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A comment on Poll: Only 18 Percent of Germans Feel Free to Voice Views in Public (2019). Parent comment

Re:Poll: Only 18 Percent of Germans Feel Free to Voice Views... by boredprograming on Tuesday June 15, 2021 @07:58AM (#27514007)
What's said in private is a classic "they said, I said". It's not a legal danger. This article implies the danger is legal liability, which wouldn't explain so little willing to voice their views in private.

The only reasonable explanation is the poll is done on a very private or paranoid group

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Re:Poll: Only 18 Percent of Germans Feel Free to Voice Views... by MikeUt on Tuesday June 15, 2021 @08:09AM (#27514102)
> What's said in private is a classic "they said, I said". It's not a legal danger.

This is false, even if we limit ourselves to only legal danger. If you say something to two people, and one of them repeats your words to the police, the police can easily ask the second person for confirmation. Add a few vague "lying to the police is very serious" threats, and there's a good chance the second person will betray you.

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Re:Poll: Only 18 Percent of Germans Feel Free to Voice Views... by boredprograming on Tuesday June 15, 2021 @08:19AM (#27514193)
This kind of evidence is the weakest there is in court. I doubt it would go anywhere
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Re:Poll: Only 18 Percent of Germans Feel Free to Voice Views... by grumple on Tuesday June 15, 2021 @08:03AM (#27514047)
When gossip, public shaming, and excommunication are commonplace, what's said in private matters a lot.

Heresy - questioning the orthodoxy of today's doctrines - carries a high punishment these days.

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Re:Poll: Only 18 Percent of Germans Feel Free to Voice Views... by boredprograming on Tuesday June 15, 2021 @08:18AM (#27514185)
They used to hang people for heresy, and they still do in some countries. I think "people will be upset with me" is pretty mild viewed in a historical lens
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Re:Poll: Only 18 Percent of Germans Feel Free to Voice Views... by bellyfullofbac on Tuesday June 15, 2021 @09:15AM (#27514924)
Yeah, the blog post, from a biased writer, makes the implication. The poll itself was quite neutral IMO.

I wrote in another comment [1] why people might be wary about voicing their opinions, TL;DR: polarizing topics with staunch opinions from both sides (and about the other side) would lead to heated debates.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27514258

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