The following provocative article was first published in Der Tagesspiegel and then re-published in The Local. The warnings contained in the article should not be readily dismissed. When political agendas, restrictions of individual liberties, and pre-conceived prejudices are at play, all of us suffer.
The Local wrote on January 17:
“Germans certainly love freedom of thought, and if they could turn those thoughts into actions, the country would have become a foreigner-free zone a long time ago. But Germans are not so keen on freedom of speech, which is why they limit it with all kinds of laws. And they welcome any opportunity to plead for more restrictions and regulations.
“The latest of these opportunities is the horrific attack in Tucson, Arizona on US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The shooting has been used as a chance to crow about the ‘climate of hate’ in the United States, regardless of the question of what exactly motivated a man to kill six people and wound 14 others. This satisfies two German urges at once.
“Firstly, it gives them a chance to exercise their wonted anti-Americanism, which has been stifled since the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Now it can run riot again, not with the despised and derided George W. Bush, but by targeting Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement. The German pressure cooker, long bubbling with accusations of Yankee gun-loving, the death penalty, evangelical Christianity, and rabid anti-government rhetoric, has finally found a way to blow off steam. Apparently the revival of ‘Evil America’ has been bursting to get out [for] quite some time…
“Secondly, the assertions of a ‘climate of hate’ in the United States have fed the conviction that freedom of speech can be a little too free – in other words, that the rigid German model is superior to the libertarian American approach. This assertion is good for German self-satisfaction. It pacifies them… Just as the now discredited Senator Joseph McCarthy pursued alleged communists in the 1950s, today's German witch hunters are hunting the likes of Palin and the Tea Party for causing the tragedy in Tucson…
“We should be… worried about Germany (and Europe). Here, freedom is still a luxury. One can almost feel the subliminal desire to use the Tucson attack to finally ban public appearances by Thilo Sarrazin [who wrote a book speaking out against Islamic influence in Germany.]”
Culled from the weekly's of the Church of the Eternal God
The Local wrote on January 17:
“Germans certainly love freedom of thought, and if they could turn those thoughts into actions, the country would have become a foreigner-free zone a long time ago. But Germans are not so keen on freedom of speech, which is why they limit it with all kinds of laws. And they welcome any opportunity to plead for more restrictions and regulations.
“The latest of these opportunities is the horrific attack in Tucson, Arizona on US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The shooting has been used as a chance to crow about the ‘climate of hate’ in the United States, regardless of the question of what exactly motivated a man to kill six people and wound 14 others. This satisfies two German urges at once.
“Firstly, it gives them a chance to exercise their wonted anti-Americanism, which has been stifled since the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Now it can run riot again, not with the despised and derided George W. Bush, but by targeting Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement. The German pressure cooker, long bubbling with accusations of Yankee gun-loving, the death penalty, evangelical Christianity, and rabid anti-government rhetoric, has finally found a way to blow off steam. Apparently the revival of ‘Evil America’ has been bursting to get out [for] quite some time…
“Secondly, the assertions of a ‘climate of hate’ in the United States have fed the conviction that freedom of speech can be a little too free – in other words, that the rigid German model is superior to the libertarian American approach. This assertion is good for German self-satisfaction. It pacifies them… Just as the now discredited Senator Joseph McCarthy pursued alleged communists in the 1950s, today's German witch hunters are hunting the likes of Palin and the Tea Party for causing the tragedy in Tucson…
“We should be… worried about Germany (and Europe). Here, freedom is still a luxury. One can almost feel the subliminal desire to use the Tucson attack to finally ban public appearances by Thilo Sarrazin [who wrote a book speaking out against Islamic influence in Germany.]”
Culled from the weekly's of the Church of the Eternal God
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