I'm not a Christian, but I this bill really pushes my buttons.

Yet again, American society is trying to make sure everything is easy for the weak people who never learn their life lessons because of all the "padding." I believe 100% in the freedom of speech, and I think any religion or belief can be preached as long as it's not being FORCED.

As for taking hate-speech seriously, people just need to get over themselves or deal with it in a mature way. As anti-religion as I am, people are entitled to speak about their beliefs as freely as they are entitled to believe them, no matter how much someone else disagrees with them. I take a stand with Lamb of God's "Omerta" on this one:

"Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever can not take care of himself without that law is both."

This is another Illuminati bill as well; if I begin to propose that 9/11 was an inside job, it's hate speech against victims and their families. If I say anything against the official story of events or history, it'll probably be nailed as hate speech. A very quick Totalitarian Leap to thought censorship.

(edit to add last paragraph)
(edit to correct glaring grammatical error)



[edit on 6-4-2009 by Lifthrasir]

[edit on 6-4-2009 by Lifthrasir]

Originally posted by Lifthrasir
I'm not a Christian, but I this bill really pushes my buttons.

Yet again, American society is trying to make sure everything is easy for the weak people who never learn their life lessons because of all the "padding." I believe 100% in the freedom of speech, and I think any religion or belief can be preached as long as it's not being FORCED.

As for taking hate-speech seriously, people just need to get over themselves or deal with it in a mature way. As anti-religion as I am, people are entitled to speak about their beliefs as freely as they are entitled to believe them, no matter how much someone else disagrees with them. I take a stand with Lamb of God's "Omerta" on this one:

"Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever can not take care of himself without that law is both."

This is another Illuminati bill as well; if I begin to propose that 9/11 was an inside job, it's hate speech against victims and their families. If I say anything against the official story of events or history, it'll probably be nailed as hate speech. A very quick Totalitarian Leap to thought censorship.

[edit on 6-4-2009 by Lifthrasir]

I agree completely...

It's very clear that many of these posters haven't lived in the tyranny of California.
Where anything you say can be taken out of context and used against you outside of a court of law (or inside a cout of law.)
Enter the cops... Do you want to be able to be arrested and thrown in jail for speaking the wrong words?

They can name a bill whatever the # they want to... remember these are politicians doing this... Beware the wording of the bill.

Anti-Baby Robbing Bill : Allows congress to loot you and yours blind while you ponder oxy-morons and chaos theory.

Makes me wanna antagonize obama supporters to speak 'hate speech' so I can have them thrown in jail so they can't vote.

See what I mean... This is all pointless and the bill should be dropped immediately.


Its the STFU bill.

Someone here on ATS has an avatar of a WWII Army soldier holding a steaming cup of coffee with a caption that reads "How about big fat cup of STFU (Before you say something stupid)".



[edit on 4·7·09 by DrMattMaddix]

This bill is wide open to objective interpretations and is a very slippery slope, granting more power to the globalists.

With this they can claim people like Glen Beck, Michael Savage, and ATS sites must be shut down. Just more of the same wolf in sheeps clothing legislation that is destroying the Constitution.

I agree with some of you on here that say hate speach is awful and everything else, and i agree with you...BUT to say it's against the law to say anything is just takeing away from what this country was founded on, and also as a wise man once said to me, "Don't get upset about what someone else said. You can't control what they say But you can control your reaction to what was said." Words are just words...Actions are another story.

Originally posted by warrenb
about time this bill gets passed! we need less religion and more reality!

amen to that, religion has had more than its chance, and i believe it has done nothing at all for mankind apart from keep people from using reason, common sense , and logic when dealing with everyday life religious people cry bloody murder when something "might" undermine their archaic beliefs, what about us people who have been forcefed religion since birth?

The Matthew Shepard Act would strengthen existing federal hate crime laws in three ways:

1) Expand the law to authorize the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Current law only includes race, color, religion or national origin.

OK so basically we cannot make a joke about anything anymore?
This is an absolute farce. The more they forbid things, the more they are going to happen out of the way of the eye of big brother.
This will not solve a single thing. In my opinion it will make it worse because making it taboo will just encourage it.

Remove hate crime speech and I think that would help it to desensitize us all. If we all started taking things on the chin and not making a fuss of it all then racism, sexism and all of that rubbish would be eradicated.
It is the people who get offended and get their knickers in a twist that cause these ridiculous laws to come about.

I personally think that taking the micky out of somebodies appearance is the worst thing that one can do because it causes complexes within that person (especially at a young age) but I do not see them censoring that.

Fatty, spotty, ugly, big nose, big ears, guppy etc etc etc

So when are they going to censor this to stop us being allowed, by law, to mock people in any way shape or form.
Either go the whole hog and ban it all or allow it all. Don't just censor one thing because THEY think it is worse. Whether it is worse is down to the individual so you got to block it all.

Idiots.

Originally posted by skeptic1
From your source:

No more will your pastor be able to declare the truth about Islam or homosexuality because it will be considered a hate crime.

I am all for free speech, but not for hate speech.

I don't think people should be thrown into jail for their views, but spewing hatred and bigotry and ignorance has no positive impact on society.

Since when has disagreeing about another religions practices, and disagreeing with a certain lifestyle, suddenly been declared "Hate Speech"? There you go with your very own definition of what construes "Hate", and that basically emanates from any viewpoints you may so disagree with.

THAT is representative of the VERY problem with such Laws, as everyone dictates their own version of it.

While I do not share the christian faith, I do share the belief that censorship like this is undoubtedly wrong in every way, so I am not cheering right now as someone on page 1 put it.

I think in the big scheme of things, religion is detrimental to human existence, but this kind of censorship will not stop it, it will only enrage and strengthen followers of religion, because humans in general may be accommodating to some things, but throwing given rights out the window is something nobody takes kindly to.

[edit on 7-4-2009 by Chosen_Breed]

I'm not a christian and i'm not a jew. I'm way out on the left wing on the socialist scale, but way right on the economic.

I think freedom should include freedom to hate. Speech is just speech to me - there's only a line when one plots violence or uses it.

I HATE beets. I think they SUCK.

Originally posted by Reading

Originally posted by warrenb
about time this bill gets passed! we need less religion and more reality!

amen to that, religion has had more than its chance, and i believe it has done nothing at all for mankind apart from keep people from using reason, common sense , and logic when dealing with everyday life religious people cry bloody murder when something "might" undermine their archaic beliefs, what about us people who have been forcefed religion since birth?

So would you rather go back to Sacrifices, Cannibalism, the condoning of Adultery, Flagrant Sexual exploits with little care for the unity of a Family, Community, and the like? These are all issues which Religion promotes answers for, and since the introduction of our Modern Monotheistic Religions roughly 3,000 Years Ago, the World has in fact become a more Peaceful, Humane, Civilized Place.

If you believe that our Modern Religions have bred so much violence, then do a little more studying of history. You might actually be surprised.

Originally posted by TheAgentNineteen

Originally posted by Reading

Originally posted by warrenb
about time this bill gets passed! we need less religion and more reality!

amen to that, religion has had more than its chance, and i believe it has done nothing at all for mankind apart from keep people from using reason, common sense , and logic when dealing with everyday life religious people cry bloody murder when something "might" undermine their archaic beliefs, what about us people who have been forcefed religion since birth?

So would you rather go back to Sacrifices, Cannibalism, the condoning of Adultery, Flagrant Sexual exploits with little care for the unity of a Family, Community, and the like? These are all issues which Religion promotes answers for, and since the introduction of our Modern Monotheistic Religions roughly 3,000 Years Ago, the World has in fact become a more Peaceful, Humane, Civilized Place.

If you believe that our Modern Religions have bred so much violence, then do a little more studying of history. You might actually be surprised.

No disrespect meant here, but if your going to tell somebody to study some history, I could say the same thing to anybody who believes in Christianity, the Christian faith (the most popular religion world wide) is a parody in itself, of the worshiping of the sun, this is a known fact. I do not believe the thought of morality was created by religion, but obviously you have a different belief there.

[edit on 7-4-2009 by Chosen_Breed]

I'm all for stopping hate crime, so long as that is what this bill is actually doing.

While I'm disgusted on a daily basis by religion, I'm not about to try to tell them they aren't allowed to disagree with me.

... but hate crime is a totally different thing. Hate crimes are pretty vile, and nobody should be allowed to get away with it... no matter how hard you scream "god told you to".

As much as the article wants to make it sound otherwise, we're not talking about disagreements, or even opinion... we're talking hate crimes.

There's a big difference between saying (for example) "I disagree with homosexual marriage"... and walking up to a group of gays saying "Burn in hell ****ots!" right before you begin chucking things at them.

Hate crimes consist of assault, vandalism, and harassment based on a social bias... such as anti-gay/lesbian, or anti-anything else.
All of which the rest of us aren't allowed to do.

We all have to obey the law.
Religion isn't a get out of jail free card.


It's not surprising though... anti-hate being the enemy of religion.

[edit on 7-4-2009 by johnsky]

ATS itself has banned hate speech.

Why would it be a bad thing to ban the same thing, and the escalated physical ramifications in society?

Preaching Christianity is not the same thing as telling people to hate someone because of their race / beliefs / sexuality.

Those that encourage others to hate and act on that hate, regardless of their Religion, should be stopped and punished.

I'm all for free speech, but when that speech leads to violent beliefs and violent actions, it has gone too far.

This is always what happens when you let liberals and democrats in office lately. Clinton did the same garbage with this hate speech and hate crimes crap.

Here's an idea for some of the masses. grow a thicker skin, people will have opinions, and some will even run counter to yours, or against you personally.

Lets look at this law for what it really is, affording special rights, yet again, to minorities so they'll feel better about themselves. While I'm sure it's happened somewhere, you never hear anything in the news about anyone but white people and typically males falling under the hate crime acts.. you'd think that females and minorities are perfect non racist, non homophobic angels according to the MSM.

This is all abou tpeple who think you can legislate thought, and who dont beleiv ein the constitution. They all should be removed from office.

i would agree with censoring hate speech, such as discriminating against other people's opinions, beliefs, dress code, or choice of lifestyle, I don't believe anyone has the right to take the mick out of someone either just because they believe they are right.

Originally posted by deathpoet69
i would agree with censoring hate speech, such as discriminating against other people's opinions, beliefs, dress code, or choice of lifestyle, I don't believe anyone has the right to take the mick out of someone either just because they believe they are right.

You must live in such a boring world.
So you never watch comedy shows? Stand up, films, you turn your nose up at a joke in TV show?

It is people like you who have turned this world into the politically correct, socially conditioned, totalitarian lack of spoken freedom world in which we live.

Shame on you.

It is not necessarily a case me taking the mick out of somebodies hat because I think I am right. I could not care less what they wear, they have the FREEDOM to wear it (and most of the time these sorts dress for attention anyway, chicks in short skirts, greebos in their gothic rubbish) but I have the FREEDOM to find it amusing.

[edit on 7-4-2009 by george_gaz]

I never really understood the idea of hate crimes/speech as it seems to only lend itself to prop the same violent/criminal behaviour above another, based on the person(s) defined as the victim(s).

I guess what I'd like to know is, how do you draw the line between what someone calls hate speech and personal opinion? Everyone has their own tolerances and levels of acceptance and some are just thin-skinned to criticisim.

Originally posted by skeptic1
From your source:

No more will your pastor be able to declare the truth about Islam or homosexuality because it will be considered a hate crime.

I am all for free speech, but not for hate speech.

Oh, so you only believe in free speech for views you agree with, that's nice.