No hate speech laws. Endless political violence, real or imagined. Europe gets it.

[Fred Sanders]

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134239713/France-Isnt-The-Only-Country-To-Prohibit-Hate-Speech

[Cha]

1. Mahalo, Fred

[cilla4progress]

2. I agree.

I don't think it's that hard to write and enforce. Similar to child porn, snuff films. However the lines are becoming more blurred all the time, including in the mainstream.

[Ezior]

3. I used to believe that "sunlight is the best disinfectant".. but not so sure now

It seems like a sizable part of the population is affected by hate speech if it somehow emotionally touches them. Maybe because they are really afraid of "others" or because they have a feeling of their own superiority. Maybe both.

So now I'm not sure if 100% free speech for everyone is desirable. E.g. we put Horst Mahler in prison for denying the Holocaust, and that's a good thing IMO.


And I think regulation of media is related to this. Even without using hate speech, many people are easily manipulated through TV, radio or web sites. They just put their own spin on every news item and carefully select which topics to focus on in their reporting. I realize many German news outlets might even have a slight left-wing bias. I'm glad about that though.

This is a very delicate topic. There's a fine line between reasonable regulation, and totalitarian censorship / "thought crime".

[X_Digger]

4. You really should read the articles you post, and/or the positions of the folks you link to.

Free hint: they're against such nebulous laws like 'hate speech' laws.