Is there free speech in Belfast?

[abaris]

The people operating the deathcamps didn't see themselves as murderous bastards either.  Please, step outside of your own conceptionms....this is what I;m asking you to do.  Because, for no other reason....the inability to do so is precisely the problem with "hate speech" to begin with.

No, they didn't see themselves that way. But your example still sucks. Because people could agree with new national greatness without agreeing to outright murder. They could agree with being employed again without wanting to see that working in the military industrial complex ultimately was the preparation for war. They agreed with what they wanted to see and - in their majority - closed their eyes on the ugly aspects. And the murder started literally under the fog of war. Before the leading Nazis didn't dare to take that step. There's a famous contemporary quote by pastor Martin Niemöller, which describes the situation best. I didn't find an english translation, so I'm providing it myself:

„Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen,
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen,
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich geschwiegen,
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr,
der protestieren konnte.“

Translation: As the Nazis took the Communists
I stayed silent
because I wasn't a communist

As they took the Social Democrats
I stayed silent
because I wasn't a social Democrat

As the smashed the Unions
I stayed silent
because I wasn't in a Union

As they took me
there was noone left
to protest

Niemöller had sympathies for the Nazis in the beginning, because he was a nationalist, but he was imprisoned in a concentration camp from 1937 to 1945.