Germany to ban paintball after massacre

[liberty_student]

Banned books sell better. Ban it and $$$.

[eliotn]

@Stranger

We can’t take that chance. Let’s just ban children already.

I know you are joking, but wouldn’t that ultimately harm the state?

[eliotn]

@liberty student

Banned books sell better. Ban it and $$.

How ironic!

[hayekianxyz]

@eliotn

@Stranger

We can’t take that chance. Let’s just ban children already.

I know you are joking, but wouldn’t that ultimately harm the state?

What are you talking about? He’s dead serious.

[sicsempertyrannis]

@Sphairon

I already suspected it would be Junge Freiheit. Anyway, here’s the anarchist take on that magazine:

It’s a conservative paper that stresses the importance of national sovereignty, distinctly German culture and, of course, the Constitution. What makes them pariahs is that they sometimes interview people that can somehow be connected to the far-right community and that as principled conservatives, they are working against the Zeitgeist.

And because of that, they are often called a Nazi magazine by people with an agenda.

It has always seemed to me that in Germany the left accuses nearly every conservative group to the right of the Christian Democrats as being neo-nazi.

I also suspect that Hoppe’s books are still legal only because they have such a small audience. Hoppe’s DTGTF meets all the criteria necessary to get it banned, that’s why sicsempertyrannis found remarks along the lines of “it doesn’t support our constitutional values”: if it’s openly against the foundations of the German state, it is illegal and must be fought, according to the law.

You know I suspect Hoppe would take that as a badge of honor if his book were banned. And really though, who could support the ‘values’ (what values?) of the German constitution? It isnt even a well intentioned document like the US Constitution.

I got a kick out of one German review that accused Hoppe of being a ‘monarchist’ because he said he’d rather have Georg Friedrich rule as Kaiser than have a German Federal Republic.

[hayekianxyz]

@sicsempertyrannis

It has always seemed to me that in Germany the left accuses nearly every conservative group to the right of the Christian Democrats as being neo-nazi.

Makes sense though doesn’t it? When the Nazi card is so effective it makes sense to play it so much.

[sicsempertyrannis]

@GilesStratton

@sicsempertyrannis

It has always seemed to me that in Germany the left accuses nearly every conservative group to the right of the Christian Democrats as being neo-nazi.

Makes sense though doesn’t it? When the Nazi card is so effective it makes sense to play it so much.

Most hilariously, the German left uses the nazi card on German libertarians. I guess because libertarians there defended neo-nazis doing their marches to Rudolf Hess’s gravesite.

[hayekianxyz]

I’m guessing like most lefties those in Germany are big on unions, I wonder if they know the link between fascism and syndicalism [^o)]

[liberty_student]

@eliotn

@liberty student

Banned books sell better. Ban it and $.

How ironic!

It just occurred to me that they can ban books that are commercial. That is they can prohibit people from selling them.

But I don’t know how they could ban free books. Seems to me if the SHTF, Dr. Hoppe could release the book into the public domain, and then it’s unstoppable.

[eliotn]

@GilesStratton

@eliotn

@Stranger

We can’t take that chance. Let’s just ban children already.

I know you are joking, but wouldn’t that ultimately harm the state?

What are you talking about? He’s dead serious.

OMG, this reminds me of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a movie where part of the plot takes place in a locale where children are banned because a baroness hates them. There is even a child catcher who can smell kids out, and lured kids into a cage with “lolipops and candy”.

The coolest part? In the end, the kids hid from the state, and destroyed it from the inside.

It also had an inventor who had all these wacky entreprenuerial ideas, such as sweets that could be used as flutes (but they somehow attracted dogs), an old-fashioned car that could turn into a boat and an airplane when necessary, and a complex array of machinery that makes breakfast, but doesn’t always work.

[Stranger]

@Kakugo

Postwar German politics have always been very curious but starting from the '70s it seems like that great country has been on a downward slope to selfdestruction. The country is hostage to a number of very vocal and very powerful lobbies (just to give an example they have always had the strongest Green Party in the world) and there’s very little in the way of organized resistance. Right wing parties tend to fall quite quickly inside the Nazi trap and so get banned before they have any real shot at big politics.

Present day German politics are a mess (what a surprise): their politicians tend to be slightly more intelligent than their foreign colleagues so they know very well how present day politics are unsustainable in the long run. The problem is they also know very well that any radical change is very likely to ignite social unrest on a colossal scale and so every effort is poured into keeping the status quo. German electors prize stability above any other thing but what will happen when stability becomes too expensive?

The only real strategy for a German libertarian party is to play the Nazi card first, and accuse the ruling parties of being the heirs to the Nazis for their use of power.

[Sphairon]

@sicsempertyrannis

You know I suspect Hoppe would take that as a badge of honor if his book were banned. And really though, who could support the ‘values’ (what values?) of the German constitution? It isnt even a well intentioned document like the US Constitution.

Well, talking about intentions is hard since neither of us, I presume, knows what the German founders had in mind.

It’s somewhat terrifying, though, that the German constitution represents more of a mindset that needs to be adopted by the population than a list of guaranteed rights, such as the Bill of Rights. Imagine the Bill of Rights stating that the United States be a “social state”, or that all education be under the supervision of the state. Then you know how I feel whenever I look into the Grundgesetz.

I got a kick out of one German review that accused Hoppe of being a ‘monarchist’ because he said he’d rather have Georg Friedrich rule as Kaiser than have a German Federal Republic.

You can talk bad about anything but democracy. That’s civics 101.

[hayekianxyz]

@Sphairon

It’s somewhat terrifying, though, that the German constitution represents more of a mindset that needs to be adopted by the population than a list of guaranteed rights, such as the Bill of Rights.

Well, in all fairness, from what I can see the same is happening in the US. Whilst many may have desired that the constitution document and protect the rights of the people the US constitution now just seems like a tool of oppression, for lack of a better phrase. It’s a “contract” that people must abide by.

Now, Ron Paul understood this, which is why he didn’t scream that the constitution is not legitimate, rather, he stated that he believes the US government should hold up their end of the “deal” so to speak.

[sicsempertyrannis]

@Sphairon

Well, talking about intentions is hard since neither of us, I presume, knows what the German founders had in mind.

It’s somewhat terrifying, though, that the German constitution represents more of a mindset that needs to be adopted by the population than a list of guaranteed rights, such as the Bill of Rights. Imagine the Bill of Rights stating that the United States be a “social state”, or that all education be under the supervision of the state. Then you know how I feel whenever I look into the Grundgesetz.

Well, wasnt the German constitution just another bayonet constitution handed to Germans by their American occupiers?

As to your latter point, its already happened. In California, you cannot kick protestors off your own property…after all, you’d be violating their ‘right to free speech’ that the government says they have anywhere and everywhere.

[Kakugo]

@Sphairon

@Kakugo

Postwar German politics have always been very curious but starting from the '70s it seems like that great country has been on a downward slope to selfdestruction.

As much as I dislike first chancellor Konrad Adenauer for reintroducing the draft and other sins, his general motto of “no experiments” laid the foundation for one of the most prosperous periods of German history in the 50s and 60s.

This was all destroyed by the emergence of “democratic socialism”, environmentalism, communist terrorism and, as a reaction, the upswing of police state measures. Needless to say, public school history ridicules Adenauer’s precaution and praises all the destructive socialism that followed his administration as “democratic progress”.

Remember that of the 5 dominant parties in Germany, not one subscribes to free market/libertarian thought. The only difference is in degree - “social market economy” (conservatives / classical liberals / social democrats), “green economy” (greenies) or outright socialism (guess whom).

It’s so depressing. Say, Kakugo, is it as bad in Italy or do you have some kind of libertarian alternative developing?

I tried replying yesterday evening but due to a technical quirk could not post…

Adenauer surely had his faults (like everybody else) but like many politicians of the same postwar period (for example Alcide de Gasperi) fully understood that the only way to allow a full and rapid economic recovery was to keep government meddling in the economy at a minimum. It worked until the '70s when the older (and wiser I must say) generation of politicians either died out or went into retirement. It was far from perfect (for example they had to make lots of concession to both NATO warmongerers and very strong Socialist organizations) but at least they understood the basis well: namely a healthy economy is the fondamental requisite for a peaceful society as Bastiat clearly pointed out.

As for our situation down here “bad” doesn’t even begin to describe it. The Libertarian movement took a heavy hit when the secessionist movement went belly up a few years ago and it has been struggling ever since: liberatrians/minarchists/whatever have always had close ties with secessionists here. But given the fact that genuine secessionists have more or less gone into hiding (I am writing from my Fortress of Solitude… [;)]) or to be more correct disappeared from the political radar so have libertarians.