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davorg (18)

davorg
  dave@dave.org.uk
http://dave.org.uk/
Yahoo! ID: daveorguk (Add User, Send Message)

Hacker, author, trainer

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Journal of davorg (18)

Monday December 23, 2002
02:08 AM

Free Speech

[ #9601 ]

Back in May I posted an entry here about the British National Party. This lead to a discussion of what exactly they stood for, comparing them to France's Le Front Nationale.

This morning I've found a new reply to that discussion. It's from a brand new member of the site called Power. Power seems to think that the BNP's policies are sensible or, at least, he (or she) is happy to discuss then as tho' they were reasonable - which, of course, isn't true. Power says:

Non whites would be able to stay if they wanted in the UK. The only restriction would probly be that they woudn't be allowed to take part in a relationship with a white person.

I fundamentally believe in giving people the right to free speech, but when I see people abusing the right to publish poisonous rubbish like that then my beliefs are sorely tried.

I wonder if it's a member of the Perl community who supports the BNP, or a member of the BNP who found my comments and felt the need to add to the debate.


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  • It's most likely not a member of the Perl community. Check Google [google.com], your journal comes out tenth (!).

    --

    -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]

    • Thanks for pointing that out.

      So something I wrote comes up tenth on a Google search for "British National Party". I really don't know what to think of that :)
  • Without free speech, people would be more hard-pressed to find out why this group is so bad and dangerous. I want to see more freedom of speech (in social contexts, not legal ones) for racist and other hate speech. I want us to be more accepting of the voicing of such views that we find disgusting. Darkness can't hide in the light.

    Sure, there's the very real danger that some people will be more likely to be accepting of those beliefs after being exposed by them. But I think it is more common that where

    • I want to see more freedom of speech (in social contexts, not legal ones) for racist and other hate speech.

      I absolutely agree with you on this (is this a first?)

      When I was involved in Students Union politics in the mid-80s the National Union of Students had a policy that their meetings would have "no platform for racism or sexism". I made myself pretty unpopular in some circles by disagreeing with this quite loudly.

      People need to hear what these people believe in. And other people (i.e. us) need to

      • We agreed about some of The Two Towers, also. And about Matt's scripts. ;)

        Yes, and it disturbs me when people try to "shut up" racists, online and elsewhere. I've seen a lot of people get sucked into groups whose beliefs they wouldn't have agreed with had they fully understood them to begin with.

        But that's only part of it. The other side is that we are becoming a world that is far more integrated, people living with and interacting with people who are very different from themselves, not just racially (
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