Xlibre [LWN.net]

Xlibre

Posted Jun 15, 2025 12:57 UTC (Sun) by ebee_matteo (guest, #165284)
In reply to: Xlibre by linuxrocks123
Parent article: Ubuntu 25.10 to drop support for GNOME on Xorg

> If your intolerance instead gets the victim of your discrimination fired, that's illegal in California and many other places, and I hope any applicable law is enforced against both you and your employer. It should be illegal everywhere.

Typical American arrogance, then.

Here in Germany, the views above under German alw require me to report this guy to the police, and have him arrested.

Just because the US has this wackiness of "absolute free speech" it does not mean that the rest 7 billion humans outside the US apply your same laws.

to post comments

Xlibre

Posted Jun 15, 2025 14:46 UTC (Sun) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

As I see it, Free Speech is one of three things that are subject to the "pick any two" law of nature.

And personally, it's also the one I value LEAST!

The other two are the right to have a functional society that cares for each other, and the right to seek/be wealthy.

(I'd like to value all three roughly equal, but that means compromises in all directions - something a lot of people seem unable to handle.)

So the American obsession with Free Speech and Wealth is basically driving the destruction of society, as more and more people even in the first world fall into deeper and deeper poverty.

Cheers,
Wol

Xlibre

Posted Jun 15, 2025 17:58 UTC (Sun) by linuxrocks123 (subscriber, #34648) [Link] (3 responses)

> Here in Germany, the views above under German alw require me to report this guy to the police, and have him arrested.

Oh my God, German law requires citizens to inform on each other like that? I didn't know your society had fallen so far. Again.

And, in fact, I still don't know that. Can you point me to this "anyone who doesn't report a crime is guilty of a crime" statute? I'm going to have a hard time believing such a ridiculous law exists without proof.

Oh, also, since your Nazi stand-in party just came in second in the 2025 federal elections, it doesn't seem like all your political repression is working very well, now does it? But you're just gonna keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, aren't you? I wonder how that's going to work out for you guys. Guess we'll find out!

Xlibre

Posted Jun 15, 2025 20:18 UTC (Sun) by jzb (editor, #7867) [Link] (2 responses)

At this point, this conversation has gotten well off course from the article and is straying from "polite, respectful, and informative". This goes for this comment as well as several up-thread.

Let's end this here, elsewhere, in this article, and in future comment threads and articles. Comments like "typical $country-name arrogance" and "I didn't know your society had fallen so far" are never appropriate for LWN under any comment thread.

Xlibre

Posted Jun 15, 2025 21:47 UTC (Sun) by linuxrocks123 (subscriber, #34648) [Link]

Gotcha. I made an off-ramp: https://soylentnews.org/~linuxrocks123/journal/19416

Xlibre

Posted Jun 16, 2025 7:53 UTC (Mon) by Subsentient (guest, #142918) [Link]

Blernchlboogeržensqüizûløid

Xlibre

Posted Jun 16, 2025 5:31 UTC (Mon) by donald.buczek (subscriber, #112892) [Link]

> Here in Germany, the views above under German alw require me to report this guy to the police, and have him arrested.

I know that the discussion here is supposed to be closed. I hope it is still permissible to comment on facts without passing judgment?

In Germany, there is no general obligation to report crimes. There is an obligation to report knowledge of certain particularly serious _imminent_ crimes whose execution can still be prevented. The list of these crimes is exhaustively enumerated in [§138 StGB], and crimes of expression are not included.

However, there may be additional legal obligations to report crimes based on special laws for certain professions. Civil servants may be obliged to report crimes committed in the course of their duties. Social workers and doctors may be obliged to report imminent threats to the welfare of children.

Finally, there is a general duty to protect others in [§13 StGB], which applies to persons in positions of responsibility (e.g., parents). In some circumstances, the prevention of imminent crimes is legally possible only by reporting them and not by other means of self-help.

All of this obviously serves to prevent particularly serious crimes from happening.

I would like to add that law enforcement authorities, on the other hand, are obliged to prosecute crimes (above a certain level of severity). This “principle of legality” serves to prevent arbitrariness [1].

[§138 StGB] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__138.html
[§13 StGB] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__13.html
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalit%C3%A4tsprinzip_(Strafrecht)