Reported hijab attack on an 11-year-old girl did not happen - Fake News?

[vivster]

bdbdbd said:

vivster said:

Imams who preach hate are charged the same way as neonazis that preach their hate if that's what you mean.

But as an extremely left country there are of course some "injustices". A certain religion is basically untouchable while other religions also have to be treated very delicately. There are a number of touchy subjects.

In the end it comes down to the fact that Germany is an actual democracy, which means the government is actually governed by the people. It's the German people that are historically extremely left leaning, at least since WW2 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The government isn't doing anything the majority of the people disagrees on. So the laws that are passed are accepted. I don't think tolerance in this country is perfectly balanced but what I can say for certain is that in this country we value freedom of speech. To actually get into trouble you would have to do a really stupid thing. No one will get jailed or even charged for minor disagreements, even in very sensitive topics.

Again, it's all about context and intent.

That's what I was meaning. It appears to be a little different here, where you sell your old BMW's and Mercedes's.

Well, touchy religion really is a problem in a country that's supposed to be "on the left", as you might expect religions being commonly made fun of. The higher position religion holds in a society, the more it's on the right. 

Extremely left leaning. You must confuse this with DDR (and NSDAP). I believe traditionally Germany has been on the center, and I think that the last decade it's been more center-right, much like UK.

So, how about major disagreements? Thinking that you get jailed for a disagreement sounds quite harsh. Then again, if Germany really is extremely left-leaning, as you say it is, then I can understand jailing people with wrong opinions. 

Germany is very left leaning. It has one of the most robust social systems in the world and maybe the most liberal immigration policy. Laws against discrimination and many many social programs for integration.

It's not so much that religion is important in this country, it really is not. For all intents and purposes you could call this country as an atheist country if you discount religious immigrants. The problem is Germany's history. The extreme move to the left was an explosive reaction to the past. It's basically not about what is right or good or moderate. It's all about to be as far away from nazism as possible. Religious and racial persecution was one of the main things of Nazi Germany, so naturally, modern Germany's goal is to be the exact opposite. Which means absolute protection of religion and social and racial differences.

Religions and races aren't so much "cherished" as they are used to build an image that is opposite to Germany's image of the past. Add to that the German reunification where the GDR, an extremely left leaning entity, was completely incorporated. All that is ingrained into the German mind now. Germany is and wants to be seen as an extremely socially minded and tolerant country. It isn't a bad thing but in some places it goes a bit too far in my opinion.

A moderate socially minded German voter would probably fall under the category of Marxist in a country like the US, while the extreme right of Germany would fit quite well into the more right wing and conservative part of the Republican party. I would consider myself pretty centric so as a result I would never vote for the left in Germany and also would never vote for the right in the US. Everything is shifted a bit between countries.

Some foreign publications want to build the narrative that Germany has become more right leaning due to the influx of immigrants but that is just false. While there was a new party on the extreme right that gained a bunch of popularity thanks to the immigrant "crisis", we just had a federal election and despite good poll numbers they were shut down. They landed at a mere 12%. Speaking of Germany as a majorly right leaning country is just false. And while the CDU has been the strongest party for a decade and is considered to be the moderate right and conservative party they're nothing more than a figurehead for the majorly left leaning population. I mean Merkel is basically hated by far right groups for the extremely liberal immigration policy. Merkel herself was born and raised in the GDR so she is basically a beacon for leftists at the head of a right leaning conservative party^^

And even after all that free speech is alive and well in Germany. Comedians and news outlets are free. There was a very famous case of a German Comedian ridiculing the Turkish Prime minister. And despite outrage from Turkey and the sizeable Turkish population in Germany, that comedian had the full backing of the government. No charges, no informal reprimands, nothing.

Last edited by vivster - on 16 January 2018