In Europe, Speech Is an Alienable Right

theatlantic.com

5 pointsPunchTornado2 comments

I am saddened to see some of the things that are happening around the world in relation to freedom of speech and free thought. Don't mean to sound overly pessimistic about recent happenings, but I do believe that the era of Western thought is coming to an end. Not that there is any inherent value in free thought either way, but it's nice to be able to express yourself without fear of persecution.

Ah well.

It's an old law; don't make the mistake of thinking such laws didn't exist before or that the development is going in the wrong way. The big difference is that it used to protect only the catholic church because, really, what else existed?

I think most european laws have some sort of restriction. Next door in Germany you can accuse holy men of child molestation with no problem (google for Kinderfickersekte if you want to know more) but be careful about those swastikas.

This week's news on the subject:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-...

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