Off-Guardian

Eminent and influential "covid" skeptic Dr Sucharit Bhakdi is about to be prosecuted tomorrow, May 23, under German law for:

1. having incited hatred against a religious group and attacked the human dignity of others by insulting and maliciously disparaging that religious group, while acting in concert in a manner likely to disturb the public peace; and

2. having publicly trivialized an act committed under the rule of National Socialism of the kind described in Section 6 (1) of the International Criminal Code in a manner likely to disturb public peace.

Now you may or may not agree with Bhakdi's statements regarding the Jews and Israel. It's your free right to do either.

You might think he doesn't go far enough in condemning Israel, or you might think he goes too far. You might think he expressed himself clumsily and without due regard for the difference between Jewish people and the arguably criminal Israeli state. You might think it's a stretch to describe modern Israel as "worse" than the Nazis, or you might think it's more than accurate.

But all of that is missing the real point, which is – Bhakdi is being prosecuted for expressing an opinion.

That's all.

Despite the weasel wording of the accusation, he wasn't calling for or threatening acts of violence, he wasn't even "acting in concert" to "disturb the peace" – he was just telling people what he thought.

The real question here isn't do you agree with him, it's do you, or any of us, want to live in a world in which a person can be penalized by the state, fined or put in prison, for the thoughts in their head?

For thought crime?

This is why Bhakdi deserves your support.

Because his case illustrates the real intent behind the criminalizing of selective avenues of thought. And it has nothing to do with respecting the dead or preventing another Holocaust.