I have found that people who are obsessed with the free speech issue are also extremely concerned with the preserving national identity by halting immigration, blame foreign people for the rise of crime in the UK, property prices and seem to generalise small groups of left wing fanatics in the Antifa and LBGT+ movement to becoming a large scale fascist movement that is a threat to them somehow. They see the BBC and many other such organisations as being left wing propagandists.
As I've said before, the concerns and the language that these people use tend to be very similar. And when you look at and listen to some of the conspiricist web sites, it's easy to see what is happening.
But from talking to such people, and I have personally spoken to a few that have emerged in the last few years, it only takes a few questions to reveal that all of these centre around preserving British identity and that immigrants are a threat to us.
Wishing to preserve English identity and traditions is fair enough. I'm proud of our relatively tolerant and open culture. But as we often seen on here, it is a fine line between this and seeing English culture as somehow superior, better than, other cultures and to see other cultures that we have chosen to invite and work in our country, as making us worse as a country. Likewise, using the crimes of the relative few criminals from people of these immigrant cultures to generalise hostile comments to their innocents majorities. That's where simple concern concern to preserve English identity becomes more sinister.
It would, despite what Fire says, be very simple to say that the phrase "Go home you paki *******" is in his opinion unacceptable. You might well say 'of course it is' but I'm asking Fire. And for some reason he finds it very difficult to answer. I wonder why?
I personally am just very interested, when people repeatedly (it obviously is a big concern of yours too) say that their 'free speech' is being eroded, exactly what that means, to find out where the parameters of what is and isn't acceptable to such people are. they choose to put these opinions on a message board - they shouldn't complain or say "it's too complicated to discuss on here" when others ask them to unpack what they mean by that. I've got time to listen. And tbh, as a start it doesn't take long to type "Yes" or "No" in response to 5 simple pieces of speech?
I would suggest, if people don't want to be challenged for their clearly passionately held views, then simply talk about football on a football message board?




Reply With Quote