Germany has recently taken a chilling new step, signalling its willingness to use political views as grounds to curb migration. Authorities are now moving to deport foreign nationals for participating in pro-Palestine actions. As I reported this week in the Intercept, four people in Berlin – three EU citizens and one US citizen – are set to be deported over their involvement in demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza. None of the four have been convicted of a crime, and yet the authorities are seeking to simply throw them out of the country.
The accusations against them include aggravated breach of the peace and obstruction of a police arrest. Reports from last year suggest that one of the actions they were alleged to have been involved in included breaking into a university building and threatening people with objects that could have been used as potential weapons.
But the deportation orders go further. They cite a broader list of alleged behaviours: chanting slogans such as “Free Gaza” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, joining road blockades (a tactic frequently used by climate activists), and calling a police officer a “fascist”. Read closely, the real charge appears to be something more basic: protest itself.
I guess it’s less about freedom of speech and more about not giving fascistic governments ammunition to eradicate Lemmy and instances like this one.
I am 100% certain that intelligence agencies are already monitoring this social network. Going against the status quo necessitates restraint regarding certain thoughts.
I’d argue you can still say these things, but you need to word them wisely. We have to remember they have all the power from the medias to the judicial system.
It’s an era in which they can easily manufacture consent to do whatever they want against what is deem a threat.
Probably the only non-evil response.
It fails the ‘all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing’ test.
It fails the ‘If I was in Nazi Germany, I would have resisted’ test.
But I suspect that that isn’t the reason used by Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.de
I would guess that he would have supported Rhodesia if his government said that to oppose them was racist against white people.