Europe. Where did your freedom go?

http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/0...nd-for-criticizing-olympic-athlete-on-twitter

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/31/teenager-arrested-tweets-tom-daley

 

britian has been pretty much a 3rd world pile of ---- for the last 100 years. The only proud and strong countries in Europe are Germany, Russia, Sweden, and Hungary.

 

That's some pretty scary stuff.

 

They gave their souls to the secular humanist, Marxist Nanny State. Now, they sit in their "estates" welfare rat mazes and drink themselves silly. What a sad way to go out.


_

 

Britain 3rd world

Hungary

 

You never visited Britain did you? If you had you might have learned how to spell it. Oh, and culturally Russia is European, but most of it is in Asia. But you knew that, of course.

 

Just a side note, but speech laws are a bit stricter in the U.K. than in continental Europe. I doubt any significant action would be taken in France, for example.

 

They are intolerant in Europe. Think about the head gear ban. Hell some town in the US has banned baggy pants though

 

Interesting thread.

Here is what I would say.

I have never seen so many laws passed, here and in the US, as I have, in the last 10-20 yrs.

We *think* we are free now, no, I believe that is a delusion. We have some freedoms, but in many cases, even those are being eroded.

Sometimes it is done with good intent, but the wording of the legilsation may be poor, or the act may have been rushed through, in too reactive a way.

Before the net really caught on, there were always stalkers and sending death threats, through the mail, for example, was always a crime.

I suppose, with the onset of the net, the laws did have to adapt, in some sense, to extend stalking and death threats, to this form of communication as well.

Lots of young people have been subject to disgusting bullying on the net, and I believe many of these laws were created to deal with that, as well.

However...

Given the track record of those that have stolen power from us, for criminal type behaviour, I think these benefits, are to them, incidental.

I think Gov's have gotten too big for their boots, to be honest, and then we have this effing pointless EU, that just seems to be one large waste of money, and appears to have actually damaged individuality between nations here, imo at least.

The problem for arrogant Gov's, is that they have made people here more political than I have ever known them.

Sure, we still have utterly ignorant grunts, but there are a HUGE number of PEOPLE, and they are from all walks of life, and collectively, the resentment is growing.

Don't underestimate the possibility of European Gov of today, being v different, inside two decades.

Maybe one.

 

I would agree that France's headscarf ban is intolerant.

I would, however, support allowing business owners to ban people from entering their place of business while concealing their face. Unfortunately, quite a few robbers have used the veil to make it easier to hide their identities while stealing from shop owners.

 

Not true.

Authors here can freely speak about ALL aspects of WW2.

Not so in about 10 Euro nations.

 

That was in France.

When France do something, it does not mean Britain, or all of Europe follow suit.

On the contrary, this was a v controversial thing by France, may change again, and was not followed.

I assume you mean the Burkah?

I believe it banned in Turkey.

 

How many were dressed as Muslim women, wearing a Burkah?

 

True, Holocaust denial is banned in most of continental Europe, although your hate speech laws and libel laws tend to be more restrictive than in most of the rest of Europe.

 

Like what?

 

Luckily, in England, you can't unjustly accuse somebody of rape, just because your name is Nancy Grace.

But Americans enjoy smearing, before judgement. It's part of their demented culture.

 

Quite a few wore some manner of veil. It wasn't necessarily a full head-to-toe outfit each time, but this happens in both the West and in Islamic-majority countries.

For obvious reasons, things work differently in Islamic-majority societies, but in the West, a business owner should have the right to minimize his/her own risks by not allowing people who hide their face (and effectively their identity) to enter their business.

Try entering a bank with a hockey mask on, for example.

 

Libel tourism is pretty rampant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/business/media/britain-to-seek-curbs-to-libel-tourism.html

Your government is trying to fix this, but there is progress left to be made.

 

We have our problems too. The U.K. does seem to handle the rights of the accused better in most cases.

 

Portugal might be backwards in alot of things, but over here we've got nothing to worry about freedom of speech (so far).
Having been a dictatorial regime 30 years ago might have an influence on that most definitely. We still got people here that witnessed and experience first hand government censorship and they sure won't give back their rights now, knowing what they all had to go through and been through.

And im not suggesting in any way to implement dictatorial trial regime to get freedom of speech valued back here in europe.

 

The problem with libel laws, is that they only really apply to the rich.

 

Do religous people wear hockey masks?

 

Sort of. Over here, we're much more limited in what counts as libel, so as to avoid the classism that can occur in countries with broader libel laws.

 

My ex-gf lives there, and she told me about how your TV is much less restricted in content than ours is here. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

Religion doesn't matter.

The veil isn't required in Islam. Some Muslims decide to wear it, but it's actually a pre-Islamic practice.

Wearing the veil is a personal choice, but so is a business owner's decision to serve people who conceal their face.

I wouldn't want to risk getting robbed, so I wouldn't allow people who conceal their face into my store.