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> Oh, but the Allies did make Naziism illegal

You can be a Nazi in the US, UK and I'm sure pretty much anywhere in the world (except Germany) - and not go to jail, etc. So no, the Allies did not make Nazism illegal. Instead, they attempted to squash Nazism through propaganda (both domestic and foreign), and through spreading the truth about what Nazism had accomplished (Holocaust, among other atrocities). There's Holocaust Deniers roaming the streets of the US today - although they are in the extreme minority due overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

In the end, the evils of Nazism led to it's demise, and the free trade of that information championed over censorship.

As an aside, making Holocaust Denial illegal has accomplished nothing - we have Genocide occurring around the world today, including openly in China - the very same country US companies like the NBA and Disney are falling over each other to do business in. China, of course, denies it's a Genocide...



With all the relevant criticism against German denazification, the policies and laws worked. Not just in Germany, but also in the other countries in Europe wih similar laws. That German laws failed to prevent genozid in other continents is to be expected, I guess.


The point was those polices were not Censorship.

I can buy Nazi paraphernalia today, read about Nazism on Wikipedia, purchase newly printed copies of Mein Kumpf, watch Hitler's speeches on Youtube, and more.

The ideals of Nazism were defeated by openly exposing, and combating them with freely available information.

Censorship would have been to pretend Nazism never happened, and banning of anything that might encroach upon "Right Think".

And think what would happen if someone made Nazism illegal? What would that mean? What about some new group that calls themselves Izan's, but shares all the same ideas of Nazism? Would that be illegal too?

You cannot ban ideas - someone else, at some point in time, will have the very same idea even if they do not know someone else had it first.

Instead, you must fight with logic and exposure - expose bad ideas for what they are, and prove them wrong with logic.


I'm confused now. Either the German laws against hate speach are censorship, as claimed in the original linked blo pst, or they are not.

And funny enough, we Germans are usually hammered by the right for over working on our historical gilt. Especially by the German right wing.


I have a saying, that which is abused gets taken away.

Which is say one should be cautious about exercising rights if you want to keep them.


Modern day Germany is censoring Nazism as far as I'm aware (it's illegal to call yourself a Nazi in Germany, no?).

The parent post asserted the Allies propaganda campaign after the war was censorship - it's flatly not, particularly since everywhere else in the world you can freely call yourself a Nazi with no repercussions. At no point was it illegal anywhere outside Germany to possess a copy of Mein Kumpf, even if it was signed by Hitler himself.

I don't think outlawing Nazism in Germany was a good thing, nor productive. Nazism could be (and very successfully was) destroyed through exposing it's ideals for what they were.

We often forget there was a Nazi movement here in the US leading up to the war - that was also stamped out not by censorship, but through exposing the evils of the Nazi regime.




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