Thought police muscle up in Britain, soft totalitarianism arrives

theaustralian.news.com.au

4 points·tc··3 comments

Before anyone complains or flags, let me say that I debated whether or not to submit this, as HN has been especially touchy about government-oriented posts lately. I decided to submit it anyway because 1) the piece is careful, non-hysterical, and thoughtful, and 2) as PG has implied elsewhere, the existence of thought crimes are particularly onerous to innovators. Try to imagine Feynman living in this place...

Non-hysterical?! It compares modern-day Britain to East Germany and the October Revolution, on the basis that Britain criminalises hate speech (lots of other countries do, too). The author is Australian, and doesn't live in Britain as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure why he's purporting to lecture about how life is here. Ironically, hate speech is also a criminal offence in Australia, and the Australian section is the longest in Wikipedia's Hate Speech article. The sort of trivial, tabloid-type stories he tells (but doesn't link to) aren't really enough to make a serious case that the UK is some sort of North Korea-esque totalitarian regime.

Anyway, I won't flag you -- I'd be interested to read what others think -- but I don't think it's a very good article.

Without living in the UK myself, it is difficult for me to separate the exceptional cases from the general trend. What I can say is that in America, things that would have seemed exceptional ten and twenty years ago have become depressingly commonplace.

Also, from an epistemological perspective, you almost have to use the exceptional cases to spot the trend while they are still exceptional. Once they become commonplace, we stop noticing them. They are no longer new, so they are no longer news.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com