All well and good saying that you are not willing to do f*** all for free speech when you live in one of the handful of countries in the world that only has it because other people literally fought major wars and died for it. Yes it does go far deeper than one random clip. The intolerance, ignorance and violent hatred against the free speech has built up because of the million bits of free speech against every completely turtle-headed pointless arbitrary religion or other violent corrupt dictator. PS. BB - This is a very raw issue for me and I am not attacking you personally but the knee-jerk reaction against other people's totally unwarranted violence and threat of violence. You don't eradicate extortion and coercion by giving in to it on issues such as this. PPS And yes. I will happily discuss whether or not copyright is justifiable (another time maybe). YouTube lives in a world where copyright law does exist however.
But then where do you stop? What if people who are angry about some particular video threaten to only injure someone but not kill them? What if they only threaten to burn their house down but not injure them? Throw a rock through their window? Scratch the paintwork on their car? Tip their garbage bins over onto the nature strip? There isn't a universal right not to be offended and there isn't really anything YouTube can do about bat-sh*t crazy people using a video as an excuse to do bad things. Okay, in this instance its "Muslims" going nuts and attacking American consulate workers but go just a couple of thousand miles to the West of Lybia and it could just as easily be "Christians" bombing a doctor's surgery for handing out information on contraception and abortion in Florida or Atlanta.
This issue does fit the definition of a black swan though - no-one saw this coming. Wonder if the impact of it will subside or grow? Edit: I wonder what would happen if someone put up a video celebrating 9/11?
Contrite apology - no I didn't read it properly. Primarily because as I skimmed through it I didn't see anything related to what the angry people in the video clips/news reports had said about why they were attacking. Yes, people in those countries have valid reasons for hating the US because of their screwed up foreign policy actions. However, the angry people in unrelated countries do not have a reason to attack German embassies and the like because of these policies. From my very small window into the events, it is incited by hate speech against the West and free speech in general with the US being the biggest, most obvious target but only one of many that are being targeted.
Aaah. We've gotten enough of the morons here in Australia! http://www.news.com.au/national/pol...the-us-consulate/story-fndo4bst-1226474744811 WTF!?!
There's free speech, and then there's inciting others into violence. IMO free speech has limitations - I just haven't given enough thought as to what they are exactly. I guess if your free speech takes away someone else's freedom to do/say something, then that's probably bad. So if someone is inciting the 'beheading' of those who use free speech to 'insult mohammed', then that probably qualifies as impingeing on someone elses freedom. Maybe ... I'm not schooled in morals/ethics, maybe we should ask reno and auspm?
Let's be more precise for any of our viewers. I will admit that the concept of "free speech" is a complicated concept. In many respects you can liken it to "property rights". If you are in a position where you can exert your property rights then, morally, you should have the total and unfettered ability to say what you will. Hence, their is no restriction in your own home. Subject to the caveats below in principle if you hire a hall then you should be able to say whatever you wish in that hall (you could even sell tickets). If you own a newspaper you should be completely free to say what you wish in that newspaper. Similarly, if you submit a letter to the editor you can basically say what you want in that letter (but the editor has the final say about whether it is published). If you buy a ticket to the cinema/lecture etc you are not free to create a disturbance because buying the tickets does not buy you the rights to do so. The major complication arises when you conduct "free speech" in a public area (i.e. Government owned park or street - as the property rights are not as clearly defined. I won't dwell on this area however. However, when conducting your "free speech" in a public forum (including if you sold tickets) you are not free to undertake speech that is defamatory or coercive. Essentially you are not free to initiate fraud, force or violence against another person or their property through your words (or through your actions, of course). This is why defamation laws exist. Speech that recommends and encourages the initiation of physical violence is and generally always has been deemed to be by society totally wrong. [Please note the key word "initiate" which, if you think about it is very important.] This is why we hate bullies and trolls. Now, in our liberal democracy, the boundaries to freedom of speech have been set so as to allow active speech against the political system especially in public arenas. At no point however, do we say "therefore we should kill XXX". There is a huge difference between "Ditch the Witch" and "Burn the Witch". There is a big difference between "Respect our beliefs for Mohammad" or "Death to all infidels". Others like auspm and hawkeye (and even Yippe, Jonesy and the like who seem to be able to cut through verbal crap) can probably say this stuff much better than I can. but that's my stab at it.
Free speech is "free" speech and you must take the good with the bad if you believe in it. Limiting someones freedom to exercise their opinion no matter what it is only plays into the hands of those who would see your own rights to expression curtailed. Random acts of violence based on some quirky youtube vid are not to be excused tho. You can have all the "choppy off heady" posters you want but don't act like a fkn animal on the streets and intimidate people or if you do expect to be gassed and arrested just like anyone else.
This is all the circus & conflict made to conquer & divide society. And in the background Nero fiddles & Rome burns..... All eyes are on the left hand while the right hand takes control. Please focus on core issues and leave religion & circuses for the masses. Hey... Who will win the footy grand final? Did you see the royal tits in that magazine.? FOCUS.............
I don't know if no one saw this coming. The guy who made this movie was a broke real estate agent from California who got funding from somewhere no matter how shitty and low budget it was. Besides this kind of insult to Muslims is an insult weather its in the latest CG3D or straight to TV.
