In Germany, the Nazi would be arrested (assuming that their statements or outward displays were in violation of German thought policing on Nazi-ism). In America, the Nazi would only be arrested if he tried to act on his threats, or otherwise created a reasonable fear of imminent harm.
We can argue subjectively about which is more effective, but one way has not yet proven to be more effective than the other as far as I know. It seems like the solution to this issue is currently more or less left up to the will of the masses. Do the masses want to allow for such displays or not? However, if the slippery slope that is so often threatened by those who are against such thought policing were an inevitable conclusion, then Germany should have fallen back into some form of authoritarianism long ago.
If you really think about it though, it is pretty ironic that America currently seems much more threatened by a slide into authoritarian rule than Germany. Currently American free press is under massive attack, tribalism has more or less completely replaced policy-based politics, and facts have become fungible to the extent that much of the American populace has renounced intellectualism and/or science and instead is willing to accept so-called "alternate facts" which have no basis in any concept of objectivity and in many cases have no basis in reality.
This current trend of America's gradual intellectual degradation was of course satirized in Mike Judge's famous cult film "Idiocracy," which seems eerily prophetic nowadays. I don't know that I am qualified to say to what extent this phenomenon has to do with America's particular ideology about freedom of speech/ideas, but I do think that it must be acknowledged that when crackpot ideas and ridiculousness are routinely placed onto a pedestal as equivalent to scientific facts and intellectual pursuits, such degradation does seem like an inevitable conclusion.
In Germany, the Nazi would be arrested (assuming that their statements or outward displays were in violation of German thought policing on Nazi-ism). In America, the Nazi would only be arrested if he tried to act on his threats, or otherwise created a reasonable fear of imminent harm.
We can argue subjectively about which is more effective, but one way has not yet proven to be more effective than the other as far as I know. It seems like the solution to this issue is currently more or less left up to the will of the masses. Do the masses want to allow for such displays or not? However, if the slippery slope that is so often threatened by those who are against such thought policing were an inevitable conclusion, then Germany should have fallen back into some form of authoritarianism long ago.
If you really think about it though, it is pretty ironic that America currently seems much more threatened by a slide into authoritarian rule than Germany. Currently American free press is under massive attack, tribalism has more or less completely replaced policy-based politics, and facts have become fungible to the extent that much of the American populace has renounced intellectualism and/or science and instead is willing to accept so-called "alternate facts" which have no basis in any concept of objectivity and in many cases have no basis in reality.
This current trend of America's gradual intellectual degradation was of course satirized in Mike Judge's famous cult film "Idiocracy," which seems eerily prophetic nowadays. I don't know that I am qualified to say to what extent this phenomenon has to do with America's particular ideology about freedom of speech/ideas, but I do think that it must be acknowledged that when crackpot ideas and ridiculousness are routinely placed onto a pedestal as equivalent to scientific facts and intellectual pursuits, such degradation does seem like an inevitable conclusion.