Impose a Ban on Communist Symbols?

[Laika]

The issue of banning communist era symbols such as the hammer and sickle, the red star and the red flag, is currently an issue in much of post-communist Eastern Europe in trying to deal with their Communist past. Bans on such symbols are in effect in Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. A ban was seriously discussed in Estonia but was dropped on the grounds of free speech. Within the EU, there have been moves for a European wide ban (which failed). individual countries have the right to do so- though these are challenged on free speech grounds.

Internationally, Several US states banned the use of Red Flags but in the stormberg vs California decision, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional. Indonesia also enforces a ban on Communist symbols as part of laws against promoting communist ideology.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bans_on_Communist_symbols

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_star#Legal_status

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_and_sickle#Legal_status

Do you think Communist symbols should be banned as an extremist/ totalitarian ideology responsible for crimes against humanity? Would you ban Nazi symbols as well as systems comparable to or worse than communism? Or should they be defended on the grounds of freedom of speech and free expression?

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

The issue of banning communist era symbols such as the hammer and sickle, the red star and the red flag, is currently an issue in much of post-communist Eastern Europe in trying to deal with their Communist past. Bans on such symbols are in effect in Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. A ban was seriously discussed in Estonia but was dropped on the grounds of free speech. Within the EU, there have been moves for a European wide ban (which failed). individual countries have the right to do so- though these are challenged on free speech grounds.

Internationally, Several US states banned the use of Red Flags but in the stormberg vs California decision, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional. Indonesia also enforces a ban on Communist symbols as part of laws against promoting communist ideology.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bans_on_Communist_symbols

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_star#Legal_status

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_and_sickle#Legal_status

Do you think Communist symbols should be banned as an extremist/ totalitarian ideology responsible for crimes against humanity? Would you ban Nazi symbols as well as systems comparable to or worse than communism? Or should they be defended on the grounds of freedom of speech and free expression?

Since there's a ban on fascist & Nazi symbols there should also be a ban on communist era symbols. The current imbalance doesn't really make sense - let me give you an example. Back when Call of Duty Black Ops came out you had the option of making your own little banner to display on the kill-cam. You could make your own emblem but there were also pre-made ones for people to use two of these were the Nazi Germany flag and the Soviet Union flag. Admins for the Call of Duty servers on both Playstation & Xbox Live took to banning people who displayed the former but not the latter which understandably met with some frustration; why give people the option of displaying it if you're going to perma-ban them for it. Further, why was one okay but not the other? If both flags are associated with regimes that murdered & oppressed millions then ban them both.

I'm quite lucky since that's the only time I've ever encountered it - in video games.

 

[Augustus]

Do you think Communist symbols should be banned as an extremist/ totalitarian ideology responsible for crimes against humanity? Would you ban Nazi symbols as well as systems comparable to or worse than communism? Or should they be defended on the grounds of freedom of speech and free expression?

I don't see them as being analogous.

Nazism was a worse ideology that communism, an idea recognised even by conservatives like Churchill who despised communism.

Communism wasn't exclusionary and reliant on the innate superiority/inferiority that a group acquired at birth. Communist symbols are not really used to celebrate the gulags or purges, and there is always the argument that it was the implementation of the ideology that led to millions of deaths, rather than them being a necessity. Nazi symbols are used to celebrate the dark side of the ideology, and this dark side is really the most salient aspect of the ideology to modern Nazis. I'd say Nazi iconography and imagery is more provocative.

I also quite like Soviet art and design.

Saying that, I don't personally believe freedom of expression needs to be granted to those who wish to use it to destroy this right for others so the decision to ban or not comes down to social harm rather than idealism. Eastern European countries might want to ban them, just as Central European countries banned the swastika due to perceived social harm

 

[Revoltingest]

I voted to ban banning.

 

[Mindmaster]

The issue of banning communist era symbols such as the hammer and sickle, the red star and the red flag, is currently an issue in much of post-communist Eastern Europe in trying to deal with their Communist past. Bans on such symbols are in effect in Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. A ban was seriously discussed in Estonia but was dropped on the grounds of free speech. Within the EU, there have been moves for a European wide ban (which failed). individual countries have the right to do so- though these are challenged on free speech grounds.

Internationally, Several US states banned the use of Red Flags but in the stormberg vs California decision, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional. Indonesia also enforces a ban on Communist symbols as part of laws against promoting communist ideology.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bans_on_Communist_symbols

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_star#Legal_status

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_and_sickle#Legal_status

Do you think Communist symbols should be banned as an extremist/ totalitarian ideology responsible for crimes against humanity? Would you ban Nazi symbols as well as systems comparable to or worse than communism? Or should they be defended on the grounds of freedom of speech and free expression?

I don't believe in banning them because first it will be these symbols then it'll be something else. It's all about setting precedents, and the only one set by this is that it is OK to ban something because it is politically incorrect. That's always a moving target, and to do so immediately reduces the intellectual freedom of the place that starts enacting these policies. You can't do this and be engaged in any sort of freedom...

 

[George-ananda]

This discussion raises a question in my mind. Is there any ban in the USA against flying certain types of flags and symbols (lets say Nazi, KKK, White Nationalist, ISIS, etc.)? Lets say we are at war; can we fly the flag of our enemy? This has never been clear to me. Anyone understand how this works?