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The Antisocial Fabric: German and American Approaches to Flags As Hate Speech in Public Demonstration

Authors :
Christopher Wood Eckels
Source :
Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative ISBN: 9783030328641
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Springer International Publishing, 2021.

Abstract

Flag use by far-right demonstrators at the 2017 Unite the Right rally is similar to historical flag use in public demonstration by antidemocratic groups seeking to deprive others of equal democratic rights, such as the Nazi Party between 1920 and 1945 and American segregationists during the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-twentieth century. This sort of flag use brings democratic values such as free speech and equal protections into conflict. Since World War II, international democratic norms have shifted to emphasize human dignity and equality, even if it requires limitations on free speech. Germany’s constitutional order is designed to protect democracy from antidemocratic groups in part by criminalizing display of flags representing them. Meanwhile, free speech absolutism in the United States makes it exceedingly difficult to impose legal sanctions for flag use, allowing flags that are in fact hate speech to masquerade as protected political speech.

Details

ISBN :
978-3-030-32864-1
ISBNs :
9783030328641
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative ISBN: 9783030328641
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........380760d55da707c0350164ca9c061860
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32865-8_16