Austrian bakery sells Nazi-cakes, owner faces prison

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The pomposity of libertarianism never ceases to amuse. Anyways...



Of course it is also worth pointing out that one of the core features of libertarian arguments (is it accurate to use that word to describe pure wind? Barring an alternative I suppose it will do...) on the subject - the idea that all legislation on such topics is inherently counterproductive - happens to be wrong; it is, for example, generally acknowledged that the race relations legislation passed by the Wilson government in the 60s was, in the long run, quite successful at making extreme racist behavior socially unacceptable in Britain. There were other factors, naturally. But it certainly wasn't counter productive and certainly didn't make popular martyrs out of the Nazis in the NF.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The problem is: banning speech makes it more, not less likely that something like this would ever happen again.

Various restrictions on Nazi activity have been in place in certain countries since the 1940s and yet there has been a curious lack of resurgent fascist regimes in these countries. Extreme racist behavior and rhetoric has been illegal in Britain since the 1960s, yet the people who break the relevant laws are not regarded as martyrs.