Germany's Free Speech Laws

Germany does not view free speech like the US does. For example, to this day anything related to Nazism is illegal. You can be arrested and fined for giving the Nazi salute. Germany likes to pick and choose their free speech now a day.

Germany bans things like Holocaust denial and certain things about far right political parties. It’s not the American way but I’m quite ok with Germany doing this.

It doesn't seem like you are very familiar with German politics or culture, but this is definitely an outlier. Freedom of speech is a central part of our constitution. Defamation is one of the very few ways and enforcement and interpretation is mostly restricted to defamation of policemen. This is the reason why this has resulted in an outcry as the proportionality does not respond to the interpretation how defamation is treated legally.

It’s banned in Germany. Not saying it solves the problem, but there are many different shades of free speech and every country I know of has at least some limitations.

Please do not assume that US-American ideals are universal.Germany has a complicated history, which it has and will always struggle with. Restricting hate speech and symbols is completely legal and also seen as an important and good thing. The modern German constitution was built especially to defend its democracy even against a majority hostile towards it (Artikel 20). Germany has learned its own lessons from history.

Every country should take Germany's stance against Nazis.https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/germanys-laws-ant...- The German penal code prohibits publicly denying the Holocaust and disseminating Nazi propaganda, both off- and online. This includes sharing images such as s

Germany’s laws are very clear that any form of endorsement of Naziism (or any hate speech) is illegal. It has been since the end of WWII. From the US, it looks ridiculous because most of that would be protected by the First Amendment. But in Germany, they really don’t want another Hitler.

Germany has many laws which are different that e.g. the USA. In particular, in the US certain sentiments which are politically and socially radioactive are protected by the US Constitution and the laws, traditions, and expectations of the American polity. Germany is similar in some regards but there is one particular politically and socially radioactive statement you could make -- support for the Nazi Party -- which, owing to the laws, traditions, and expectations of the Germany polity,

For context, in Germany displaying a swastika or endorsing Naziism has been illegal (with some exceptions) since around right after WWII. They take their hate speech pretty seriously.

I'm really skeptical of this slippery slope argument. Germany has very rigidly enforced anti-nazi-speech laws and it doesn't strike me as being a totalitarian dystopia.