Scotland's Hate Speech laws

originally posted by: auroraaus
Quick question re comedy. Comedy can be considered art, right? Freedom of artistic expression?

Here's what the comedian in my avatar has to say about it. Start around 49 seconds into it.

Naughty words used.

originally posted by: sapien82
Now my point in all of this and the hate speech legislation , is that it is based on a logical fallacy , that if a person or entity says A,b,or c then another person or entity can become offended and also that this offensive speech can lead others to do x,y or z !

your thoughts ?

I think being affected by hate speech sort of falls under the mental illness category.

If someone spouts out some crazy banter... and that makes someone go postal... isn't that more on the person that went postal than the person who was just spouting words?

I for one am just not THAT affected by words. And anyone who is... needs their head checked.



.... BUT... I guess we have to account for the massive volume of empty headed sheep that fall victim to a raging lunatic with a bullhorn. Once again though... that's on the sheep. There will always be a lunatic with a bullhorn...

... BUT... the sheep are innocent and can't think for themselves.

... BUT... the guy with the bullhorn is a MONSTER!

... BUT... monsters are only real to those who believe in them.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Man that guy is alright!

I get his cynicism - and it's a fair argument!


However, upon studying comedy, one can draw out relative societal and cultural issues (from many sides!) relative to the period of time the comedy was made. So from a sociological point of view, that's an amazing gold mine!

PS: .... I wrote this having my first coffee for the day, and may have sprayed a bit of coffee when I was watching your vid! It's my birthday and you've unwittingly provided me with some laughter!

a reply to: LesMisanthrope



Well here's the thing. Lots of racists and nazis hide behind 'it was just a joke! Haha! Gas the jews! Just kidding! Not really! Kidding!'

And what they are doing is being serious, but using the 'just kidding' as their defence.

Then people like you get confused about the idea of free speech giving people carte Blanche to take to the streets shouting 'kill the jews', and before you know it, they stop pretending to be joking about it.

Do you not feel even remotely uncomfortable defending somebody who was saying 'gas the jews'?

Interesting that isn't it. Almost as if people are being deliberately maneuvered into taking absurd positions like defending somebody who said 'gas the jews'.

This is how the neo-fascists operate, they inch people deeper and deeper into morally compromised positions.


ATS is a living breathing daily example of how successfully this brainwashing works.

funny story. a long time ago in Scotland one of my friends had a blue van and for a laugh one day we painted swastikas on it and the SS symbol on the doors. We thought it was hysterical the looks people gave us as we rode around in it.

I remember sitting outside a takeaway with five of us in the van. Driver was swigging a bottle of wine and someone else was waving a baseball bat out the window. We were dying of laughter.

We had no Nazi sympathies we just did it to freak people out and it certainly did.

Needless to say the Police showed up the next day and told him he couldn't drive around with that on the van as it 'caused religious offense' So we taped newspapers over the swastikas. This was in the 80s so those kind of shenanigans only provoked a friendly warning. Try that today no doubt you would swiftly be in a world of #.

Good times. I wish I had video of some of the folks faces when they saw the van . We had to make our own entertainment back in the 80s. Wish I had a photo of the van, it was so blatant. I think it was inspired by the Illinois Nazi's in The Blues Brothers

I never knew you could get in trouble for your dog's political stances.
Crazy world when you can go to jail over that.

a reply to: Blue Shift

said no scotsman ever !