Rikkitic:

 

kryptonjohn:

 

I'm just glad we have the freedom to get up on a soap box and call Trump an idiot, even if someone else finds that opinion offensive. I would hate to think someone in a position of power would attempt to prevent this airing of one's belief on some pretext, such as it might make someone else stage a protest. 

 

 

 

 

What you and others just don't seem to get is that it isn't an all or nothing thing. It isn't something easily identifiable, like someone saying something that can get them banned or jailed. It is a gradual, insidious process, a subtle chipping away, an ongoing bending of norms, a continuous seductive whisper to persuade people that it is no big deal. Hitler did not march in and take over. He did it in stages, a little at a time, nothing too outrageous in itself, nothing to set off any alarms except in a few people who could see what was coming.

 

The issue is not if the Canadians or anyone else says or does anything illegal. The issue is the constant drip drip of poisonous thoughts that eat away at behavioural norms, that make things acceptable that were once thought outrageous. This is what is happening right now in America. It is what happened in nazi Germany. It is what could happen here or anywhere else that people fall for fake 'free speech' arguments. 

 

People who think this is no big deal should talk to the frog in the slowly boiling pan of water. By the time you know you are in trouble, it is already too late. Read that link. If you can't understand what it is saying, then you are already lost.

 

And no, this has nothing to do with Brash being denied the right to speak. That was just a stupid call by a silly person. There are a lot of those around.

 

I never suggested it is an "all or nothing thing" and I even mentioned cases where the law allows for a definition of hate speech and deals with it. Please don't misrepresent what I said like that.

What I did say is that there's a legal bar and I have yet to see this stated in the case of Goff's actions. The fact that someone else might stage a rowdy protest is not the bar.

And further, the bar is not set by someone's opinion. It is set by law and evaluated in a court. Not the mayor's office.

Now what do you suggest we do about this "dripping poison"? I can answer that... it's education and presenting a counter view. You can't suppress it without bringing in an authoritarian control that is much more sinister. The first thing Hitler did was control media and freedom of expression.