Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is indivisible - I'm not entirely sure what the EU hopes to achieve with this preposterous notion. The United States have adopted a much more sensible approach to the problem of hate on the Internet: "...the United States believes the best way to reduce hate speech is to confront it, by promoting tolerance, understanding and other ideas that enlighten."

It's especially stupid to think that the Internet is responsible for the rise in racism throughout Europe, when the courts and the Bush/Blair administrations have done their level best to ensure that when people hear 'Muslim' they think 'Terrorist'. Conflating Islam with Fundamentalism has been a useful political myth that has provided an impetus for some brutal restrictions of civil liberties (mainly in America with its ironic PATRIOT act), and a moral high ground for the modern crusades against the middle east.

Of course, it's no surprise that France and Germany can't handle free speech - after all, it is a criminal offence in both countries to claim that the holocaust never happened. Sure, holocaust revisionism is a pretty stupid (and even offensive) argument to make, and the people who support it tend to have less than pristine scholastic records... but a criminal offence? Please. There are a hundred thousand other stupid and offensive arguments that aren't illegal, and yet we just trust in the natural order of things to ensure that they are forgotten, dismissed, and passed from record.

So, what do we get in Britain to promote racial tolerance? We get this. In Europe we get this. Valuable citizens are being denied their religious rights under the flimsiest of excuses ('she might fall and trip'. What the fuck is that?) and the vaguest of pretexts.

Yeah, it really does seem like the big danger to cultural unity in these modern times is that some jackasses post their racist diatribes on some neo-nazi bulletin board frequented only by tattooed fuckwits.