<story><title>German hate speech law tested as Twitter blocks satire account</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-hatecrime/german-hate-speech-law-tested-as-twitter-blocks-satire-account-idUSKBN1ES1AT</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danschumann</author><text>The problem with hate speech laws are, it means you can&amp;#x27;t insult everyone equally.  If you call someone stupid, they could accuse you of a crime, but you&amp;#x27;re not calling them stupid because of their race.&lt;p&gt;And I want people who actually are racist to talk, so I know who I don&amp;#x27;t want to be friends with.  If they&amp;#x27;re all keeping their racist opinions to themselves, I might waste a bunch of time being their friends.  And I can&amp;#x27;t correct them when they&amp;#x27;re wrong if they don&amp;#x27;t expose their opinions.&lt;p&gt;And what about having an argument?  Someone could accuse you of a crime if they misinterpret what you say.  That&amp;#x27;s the real problem here.  You can say something with no hateful intent, but people can interpret it with vigorous hate.  It&amp;#x27;s a really stupid law.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>King-Aaron</author><text>&amp;gt; If they&amp;#x27;re all keeping their racist opinions to themselves, I might waste a bunch of time being their friends&lt;p&gt;I have several friends who I know hold some less-than-sociable opinions, and they do tend to keep them to themselves.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t quite know how to frame what I&amp;#x27;m about to say, but I feel it&amp;#x27;s equally dickish to think that becoming someone&amp;#x27;s friend is a &amp;quot;waste of time&amp;quot; just because you don&amp;#x27;t agree with their opinion.</text></comment>
<story><title>German hate speech law tested as Twitter blocks satire account</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-hatecrime/german-hate-speech-law-tested-as-twitter-blocks-satire-account-idUSKBN1ES1AT</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danschumann</author><text>The problem with hate speech laws are, it means you can&amp;#x27;t insult everyone equally.  If you call someone stupid, they could accuse you of a crime, but you&amp;#x27;re not calling them stupid because of their race.&lt;p&gt;And I want people who actually are racist to talk, so I know who I don&amp;#x27;t want to be friends with.  If they&amp;#x27;re all keeping their racist opinions to themselves, I might waste a bunch of time being their friends.  And I can&amp;#x27;t correct them when they&amp;#x27;re wrong if they don&amp;#x27;t expose their opinions.&lt;p&gt;And what about having an argument?  Someone could accuse you of a crime if they misinterpret what you say.  That&amp;#x27;s the real problem here.  You can say something with no hateful intent, but people can interpret it with vigorous hate.  It&amp;#x27;s a really stupid law.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wernercd</author><text> &amp;gt; I want people who actually are racist to talk, so I know who I don&amp;#x27;t want to be friends with.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s more important and wide than &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t want to be their friends&amp;quot;...&lt;p&gt;How can you attack ideas if they aren&amp;#x27;t brought out into the open? How can you convince the racist? Or the people that have those thoughts but don&amp;#x27;t mention them?&lt;p&gt;They corner stone of freedom is discussing ideas.&lt;p&gt;I want the most vile pieces of shit to have their chance to speak... so that I can talk to them. I can talk to those who will listen. I will combat their ideas.&lt;p&gt;Cowards hide from ideas and words. It takes strength to fight them head on and out in the open.</text></comment>