Freedom of press.

[Dill]

(03-03-2017, 12:13 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: No, it was both.

At it's most popular the NSDAP took in around 37% of the vote, which means that 63% of the voting population did not vote for them.  BTW this was, by far, their high water mark.  If you're looking for someone to blame, try two people; von Papen and von Schleicher.  They subverted the chancellorship, in separate ways, and paved the way for Hitler's ascension, not the minority of voters for the NSDAP.

Nothing depends on the words.    If you allow for the idea that words are sometimes fair provocation for violence then you're opening up a Pandora's box of who gets to determine what speech is worthy of getting the speaker punched in the mouth.  I certainly don't want someone like you or Yvette Felarca making that decision for me or anyone else.

I haven't been looking for anyone to blame in this dialogue. Quite the contrary.

You wrote: If your ideas cannot be articulated into words sufficient to win over the people then you only have yourself to blame.

I provided two examples of bad political outcomes in which some reasonable people could not articulate their words into ideas "sufficient to win over the people."   I could add many more, like those few voices who sought to dissuade Confederate states from seceding from the Union.  I don't think Dredd Scott and Homer Plessy have only themselves to blame for losing their Supreme Court cases.  Jews don't have only themselves to blame for not dissuading their fellow German voters from supporting Hitler, though they tried.

There are many reasons why words don't "win over the people," and looking over the political history of modern states, I find it strange and harsh to "blame" people who don't win out.

Pointing out Nazi vote totals doesn't affect my point. The other parties could not dissuade enough people from voting Nazi to prevent their plurality. And it was this plurality that made Hitler the most powerful partly leader in Germany in 1932. So it hardly matters whether a July vote was their "high water mark" since they maintained their plurality through the next election. Liberals and other decent folks could not articulate their words sufficient to win over enough people to block Nazi power in nation wide elections. 

Words are subject to legal censorship/criminalization. And someone gets to determine which words.