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The thing about Europe: it's the actual land of the free now

(www.economist.com)
160 points cruzcampo | 2 comments | 11 Apr 25 08:04 UTC | HN request time: 1.328s | source
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snehk ◴[11 Apr 25 08:42 UTC] No.43651672[source]▶
> Yet to many Europeans the idea that free expression is under threat seems odd. Europeans can say almost anything they want, both in theory and in practice.

A journalist in Germany was just sentenced to seven months for posting a meme of a politician where she holds up a sign saying "I hate free speech".

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/nancy-faeser-afd-...

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lopis ◴[11 Apr 25 08:51 UTC] No.43651765[source]▶
And Germany has taken its stance on Gaza to extreme levels, where publicly defending Palestine's right to exist can cause you to lose your visa. So yeah, things could be better in the free speech area.
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1. ben_w ◴[11 Apr 25 09:06 UTC] No.43651870[source]▶
> And Germany has taken its stance on Gaza to extreme levels, where publicly defending Palestine's right to exist can cause you to lose your visa

In practice, even on this website, I have great difficulty figuring out how to phrase anything I want to say on Palestine and Israel in a way that's not likely to induce vitriol.

Heck, neither could Yitzhak Rabin, in his position as Israel's Prime Minister: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Yitzhak_Rabin

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Hmm, I've just noticed something: you say "Germany", but some of the news I've been seeing from the USA is people losing their visas by supporting Palestine…

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2. disgruntledphd2 ◴[11 Apr 25 11:14 UTC] No.43652587[source]▶
> Hmm, I've just noticed something: you say "Germany", but some of the news I've been seeing from the USA is people losing their visas by supporting Palestine…

There was a similar case (though actually had a judge and a court process involved) in Germany recently.