Why German Politicans love Internet Censorship
Posted on:June 30 2009
After the government now installed laws to enable censorship in Germany, I wondered what the representatives really thought when they did this. Something like "to hell with Germany, I'll be dead anyway soon"? Or was it more like "democracy sucks, down with it"?
It looks like it was something different:
Because of this new law, Jörg Tauss a member of pro-censorship Party 'SPD' now left it and joined the German Pirate Party. The interesting part about this is that he now gave some insight into the SPD and wrote down why and how these politicans made up their opinion. The following quote summarizes it quite well:
(Translation: a mixture of stupidity, non-knowledgeability, technical disinterest, and the good intention to do "something" at least, the fear of the newspaper BILD, resulted in ignoring the opinion of the experts and of 134,000 signers of the petition).
The text basically describes what most people already knew: Nearly no one of our 'representatives' has an idea what the Internet is, they never really use it and they don't intend to change this. All they hear from it is negative (keywords: porn, hacker, islamism, bombs, terrorists, nazis) and so they think it is a good idea to censor it. Incompetence at its best.
(Translation: A big part of the representatives didn't grow up with the internet. They maybe even conceive it as threat. They [...] perceive [...] it as something where you can get evil things and where the avertable evil comes from and penetrates the society. [ok, quite a bad translation, sorry])
You can read the full text (in german) on abgeordnetenwatch.de. It's an eye opener. I hope this way of thinking will die out soon enough. Until then I'll vote for other parties.
It looks like it was something different:
Because of this new law, Jörg Tauss a member of pro-censorship Party 'SPD' now left it and joined the German Pirate Party. The interesting part about this is that he now gave some insight into the SPD and wrote down why and how these politicans made up their opinion. The following quote summarizes it quite well:
[...] Mischung aus Borniertheit, Uninformiertheit, technischem Desinteresse, der guten Absicht, wenigstens "etwas" zu tun, Angst vor der BILD- Zeitung etc. fuehrte dazu, dass man weder die Expertenmeinungen noch die Meinungen von 134.000 Petentinnen [...] zur Kenntnis nahm [...]
(Translation: a mixture of stupidity, non-knowledgeability, technical disinterest, and the good intention to do "something" at least, the fear of the newspaper BILD, resulted in ignoring the opinion of the experts and of 134,000 signers of the petition).
The text basically describes what most people already knew: Nearly no one of our 'representatives' has an idea what the Internet is, they never really use it and they don't intend to change this. All they hear from it is negative (keywords: porn, hacker, islamism, bombs, terrorists, nazis) and so they think it is a good idea to censor it. Incompetence at its best.
Ein grosser Teil der Parlamentarier ist mit dem Internet nicht aufgewachsen. Sie empfinden es daher moeglicherweise sogar als Bedrohung. Sie nehmen es [..] wahr [...] als etwas, wo man eben Boeses bekommen kann und wo vermeintlich das Boese auch herkommt und die Gesellschaft durchdringt.
(Translation: A big part of the representatives didn't grow up with the internet. They maybe even conceive it as threat. They [...] perceive [...] it as something where you can get evil things and where the avertable evil comes from and penetrates the society. [ok, quite a bad translation, sorry])
You can read the full text (in german) on abgeordnetenwatch.de. It's an eye opener. I hope this way of thinking will die out soon enough. Until then I'll vote for other parties.
Comments:
Ah yes, german politicians. I think they not only do not know about these "new" technologies, they also listen to so called "experts" that know a little about it (like the one-eyed leading the blind). I wonder how long it will take until they start censoring sites that are not *bad and evil*. I hope I see things too dark, but maybe I should start thinking about going somewhere else. How's living in Autria btw? ;)
Brainsaw
Quote2009-07-01 07:16:00
i think
"""resulted in ignoring the opinion"""
would be better than
"""resulted in the ignorance of the opinion"""
"""resulted in ignoring the opinion"""
would be better than
"""resulted in the ignorance of the opinion"""
horace
Quote2009-07-01 09:35:00
That's a very good reason for young people not to vote the "old" parties in germany, indeed, it was a good reason for me.
Oliver
Quote2009-07-01 09:36:00
@brainsaw: Not better in austria here, unfortunately. Politicans here tend to copy what germans do, just a few months later. :)
@horace: thanks, updated
@horace: thanks, updated
niko
Quote2009-07-01 10:51:00
Really Germany and Australia donot seem as good countries to emmigrate if I will emmigrate ever. Amount of censorship is ridiculous. That way may be one day I will like India(home country much better, then any other developed country).
kinjalkishor
Quote2009-07-01 11:41:00
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