@Walter Hinteler,
Walter Hinteler wrote:
There is free speech. From our Basic Law:
Quote:Article 5 [Freedom of expression]
(1) Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing, and pictures and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.
(2) These rights shall find their limits in the provisions of general laws, in provisions for the protection of young persons, and in the right to personal honor.
(3) Art and scholarship, research, and teaching shall be free. The freedom of teaching shall not release any person from allegiance to the constitution.
This limits are for instance libel, racism, holocaust denial, etc etc
But to make racism and holocaust denial, etc. etc. illegal would be contradictory to freedom of speech.
Libel should be illegal anywhere, but in the USA there is quite specific criteria governing what libel is. Essentially the intent is to prevent untruths being published or broadcast that would deprive a person of his/her reputation, peace, livelihood, opportunities, or otherwise violate his/her unalienable, Constitutional, legal, or civil rights.
To deny the holocaust might be viewed as really ignorant, but it would not be illegal here. Nor is holding any view that is bigoted or prejudicial re anybody's race or any other form of bigotry or prejudice. The law prohibits you from acting out on your racist or prejudicial opinions in a way that violates the rights of others, but it does not prohibit you from thinking them or speaking them.
I am very grateful for our Constitution and First Amendment that denies the government any power to censure or punish us for what we might think no matter how wrong, ignorant, stupid, or hateful it might be.
Evenso, public condemnation of hateful anti-semitic or any other hateful rhetoric is 100% legal here and should be exercised religiously everywhere. The fact that it apparently is not, would be a valid cause for concern for Jewish people or any people who are subjected to public hostility for no other reason than they are simply living their lives.