Euros can't seem to shake their love of authoritarianism

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The chancellor of Germany says free speech is just a kooky American idea that he doesn't share:

“Please don’t come to me with free speech... That is at most a libertarian political understanding from parts of the USA that I personally do not share. A liberal society must still be able to protect its citizens from false information, from personal degradations, from discrimination.”

https://x.com/ezralevant/status/2099885424751636723


Whenever anyone snivels about free speech being a gateway to bad things happening, I ask them, "Who told you that you were allowed to say that?"

[SVPete]

Authoritarian German governance contributed a lot of immigrants who fled it to the US in the 1800s, especially central US states.

[ADsOutburst]

“Please don’t come to me with free speech... That is at most a libertarian political understanding from parts of the USA that I personally do not share. A liberal society must still be able to protect its citizens from false information, from personal degradations, from discrimination.”

History has shown that government abusing its citizens by restricting speech is a far greater threat than citizens exericising their free speech.

Government is not in a good position to regulate speech on the grounds of fighting disinformation, due to the obvious conflict of interest.

[DefiantSix]

Euros can't seem to shake their love of authoritarianism

That's because most of the folks who possess low tolerance for boots on their neck CAME OVER HERE.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Now it makes sense why he made these comments. He must have seen the internal pollng...

Far-right AfD wins again as Germany's Merz slides

Germany's ruling center-right party, Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union, was shut out of a state parliament for the first time Sunday as the far-right Alternative for Germany scored its second victory this month.

Why it matters: The result marks the third state election AfD has won -- and its second this month -- underscoring its growing strength even as Germany's other major parties refuse to govern with it.

Driving the news: Merz, who has low approval ratings, told reporters that "reforms have to come."

...

AfD won about 38% of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while the CDU recorded its worst result in any German state election since World War II. The CDU fell from 13% to 4.9% and lost all representation.

https://www.axios.com/2026/09/21/germany-election-results-afd-merz


"Democracy can't survive people being allowed to vote however they want!"

[Old n Grumpy]

I think the Germans like their nazis.