Free speech? You must be kidding, we are civilized Germans

A 14-year old kid of a special school calls her teacher "Handicapped teacher ever" on Facebook. The 64-year-old bloke and teacher sues her. She gets sentenced by a court in Düsseldorf.

On Tuesday, the girl has now been sentenced to 20 hours of community service for insulting. What do you when and where required to complete, the juvenile court is set - these are employees of the Jugendamt, mostly social workers. The girl had admitted the fact and remorseful, said District Court spokesman Marcel Dué.

That both the Facebook friends of the student and their friends could see the offense, ie a "not very small circle", the General Court charged the accused counted so Dué. evaluate their favor was that she was only 14 years old and not yet convicted. Community service could be, for example, help out in a soup kitchen or in the cemetery.

This is just one in way more 200,000 and in 99.8% totally ridiculous libel/slander cases in German courts every year and soup kitchen sounds so immediately post 1945. That spirit never dies in Good Ol'.

The ludicrous court did apparently not bother to check on the mental stability of the teacher. After all, even young kids are able to assess grown-ups quite well. What if he is really a nut case? Perhaps he had traits like permanent sniffing or other strange noises.

Does not matter in Germany. People need to be pulled back in line and the German press goes along. It is a structured and hierarchical society and you better fit in, or else.

Noteworthy was in the process that the teacher has initiated a criminal case against the girl. He could also proceed civilly and demand that the picture is erased and he gets damages, especially since it is an underage student.

Generous a%&holes can count on German courts. The FAZ gives free advice what good conduct is.

A teacher going after a 14-year old, pulling her into court is just one thing: he is unfit to be a teacher. Besides, clinging to an ego is at the root of all libel and slander cases.

You have been conditioned since you were very young to relate everything to yourself. As soon as you learn to recognise people and things, you're taught how to relate these to the "I" and "mine"-- my mom, my dad, my toy, etc. As you grow up you're taught how to relate ideas and concepts to yourself. You have to learn that so that you can function properly in society.

But at the same time, this process slowly and unconsciously creates a concept of selfhood, and you build up your ego. This build up is strengthened by the values of society. You learn to compete, to achieve, to accumulate knowledge, wealth and power. In other words, you are trained to possess and to cling.

By the time you are grown up, the concept of ego-self has become so real that it is difficult to tell what is illusion and what is reality. It is difficult to realise that "I" and "mine" are temporary, relative and changeable. The same is true of all that is related to "I" and "mine." Not understanding that "I" and "mine" are temporary, you struggle to keep them permanent; you cling to them. This desire to try to keep everything permanent is what makes it so difficult to learn to let go.