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UK law doesn't require that speech isn't used to spread hatred. I am, for now, permitted to spread my hatred of onions as far and wide as I want. Their texture is disgusting and they make everything you put them in taste the same. But also, the UK does not have free speech regardless. The law is asymmetrical. Those to the right of the mainstream are prohibited from voicing their hatreds, while those to the left of the mainstream are allowed to rant about "zionists" and the like all they want.
Which is the inherent problem with the idea of criminalizing spreading hatred. Which hatreds? Hatred of Russia, for daring to invade Ukraine? Hatred of the unvaccinated and so-called granny killers? Hatred of the Far-Right? These are all forms of hatred that have been deliberately spread by the government over the last few years. Why are these forms of hatred not just allowed but endorsed? That's a rhetorical question, because the answer is too obvious.
The result is that restrictions on spreading hatred are always used to promote certain political views while suppressing others. That's not a slight tweak to make freedom of speech all nice and cuddly. Restrictions on hate speech instead directly attack free speech's common purposes: Democratic participation, truth-seeking, and checking power.
I don’t like onion. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
Not like leek... With leek, everything's soft... and smooth...
I know posting memes in the culture war thread probably isn't great, but I do really appreciate seeing memes from "my time". None of whatever the fuck kids these days are meming. It makes me feel strongly that this is my in-group.
Anyways, here are the lyrics to Ievan polkka so you can sing along: https://youtube.com/watch?v=d0FV3_i-6WU?si=pU4i_Oh-loSfzoPS
Well, not to burst your bubble, but the leekspin meme is something I remember from my early school years, and it's just because I was an extremely online child that I recall it.
I'm mildly aware of more... age-appropriate? memes but since I've migrated off reddit and don't use TikTok, I don't see most of them. I think my brain is actually healing. Heck, I used to find this funny, now I barely respond to it. (But the lobster remains unacceptable.)
Scratch that, I find dad jokes funny now, maybe I'm not so much healing as morphing. "Hi morphing, I'm dad."
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...and if you want to understand what the lyrics actually say, go here. (They're in heavy Savo dialect of Finnish, even I wasn't quite sure of all the words even though I come from an adjacent region.)
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