Montegriffo wrote:
Well if we are going to bring up past indiscretions I could point out that only a couple of weeks ago you were telling me I had no right asking Americans to justify their gun control laws. Yet here I am having to justify the actions of a British court ( well Scottish actually as they have their own system of law ) to the board and getting called a cunt for my efforts.
I have never said you "had no right" to ask Americans to justify their gun control laws, or lack thereof. You are not "forced" to justify anything, and you won't get fined if you don't. You seemed, and still seem, willing to defend the laws of your country on the matter of hate speech laws and other laws limiting speech and other forms of expression, just as you have seemed willing to criticize American gun laws and gun culture. Which you are, and should be, as free to do as everyone here is and should be free to criticize aspects of British current culture - or Danish culture for that matter. If you really don't agree with your country's laws on the matter, maybe it's time to say so?
The reason it's predominantly
British culture and British law that's the subject of stories in the Europe thread, though, is simply one of linguistic convenience. Can't really gain much of an understanding of a foreign country and their culture if you don't even speak their language. And since we don't have any Australians and New Zealanders, and since the American news media seem to treat Canada as more or less politically invisible, that leaves you.
I think you defend a way of thinking that's most commonly seen in totalitarian states. So, I wouldn't call you a
cunt for your efforts of explaining why you support your country's laws. I think most people who live, or have lived, in totalitarian systems simply did and do what 99% of Germans did when the Nazis came to power. Became too afraid to rock the boat, too afraid of "breaching the peace", too afraid to criticize if the direction of increasing censorship more and more each day, each week, each year, was the right direction. Not that I'm saying your government is planning extermination camps, but a
benevolent totalitarian state is still totalitarian.
Fame is not flattery. Respect is not agreement.
