We'd better be careful...

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... because we're in danger of becoming the only western industrialized nation without Gestapo-like speech police.



Via Charles Cooke at The Corner

A SHOP boss was arrested and quizzed by police for eight hours for cracking Nelson Mandela jokes on the internet.

Neil Phillips said he was fingerprinted, DNA-swabbed and had his computers seized.

The 44-year-old was held after posting: "My PC takes so long to shut down I've decided to call it Nelson Mandela."

Another read: "Free Mandela - switch the power off."

But police swooped after a councillor complained over the gags about the former South African leader, who passed away on Thursday, aged 95.

(italics, ours)

That's actually pretty damn funny. But now back to the unfunny part.

Mr Phillips, who runs Crumbs sandwich shop in Rugeley, Staffs, was arrested after complaints by Cllr Tim Jones about the one-liners, aired when the anti-apartheid hero was critically ill.

Mr Phillips who insisted he meant no harm, said: "It was an awful experience. I was fingerprinted, they took DNA and my computer.

"It was a couple of jokes, Bernard Manning type," he added. "There was no hatred. What happened to freedom of speech? I think they over-reacted massively."

Continue reading at the link where Cooke (a British ex-pat now making his living in the States) explains which speech law passed in 1986 Mr. Phillips was found suspected of violating (the article does not mention what, if any punishment, Phillips received. No matter. The damage had been done).


For years we have been warned that the chains of tyranny and theocratic autocracy would descend from the right. It's never happened. Quite to the contrary, what you read above is a progressive wet dream. After all, who would want to live in a society where one even runs the risk of being offended by someone's untoward choice of words? How can you talk of free speech when we're talking about feelings, here, man?


And please note that in crossing British speech laws, one does not even need to be the target of said hurled unpleasantries. One need only feel aggrieved on behalf of someone else... a dead person in this case... in order for the offender to be frog-marched to the local constabularies for questioning and DNA swabs.


It's frightening to think that this happened in the land of our closest ally and cultural Western civilization kin. This is why we have and will continue to opposes speech laws and particularly hate-speech laws at every turn. The progressive vision of controlling your speech and the thought that generates that speech is the goal here. Never forget this: it's not about potentially offending, embarrassing, shaming or even slandering someone else. Like "sensible" gun control laws, it's never about what they say it is - it's strictly about control pure and simple.


Freedom and liberty are concepts with which people outside the royal faculty lounge cannot be trusted. You, friends, are simply not advanced enough nor trustworthy enough to be entrusted with these constitutionally-enshrined guarantees.


Let's fight to make sure what you read above never happens here because western Europe appears to be more and more acceptance of the tyranny progressives have always warned us about yet it is their ideology from whence this tyranny springs.

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