Word, Pat
February 8, 2010 – 7:18 am
By skepticlawyer
You may not agree with everything notable atheist and skeptic Pat Condell says, but it needs to be said all the same. You may not like Geert Wilders much, either, but this is appalling.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ZUZ9CPZII&feature=topvideos[/youtube]
More (mainly in Dutch, alas) here.
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5 Comments
Thanks for drawing this to my attention, he puts it well.
It all gets back to the point that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to regulate people’s attitudes by using the law as a sledgehammer like this. It brings the law into disrepute.
LE, doesn’t it get back to the point that it’s *wrong* to regulate people’s attitudes (as distinct from their actions)?
From the summons quoting Wilders:
„Prohibit this miserable book the way Mein Kampf was also prohibited!‟
and/or
„I have enough of the Quran in the Netherlands: prohibit this fascist book.‟
He’s hardly a free speech advocate.
Oh, Wilders is (or was) no friend of free speech, I think that’s fair to say. Fortuyn, by contrast, was a friend of free speech and a consistent libertarian (by European standards, anyway). To be fair Wilders may have changed since then, and he may also have been aiming for deliberate hyperbole — there is much in the Koran that is comparable for its exterminationism with Mein Kampf or great wads of Lenin. Unfortunately, one cannot always choose one’s allies, which can lead to free speech advocates defending “Illinois Nazis” etc.
By way of background, I have been forced to keep something of an eye on the Netherlands, as my aunt, uncle and cousin live there.
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[...] am aware that this can mean sticking up for some pretty toxic people; as I mentioned in my comments on the current Geert Wilders blow up, sometimes this can even go so far as ‘Illinois Nazis’ (with apologies to the Blues [...]