United Liberty
Australia looking to supress free speech
Mon, 08/13/2012 - 3:01pm | posted by Tom Knighton
Freedom of speech is one of the most important factors of a free society. The ability to say unpopular things is essential. After all, abolition was once an unpopular thing to talk about. So was civil rights. Questioning the government regarding the Vietnam War wasn’t always a popular thing either.
In the realm of ideas, you typically have a free market. Good ideas will grown, while bad ideas die a horrible, painful death given enough time. Not always (see communism, for example), but this is how it works most of the time. Most free nations understand that. However, Australia has apparently forgotten that little tidbit:
Australian MPs have started to call for legislative powers to compel social networks to swiftly remove offensive content, after Facebook failed to act decisively to remove a page containing numerous racist stereotypes of Australian aboriginals.
Facebook initially did nothing about the page, which disappeared briefly and then resurfaced marked as “controversial humour”.
The Social Network TM made some noises about freedom of speech, which apparently allows controversial humour even if it includes hate speech. At this point in the saga Australia’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy said he felt the page was inappropriate and should be removed.
Facebook seems to have finally done so as it became apparent the page contravened Australia’s racial discrimination laws. Controversy over the page also exploded into mainstream media. Australia’s media regulator and Racial Discrimination Commissioner are both looking into the incident.
Now, I’m not about to defend racism, or even hate speech itself. I think it’s absolutely ridulous and deserves to be trashed by anyone who can get their hands on it. It’s the sign of a warped mind in my opinion.
That said though, I can’t even come close to supporting this kind of tyranny over ideas. Yes, racism is horrible. The vast majority of people know this. However, when one can cast a certain type of speech as “hate speech,” it’s not overly difficult to see how that can be expanded. Look at how opposition to President Obama has been termed as “racism” by so many on the left, as if I needed it to be a black man for me to oppose bailouts (yes, I do understand who pushed through TARP I, but I also know how did TARP II), increased military adventurism, and the fact that Congress hasn’t passed a budget since Bush was in the White House.
Once you regulate “hate speech,” and then begin reframing things as “hate speech,” you then kill the opportunity for discussion. Take the recent mess with Chick-fil-A. Dan Cathy expressed an opinion. It’s one I happen to disagree with vehemently. However, there are those who would love to see such things cast as “hate speech” and thereby kill his right to voice his own opinion.
Here’s the thing folks. I believe Cathy is wrong. I believe that ultimately, the path of freedom will win out and somehow gays will be allowed to marry. Hopefully it’s through the state getting out of the marriage business, but it could be through other means. Regardless, I believe that a good idea will eventually win out over a bad idea. It may not, but that’s the risk we take. I can deal with that.
What I can’t deal with is the idea that in order to make our nation a good place to live, we must eliminate someone’s right to say something we don’t like. I mean, I can’t stand Justin Bieber, but that doesn’t mean we should outlaw the kid’s music.
There’s also the argument that if we outlawed Justin Bieber, Jason would be very sad, and we can’t have that. He’s going through enough already.
yes people should be able to say what ever they want if its true, thats how people like the lying dutchman got done, presenting untruths as facts should always be called out to explain their understanding which any person who believes they are right would welcome, im always open to criticism because I base my arguments on facts, im always suspicious of any person who dodges accountability, how hypocritical to ignore the restrictions defamation has on the right to say unpopular things, yes thats because it directly affects that persons future, thats what …. did to a whole generation of mixed Aboriginal people, who now question if they are black enough for the likes of …. to better their situation, which is so weird when you consider the majority of mixed Aboriginals are a product of assimilation and early settlers imprisoning Aboriginal women as sex slaves, and since the “fathers” (use that term lightly) never cared about their own children were raise Aboriginal by their Aboriginal mothers and regardless of their skin colour were all victims of racism and the racist policys and are still being ignored and belittled by small people, please anyone name one country that has un restricted free speech? its a myth the racist are using to justify racist attacks, its has never been about educating people, people do bad things knownly, thats why we continue to build prison after prison, to open the flood gates would allow the evil people to attack people and its legal, that doesnt make a country or the world a better place. Australians look like unintelligent sheep calling for total free speech just to racially abuse people, Australians have dominated ever other person who isnt a convict settler and get one little taste of the treatment they have been dishing for centurys and whinge and whinge and whinge I for one am happy Aussies are choosing ignorance over reality, it worked in the past but now the world is connected they are struggling to cope, ignorance will not work anymore and the world are seeing how disgusting the Australian people are willing to publicly be, its no wonder aussies are losing their grip, they forgot the past actions are evil and are happy to repeat them, go to any media in Australia (Murdoch owns 70%) and see how disgusting the public comments are, im unable to get one comment posted because I directly address their so called facts, even the olympics was ruined for Australians, a murdoch TV station had the rights for free to air and the coverage was really bad (game show hosts calling events and so on) then he flooded the market including door to door, shopping centers, in the streets with sales people for foxtel another of his media outlets because all Australians want to watch high level sport, but we had no choice, facebook allows these disgusting pages and bans breast feeding, very very twisted, governments and the powerful better evolve with the world or their WILL be a world wide peoples movement, try being a minority in a democracy, you may as well be an alien
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