Watch/read the speech that I could not deliver because German police burst into our Berlin venue to disband our Palestine Congress (1930s style) before I could address the meeting. Today, because I dared publish this speech here, the Ministry of Interior issued a “Betätigungsverbot” against me, a ban on any political activity. Not just a […]
That can go both ways through. To some people, criticizing Hamas or saying that their attack warranted a reaction (which doesn’t mean I’m condoning what’s happening now in any way) means you’re actively calling for genocide.
Nuance is hard, people tend to prefer simple categorization into black and white, good and evil. The statement “Germany is going full fascist” is a perfect example of this.
Give me a break. They sent police after this guy and then banned him from the fucking country for saying something they didn’t like.
There’s no nuance here at all. The fascism in western countries suddenly comes when people criticize Israel.
Let me prefix this with saying that I’m sympathetic towards Varoufakis. I’ve been following him somewhat since his time at Valve.
He claims he is now subject to a “Betätigungsverbot” which is very different from being “banned from the country”. I tried to find any sort of official confirmation that he actually has “Betätigungsverbot” but I couldn’t, feel free to post a link if you can find it. I personally believe that what he wrote in this post doesn’t even come close to warranting a Betätigungsverbot - however, even assuming the Verbot is actually in place, claiming this means “Germany is going full fascism” is dishonest, exaggerated, and void of any nuance, which is my original point.
Reading the first sentence of the definition of fascism on Wikipedia should show you how ridiculous that statement is. Words have a meaning, and throwing around the word “fascism” for any measure you (potentially rightfully) don’t agree with just hurts your credibility and devalues the meaning of the word when it’s actually appropriate.
I’m fine with you attributing actions like this to historically motivated, misguided sense of “loyalty” (or however you want to call it) to Israel, or the Israeli government. Just keep the word fascist for actual fascists please.
Nuance exists, the world isn’t just black and white.