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Politician Forces German Wikipedia Off the Net
Stephan Schulz writes "A German Member of parliament for a left-wing party, Lutz Heilmann, has obtained a preliminary injunction against the local chapter of the Wikimedia foundation, Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., forbidding the forwarding of the popular http://wikipedia.de to the proper http://de.wikipedia.org. Apparently Heilmann is not happy with the fact that his Wikipedia article (English version) contains information on his work for the former GDR Stasi, the much-hated internal secret service. Wikimedia Germany displays a page explaining the situation, and has announced that it will file an objection to get the injunction lifted. The German Wikipedia has more than 800,000 pages, and is hosted, like all Wikimedia projects, by the Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation, and hence beyond the effective reach of at least German politicians and judges."
"Not necessarily so. Elevating free speech over other rights is a part of American ideology, however it is not universally accepted, certainly not in Europe or Asia."
And maybe that's why Europe and Asia has a long history of despotic strongmen. Order over freedom tends to get that for you.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
We don't need 10000 doctoral dissertations to tell us that Germans are psychopaths. Not all Germans, but a sizable percentage of them. And not individuals either, the overwhelming majority of them being wonderful people. But they have a psychopathic culture. And I'm not the one who is saying this; history says this. .... BUT ....
Germany is changing, it's getting better all the time (to quote Paul McCartney). They have come a long way. They are accepted throughout the world as civilized and lawful people. All the people of German ancestry should be a little proud of their genetics.
You just can't escape from the reality that the Germans created the Stasi and before that the Nazis. These things didn't just come from bad times and difficult choices forced on a reluctant people. They happened because there is a seriously ugly and evil thread running through the fabric of German culture. Since the war, (the real war, not the permanent endless good-for-business over-there semi-war of the USA that the rednecks are always confusing as patriotism) the Germans have done more than any other people to examine their culture and try to find this 'ugly thing' and remove it. They serve as an example to us all, especially us Americans.
But this was only the WEST Germans who did this. In the east, the madness and psychopathic behavior never ended. It just got worse until it nearly destroyed the whole culture and economy. So in 1989 when the wall came down, a new era began...a new hope. The Germans were ready to put the madness of the 20th century behind them and take their rightful place as full members of the peaceful and productive international community. They ask from us only guidance, acceptance, and forgiveness. And should we extend this?
Fuck no.
Not until they come fully clean about the madness that infects their culture. The Europeans and the European-Americans have lost millions of people and trillions of dollars in the past 100 years to the madness that infects German culture. We have a right (by conquest, by religion, by the golden rule) to demand that what ever caused this madness be not allowed to destroy the lives of our grandchildren in the way that it destroyed the lives of out grandparents.
So if some schmuck is unhappy about the fact that OUR historical networks, such as Wikipedia, are being used to chronicle HIS crimes, well then fuck him. We have an obligation to future generations to make sure that the story of our times is accurate and complete, and that includes all the assholes who worked for the Stasi.
Thank you.