Thursday, August 05, 2004

THE GERMAN THOUGHT-POLICE RISE AGAIN

Hitler was a socialist too

"Political Correctness, originally a well-intentioned Code of Conduct, has rapidly turned into a morals terror in Germany. The self-appointed "politically correct" think of themselves as the sole possessors of the truth and refuse anyone the right to differ. As pointed out by Martin Walser, this applies particularly to the most notorious German taboos: Germany's National Socialist history, women and foreigners. When one attempts to deal with any of these themes even in the most open-minded way one is beat down unmercifully with the "fascism club", a concept named by political scientist Helmut Kn?tter. If one has been labelled racist or fascist or sexist by means of this deadly argument, one will become an outcast to whom no further opportunity to defend his outlook will be given.

The harmful thing about Political Correctness is that frequently disputations or discussions either do not take place at all or take place in the form of a campaign of defamation or a show trial. This prescribed thought control has led to the crushing of intellectual freedom in the former land of thinkers. Political Correctness shows itself as the instrument of intellectual channelling and represents an extraordinary precedent for censorial manipulation of political consensus.

We will illustrate this manipulation with some suitable examples: For some time now in Germany, presumably from grounds of anti-discrimination, it has no longer been thought correct to speak of Gypsies. In German now the politically correct terms are "Roma" and "Sinti", but these terms are actually not correct because these are merely the two main branches of the Gypsies. Closely looked at, the terms "Roma" and "Sinti" are themselves racist, inasmuch as they ignore and thereby discriminate against the smaller branches of Gypsies, such as the Lallers, the Manusch, the Joneschti, the Polatschia, the Sikligars, the Boschi or the Cal‚.

In Spring 1996 in their journal Eine Welt, the authorities of the Lutheran Mission Society advocated human rights for apes! They based their demand on the fact that humans and chimpanzees are almost alike genetically. The theologian Martin Br?ckner claimed that there was an "unbelievable closeness" and stated in all earnestness that the withholding of human rights from apes was no different from racism or denigration of women. Today no idea seems too absurd to be introduced as a new and general rule of conduct. Absurdity and undermining of the feeling of self-worth are the price.......

Political Correctness sets up rigid barriers to thought that block an open discussion oriented at solving a problem and thus diverts progress toward further intellectual development. Freedom of research cannot be restricted in advance by any power that prescribes in advance what is allowed to be considered true. Otherwise research threatens to become the ideological instrument of an opinion cartel and thus of a power cartel, and in so doing to lose its place as a precondition of intellectually active and creative people. Political Correctness is a threat to a politically free state, because at the end it will produce the state of mass conformity, the Thought Supervision state."

More here.

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