> Where are you talking about?  In the USA, many police would probably 
> agree. I think you'd find it quite different in China, for example.

Exactly my point, here in the countries I've lived in, expressing your 
opinion in a sensible manner would never get you in trouble.

>> However if I start telling him about how I don't believe in the 
>> holocaust, or how I want to try and convince everyone to become Nazis, or 
>> if I start making insulting comments about people or groups of people
>
> You're not supposed to get in trouble for any of that stuff in the USA.

I think the whole holocaust/nazi/hitler thing here is a bit different from 
the rest of the world.  Germany needed to be seen as taking action, so were 
kind of forced to pass these laws.  As Warp pointed out, sometimes it's a 
bit stupid with eg the nazi symbol in books, but they have the laws to give 
the police power to really stop anything like that ever happening again.

> What possible benefit do you get from arresting someone who doesn't 
> believe in the holocaust?

It's not so much the arresting them, but the seriousness of the situation 
that it instills on everyone else.  It's like saying "look this is a really 
important part of history that we must never forget, there's no way anyone 
is allowed to try and mess it up by spreading false information and 
beliefs".

> The problem comes when you start arresting people next for not believing 
> that men are superior and that God exists and should be obeyed.

I think the holocaust is a just exception to normal beliefs.

> "Normal" people understand that displaying Nazi symbols in a text book 
> about the history or WWII isn't advocating Nazism, but the book got banned 
> in Germany for displaying Nazi symbols anyway.

I think with that one they just don't want to define a line to divide what 
is ok and what's not ok regarding the nazi symbol, far easier to just say 
nothing is ok.

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