

Thought police muscle up in Britain, soft totalitarianism arrives - tc
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25361297-7583,00.html?from=public_rss

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tc
Before anyone complains or flags, let me say that I debated whether or not to
submit this, as HN has been especially touchy about government-oriented posts
lately. I decided to submit it anyway because 1) the piece is careful, non-
hysterical, and thoughtful, and 2) as PG has implied elsewhere, the existence
of thought crimes are particularly onerous to innovators. Try to imagine
Feynman living in this place...

~~~
jgranby
Non-hysterical?! It compares modern-day Britain to East Germany and the
October Revolution, on the basis that Britain criminalises hate speech (lots
of other countries do, too). The author is Australian, and doesn't live in
Britain as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure why he's purporting to lecture
about how life is here. Ironically, hate speech is also a criminal offence in
Australia, and the Australian section is the longest in Wikipedia's Hate
Speech article. The sort of trivial, tabloid-type stories he tells (but
doesn't link to) aren't really enough to make a serious case that the UK is
some sort of North Korea-esque totalitarian regime.

Anyway, I won't flag you -- I'd be interested to read what others think -- but
I don't think it's a very good article.

~~~
tc
Without living in the UK myself, it is difficult for me to separate the
exceptional cases from the general trend. What I can say is that in America,
things that would have seemed exceptional ten and twenty years ago have become
depressingly commonplace.

Also, from an epistemological perspective, you almost have to use the
exceptional cases to spot the trend while they are still exceptional. Once
they become commonplace, we stop noticing them. They are no longer new, so
they are no longer news.

