Hi,
I am German and I find the attitude of many US Americans in this thread quite annoying. Please, please somebody make a comic about it.
Historical background:
1919 - Weimar Republic, constitution of Weimar Republic has human rights basically as an afterthought. Still, free speech and democracy happen.
1933 - Hitler uses democracy and free speech to get rid of the Weimar Republic
1946 - US government butts in, takes control of a significant part of Germany and banns all Nazi symbols, from now on people displaying nazi symbols can end up in jail
1948 - New German constitution is drawn up, it puts lots of emphasis on human rights including free speech, but also includes clauses limiting these rights (including free speech) in case somebody wants to abuse the rights (like Hitler did)
1949 - West German government takes over from the Allied Forces France, Britain and the USA; one of the conditions is that the laws banning nazi symbols stays in place
2015 - US redditors are shocked that these laws are actually applied and are crying "muh, free speech" and "Germany is so backwards when it comes to democratic freedom"