegal to call someone a dick is particularly free, if that indeed is the case.

Then most of the world isn't free I fear. Why should it be legal to publicly insult someone? You can't punch people in the USA. Does that make the country not particularly free?

Insulting someone with words and punching them in the face are two drastically different things.
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