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Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

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Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#41

I’m generally in favour of some limits on speech. I don’t think you should be able to tweet racist messages for example. It’s obviously very complicated and something people are going to argue a lot about. BUT this case has made me change my opinion. Things much worse than this are tweeted every day and this is the one that gets prosecuted. It’s blatantly politically motivated (‘national hero’, British soldier etc) a…

The problem with banning things like "racism" is that words change meaning over time. Maybe some time in the future, any reference to "White Privlege" may be considered racist, for instance.

Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the issue with the knife ban?

You need to be 18+ and present ID to buy a kitchen knife. Or even scissors.

The alternative would be selling pre-sliced food like most Asian countries.

Anticipating news of someone being spooned to death.

Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#45
post #20
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also disturbing that the police complains it is not given the means to combat knife crime but thinks it is a good use of their resource to police politeness on twitter.

What is typical for organization like police is that they prioritize things that gets the best statistics in a spreadsheet, not the best result for society.

Which only shows their activities are graded with wrong criteria. But as we all know from office life, picking valid criteria for performance ratings is an adventure by itself...

Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#46
post #2

Interesting case: drunken tweet to a small follower count, deleted after 20 minutes, leading to prosecution and conviction. The Online Safety Bill which is due to be passed, with further empower institutions to police 'harmful messages'. I guess ideological conformity is a good thing for stable society?

The fact he was drunk doesn't really have much to do with it. It wouldn't be an excuse for running somebody down in his car or stabbing someone and shouldn't be here.

Drunk in charge of a communications device is hardly on the same scale as driving a vehicle. One is likely to cause actual bodily harm. The other is most likely to result in minor embarrassment, except in a few wild outlier cases.

Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#47

I’m generally in favour of some limits on speech. I don’t think you should be able to tweet racist messages for example. It’s obviously very complicated and something people are going to argue a lot about. BUT this case has made me change my opinion. Things much worse than this are tweeted every day and this is the one that gets prosecuted. It’s blatantly politically motivated (‘national hero’, British soldier etc) a…

I never understood why "slippery slope" was listed among other logical fallacies. It is exactly the opposite.

When the UK brought in laws around lockdowns and handling covid people here were complaining that it was a slippery slope and the government would never give up those restrictions yet they did exactly that and those laws are no longer in play.

In that case the slippery slope argument was a fallacy.

Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the issue with the knife ban?

You need to be 18+ and present ID to buy a kitchen knife. Or even scissors.

Not scissors. Or folding pocket knives https://www.bromley.gov.uk/leaflet/122601/20/480/d

Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#49
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are in favour of limits on speech then you should not have a problem with this. Everything is offensive to someone. We should all go to prison!

Just like how speed limits necessitate the arrest of everyone who drives.

...over the speed limit, yes. The point of parent's post is that the offensive nature of a statement or speech in general is subjective and can change with whims and the time. A speed limit is objective and quantifiable; if you go over the speed limit stated you get fined, there's no room for interpretation

Re: Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK

#50

I’m generally in favour of some limits on speech. I don’t think you should be able to tweet racist messages for example. It’s obviously very complicated and something people are going to argue a lot about. BUT this case has made me change my opinion. Things much worse than this are tweeted every day and this is the one that gets prosecuted. It’s blatantly politically motivated (‘national hero’, British soldier etc) a…

I never understood why "slippery slope" was listed among other logical fallacies. It is exactly the opposite.

Slippery slope isn’t automatically a fallacy. It’s a fallacy if you don’t articulate why A would lead to B.

The government using an anti-CSAM filter to further restrict, say, copyright infringements has precedent, so could be a valid slippery slope.

The idea people pushed that marriage equality would lead to people being able to legally marry their animals was fallacious because nobody could articulate a logical jump from same sec couples to interspecies.

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