this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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Summary

Australia has enacted strict anti-hate crime laws, mandating jail sentences for public Nazi salutes and other hate-related offenses.

Punishments range from 12 months for lesser crimes to six years for terrorism-related hate offenses.

The legislation follows a rise in antisemitic attacks, including synagogue vandalism and a foiled bombing plot targeting Jewish Australians.

The law builds on state-level bans, with prior convictions for individuals performing Nazi salutes in public spaces, including at sporting events and courthouses.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Because if you don't see the nazis, then it's OK that they're nazis

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Question for everyone supporting this: do you think saying women can't think for themselves should be classified as hate speech?

Asking for a friend.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think it should be legal to do exactly one free punch on anyone who does a nazi salute.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I don't think this behavior should be socially tolerated; however, I don't think it's a good idea to police it through the use of governmental force.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

well put. i still thoroughly disagree with you, mind, but this comment clicked my understanding of this argument.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

[…] i still thoroughly disagree with you […]

Would you mind outlining why?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (8 children)

I don’t think it’s a good idea to police it through the use of governmental force.

Oh it absolutely is.

If you don't think it should be socially tolerated, then great, regulations are how we enforce social tolerance in a manner that isn't just "I don't like you, please stop, but also I won't do anything to you if you keep doing it."

Furthermore, and this is something you'll probably see brought up a lot when using that talking point, there is a paradox of tolerance that cannot be avoided when it comes to issues like Nazism. Nazi rhetoric is inherently discriminatory and intolerant. If you allow it to flourish, it kills off all other forms of tolerance until only itself is left. If you don't tolerate Nazi rhetoric, it doesn't come to fruition and destroy other forms of tolerance.

Any ideology that actively preaches intolerance towards non-intolerant groups must not be tolerated, otherwise tolerance elsewhere is destroyed.

(This mini comic explains the paradox well, as well.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Do we really want to mandate jail time though? It seems like maybe fines would be effective? I'm not in favor of inventing more ways to fill up for-profit prisons with non-violent offenders.

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Furthermore, and this is something you’ll probably see brought up a lot when using that talking point, there is a paradox of tolerance that cannot be avoided when it comes to issues like Nazism. Nazi rhetoric is inherently discriminatory and intolerant. If you allow it to flourish, it kills off all other forms of tolerance until only itself is left. If you don’t tolerate Nazi rhetoric, it doesn’t come to fruition and destroy other forms of tolerance.

Any ideology that actively preaches intolerance towards non-intolerant groups must not be tolerated, otherwise tolerance elsewhere is destroyed.

I would like to clarify that I am not advocating for tolerance. It's quite the contrary. I am advocating for very vocal intolerance of these groups and their behaviors. It is simply my belief that governmental force is not a necessary means to this end, not to mention that it is incompatible with the ideas of liberalism ^[1]^, which I personally espouse.

References

  1. Title: "Liberalism". Wikipedia. Published: 2025-02-02T19:43Z. Accessed: 2025-02-08T05:47Z. URI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism.
    • ¶1

      […] Liberals espouse various and often mutually warring views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.

      • Policing speech is incompatible with the freedom of speech.
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I would like to reiterate that I am not advocating for tolerance. It’s quite the contrary. I am advocating for very vocal intolerance of these groups and their behaviors.

Saying we shouldn't police those behaviors is actively stating that you want to tolerate them, just via legal means rather than solely social ones. You say you don't want to tolerate them socially, but when it comes to any actual legal intervention, suddenly, they should be tolerated. If saying they shouldn't be stopped using the force of law isn't tolerating the behavior more than saying we should stop them using the force of law, then I don't know what is.

It is simply my belief that governmental force is not a necessary means to this end, not to mention that it is incompatible with the ideas of liberalism [1], which I personally espouse.

Then you should reconsider your ideology. If your ideology allows Nazis to face no legal consequences for being Nazis, while you simultaneously state that you don't believe they should be tolerated, then you hold mutually contradictory views.

If you don't think their views should be tolerated, you should support actions that prevent their views from being held and spread. If you don't do that, then you inherently are tolerating them to an extent.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

[…] If you don’t think their views should be tolerated, you should support actions that prevent their views from being held and spread. […]

I support social actions that prevent their views from being held and spread.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

[…] If your ideology allows Nazis to face no legal consequences for being Nazis, while you simultaneously state that you don’t believe they should be tolerated, then you hold mutually contradictory views. […]

This is a loaded statement — it depends on what you mean by "being Nazis".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Generally speaking, espousing/engaging in the support of many harmful beliefs traditionally held by Nazis, and generally fascists more broadly since Nazism is just a branch of fascism, such as:

  • Supporting the actions of the Nazi party historically (e.g. saying the Nazis were right to kill Jewish people, saying "Heil Hitler," or doing the Nazi salute in a clearly deliberate manner)
  • Supporting dictatorship, authoritarianism, or totalitarianism as a concept or goal
  • Belief in a so called "master race" or the subordination of other races for the benefit of another/the nation
  • Advocating for the imprisonment/killing of homosexual/transgender individuals (the exact category of people at risk here can change over time, since fascism just re-selects a new group of people to attack once the former has been exterminated/ostracized enough)
  • Religious nationalism by any denomination
  • Advocating to eliminate unions for the benefit of corporations/the state
  • Ultra-nationalist rhetoric
  • Advocating for an expansion of the police state
  • Views of immigrants as sub-human
  • etc.

Practically speaking, I think it would probably make the most sense to judge whether somebody is a "Nazi" legally, by requiring at least a few of these tenets to be met before any trial could take place to prevent false imprisonment and the like, but as these views are objectively harmful to society, I don't believe they should be allowed to flourish, full stop.

If you don't support imprisoning people who hold these views that directly lead to the death of many innocent people, the taking over of people's land/homes, the destruction of democratic systems, and the elimination of entire races of people from populations, then you are inherently tolerating their beliefs.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

[…] If saying they shouldn’t be stopped using the force of law isn’t tolerating the behavior more than saying we should stop them using the force of law, then I don’t know what is. […]

Yes, I agree that not using governmental force would be more legally tolerant — as you mentioned above:

Saying we shouldn’t police those behaviors is actively stating that you want to tolerate them, just via legal means rather than solely social ones.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

[…] regulations are how we enforce social tolerance in a manner that isn’t just “I don’t like you, please stop, but also I won’t do anything to you if you keep doing it.” […]

I think a more forceful alternative could be being something like "I wont allow you into my place of business". I think one could also encounter issues with finding employment, or one could lose their current employment. Social repercussions like that can be quite powerful imo. I think the type of tolerance that's damaging is the complacent/quiet type where one simply lets them be without protest.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think a more forceful alternative could be being something like “I wont allow you into my place of business”

Ah yes, not letting Nazis buy from a business, at the business's will, dependent on every single individual place of employment all knowing they're a Nazi and actively choosing to deny them business and employment, as opposed to... just locking them up so they don't have a chance of their views being spread in the world. Truly, the "more forceful alternative."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

[…] Truly, the “more forceful alternative.”

I only meant more forceful than your only stated possibility:

I don’t like you, please stop, but also I won’t do anything to you if you keep doing it.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My thoughts exactly. I have absolutely no sympathy for Nazis, or anyone else who thinks mass murder and genocide were good policy. But one of the things that makes a free society different from Nazi Germany, is free expression. If we limit free expression to only things the people in charge want expressed, no matter how noble the intent that starts us down a very dark path very quickly.

The way we fight Nazis and racism is not by beating them up or jailing them. It's by teaching each other and our children why they are wrong, by learning and understanding what it is like to have racism directed against you. And thus, we defeat racism not with force but with empathy.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the sort of policy that would make Hitler proud. It's the sort of policy that would be enacted in Nazi Germany, or Soviet Russia.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Maybe Musk should take one of his Boeing Cyberplanes to Australia

[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 months ago

Slippery slope

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Redefining the freedom of speech can be a slippery slope. It will depend upon who is in power and their personal views. Hate speech is something that can be targetted. There would need to be statutory limitations to prevent misuse of the legislative principles. If the Germans can do it right, so can we, wherever we live.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I can't see this actually happening since people who continue to commit crime, are re-released on bail.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Any good tech companies in Australia? How hard are the citizenship requirements if you avoid all the Mel Gibsons?

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