Repressive Tolerance Made Real at the OSCE

The following video shows the intervention read by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, representing Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa, at OSCE Warsaw on September 25, 2019.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below is the prepared text for Ms. Sabaditsch-Wolff’s intervention:

Intervention by Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa

OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Working Session 15
Specifically selected topic: Hate Crime

Warsaw, September 25, 2019

Repressive Tolerance made real

In the previous session it was noted that I argued there was a lack of definition for “hate crime”. This is not true; what I argued was that there is no legal definition of the word “hate”, as it is an emotion.

The Agenda for this session raises the question on how participating States are “establishing and intensifying cooperation civil society to promote tolerance and non-discrimination.” Pax Europa notes that there is a strong tendency that this very implementation has been leading to the curtailing of freedom of expression, specifically the exercise of prior restraint or self-censorship, primarily in countries west of Vienna.

Secondly, as we have just been given a sense for the role repressive tolerance plays in turning tolerance upside down, we all know what IT MEANS and we all know why IT ISN’T STATED. Because if people understood what WAS meant, better yet, if you actually knew what it COULD mean, you would know it CAN BE a direct assault on freedom of expression, and the people would know to reject, it because it gives the State the arbitrary power to criminalize any activity or expression for any reason or no reason at all. This is repressive tolerance made real, and Marcuse would be proud!

BPE recommends:

  • That OSCE participating States take a crash course on the abuse of language that brings about the abuse of power as executed by those blindly following the narrative.

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.