1y ago

Germany bans ‘cult-like, deeply racist’ far-right group, carries out raids

www.aljazeera.com Germany bans ‘cult-like, deeply racist’ far-right group, carries out raids

Police raid homes of the Artgemeinschaft network members who sought to indoctrinate children with Nazi ideology.

17 comments

Freedom has two components: Positive Freedom and Negative Freedom. Negative Freedom is a lack of restriction from doing something, while Positive Freedom is the ability to do something. For example, I am free to go to Mars through the lens of Negative Freedom but not through the lens of Positive Freedom.
Restricting Negative Freedom can enhance Positive Freedom. If a terrorist hate group is not allowed to exist, then those who would have been their victims can be free to live their lives without having them cut short by this disallowed association. This is a pro-freedom move in the direction of greater fairness and safety in Germany.
- I've also heard the somewhat more descriptive terms "freedom to" and "freedom from" being used for these
- It made me feel kinda sad that you have to explain this... 😩
  
  I can say that I wasn't born knowing this and was raised in a conservative environment which equipped me with schemas I myself have had to overcome. I agree it's sad that I had to learn this myself and I want to help out anyone else on a journey similar to mine. What I think is truly sad is when someone is too cowardly to criticize their own beliefs however uncomfortable that process is.

Good! Other free countries, please follow suit.
If you dont stomp out the nazi fascists, they will grow and try to stomp you.
- And I think Germany knows about that first hand.

THIS is how you handle terrorist groups, not like here in America, where people let them hide behind the First Amendment and make excuses for their ideologies and behavior.
- Or give them a badge and a gun
- Americans (and others) who like to tout free speech, watch them turn 180 instantaneously if you ask them whether the first amendment is applicable to ISIS, or any other groups that they don't like.
  There's a difference between being able to criticize government and people in power, to straight up inciting hate and racism.
  
  And many of those same absolutists fully support laws criminalizing stolen valor.

Seems to be the hammerskins, a nazi skinhead chapter. It’s really excellent news
- Thank you for differentiating.
  The original "skin head" movement was mostly factory workers in Britain who cut their hair short (not necessarily shaved bald) for safety around equipment, and some of the most popular music among the group was stuff by "rude boys" Jamaican primarily I believe.
  It was working class solidarity with no intentions of racism.
  The neo Nazi groups coopted the term, and delved into punk music to find disenfranchised people who would buy into their rhetoric.
  There are also other skin head groups that exist today - SHARP for example, standing for SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice.
  Espouse hateful rhetoric around these guys and you're liable to wind up on the wrong side of a brick to the head.
  Why do I know all this? I have a penchant for research, and in the past few years I've been shaving my head because I decided to own my thinning hairline instead of have some ridiculous comb over type shit and hide it.
  I have had an encounter with a racist white dude at a 711, and he's ranting at the cashier and looks to me and said "Right brother?!". No, it was absurdly horrible (misguided) and I threatened to call the cops if he didn't leave the store and hopefully the neighborhood. He left when he realized he didn't have any support.
  
  I used to go to a lot of punk concerts, you end up meeting a lot of people including redskins, OG skins, I’ve even met BDSM skinheads. The world is beautiful in its complexity
  
  Well done for standing up to the guy.
  But idk that he assumed you'd agree because of your shaven head - may just have been your whiteness.
  Where I'm from, Nazi skinheads do exist, but they're far, far rarer than other kinds of skinhead. Unless I see indications of far-right inclinations, I'll assume a skinhead dressed in tight jeans & big black boots is an anarchist rather than a Nazi.
  Extra fun to see anarchist skinheads chasing Nazi skinheads out of an area though.