My wife and I were legal residents in Germany for several decades, she longer than I, though I worked in more European nations than did she. One does some "hoop jumping" for the Aufenhalttitel which had periodic renewals. I felt the "time" was coming when it would become uncomfortable to remain there, given American sensibilities to be outspoken. Our notion of "free speech" does not exist there.
Given the fact -- easily demonstrated -- that the National Socialists were "anti-capitalist" and styled themselves as Aryan socialists, it had been a triumph of the socialists to construct the myth that this form of anit-capitalism and Aryan socialism was "on the right."
When all the socialisms, plural, are gathered together, National socialism and WWII Italian fascism cluster properly with Soviet socialism and Sino-socialism, as well as the smaller "evils" like the Khmer Rouge.
When we retired, we chose to return to the states. Clearly in my mind, this sort of thing -- the Hopkins affair of which Taibbi writes -- was for me a clear premonition.
The same holds true for the coalition parties currently toying with the notion of banning Alternative für Deutschland from participation in elections. Casting them as "right wing" while propping up National socialism as right wing, though it was anti-capitalist, would be a triumph for "it can happen here" again.
This seems a worldwide problem in the moment, with the overt socialists in the Democrat Party, as well as in media and academia, being our peculiar form of the same temptation -- to make others "vermin" as pre-WWII Jews were seen. As today's "unvaccinated" are sometimes seen. As those who would express MAGA are deemed "domestic terrorists" by an American political party currently in power.
While the Hopkins affair is relatively small, a few thousand Euros fine, it is a premonition of what can come.
The correction will also come, and actually in underway. Inner city collapses are showing the socialists' "emperor has no clothes," naked to been. Some form of this needs repeating in many ways and many venues.
Good post.
When the Germans banned pro-Naxi speech after WWII it was always clear to me that it was just the camel’s nose under the tent—a bad policy that eventually would get worse and worse and worse...
until any opposition to the regime in power would see their speech banned.
“When we retired, we chose to return to the states. Clearly in my mind, this sort of thing — the Hopkins affair of which Taibbi writes — was for me a clear premonition.”
Seems to have been a good decision. Although we have much the same starting to occur here in the States.
One thing that ticks me off the most concerning the actions of the “powers that be” over the past couple of years, is the double standard of justice being implemented in the prosecution of the January 26th trespassers. The left would have (and have in the past) received trespassing notices for similar actions. And even those were usually dismissed. Remember the leftists and their antics during the Kavanaugh hearings. Not a one suffered any consequences and certainly none were thrown into jail.
And the GOPe remains silent.
The propaganda is strong and unrelenting.
May be location-blocked without a VPN. In essence: AfD bad; no, not only bad, but hyper-NAZI bad; and by the way, the climate is in some sort of existential crisis (couldn’t ever miss that part).