this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Holy shit what a hellhole
I've heard of like one single case of anyone being prosecuted because of an insult in my 25 years being here. And there wasn't even any punishment as far as I remember.
There were and are quite a lot of cases. Not all are reported by media as it's not a big thing if a driver shows another driver the middle finger again. You would need to go through the archives of courts. (Or talk to people who work in attorney's offices.)
Edit: just found accidentally that in 2016 over 200.000 cases were registered and prosecuted.
I'm sure there are plenty if you take all 80 million people in Germany into account. My point is that it's not super common for it to happen, so uncommon that I don't personally know anyone involved in such a court case. I just know of the whole "du bist so 1 pimmel" debacle. It really only happens if you happen to find someone super petty.
Yeah, it's not very common that someone gets sued for insulting someone else. Still, about 235.000 in the last year, cases is still a higher number than one would expect. (Source: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/157630/umfrage/polizeilich-erfasste-faelle-von-beleidigungen-seit-1995/ ) As insults are an "Antragsdelikt" they are only prosecuted if someone files a police report and sues.
I tend to disagree with the notion of "being super petty" for suing someone over insults. Sure, there are quite a lot of them, I agree with you so far. But I think about a lot of worse cases, where people can even suffer from psychological damages, e.g., if they are being bullied that way. Or if such insults are coming in regularily and/or are very intense in their expression.
Oh yeah, that number is in fact much larger than I would have expected.
I'm not trying to say that anyone who sues for that reason is super petty. I'm saying that if someone shows you the middle finger because you cut them off and you end up suing them, you are super petty. I just assumed those are the majority, but maybe my assumptions are just incorrect again.
I find it good that there is such a law. It is a law to guide and enforce civil behaviour. No one should be exposed to this as if it were nothing.
By the way, that doesn't mean that you can't voice your opinion. Freedom of speech is protected so far. Even if that's confusing for some people: having an opinion and insulting someone are different things.
Edit: Typo. You can voice your opinion. forgot a "'t" at the "can".
They aren't. If I think you're a bootlicking chud, I have the right to say so in America. We don't let the offended party decide what is insulting.
They are. You can have a negative opinion about someone, but calling them names or do something insulting, like the "fuck you"-gesture, has mainly the purpose of hurting them.
Why do you think the offended party gets to decide what's insulting? They get to decide whether they sue, but the judge still decides whether it actually was an insult.
You still have the right to express your opinion. Insults are just not an opinion. You can say "I think you are ugly and support heavy government measures to protect the rights of other people". You can't say "You're a bootlicking chud".