{"id":3478,"date":"2002-11-12T10:32:12","date_gmt":"2002-11-12T15:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2002-11-12T10:32:12","modified_gmt":"2002-11-12T15:32:12","slug":"dont_tread_on_m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/12\/dont_tread_on_m.html","title":{"rendered":"Don’t tread on me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Folks in the US sometimes take the First Amendment for granted. But, I’ll tell you folks, it’s that sort of thing that makes it — well, not impossible, but a lot more difficult to get crap like this<\/a> happening here.<\/p>\n

The Council of Europe has amended its cybercrime treaty to devise criminal penalties for those who dare to express unpopular ideas for public consumption with any manner of computer equipment. The measure specifically targets so-called ‘racist and xenophobic material’, and would apply to any controversial Web-site, or even a mean-spirited posting to a BBS or an e-mail newsletter. …
\nThe venerable Eurocrats have decreed that, “‘racist and xenophobic material’ means any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors.” <\/p>\n

In other words, if the authorities decide that your electronically-expressed opinion expresses hatred toward others, it’s a crime. Well, it’s a crime if it’s hatred based on race, color, descent, nationality or ethnicity. It’s okay to hate someone based on religion, as long as it’s not a “pretext” for hating their ethnicity. It’s also presumably okay to express your hatred for someone based on their being left-handed, handicapped, gay, Republican, or being a Madonna fan. This year, at least.<\/p>\n

Does this strike anyone as being the slightest bit — odd? Quixotic? Scary?<\/p>\n

Special mention is made that part of this protocol is to nail folks who either deny or endorse the Holocaust. Unless, one presumes, the endorsement is based on condemnation of the Jewish religion, vs. Jewish ethnicity.<\/p>\n

This stuff is, by the way, tucked into the “economic crimes” category, under “cybercrime.” The EU’s “chirpy press release” on this can be found here <\/a>(where we find the US is welcomed to sign on to the protocol, never mind that irksome little 18th Century dross known as the US Constitution), and the actual new treaty protocols can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Well, I was busy all weekend, which is why I didn’t see the SDB commentary<\/a> on this. As usual, much more thorough and much more thought-out a job than I could possibly manage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Folks in the US sometimes take the First Amendment for granted. But, I’ll tell you folks, it’s that sort of thing that makes it — well, not impossible, but a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41909,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/02\/under-god-for-me-but-not-for-thee.html","url_meta":{"origin":3478,"position":0},"title":""Under God" for me, but not for thee","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-May-14 8:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently at Rocky Mountain HS in Ft Collins the Pledge of Allegiance is recited once a week by students over the school PA each day. On occasion, members of a student culture club\u00a0do the recitation in a foreign language, to demonstrate the diversity of the school.And\u00a0it's all fun and games\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131599,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/21\/is-it-okay-to-at-least-call-these-people-deplorables.html","url_meta":{"origin":3478,"position":1},"title":"*Is it okay to at least call THESE people "Deplorables"?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Sep-16 7:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There is certainly a degree to which a political leader is not responsible for their followers. Any political movement is going to gather about it a few folk of dubious qualities.But when a candidate is (a) collecting huge swathes of folk who ordinarily would be shunned as holding truly ugly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":660,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/05\/red_of_tooth_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":3478,"position":2},"title":"Red of tooth and claw","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Sep-01 8:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"As I write, we have Israeli military forces firing frickin' missiles into buildings where they think Palestinian leaders or security forces are. And if a few bystanders get killed, c'est...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27266,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/28\/all-animals-are-equal-but-some-animals-are-more-equal-than-others.html","url_meta":{"origin":3478,"position":3},"title":"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Mar-12 11:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"All charter schools are good, positive exemplars of independent teaching and innovation ... except for the ones we don't like, which should be illegal.As in the story below, where a bill is before the Tennessee legislature to ban charter schools where more than 3.5% of their staff is immigrants, even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32328,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/26\/who-should-get-freedom-of-speech.html","url_meta":{"origin":3478,"position":4},"title":"Who should get freedom of speech?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 26-Jan-13 1:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Following a French court's ruling that Twitter has to provide the true identity of some folks who made anti-Semitic comments online:'You never needed a constitution to protect popular people\u2019s right to express popular opinions. When they say dumb things, nobody really minds, either. When stupid people express popular opinions, nobody\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":111,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/12\/branded.html","url_meta":{"origin":3478,"position":5},"title":"Branded","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Jun-03 2:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Folks who think the UK's union jack has racist overtones are proposing a revised version that would include black stripes. 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