Comment by timthelion | Hacker News Reader

Comment by timthelion | Hacker News Reader

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You are very unlikely to go to jail for left wing speech. This isn't a matter of placement on a political spectrum though.

The law is as follow:

1) No Nazi symbolism outside of a historic context. 2) No inciting racial hatred. 3) No expression of hatred against a protected minority (the wealthy are not a protected minority).

These are very easy to prove, but none of them apply to normal left wingers. There are Islamist left wingers that fall into these categories because of their anti-semeticism or anti Christian sentiments.

4) No denying crimes against humanity.

This DOES apply to left wingers. If you deny Stalin's genocide against the Ukrainians that would be illegal. It also equally applies to holocaust deniers. I don't know how often it comes up though.

5) No speach which undermines democratic values and seeks to opress others.

I don't think that this is ever actually used. Though it might apply against left wingers.

One note on this: some elements of the extreme left-wing have in the past had tendencies toward antisemitism, which obviously fits into 2) and potentially 1). So that's one issue.

Yeah, but I don't think that anything of value is said by people who incite racial hatred or use Nazi symbols...

Denial of crimes against humanity, though, I see as a big mistake. I know, I know, we've all beaten the Holocaust to death... But when it comes to anti-capitalist and anti-comunist thinkers there is a great deal to talk about.

For example, anti-communists will tell you that Mao commit genocide during the great leap forward. Reasonable people disagree.

I, as an anti-capitalist, will tell you, that the quality of food sold in primarily black neighborhoods in the US is much lower than elsewhere in the country, that millions of blacks die as a result, and that this is an act of genocide against blacks. Obviously, a lot of white Americans would disagrees with me, and I think it would not be a good thing if they all went to jail for doing so...

I don't think that fits the legal definition of crimes against humanity, although there's admittedly a fine line between that and e.g. some of the famines in the USSR.

5) was used to disband the DS? Although I guess you could say that was 2) and 3) too.

Ds is still going strong isn't it? http://www.dsss.cz/

Wait, you're right https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%9Blnick%C3%A1_strana it was banned as a threat to democracy. That lasted long...

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