Germany, Which Is Proposing a ‘Hate Speech’ Ban, Offers To Help U.S. Fight ‘Enemies of Liberal Democracy’
What do they have in mind for us? German government is set to enact a new hate speech law which obliges social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to hand over user data to Germany’s federal police even before any wrongdoing has been established
Germany has offered Joe Biden a “Marshall Plan for democracy” in the wake of the U.S. Capitol riot. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Friday called on the incoming Democratic administration to join the European Union in backing a “wide-reaching pro-democracy initiative” to counter the “enemies of liberal democracy.”
While the original Marshall Plan was a U.S.-funded program to rebuilt post-war Europe, the German initiative appears to be geared to fight the opponents of the globalist order. “We must not yield any room to the enemies of liberal democracy,” Maas declared while rolling out his transnational proposal.
“Foreign Minister Maas forged the initiative “Alliance for Multilateralism” in 2019 comprising of 60 nations. Following the riots on the Capitol, he wants to build a similar initiative with the U.S. to counter extremism,” German weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday.
The “enemies of liberal democracy” and “extremists” are apparent references to the supporters of President Donald Trump in the U.S. and to the surging populist anti-establishment movements in Europe.
German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported the foreign minister’s proposal:
In the aftermath of the storming of the US Capitol, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called for a wide-reaching pro-democracy initiative spearheaded by Washington and its EU allies.
“We are ready to work with the United States on a joint Marshall Plan for democracy,” Maas told the German news agency DPA on Saturday.
The original Marshall Plan was a US economic campaign launched in 1948 to rebuild 18 war-torn Western European nations. The US-allied West Germany was among the biggest beneficiaries.
On Saturday, Germany’s Maas echoed worldwide condemnation of Donald Trump supporters who had breached the US Capitol building while the lawmakers were working to certify election results.
“We must not yield any room to the enemies of liberal democracy,” Maas said. “This applies not only in the USA, but also here in Germany and Europe.”
Maas did not provide details on the idea. However, he pointed to President-elect Joe Biden’s call to create a network of democratic nations. The German foreign minister also greeted Biden’s pledge of political reconciliation within the US following the Trump presidency.
The call for a new transatlantic Marshall Plan comes at a time when Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is considering a sweeping ban on “hate speech” on the social media and the internet.
German government is set to enact a new hate speech law which obliges social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to hand over user data to Germany’s federal police (the BKA) even before any wrongdoing has been established, media reports confirm.
Since President Trump took office, foreign minister Maas has been vying for a greater role for Germany and EU. In a 2017 article titled “Making Plans for a New World Order,” he called for the EU to become a “counterweight” to the United States.
With Maas at the helm of Germany’s foreign policy, Berlin has done everything to sabotage President Trump’s policy to isolate and weaken the Islamic regime of Iran. Mass was instrumental in the creation of an independent payment system to bypass U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
From his first day in office, Germany has been at loggerheads with the U.S. president on issues ranging from the globalist climate agenda to Europe’s appeasement of China.
Berlin has been enraged by President Trump’s decision to pull a substantial number of U.S. troops out of Germany. The U.S. president refused to bolster Germany’s defenses while Chancellor Merkel’s government pushes to make country ‘captive’ to Moscow be increasing its reliance on Russian gas. Despite Washington’s objections, Germany is moving ahead with its multi-billion Russia gas pipeline projects.
President Trump to cut half of US troops in ‘delinquent’ Germany who ‘owe Nato billions of dollars’ (June 2020)
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So the antifascists are going to seek German help? What could go wrong?
As a German, living in Germany this all sounds familiar.
Free speech is curtailed and on the other side the regressive left is showered with money.
Recently Frau Merkel and her cabinet decided to pay “anti racist” forces one billion Euros over four years to “fight racism”. In Germany this money is mostly used by the regressive left and their Muslim clients to shape the narrative. More people representing certain minorities will be given money and training. More academics will be employed to formulate how we all must get along. It is a giant boondoggle.
I am assuming the free speech curtailing operates in a similar way to the UK ie hate speech of various forms is criminalised? Is that correct? Interesting article re NATO btw thanks for that
Yes, the penalties are severe in Germany, money and jail are used to get people to be silent.
Censorship is rife.
Bloggers and newspapers are legally responsible for their comment section. Needless to say this killed many a comment section.
Conservative comments are deleted if they begin to expose the narrative. It is brutal.
If you write for a conservative publication you will be smeared as a “Nazi”. Also the systematic threatening of law offices who represent conservatives or members of the AfD is the norm. Law offices receive death threats.
Left wingers try to silence their critics with lawyers all the time. It is lawfare.
Interesting, its one of the oddities of Europe. In the US free speech is more or less unconstrained whereas the Uk (which im more familiar with) has fairly robust hate speech laws. There is an argument for Hate speech but its difficult to create a balance between kicking out genuine morons (read Nazis) and those trying to have a genuine thoughtful debate.
I agree with you. I also have no issues with people getting in trouble over Antisemitism. But the reality is that courts often are very lenient on them.
The famous case of a man going on a antisemitic tirade in front of an Israeli restaurant on camera in Berlin ended with him getting acquitted because he was drunk at the time.
Fire bombing a synagogue is “protected free speech” and in a juvenile court the judge had sympathy for the Syrian belt attacker in Berlin because the judge once had a Palestinian exchange student in his house, he said so in his verdict.
If you say something bad about Islam or call someone the n-word they throw the book at you. One lawyer was fined 2300 Euros because he called his German-Korean colleague a “spring roll”.
Well that is puzzling! Sounds like it might be a poorly written law? Those stories you tell are nuts, well I guess it goes back to the old adage .. the law is an ass
This entire repressive dynamic in Germany, indeed across Europe is partly a result of opening the borders in 2015 and have over 1,5 million (mostly) Muslims walk into Europe. Instead of dealing with the consequences of their actions speech is policed.
Frau Merkel was warned by all German federal security agencies not to open the border. In their assessments and security briefs to the Chancellor the agencies predicted a general political polarization not only in Germany but across the EU.
They warned of terror from all sides. Well, everything the security apparatus predicted has become reality. Not only do we have a very serious Muslim terror problem across the entire continent, we also have neo Nazis and other right wing racists committed acts of terrorism.
The AfD is now a permanent site in German politics, as are other hard right parties across the EU. I believe 2015 is the beginning of the end of the EU as we know it. As unpleasant as Hungarian and Polish nationalism is you can not blame the people for rejecting what they see in Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, Nice, Dresden and many other cities in Western Europe.
In Germany we had a housing crisis before 2015 mostly due to left wing urban poltics which demonizes building new houses and the entire rent debate. ( “Developers are Nazis” ).
Then came 1,5 million people on top of that adding even more stress to a dire rent situation.
The knock on effects of adding 2% to your national population in 12 months are severe.
(Poor) people have been told for decades that there is no more money, that state welfare taxes will go up as the services are abolished , reduced or must be paid for extra by the citizens. All the while raising taxes/duties across the board. But the 1,2 Billion Euros spent annually paying for the 1,5 million migrants is no problem. In fact more money is found all the time by the government to pay for regressive left wing politics.
On the budgetary front the left has perfected the art of channeling vast amounts of money to their players and causes. We are talking billions of Euros across Europe. Part of this large sum is spent on “hate speech” lobbyists and mainstreaming Muslim journalists at a ferocious pace. If you disagree you get deleted.
What the left is doing is actively dismantling the European post war order. It took Europeans two generations to build up a success story for 300 Million people with massive Amercican help. With Merkel implementing Green Party policies she has cut off her nose to spite her face.
More evidence that the leftist fascism extends across borders.
New World Order, anyone?
Oh great, we’re saved! The Nazis are helping. It won’t be long until Germany is overrun by the Russians again and when they beg for our help it will be too late. They can lodge their own defense. Didn’t work out too well for them last time.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies has conducted an independent open-source high-level assessment of how the defence of Europe, and of European interests, would look if the United States had left NATO and did not contribute militarily.
https://www.iiss.org/blogs/research-paper/2019/05/defending-europe
This is brutal! They claim, depending on the scenario the USA pays between $94 Billion to $110 Billion for EU/NATO Defense.
“The IISS assesses that European NATO members would have to invest between US$288bn and US$357bn to fill the capability gaps generated by this scenario. These investments would establish a NATO Europe force level that would likely allow it to prevail in a limited regional war in Europe against a peer adversary. The assessment does not cover a full-scale continental war in Europe.”
All y’all do know that the Nazis were the National Socialist were German? Like Germany is where being a Nazi started? Facist, Socialist, Communist, totalitarian, whatever all seem like a distinction without a difference. While Franco was authoritarian, eventually they moved away from that. Russia sure seems to still be communist, but not in name.
I’m looking for smallest government large enough to ensure peace and domestic tranquility.
Relevant history lesson:
http://cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/2020/08/black-ribbon-day-2019-hitler-stalin.html?m=1
Russia is not communist by any measure. It’s far more akin to a totalitarian regime. Although it’s more complicated than that. Nominally it has a parliament with a number of parties and elections. The reality is that the parties and instruments of the state are tightly controlled by the centre (read Putin).
There are considerable differences between communism and totalitarianism and even then that will depend on the country and period. Taking the USSR for example was a one party state with election , very fair provided you voted communist party The leadership changed semi regularly which is direct contrast to a totalitarian regime which would have the power invested in a single individual in perpetuity. Technically speaking the USSR was socialist, communism being the goal (ie utopia with true equality) even though they declared themselves communist that was in relaity restricted to ‘within the Kremlin walls’
“Technically speaking the USSR was socialist, communism being the goal (ie utopia with true equality) even though…”
If I keep offering to hold the football for you so that you may kick it, and I keep pulling it away at the last instant so that you instead wind up on your ass, do you accept that my real goal is to let you ever kick the football?
The goal is power over others. That is what it always has been. Communism was always a deception, a means to the end.
No, fundamentally communism is about equality. But the question is how you get there and the experiments thus far have failed. The more moderate forms of socialism have had some strong impacts on society, take the NHS that was born out of socialist ideals and it has the benefit of helping the whole of a population without the expense of an insurance based system. It’s actually remarkably efficient in terms of cost. If you are applying socialism and therefore communism in its totality as a policy platform im inclined to agree it’s too problematic but that doesn’t mean certain elements don’t have promise. Another example might be the $2000 pay out in the covid support bill. That’s socialist and was supported by both Bernie Sanders And Donald Trump.
“… fundamentally communism is about equality….”
That’s a good one. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Thatcher had a little clip—y’all all want equality down here, instead of wealth creation up here. So the first one had hand close together about waist high, the second had hands apart, but much higher. Equality for the masses and pleasures for those in charge.
Thanks markie. Good thing I wasn’t drinking coffee.
“… considerable differences between communism and totalitarianism …”
As Ferris Bueller once pointed out, socialism, communism, fascism, totalitarianism, what’s the difference? I still don’t have a car.
I’m just giving you an insight into what communism is and other forms of gov. You seem to use those loosely and that matters. Conflating many things under the same banner without justification just isn’t correct. Ive never defended communism on the contrary I’m fully aware of the pitfalls. Your point regarding wealth creation is an interesting one, id point out that part of the problem in America and why Trump is so popular is that very dynamic wealth creation but only in the hands of the few. There is legitimately a large section of the population that feels left behind and ignored. Perhaps understanding why that is would be a good idea rather than blaming some other group ie communist when in reality that has very little to do with anything or in fact may have some semblance of an answer in the form of specific policy instruments.
There seem to be several routes to wealth creation in this country. Having a job and saving is one. Finding a gold mine, or something like it, is another. Or inventing something, such as creating Facebook. Or starting a business. One day a person is running a hot dog stand, and the next they either have a string of hot dog stands, or restaurant. My uncle started a business of business custodial. Businesses found it easier to contract with him to clean than to have their own custodial staff.
As for the nuances…what we have is an organization in the United States of America focused on individual property rights and rule of law, with hopefully the smallest government large enough to ensure domestic tranquility. So the polluter and the scam artist or the criminal element, need to be reigned in to promote domestic tranquility. We need some regulation, to ensure that vendors claiming to be something are what they claim. Licensing plumbers and doctors protects the community.
As for the shades of isms, well some of that is about creating smoke and confusion. We had progressives, who wore out that welcome and became liberals and are returning to being progressives again. No not Marxists, we’re communists, who are on the way to Marxism, and if communist is too hard to believe we’re socialist, or Democratic socialist. A grab from a search with this link https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nazi-Party
“Nazi Party, byname of National Socialist German Workers’ Party, German Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), political party of the mass movement known as National Socialism. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the party came to power in Germany in 1933 and governed by totalitarian methods until 1945.”
Seems hair splitting: they want control, they want to limit individual liberties and choices.
@ Milwaukee
An interesting response the idea that America allows wealth creation of off the sweat of your own labours and ingenuity is only true up to a point. The reality is that there is a very large disparity between those with a college education and those without, and even then the wealth gap for the top 1 percent Vs everyone else is enormous. It may well be that certain individuals do well of course and nothing wrong with that but many don’t really get the same opportunities. Wealth creates wealth. A family who can afford college for there kids has an instant advantage , a family who can support there kids internship at a corporation another advantage over those who would need to have another job to survive.
With regard to your second point this is where it gets fuzzy. I appreciate your point of view and yes small gov is generally a good thing but there are certain things the private sector is really bad at such as health care for example. Their may well be example where less government is better on specific things but conversely their are certain things the public sector is better at. The challenge is identifying what works best in a given situation.
The isms debate is important because those things tell us a lot about what that group might represent (provided it’s used with caution and intelligently) clearly if someone gets called a Nazi for example (assuming its true) then that Nazi should be locked up and the key thrown away. But there are considerable differences between communism , totalitarianism etc, the important distinction for me is between democratic socialism and communism. Those two terms are conflated and that just isn’t justified. If you imagine the political spectrum as a circle with the top quadrant as the moderate centre and the bottom quadrant as extremism communism (particularly Marxism) sets on the far left of that circle; democratic socialism really is only marginally left of centre so can be treated in context of a democratic Republic as legitimate. I’m not saying that every policy is good just that it’s viewpoint is worth considering. From my point of view the extremes on both sides are bad.
@mark311
“…but there are certain things the private sector is really bad at such as health care for example. …”
Asserted without proof. I dispute this claim. Where is the evidence?
” The reality is that there is a very large disparity between those with a college education and those without, and even then the wealth gap for the top 1 percent Vs everyone else is enormous.”
Valid, up to a point. Part of the reason upward mobility is difficult is those who have succeeded work the levers of crony capitalism and social structures to impede those below. The old pulling up the ladder to the tree house. For example, some sports are more accessible to those with money, and those sports are used to keep others out. Think of deals made on the golf course. Kids from the projects, or Appalachia, aren’t playing golf. The point is, in these United States upward mobility shouldn’t be artificially inhibited. Think of Dominos and Little Caesar’s Pizza. Both founders became billionaires, one wanted pizza delivered promptly and the other wanted a decent, nutritious meal for a very reasonable price. Herman Cain is another who used pizza judiciously.
“…the important distinction for me is between democratic socialism and communism.”
Safe people are sound in their use of words. Unsafe, and dangerous people play with the definitions and nuances of words in a detrimental fashion. My take on this is that communism is recognized as evil, but cloak it with a different name, water it down a bit, and some could be deceived. If you don’t want to go down slippery slopes, don’t go where it is slippery. “democratic socialism” sounds like a mud puddle at the top of the hill–a decoy name to start a descent into real socialism, which is what communist use when communism is too scary, which is reasonable because communism is what is used when Marxism is too scary. All part of a big deceit to gradually move society into the pit.
“We are ready to work with the United States on a joint Marshall Plan for democracy,” Maas told the German press.
See? The Third Reich never died.
German help to assure US keeps bases and $$$ in Germany…far from the new Russian front.
Amazing how a few hours makes a difference when months of burning and looting didnt.
Liberals learned a long time ago War is good for business.
Oh my… the Babylon Bee is in trouble if this is how far we’ve gone. What’s next, Putin lecturing us on civil liberties?
You misspelled socialism in the title. You put liberal democracy. No such animal exists
So the Nazis are going to help the Fascists
They stand ready to respond to a Reichstag fire, wherever it may break out, and use it to justify squeezing their subjects necks ever more tightly. They will call for Biden/Harris to do the same to us.
Germany certainly knows how build showers and crematoriums, we could learn a lot from them.
US soldiers: know your ememy. It’s the US government.
It is just a matter of who controls speech, the government or some tech corporations,not free speech with no controls.
Seems like Germany can still recognize a Reichstag moment when they see one.
??
You’d think these clowns would have the grace to keep their fool mouths shut for at least ten generations.
http://www.christianitydaily.com/articles/10369/20201223/poland-s-new-bill-slaps-2-2-million-fines-for-social-media-companies-censoring-lawful-posts.htm
Poland’s New Bill Slaps $2.2 Million Fines For Social Media Companies Censoring Lawful Posts
A new Polish bill slaps a total of $2.2 million fines for social media companies that will censor posts on legal speech.
The new bill will enable an individual to file a complaint against social media companies that will censor their posts that do not go against Polish law, Zero Hedge reported.
With the new bill, a person can file the complaint to the social media company and the latter will be given 24 hours to address the issue. After 48 hours, the person can then file a court petition to get access to their post or their accounts. The court will then consider the case in a week with a maximum processing of seven days. The entire process will be done electronically.
Zbigniew Ziobro, Polish Justice Minister, announced the bill on Thursday and said that freedom of expression is “one of the most important values of a democratic state.”