Freedom of Speech

PHOTO whaleoil.co.nz

Yesterday we looked at the convoluted assumptions that both the MSM and anti-fascist groups make when they link one thing to another without any evidence. Yesterday it was the Pepe the frog cartoon that Winston Peters signed that the Media immediately linked to racism. They condemned Peters for signing it.

Now we have Green MP Marama Davidson making totally unfounded connections between European student clubs in New Zealand and unrelated issues like Brexit and President Trump. She also appears to not support freedom of speech unless it is used to promote the culture that she supports. I have attempted to create a diagram to try to explain her convoluted thinking but first, here is the article.

Green MP Marama Davidson says freedom of speech should not be seen as a licence to promote prejudice and hate.

An organisation calling itself the European Students Association was refused permission to run a stall at the Auckland University orientaiton, but has shifted its activities across the road to AUT University.

Ms Davidson says such groups claim free speech in a way that demonstrates how some people’s free speech can be privileged over the rights of others.

It’s part of a trend of racism and bigotry.

“The international environment for it has come about because of things like Brexit, because of things like Trump being elected. I think it has also become more popular for people to be able to stand on their bigoted bigoted racist views,” she says.

Marama Davidson says people should have no hesitation in speaking out against racist groups.

-waateanews.co

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screenshot-whaleoil

The recent creation of two European student culture groups has brought all the anti-free speech worms out of the woodwork. The ISO (International Socialism Organisation of Aotearoa /New Zealand) had this to say about students wanting to celebrate European culture.

Keep the ‘European Students Association’ off Auckland University campus!

So Trumpism has hit New Zealand shores. A group calling itself the ‘European Students Association’ is trying to set itself up at the University of Auckland. The group’s website is covered in all the usual muck of the far right, with slogans echoing SS phrases from Nazi Germany and weasley phrases about ‘European culture’.

This is a clear provocation, and it is heartening to see how students have responded. The Auckland University Students Association is speaking out against the group, and students are planning a protest against the presence of these creeps organizing on campus. We salute AUSA’s stand, and urge all students and staff to join the protest. (Facebook page details are here).

At the very best the European Students Association is a piece of post-Trump trolling, stirring the pot of antagonism. At its worst it is a genuine far-right organization attempting to gain a foothold on campus. Either way it needs to be opposed. We say: no space for fascism! Stand up to racism and bigotry!

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There is nothing more pernicious than hate speech legislation.

In Australia it has been used to try to silence bloggers, radio hosts and media. In Europe, it is used to silence critics of immigration. In almost all cases it is used by Muslims to silence critics of Islam.

It must be opposed being introduced in New Zealand.

The call for hate-crimes legislation is understandable and even laudable. In an age of mounting xenophobia, those who preach hatred of other races or religions no longer seem a minor or fringe element. Some of the worst xenophobes now hold power in countries which used to preach tolerance and diversity.

I am not xenophobic. New Zealand needs immigration and I welcome immigrants. There are provisos, though, I believe immigrants to NZ should FIFO. They definitely should be compatible with our western liberal ideals…and not some stone age death cult.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush wants to see if there is a case for hate-crimes legislation in New Zealand, and is prompted by a horrible incident in Huntly, fortunately filmed by the Muslim woman who was the primary victim. The sight of a woman threatening and abusing a Muslim woman sitting quietly in her car is shocking and dreadful.

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First they came for the cartoonists whose style and politics were different than mine…and I said nothing. You know the rest.

Hate speech has become a hot topic and in a pattern that has been repeated over and over again, in Western country after Western country those behind the push to criminalise people’s words are Muslim activists enabled by the media and authoritarian, left-wingers who support State control of everything. It is only to be expected that they would want to control our words as well as our lightbulbs.

Our laws for abuse are already adequate and just need to be enforced. In the recent Huntly incident even though there was no evidence of racial or religious abuse the young extremely drunk woman pleaded guilty to insulting and assaulting another woman and was punished for her crime. That should have been the end of it but because the victim of her abuse was a media savvy PR person it is being used as a lever to try to change our laws.

This is something that we must resist with every bone in our bodies as when laws have been changed to criminalise people’s speech overseas it has had a ” chilling” effect on free speech and has been used to silence and bully people with opinions that others do not agree with. So far the National government are resisting calls to legislate against ” hate speech” but in the past, they have caved when the media and activists have made a big enough noise so as voters we need to send them a strong message to stand firm on this issue.

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The Blaze reports:

Scott Adams, creator the famed “Dilbert” comic strip, has been capturing attention over the last year or so with his observations about President Donald Trump and the public’s reaction to him.

[…]

[I]n the wake of the riots at the University of California, Berkeley, over an appearance by alt-right firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos, Adams’ gloves appear to be completely off.

Adams said he’s ending his support of Berkeley, where he received an MBA years ago. “I have been a big supporter lately, with both my time and money, but that ends today,” he wrote in his blog post last Friday. “I wish them well, but I wouldn’t feel safe or welcome on the campus. A Berkeley professor made that clear to me recently. He seems smart, so I’ll take his word for it.”   Read more »

It looks like having a good dose of the same sort of stuff I suffer every day from the left-wing has caused a bit of an epiphany with Chris Trotter.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION has long been regarded as the cornerstone of liberty. Indeed, without the ability to speak our minds freely the whole notion of liberty begins to unravel. Freedom of expression is vital in at least one other respect – it helps us to arrive at and recognise the truth. This is important because, as many philosophers and religious leaders have observed, it is the truth that sets us free.

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Guest Post: Lushington D. Brady

Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. After working as a freelance music journalist, auto worker, railway worker, taxi driver, small business owner, volunteer firefighter and graphic designer, Lushington Dalrymple Brady decided he finally had an interesting enough resume to be a writer. Miraculously, he survived university Humanities departments with both his critical faculties intact and a healthy disdain for Marxism. He blogs at A Devil’s Curmudgeon. Lushington D. Brady is a pseudonym, obviously.

Possibly the greatest freedom we ever experienced as youngsters were those endless days at the lethargic end of summer when we’d aimlessly wander the neighbourhood trying to invent ways to enjoy the liberty of having nothing to do, and endless time to do it in.

Often we’d just drift wherever our feet took us within the world that was our neighbourhood. Other times we might choose to turn down this street, or cut across that yard, with a specific goal in mind: someone’s swimming pool, say. Then there were the times, simply bored with the freedom to go wherever we pleased, that we invented a game: at each corner, we’d toss a coin. Heads turn left; tails, right.

What this reminiscence illustrates is the vital distinction between two different kinds of liberty: negative freedom and positive freedom. These are also known as the freedom from and the freedom to.

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Twitter is banning conservative voices like it is going out of fashion and now Facebook is enforcing Sharia law on non-Muslims. Outspoken Free Speech advocate Pamela Geller got sick of Facebook enforcing Sharia law and so her organisation filed a  free speech lawsuit against the Department of Justice. She is challenging Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which provides immunity from lawsuits to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which allows…

” these social media giants to engage in government-sanctioned censorship and discriminatory business practices free from legal challenge. The sharia restrictions Facebook continues to impose has chilling effect and ramifications especially in countries where such freedoms can make the difference between freedom and submission, life and death.”

Ex-Muslim writer Majid  Oukacha  posted on facebook

What I care about more than anything else is freedom of thought. It is criminalized by the Koran. 

He was banned last week from Facebook.

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