(October 9, 2012 at 4:13 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Sween has rather strict 'hate speech' laws that led to a pastor being arrested for preaching against homosexuality. Eventually he was acquitted, but the laws themselves have never been repealed and in theory could be used for the same thing. I think 'hate speech' laws are some of the worst things imaginable next to anti-blasphemy laws.
Fortunately, that's something the US has been pretty progressive with compared to many other industrialized nations. France and Germany, for example, have specific laws about what you can say or do about world war 2, the holocaust and nazi Germany, but none of those laws apply in the US. I even think ebay got into a bit of a fit with France over that when someone wanted to sell Nazi memorabilia.
As for the laws in question, yeah, the laws are there, but they wouldn't hold up if challenged, so the laws themselves are kinda inconsequential. I think the most frustrating thing about them is that there are still people out there who will defend them.
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"If you cling to something as the absolute truth and you are caught in it, when the truth comes in person to knock on your door you will refuse to let it in." ~ Siddhartha Gautama
"If you cling to something as the absolute truth and you are caught in it, when the truth comes in person to knock on your door you will refuse to let it in." ~ Siddhartha Gautama
