Has the guy you are own about just been fined £800?
Why, exactly? Was anyone at risk of physical harm? It was clearly intended to be humorous, not as a call to action.
Where exactly do you draw the line between a joke and "hate speech"? Many contemporary comedians make rape jokes. Rape is a serious crime and it's an entirely reasonable conclusion to reach that such jokes would be grossly offensive and upsetting to a rape victim. Maybe comedians who make rape jokes should receive a knock at the door from the police?
Seems that the response of most people is "Ach, the boy's clearly a bit of a tool so whatever". If it was one of your favourite comedians being charged for saying something deemed offensive I doubt you would be so indifferent.
To be clear, I'm not saying that there isn't a line that shouldn't be crossed. But that's a distinction for us to make culturally and socially not a distinction for the law to make.
Has the guy you are own about just been fined £800?
F'uckin ridiculous that having a sense of humour is against the law.
Then , if he really meant it
F'uckin ridiculous that having a point of view is against the law.
He raised 80k in a crowd fund set up to pay his fine
Mason, that's weak. Total straw man argument.
The question isn't whether it's in poor taste or even immoral to laugh at certain things. The question is whether certain forms of speech should be a criminal offense.
Holocaust Denial is a crime in certain countries. There are clearly reasons for that. Holocaust denial may be morally reprehensible but should all morally reprehensible speech be made illegal? If that is the standard who decides what is morally reprehensible or what criteria may be applied to determine whether speech is morally reprehensible? I also don't like the idea that there is one accepted view of history. Let the facts stand for themselves.
Last edited by ragnarok; 26-04-2018 at 06:32 AM.
We’ve been down this road before. I knew the first guy in Scotland to get jail time over inciting racial hatred. They flung the book at him for leafleting pollockshaws with BNP material. At the time, there was a bit of an outcry about freedom of speech issues , sets a dangerous precedent etc etc. You know what happened? F*ck all. Just like f*ck all’s going to change when this bell ends 15 minutes are up. Everyone can relax, the reason he ended up in court was because he’s a bell end. People are still telling offensive jokes & not ending up in front of a judge