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 […]
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.