Comment by lacy_tinpot

Comment by lacy_tinpot 3 days ago

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You call the first and one of the most successful democracies in the world a monarchy/dictatorship? The American Executive branch is given broad powers since the very beginning and considering the success there might be something to it.

In contrast the Europeans have descended into petty mass wars and dictatorial regimes multiple times, and each time America has come to save Europe through that very Executive branch.

A bit thankless don't you think?

lazyasciiart 3 days ago

America has never saved anyone unless they thought it was from a threat to America.

And no, the executive branch had much less power “in the beginning”. As many people have learned, what America’s constitution says has never really matched what America does. The increasing mindless worship of a dead text, called “originalism”, is part of what will destroy it.

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lupusreal 3 days ago

Europe has more or less managed to avoid descending into a mass war for almost a century now, if we assume the one brewing now is just a mirage, so basically they've got it all figured out and their smugness is totally justified.

This is what democracy looks like, Americans should learn from Germany's example:

> According to the court document, the public prosecutor stated “public interest” in pressing criminal charges as the retweet was “punishable as an insult against people of political life”. It potentially constituted “incitement of the people”.

> Publicly insulting a politician has been a criminal offence in Germany since 2021 when a set of laws “against hate and hate speech” were passed under then-chancellor Angela Merkel.

https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/11/german-police-raid-mans-ho...

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  • lacy_tinpot 3 days ago

    I can't tell if you're being ironic or not, because those examples are basically definitionally Orwellian.

    Also how about never descending into dictatorships and authoritarian regimes?

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    • throwawayqqq11 3 days ago

      Not descending into a dictatorship requires democratic participation, a pluralistic mindset and a zeitgeist to uphold it. In a pivotal moment, just a single judge collapsed and enabled hitlers takeover.

      The erosion of trust in institutions and elections, up to insurrections are way out of that picture. Infront of that background, boasting about a strong executive branch, being cleansed not by merit (opposed to trumps own standard) sounds so absurd to me as a german.

      Your orwellian interpretation about limited free speech is rooted in your free speech absolutism. We distinguish between limited freedom speech and unlimited freedom of oppinion. We also have processes involving courts to ban new, factually incorrect statements, aka. non-oppinions, to make it illegal bullshit.

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    • lupusreal 3 days ago

      Insulting politicians isn't free speech and America is going to descend into fascism because they allow people to get away with shit like that. Germany is leading the way, showing the rest of the world how democracy is done.

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  • quickthrowman 3 days ago

    > Europe has more or less managed to avoid descending into a mass war for almost a century now, if we assume the one brewing now is just a mirage, so basically they've got it all figured out and their smugness is totally justified.

    Europe hasn’t descended into total war since WWII because the US has military bases all over Europe, mostly in Germany.

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    • IsTom 3 days ago

      The common sentiment is that it's because of deepening cooperation because of ECSC, which was one of its explicit purposes. Not US military bases.

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  • the_why_of_y 3 days ago

    Elsewhere we can read:

    > The Bavaria resident is also accused of posting Nazi-era imagery and language earlier in 2024. According to prosecutors, this post may have violated German laws against the incitement of ethnic or religious hatred.

    > The man was arrested on Thursday as part of nationwide police operations against suspected antisemitic hate speech online.

    https://www.dw.com/en/germany-greens-habeck-presses-charges-...

    This article is more informative:

    Translated (with DeepL.com):

    > The public prosecutor's office in Bamberg has now announced: The search had already been requested before the Green politician himself filed a criminal complaint in the case.

    > Habeck only filed a criminal complaint in the case more than a month after the search warrant had been requested.

    > According to the public prosecutor's office, the suspect is also facing another charge: According to this, in spring 2024, he allegedly uploaded a picture on X with a reference to the Nazi dictatorship, which could potentially constitute the criminal offense of incitement to hatred. According to the investigators, it shows an SS or SA man with the poster and the words “Germans don't buy from Jews” and the additional text “True democrats! We've had it all before!”.

    https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/schwachkopf-belei...

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  • veny20 3 days ago

    Europe has been more or less militarily occupied and subjugated for that time. Conquered nations tend to be pretty docile on the international level and generally don't go around waging war independently.

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IsTom 3 days ago

> You call the first and one of the most successful democracies in the world

That's the level of delusion in your own greatness that led to Trump. USA was the first (representative!) democracy with written constitution at best. And that's if you overlook the fact that only some people were entitled to vote at all.

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