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From: jlg@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.books,net.women
Subject: Re: Cause and effect? (Free speech --> Nazism?)
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Date: Fri, 1-Feb-85 12:53:57 EST
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Posted: Fri Feb  1 12:53:57 1985
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> > Nazism came to power literally because good men & women DID NOT DO
> > ENOUGH to oppose it, not because of freedom of speech. The current
> > price of my freedom of speech is the ancient price: my constant readiness
> > to oppose tyranny, even at the cost of my "life, fortune, or sacred honor."
> > If people are not willing to do this, frankly, they deserve the hell on Earth
> > they get.

Of course the Nazis came to power by SUPRESSING free speech not by using it.
The nationalists (Nazis) had the courts on their side very early after WWI.
A history of that period I just read gave some statistics (which, lucky for
you, I can't remember all of).  In Munich between 1929 and 1931 there were
several hundred murders (it was widely known that the nationalists were
behind most of them - the graffiti left by the killers was demonstration
enough). Only a few arrests were made and, of those, only non-nationalists
(you know - Jews, communists, democrats, etc) received convictions.  The
people who were murdered were mostly those who were outspoken in favor of
their own (non-nationalist) ideas like reporters, artists, publishers,
bankers, etc..

Protection of free speech is usually sufficient, there are enough of us
willing to speak our mind against the crazys of the world if there is the
chance to do so.  Of course, we should all be really fanatic about protecting
free speech.

J. Giles