• nekandro@lemmy.mlOP
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    8 months ago

    Today, German lawmakers are rewriting bylaws and pushing for constitutional amendments to ensure courts and state parliaments can provide checks against a future, more powerful AfD. Some have even launched a campaign to ban the AfD altogether.

    You see, democracy is when…

    • Downcount@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I’ll help you with this sentence:

      … it defends itself against an undemocratic power.

      • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Yes. Democracy is when you refuse to allow the people to have a say in their systems of governance.

        • Downcount@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Yes. Democracy is when you refuse to allow the people a party that wants to dismantle the democratic state and bringing in nothing than hate to have a say in their systems of governance.

          • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            Maybe if you want to prevent such a hypothetical future the democratic solution is to offer something better for people to vote for, instead of using threats of violence by employing the law to enforce your systems.

            • Downcount@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              There is and never will be a perfect system of whatsoever. I’d rather watch them nazi party get forbidden than waiting for a solution that will come in place when it is already too late.

              And unless you aren’t a nazi, putin follower or trumpist, I don’t know why I even have to explain why a German future with a nazi party at its front will be no good for nobody.

              • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
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                8 months ago

                It is easy to say that when you’re not the one that they are using the law against.

                Will you say that when they come for you next?

                • catloaf@lemm.ee
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                  8 months ago

                  If they come for me because I’m a fascist, then yes, just take me out behind the shed and put me out of my misery.

                • Killing_Spark@feddit.de
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                  8 months ago

                  Are you actually referencing the “first they came for the Jews but I wasn’t a Jew” thing to argue that we should let nazis go ahead and take the power?

              • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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                8 months ago

                The solution being proposed here to prevent authoritarian systems is… other authoritarian systems. Can you understand why people see this as a problem brewing?

        • fidodo@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Checks and balances are about preventing a small faction of the government from gaining absolute control of the entire government. It’s not about preventing a say, it’s about preventing a total takeover that prevents anyone else from having a say in the future.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 months ago

      Are you surprised that the country that ushered the Nazis into power is more vigilant about making sure they never head remotely in that direction again?

      Even the party’s leader resigned in 2022 because he saw that the party was becoming more totalitarian and incompatible with German democracy.

    • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      You see, we call it Wehrhafte Demokratie. According to Wikipedia this can be translated as battlesome democracy, though I find that clunky.

      The entire idea of our constitution is to keep a democracy, we even have a constitutional right to disobedience, if democracy is threatened.

      The constitution is deliberately very open, but there’s one thing that’s non-negotiable: FDGO, liberal-democratic basic order. If you’re operating outside of that, you’re not supposed to be part of the political landscape.

    • Alsephina@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      L take. AES countries which are actual democracies do the same thing.

      Though of course, banning it isn’t gonna go anywhere for Germany unless they tackle the root cause of capitalism.