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Comment by endogui | Hacker News Reader

Rhetoric about US values has been empty since Guantanamo Bay started housing "foreign militants". Europe seems to be the only place in the West where a commitment to human rights is sincere.

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Really? 27% of Germans support the right to speech that offends minority groups, and less than half of Europeans as a whole [0]. A Swedish man was convicted for producing art that was deemed racist, and the owner of the gallery that displayed it was fined [1]. A man was famously prosecuted for a video of a dog performing a nazi salute [2]. A refugee may be expelled from Denmark after he left comments "celebrating" the Charlie Hebdo attacks [3]. I'm not saying these excuse things America has done, but you saying that Europe is the last place where liberty is valued is patently ridiculous.

[0]: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/catos-let...

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/22/swedish-artist...

[2]: https://www.newsweek.com/youtuber-count-dankula-avoids-jail-...

[3]: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-depo...

Reasonable people can disagree about the limits of free speech, and when it becomes an attack on others. The American obsession with allowing Nazis and racists has done nothing to improve the lives of its people.

I think you're missing the point. An "attack on others" isn't something that most Americans should be limited, if you mean by attack what I believe you do (please clarify). I'm not sure why you think the power to limit speech can't be abused: even with strict protections, we've had awful majoritarian policies like the Sedition Act and McCarthyism. We protect everyone, Nazis and racists included, because if we give the government freedom to restrict the content of speech it will be abused when the "other side" gets power.

> We protect everyone.

Oh please… 28 US states have actual legislation to prohibit state offices from doing business with companies or individuals that even threaten to boycott Israel.

Not far from how NBA employees get censored by China.

And there is more to come…

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Anti-Boycott_Act

The first difference being that there was plenty of successful legal action against such laws and policies which led to the law congress passes being changed. Legal precedent on the issue is very clear and so challenges to it have been quite successful, something that never would have happened in China. And, of course, organizations that support BDS aren't being kicked out of America. This is a pretty bogus comparison.

I completely disagree. Seeing Westboro Baptist Church on TV spewing their vile hatred acts as a shining litmus test that I don’t live in a totalitarian state. Watching thousands of people actively try to protect victims of the Westboro hate, gives me faith that I live in a country filled with people with great ethical resolve and compassion towards their fellow man. It’s beautiful, and the essence of what makes me proud to be an American.

It started long before that.

There’s no right to free speech in Europe, since for example many countries have laws against blasphemy.

Like where in Europe?

UK for starters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_and_Religious_Hatred_Ac...

Blasphemy laws have just been repackaged essentially under "anti hate speech" laws. They're palatable to the media and at the same time selectively-applicable which is ideal for population control.

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