Patriotism at work. Trump does all he can to insult Canada, and if people who govern Canada would allow it, they’d be seen as weak leaders. What they need is to work towards cutting any dependency on USA while defending their country worth.

Also, Trump rules only thanks to his show. Getting bitchslapped like that does hurt him. ^^

This isn’t WWII, we aren’t in war. By letting go of free speech you are letting goverment tell you what is ok to talk about, and by doing that you allow them to expand taboo. In times of need like today, that is necessary evil, however normally that is something out of horror.

For example, whether you agree or not, at the end of WW II communism was seen as almost as bad as nazizm, and in USA I think, may be wrong, that it was seen as worse. What’s bad is that every social policy is coupled with it mentally. If free speech wasn’t a thing, USA could tell it’s citizens that talking about nazizm, communism, social policies or unions is strictly forbidden under threat of, at least, financial fine.

While without context I’d agree that banning a gesture is a bit much, especially with such steep measures, I think that in a world when one of the de facto co-leaders of major if not the main world superpowers openly does nazi salute twice, we need to up the guard and cut this shit in the bud.

And as you said - we don’t know how to solve USA becoming a nazi state rapidly. Nobody does. And third reich ain’t gonna hold a candle to USA if they decide it’s time for blitzkrieg. So doingall we can to damage and reduce nazizm where we still can is admirable.

See, I am overall against any and all limits of free speech but…

Yeah. Context matters. And in current world context, good job Australia, hope outher countries take notes.

Probably lack of evidence. Escalating without evidence will give China political leverage.