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acroyearAustria doesn't have freedom of speech as we do. Yesterday, they jailed David Irving, for openly denying that the holocaust ever happened.
This is wrong. Liars should be exposed as liars, emperors without clothes revealed, so that they have no credibility and can just spout their crap in the corner where no-one would want to listen to them. Liars should not be jailed just for lying.
Now, if they committed fraud (meaning, to me, they made money on their lies outside of publishing fees and public speaking, which are both part of freedom of speech), that would be different. But just publishing a work or making a statement and getting jailed for it puts that European country as not much better than the extreme Islamic world that condemns Denmark.
This is wrong. Liars should be exposed as liars, emperors without clothes revealed, so that they have no credibility and can just spout their crap in the corner where no-one would want to listen to them. Liars should not be jailed just for lying.
Now, if they committed fraud (meaning, to me, they made money on their lies outside of publishing fees and public speaking, which are both part of freedom of speech), that would be different. But just publishing a work or making a statement and getting jailed for it puts that European country as not much better than the extreme Islamic world that condemns Denmark.
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Date: 2006-02-21 01:17 pm (UTC)I am grateful that such extremism hasn't yet taken root here in the U.S., although sadly it doesn't require much of a stretch of the imagination to see people someday getting prison sentences for making such statements as "Justice Department officials knew 9/11 was coming," "FBI agents deliberately set the Waco fire," or "Iran has no nuclear weapons program."