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Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this just like how BAFIN filed a lawsuit against financial journalists who were reporting on the Wirecard fraud instead of going after Wirecard?

Seems like government assisted bullying is the default M.O. in Germany if you're the little guy and happen to step on the toes of the rich and powerful.

IMHO, in this regard, Germany is way worse than the US.

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>Seems like government sponsored bullying is the default M.O. in Germany.

Yes it is, it's a bit like the CCP, if they think it's anything against them (truthfully or not) they bite first and second, then stop talking about it and hope everyone forgets. Works pretty well for everyone directly involved...so no pressure to change anything.

The media is also very pro-government so that helps.

They seem to work together.

PFFFT! BAFIN... what did you expect from the country of CUM-EX?

Or, to go back to 2001, to the 'Frankfurter Steuerfahnder-Affäre', where people tried to do their job, and got mobbed, bullied, canceled and even psychiatrized for it!

But won after years of law-suits.

* https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/schadenersatz-fuer-st...

Small correction, it would have been the BAFIN (banking regulator) and not the BAMS (migration office)

Corrected, thanks.

Unfortunately Germany is slowly slipping to a totalitarian state it traditionally used to be. Now they are even planning compulsory vaccination for everyone.

Wild take. Not only completely untrue, but also very amusing in its implication that there is overlap between the people preferring a totalitarian Germany and the people who would want compulsory vaccination.

Well it seems neighboring Austria will fine unvaccinated residents[1], so it's definitely not a wild take. Second, totalitarian !== Nazi.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-22/vaccine-h...

I mean, the vaccination measures now pile on top of the war on terror measures that a whole generation was already born, and normalized, to anyway.

So this trend into more authoritarian structures is very real in a very objective way.

And if everything keeps going as it does, there's a non zero probability this situation won't be of a temporary nature, just like there is a non zero probability that vaccines will need to be boosted/reapplied even more often.

Sum all of that up, and it's a quite dystopian scenario we are possibly heading into.

The constitution works both ways: The state has to ensure personal liberty to everyone but what if a group started to restrict another group's liberties? Which group do you provide liberty for? It's a dilemma: Either those who sacrificed 2 years of their liberty so that scientists could come up with a vaccine, restoring all previous liberties after herd immunity would've been reached, all without causing the deaths millions of vulnerable people. Or those who decide against a vaccine where there is scientific consensus on effectiveness, who cause the infection to spread further and further, without having a scientific/rational reason for the decision, because it's rooted in fear.

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