john may

Glen, we have to make a distinction between hate inciting gross offence and social outrage. These two may over lap but they are not the same thing. Just because you hear people loudly complaining about say a straight actor playing a gay role or things that may seem more trivial like fat shaming, and while I agree on the cumulative that can become…[Read more]

Indeed, in addition to laws against publishing pornography, laws against fraud…

…perjury, causing a panic, inciting a crime, speech that interferes with a police investigation, libel, misleading advertising, lewdness towards children, speech that causes a public disruption, speech that is in contempt of court. All of these involve penalties…[Read more]

Okay thanks Kristina for the info. I’m sure Anne Coulter’s speech was full of accurate non-inflammatory insightful constructive meaningful information. 😉

Jake I think the US has a particularly tough process to passing constitutional change (I mean the president, 2/3 of both houses AND 34 states to get a single amendment through. Yikes. It means only under the most exceptional circumstances can any even remotely contested amendments get through.

To be honest I think the two amendments the US need…[Read more]

Indeed Christina it very much depends on the country. In some countries it is an additional aspect to a crime, in some countries though it is a crime in an of itself (especially some European countries). Saying to a resident or citizen from Latino origin in Spain “fuck off you peanut…you don’t belong here…Spain is only for Spanish blood go…[Read more]

Enconginator: North American schools can be thoroughly vicious. I did part of my schooling in Canada and I can promise you it is a different universe to most (though certainly not all continental European schools). I think all of my continental European friends had never heard of vicious relentless bullying until they watched a hollywood film…[Read more]

Hate crimes are, in most countries, directed towards people of marginalised groups, almost always those with a quality that cannot be changed (ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability). Police choose to be police and can stop being police. They are not marginalised…they have more power (and in some countries where they aren’t overly violent and…[Read more]

Unseen I never said that. I don’t know who said that. Not my quote at all.

In just about every democratic country other than the United States there is no absolute free speech law. Never has been and unlikely never will be. There are limited rights in some countries and effectively in all of them there is 99.9% free speech. In most European…[Read more]

Yeah I highly doubt there will be widespread violence. My question is: if he had a realistic opportunity to stoke serious violence (thousands of deaths) would he do it…even if just to attempt to “save face”?

Unseen I know you have this strange idea that you are gifted in brevity but as your posts grow increasingly longer (and sometimes superfluous) it does make me laugh.

Encognitaor…do you still stand by your claim that the US hyperoverspending in the military has helped make Europe safer (considering your military adventures in the Middle East has clearly made life more dangerous for us?). Considering military numbers in Europe are 50,000,000 I’m curious which country would invade Europe if the US wasn’t…[Read more]

Also I don’t live in the US (nor do quite a few of us here) and there are VERY FEW countries other than the US who have such an extreme version of free speech (nor are any European countries that I know of, nor Canada NZ etc clamouring for it). America can allow all the bigotry and life altering hate speech they want. Doesn’t mean the world should…[Read more]

Hi Glen,

If you’ve faced life altering racism, homophobia, trans-phobia or some other kind of bigotry then I apologise. Have you? Honestly the overwhelming majority of people who have no problem with hate-speech are those who have never suffered from it. I have and I can tell you suffering from hate speech is life altering for many and creates…[Read more]

Unfortunately people do act dangerously on ideas. Within the United States alone when politicians rant off hate speech cases of violence, prejudice, discrimination, harassment and vandalism against LGTBQ+, minorities and other groups go up (including murder). This is especially the case when the hate speech equates groups of people as “not human”.…[Read more]

Glen that’s all easy to say when you don’t have to deal with the prejudice, discrimination, aggression, violence and criminal acts of (directly from or encouraged by) racism, homophobia, trans-phobia and other forms of bigotry.

I’ll check out “You are not the Target” if you recommend it. I thoroughly enjoyed The Tao of Pooh (a secular explanation of Toaistoc metaphores). It gets a little hokey sometimes but it’s a real fun read.

Glen I’m not against generic motivational speaking. What I am against is overly broad claims (just like your friend said). You don’t need to give false promises and absolutes to motivate people. There simply isn’t enough data about how effective these kinds of books are (do people who are already driven read them for example?) but there is…[Read more]

A deflection, not addressing the points, making a joke instead of responding. It’s what I expected. Please don’t let me stop you repeating nonsense conservative talking points.

Thanks for that Eco. That was utterly hilarious. Can’t remember the last time I rolled my eyes that much. Oh thank you great American saviour for protecting us from the worlds boogeymen. Your uncountable military conflicts around the world have certainly made Europe a safer place and your escapades in the Middle East (and the unleashing of Iraqi,…[Read more]