Re: <nettime> nettime announcer

[Craig Brozefsky <craig@red-bean.com>]

Peter Haefner <peter.haefner@bigfoot.com> writes:

> making his pr, and the person in charge (Andreas Rohler) were an issue on
> another list I'm on. All of us who visited the website and read the story
> agreed that this is just another holocaust- denier who's now getting tried
> for this.

So you can go to jail for denying a bit of accepted history? 

Who determines the history we all have to agree to in order not to go to
jail? 

That's really quite disturbing, moreso than some chump claiming the
holocaust didn't exist. 

-- 
Craig Brozefsky                         <craig@red-bean.com>
Free Scheme/Lisp Software     http://www.red-bean.com/~craig
"riot shields. voodoo economics. its just business. cattle 
 prods and the IMF." - Radiohead, OK Computer, Electioneering


[Craig, 

you have to understand the specific German context of this law that
prohibits the denial of the Holocaust. This is not an abstract free speech
issue, but a very painful part of personal history for a lot of people. 
Most importantly, one of the main difficulties for contemporary Fascists
is that they have either to justify the Holocaus or deny it.  Justifying
the Holocaust is certain to marginalize everyone who does it.  So the
biggest hurdle to reintroduce extrem rightwing thinking into the
mainstream discourse is the existence of the Holocaust. If it is possible
to deny it, it is also possible to deny that there is a fundamental
difference between Fascism and all other political ideologies. This is why
so many people try to deny it. 

And while Americans tend to view freedom of speech as sacrosanct, they
accept those restrictings that are specific to their own bloody history. 
After the traumatic experience of the civil war, advocating secession has
been outlawed. To this day, it's a crime to demand nationhood for a
territory that belongs to the USA.  Best. Felix]




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