France has an incident of workplace violence at Satirical Magazine

FluffyMcDeath said:
That twitter is for young liberal types?
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I haven't been on Twitter very long but I've encountered idiots as well as really clever people so I can't say it's ONLY for the young
 
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While the guy that writes my cheques expects a certain amount of working code each week, Glenn's got all day to devote to writing - so I'll just post this article of his which comes close to painting my view on this subject.

the point is that making fun of Muslims is socially sanctioned speech in the west. There is no risk in it because Muslims are generally without power. Anti-Muslim speech is common and retribution is rare. the powerful, on the other hand, can get speech shut down without acts of murder just by exercising their control of the social levers, the legal, financial and law enforcement powers of the state. Say the "wrong" things and real consequences can befall you. Make fun of Islam and the (Western) world laughs with you and your changes of dying from it is much less that of a night shift gas attendant.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
The freedom to speak is not the same as the freedom to force people to listen.
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Who is being forced to buy this magazine?

It is also a choice to be offended, the onus is entirely on the one making that choice. I would refer you to Hitchens as to the proper response to the statement of "I'm offended".

To demand that people be made responsible for others feelings of "offence" is a path to madness and totalitarianism. Every time I've seen communities that have enacted such rules, it's resulted in a race to be the most offended - Atheism+ was a prime example.

The way to combat "hate" speech is to encourage more speech.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
the point is that making fun of Muslims is socially sanctioned speech in the west. There is no risk in it because Muslims are generally without power. Anti-Muslim speech is common and retribution is rare. the powerful, on the other hand, can get speech shut down without acts of murder just by exercising their control of the social levers, the legal, financial and law enforcement powers of the state. Say the "wrong" things and real consequences can befall you. Make fun of Islam and the (Western) world laughs with you and your changes of dying from it is much less that of a night shift gas attendant.
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An incident of workplace violence in Bangladesh

Anti-Hijab’ Hindu Nursing teacher hacked to death on way to college in Chittagong in Islamic Bangladesh.


On your PC scale, who is oppressing who, in this incident?
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
You didn't read the link I was responding to.
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I read your link to the Telegraph story detailing the trial of the cartoonist, I read metalman's post below it too. Did I miss it? I still think it's a valid question, though I concede that its one that is more rhetorical than anything on this board.

I get that there is an inherent issue with freedom of expression, specifically the right to freedom after expression here in Europe and to an extent in the US as well. But beyond the language being used, I don't think there's a huge amount of distance between yours and Metalman's position on this - both of you state that certain things are considered off limits within the context of Europe. About the only difference I can see is that Metalman blames "Liberals" for it. I think is just plain wrong - whilst the push for such laws often (but by no means exclusively) comes from the Left, it is from the Authoritarian Left, rather than the Liberal Left.

Just to be clear, I don't think it's a left or right issue, but rather a liberal/authoritarian one. Right wing authoritarians will squelch free speech in the name of national security, left wing authoritarians tend to do it in the name of stopping "offence".
 
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