131–140 of 192 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
you can criticize speech laws for now . And tbh, not sure to which extent it is true. There is no switch front democracy to dictatorship, there is a transition.
> you can criticize speech laws for now. And tbh, not sure to which extent it is true. You are commenting on an article which critiques these laws. It's not the first either. So what you're saying is demonstrably nonsense.
Britain has a problem. But so does America. Quite a few people (non citizens so far), have been arrested for criticising the actions of the current Israeli government.
The comparison is made with America's First Amendment, which is a valuable piece of legislation. How does the law in the US treat incitement to violence, as shown by some of the cases described, e.g. Among them were people who said things like “blow the mosque up” and “set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards”. That probably would have been legal in America, says Gavin Phillipson of Bristol University,…
I used to think I lived in a democracy, but the last couple of years pulled back the curtain revealing the true nature of western democracy
- the worst democracy is better than the best dictatorship (we are not the worst, others could be worse)
- the system is good and perfect, it's just a few bad actors ruining it (we can fix it as long as we fix these certain bad actors)
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I'm not sure it can be attributed to political parties in the UK. By most standards, the British political tradition has remained paternalistic in it's mindset, and a lot of the shifts in civil liberties happened fairly late (1980s-90s) and without the requisite judicial scaffolding being built in place. Furthermore, a lot of the same powers and institutions used for internal security during the Troubles were redeplo…
Yes, the Troubles are a huge factor, the security services play a huge and unwelcome part in our political process. I think I mentioned elsewhere, I assume most people are familiar with this but most of the media campaigns that accompany legislation are pushed by the police/security services. Online Safety Act was an example, there was a massive media campaign over multiple years. I believe the case that caused it ha…
I'd like to smash every tooth in your head.
Sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking when I said
By rights, you should be bludgeoned in your bed.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=u-JDl5IeDIY&si=9ibHizB9IqD...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
West Yorkshire Police tried to arrest an autistic child for saying a female police officer looked like her lesbian nana on private property. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-66462895 No muddling of the law here, just pure police overreach.
Police didn't arrest J.K. Rowling for her tweets about transwomen after the new Scottish law came into force, even when she asked them to. No muddling of the new law just police... Underreach? Or not doing their job? Depends who you ask. Either way tit for tat examples help nothing. Fact is, police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Plus it's good to just blame them for things they aren't in control of.
I used to think I lived in a democracy, but the last couple of years pulled back the curtain revealing the true nature of western democracy
Yes, there are definitely problems, but at least you can criticise the speech laws. And fight to change them. In fact if you feel strongly about it you can do something about it. The article mentions the Free Speech Union in the UK. There is also the EFF in the USA. Democracy requires that we fight for it. Otherwise it will disappear. In dicatorships there is no opportunity to speak out.
I get why democracy has to be indirect when it comes to many complicated, interconnected issues but things like free speech laws, abortion laws, public decency laws, smoking bans etc. should all be decided in a direct vote (repeated every N years). As it is we often have a situation where significant majority have a different view but a small strong group is able to influence the law. It's not a democracy but a farce in my view.
I used to think I lived in a democracy, but the last couple of years pulled back the curtain revealing the true nature of western democracy
Fun fact, democracy doesn’t mean free society. People can vote for less freedom
The thing that boggles my mind most is the UK libel laws where stating a true, verifiable fact can be illegal if it makes the subject look bad. Someone tell me I’ve got that wrong.