Poland criminalizes accusing the country of complicity during the holocaust

[hollodero]

(02-08-2018, 01:05 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I always appreciate yous posts, even when I don't agree with them, as you bring a perspective that we, as Americans, lack.  De-nazification was absolutely a sound policy.  As it has served its purpose it has been ended.  The reasons behind the laws that still exist are no longer valid.  I realize that Europe, as a whole, does not have the tradition of free speech that we have here, nor is this right enshrined in the founding documents of the national governments there.  I have to say that I think you're wrong about the "slippery slope" though.  I only need to see how some here are attempting to erode the right to free speech in this country to realize how important this right is.

My slippery slope remark just intended to describe the reality in my country or Germany and others. Which is that the Nazi Prohibition Acts did not lead to such a slope for 70 years now.
Also, I do not think we're way behind the US regarding free speech. It's in our constitution (Austria/Germany,  don't know about all the others), we just have this one notable exception. - The free speech aspect is not taken as an absolute anyway, it isn't in the US either. Aside from that strange "don't yell fire in a theatre" example, there are other things I'm not allowed to express freely, like slandering someone or sedition or shouting obscenities. In that sense, it seems like no big deal to add things like holocaust denial to these things.

I'm actually, as I guess I said, torn on that one. I'm all for free speech. The problem is that it's tough to be in favor of Nazis being allowed to freely be Nazis just to please that sacred cow that isn't that 100% sacred in the first place. Also I wouldn't necessarily say these laws serve no purpose anymore. Nazism is deeply enshrined in some people's concience still, it takes more than one generation dying away to get rid of this.
Also, if we were to overthrow these laws foreign nations would frown upon us. Most of these laws were ordered by the victors - so in a sense, you.