Steinlight
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- Jan 30, 2014
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It still blows my mind that French leaders were at the "Je Suis Charlie" rally and only days later they charged Dieudonne with "hate speech" violations. Germany did the same thing to a lawyer named Sylvia Stolz, just the other day, for questioning the Holocaust. Actually the hypocrisy doesn't surprise me much at all, but I wonder if it is a case of blatant hypocrisy or cognitive dissonance in which the leaders of Europe think there is a difference between free speech and "hate speech".I do think we should always be able to poke fun at religions, any religions. I find humor in a heavenly gift of 72 virgins (or is it raisins); a diety with anger management issues, or maybe it's bi-polar, a prophet who takes instruction from flaming shrubbery, a zombie prophet who claims to be the son of an invisable diety....and I could go on. I think God has a sense of humor (if he didn't why the hell are we here?) - it's just that a lot of his followers are so damn serious.
There is a difference between that though, and some of the darker stuff that easily rouses people to demonize entire groups.
Free speech allows us to poke fun, to say what we feel. It also allows us to combat what we think is wrong or unjust. It's so incredibly valuable and it's always at risk. Just look around the world.
I do agree that all religions should be equally poked at, and frankly that is what Charlie Hebdo did - there were NO sacred cows. Much of it was over the top for my own sensibilities, but I respect and support their right to free speech and we should combat threats of violence that try to stop it. I just don't believe in going out of the way to deliberately encourage going over the top just to offend people.
http://www.newsweek.com/former-german-lawyer-imprisoned-holocaust-denial-second-time-309725
Comedian to stand trial as France cracks down on hate speech - Yahoo News
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