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Jiminy Cricket, German Hurt #Feelingz Strike Again – HotAir

This is your weekly reminder that just because the Europeans do wounded vanity, umbrage, and virtue-signaling lectures so much better than we do doesn’t necessarily mean that what is issuing forth from their sanctimonious streusel holes matches what their barely restrained authoritarian instincts are doing in actuality.





One of the best ways to highlight the dual nature of their conflicted existence is to pick some of the subjects that constitute their favorite defensive posturing. A couple that are really getting worn out in tussles against the Americans are ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy.’ These are often used interchangeably, or, even better, when they combine them for what Europeans perceive as a coup de grâce argument-ender.

This is all well and good posturing in the Never Never Land of diplomatic sword crossing for public effect. But in the trenches, streets, and homes of regular citizens, mayhap things look a little different than the rosy, beatific picture of pastoral freedoms and hives of honey-laden democracy painted by the Brussels Brahmins from their castles.

A prime example has surfaced.

I’ve often written of the skeletal, scarecrowish, bespectacled creature who clings with bony fingers to visions of wielding outsized international influence even as he reigns over the meltdown of his own once prosperous and mighty economy as Chancellor of Germany. From the very beginning, from the day after his election, in fact, I dubbed the risible Friedrich Merz ‘Master of the Old Magoo‘ in reference to his chameleon-like ability to change his colors – and dump his promises – at a moment’s notice.

This conscience-free, unscrupulous, ethically unconcerned style of governance has not gone unnoticed or is much appreciated by Germans themselves, and imagine that. It’s kind of like being a dewy-eyed Spanberger or Mamdani voter right about now, only Germany is more of a police state trying to deal with it.





Did I say that?

*checks notes*

Why, yes. Yes, I did.

Where you can rightfully call Commie Mamdani or the CIA Spook Lady whatever your little gullible heart desires, as you work through rage at what you feel is a betrayal of promises any sane person knew they’d no intention of ever keeping – so shame on you, dummy – it’s quite a different story in Germany.

In that country, politicians of any stripe are a protected class.

Stupid or spoiled.

Or fat.

Once they tracked THAT GUY down, he was facing a €6000 fine until the case was finally dismissed.

Weird that the German government also believes the process can be the punishment, even when it was an uncomfortable personal comment.





But now the insults have broken a glass ceiling, and the Polizei are banging on a door for someone speaking directly to the truth, albeit in a humorous fashion. A Facebook comment about a humorless subject – the Old Magoo master himself, and his penchant for promisorial pivots.

Don’t you dare call the lying German Chancellor ‘Pinocchio.’

Pensioner facing police investigation for the crime of calling serially dishonest German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “Pinocchio”

In the latest retarded case of political repression to afflict the Federal Republic of Germany, police are investigating a pensioner for the crime of associating the German Chancellor with an iconic children’s book character.

From the Heilbronner Stimme:

When … Friedrich Merz and Baden-Württemberg Minister President Winfried Kretschmann came to Heilbronn last October for the opening ceremony of the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI), the celebrity visit occasioned discussion discussion on social media.

A post appeared on the Heilbronn Police Facebook page informing locals about a temporary flight ban enacted for security during the visit. A resident of Heilbronn responded by writing that “Pinocchio is coming to [Heilbronn].” He included a long-nosed emoji.

Three months later, at the end of January, the man could hardly believe his eyes as he received a letter from the criminal police informing him that he is now under investigation for his comment. He is suspected of committing the crime of insult as prohibited by Section 188 of the Criminal Code.





COMMITTING THE CRIME OF INSULT

This could have been a tactical error on Merz and his defenders’ part, as many, many outraged Germans are having a whale of a time explaining just how similar, if not far worse, than Pinocchio Merz really is.

…Punish one, educate a hundred. The escalation is systemic: First, hotlines against “hate and incitement.” Then, house searches over Habeck memes. Then, giggling prosecutors in Göttingen. Now, criminal complaints because an old man calls the chancellor candidate by the fitting nickname.

Paragraph 188 becomes a weapon against anyone who dares to mock the powerful. In Germany, whoever points out abuses is more dangerous than those who cause them.

Merz gets to promise an entire country the blue sky from heaven before the election, only to break ALL the promises after the election. But woe betide a pensioner who says it out loud. When did criticism of power in this country stop being a fundamental right?





As they point out in most of these angry posts over the incident, in the fairy tale, Pinocchio apologizes for being a liar. Merz has done no such thing, continuing on his merry path of perfidy.

WHEN DID CRITICISM OF POWER IN THIS COUNTRY STOP BEING A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT?

Oh, what a question for a German to ask. We here in America have all been assured you’ve got so much more freedom than we do.

But as for losing the right to criticize, that happened a while ago.

It seems that there’s so much more and many more politicians to criticise now, and they’re terribly thin-skinned about being called out.

So they gave themselves a ‘quiet the peanut gallery’ tool.

StGB §188 is the notorious “lèse-majesté” statute, which the Bundestag expanded substantially in 2021 when politicians grew tired of being criticised for suspending most of our democratic freedoms in a mad drive to exterminate a respiratory virus. As currently formulated, StGB §188 enhances penalties for “insult, malicious gossip and defamation” when the rabble direct these at “persons in political life,” and also makes these transgressions easier to prosecute. In this case, the pinched schoolmarms on the “social media team” who run the Heilbronn Police Facebook page filed a complaint with prosecutors as soon as they noticed our pensioner’s comment. Apparently it is their policy to monitor comments and cry to teacher whenever they see anything they don’t like.





They are mocking the crap out of Merz and the tattle-tales.

…”Outrageous, comparing me to Merz!” – Pinocchio reports Heilbronn pensioner to authorities  

Brutal.

No wonder they want X shut down.

SAVING DEMOCRACY BY STRIPPING ONE GERMAN FREEDOM AWAY AT A TIME

Banning everything we don’t like.





That’s how the European elite saves democracy from the Europeans.

 

 


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