Monday, April 14, 2008

Cue the music.


5, 6, 7, 8 ... shorter KKKate: Pardon my two-stepping while I attempt to dance around the fact that I recently said the Nazis weren’t responsible for the Holocaust. This, of course, further proves my point that the CHRCs are on a witch hunt against conservative bloggers. What? It totally makes sense in my mind.

5 comments:

Ti-Guy said...

From George Jonas (via KKKate):

What is "hate-speech"? It's speech the authorities hate. No doubt, it is often worth hating. It may be speech that every right-thinking person ought to hate, but it is also, by definition, speech that falls short of unlawful or tortuous speech -- i.e., speech that's fraudulent, defamatory, seditious, conspiratorial -- for which a person could be either sued or charged criminally. Hate-speech legislation seeks to regulate speech that is not against any law -- logically, since unlawful speech doesn't need to be outlawed.

Here's the paradox. Hate-speech legislation can only ban free speech. Prohibited speech is already banned.


Jonas, I believe deliberately, confuses censorship with torts and criminal charges.

There's no way to qualify speech at all until it is expressed; Jonas would only be able to describe particular utterances as "fraudulent, defamatory, seditious, conspiratorial" if he had authentic specimens of them to examine.

The comparison he makes with the Weimar Republic was with its efforts to censor the fascists by shutting down their presses, and (I assume) restricting their freedom of association. Frankly, from what we know, those efforts at suppression must have been pretty half-hearted.

The "free" in free speech means the freedom to say whatever one wants/thinks. Well, if people had a better handle on their anger and their hate, they'd be able to figure out how to express their dislike and hatred for the specific things specific people say or do and talk about that. That's a freedom I'd defend vigorously. We all need to know about those things, and if it just gets lost in a cacophony of dreary hate and bigotry, most people won't pay attention.

The less said about the implied warning that we're all going to end up in concentration camps if we don't support the illiberals (and the Right is essentially and fundamentally, illiberal), the better.

KEvron said...

even more shorterer: "we fascist bigots will have our day."

KEvron

liberal supporter said...

we're all going to end up in concentration camps if we don't support the illiberals

But it's true! After the majority, and the Enabling Act, of course.

catnip said...

Godwin's Law!

Next?

liberal supporter said...

Quirk's exception!

We were discussing neo-Nazi sympathizers and their plans for the rest of us, therefore Godwin does not apply.