(February 10, 2012 at 8:00 pm)padraic Wrote:(February 10, 2012 at 12:16 pm)Tiberius Wrote: I'd prefer a country that actually has free speech. Britain is increasingly authoritarian.
Really? I didn't know that.Compared with where?
It's hard to compare authoritarianism these days since all countries are increasingly authoritarian. However our laws concerning free speech are getting ridiculous. Last year 2 men were sentenced to 4 years in jail for encouraging people to riot on social networking sites. They didn't do any rioting themselves, and there is no way of knowing if their words actually encouraged anyone who wasn't going to riot anyway.
IMO, the only proper way to handle free speech is to actually have free speech. No form of speech should be banned. The law should recognise the difference between having an opinion and having an intention. If someone has the opinion that all gay people should be killed, that's their opinion and they are entitled to it. If someone has the intention of killing all gay people, they should be arrested for conspiracy to murder.