2 ms·

Imagine for a moment, that people were accused of violating this law in a way which was not offensive to a specific ideology, or at least not the same one as th

Imagine for a moment, that people were accused of violating this law in a way which was not offensive to a specific ideology, or at least not the same one as the chap here.... Actually, we don't have to imagine this. First they came for the bloke that posted bad taste jokes about a murder victim, and he got 12 weeks in jail [1] Then they came for the man who insulted a policeman by sharing a Snapchat picture of his face with a penis superimposed on it, and he was fined £400 and required to do a community service punishment [2] Then they came for the people who direspected military dead by burning poppies and they got nights in cells and fines and hastily organised commemorative apologies [3] Then they came for the bloke that tweeted something about tEh LGBT AgEnDA, he got off relatively lightly and the police got their wrists slapped, and people started quoting Ayn Rand and talking about how uniquely oppressive "woke" people are [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19869710 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19869710 [2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2552269/Builder-ordered-pay-policeman-400-drawing-two-penises-picture-posting-Facebook.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2552269/Builder-ord... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/nov/12/kent-man-arrested-burning-poppy https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/nov/12/kent-man-arrested...

matrix_overload 4y ago
Thank you for actually finding good counter-examples. Come to think of it, the problem is deeper. The first level is that many western societies have vocal groups of people whose joy in life comes from bullying others (getting other people fired, targeting them with rather disproportionate punishments, campaigning outside their houses, etc). The woke/progressive movement has attracted a lot of these people, but I agree that blaming all progressives for doing that is like blaming all conservatives for being racist. The second level is that the governments realized that by giving platform to bullies they can keep the public busy with an endless third-world-style feud, while escaping accountability for many real problems (former middle class plunging into poverty). The third level is that most people refuse to scrutinize the actions of those who claim to be fighting for a good cause, refuse to check for conflicts of interest, refuse to distinguish between anti-discrimination and attention seeking and refuse to focus on actions rather than identities. And this makes the 2 previous levels possible.

matrix_overload 4y ago

Thank you for actually finding good counter-examples. Come to think of it, the problem is deeper. The first level is that many western societies have vocal groups of people whose joy in life comes from bullying others (getting other people fired, targeting them with rather disproportionate punishments, campaigning outside their houses, etc). The woke/progressive movement has attracted a lot of these people, but I agree that blaming all progressives for doing that is like blaming all conservatives for being racist. The second level is that the governments realized that by giving platform to bullies they can keep the public busy with an endless third-world-style feud, while escaping accountability for many real problems (former middle class plunging into poverty). The third level is that most people refuse to scrutinize the actions of those who claim to be fighting for a good cause, refuse to check for conflicts of interest, refuse to distinguish between anti-discrimination and attention seeking and refuse to focus on actions rather than identities. And this makes the 2 previous levels possible.