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Playing word association with free speech

A number of German news sources, including the leading newspapers Die Zeit and Der Tagesspiegel, have been reporting last night’s Union forum as a “Rassisten-Konferenz”. I don’t think I need to translate.

A quick Google search shows the following uses of that term across the web:

1. Referring to a far-right conference in Russia, posted on The Phora, which appears to be a borderline white supremacist website. I don’t think I’ll link to that…

2. The same event, this time posted on Redskin, which claims to be a left-wing anti-fascist skinheads society. I might pass on the link again…

3. A report on the same far-right conference on an anti-racist information site, Redok.

4. Referring to potential anti-Semitism at the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, in an article on haGalil.com, the largest online Jewish magazine in German.

Talk about misguided association…UPDATE: To add to what was on the BBC last night, Der Spiegel are now reporting that the group of protesters who got inside the debating chamber went behind the piano and started playing Jingle Bells. Apparently at one point Luke Tryl tried to hide behind a group of security guards, and a demonstrator tried to follow after him. When stopped by a policeman, he piped up: "I was just trying to find out if this was the entrance to the comedy club." Fun stuff indeed.

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