Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Terrorist attacks and beheadings in France

I get the impression that this sort of crime is incredibly rare, even in France, which is maybe when it does happen it gets huge media coverage. When it does happen it's also a good stick with which to strike an already demonised religious group. I think you'll find that both here and in France there have been moire hate crimes committed against Muslims including murder than vice-versa over the past year.

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to demonise at all, I was trying to say that they all have their wingnuts. And they are all pathetic or summat.
 
Don't we have the right to ridicule religions? If not, that's surprising. Religions are stupid, dangerous and sometimes downright evil. Why can't we take the piss out of them? Especially the most pathetic and misogynistic ones.
Oh ffs

There is no * right * to take the piss out of religions. And you're a bunch of fucking liberals if you think there is. There is no * right * to take the piss out of politicians, as those who recall police action to take class war posters from windows or make people hide political t-shirts knows.

People can assert their beliefs if they wish and are able to but there's no actual right to do this.
 
Why did you call chilango a racist?

Yeah.

I understand that my take on this is not shared by all on here (and I kinda agree with those critiques, at least I'd like to)
Whose expectation is it that we leave our views outside the classroom, and why should we seek to appease those expectations?

Whose expectations?

Kids, parents, colleagues, bosses, Government, media...

If you choose to go against those expectations, to go outside and against your designated role as a teacher then you must also acknowledge that this carries the risk of repercussions. It doesn't make those repercussions "right" but they are real.

Look, when I was a teacher there were many time when in subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways I went against these expectations. I didn't have the "right" to do so. Sometimes I suffered because if it. That was the call I made.
 
People can assert their beliefs if they wish and are able to but there's no actual right to do this.
On a philosophical level you can, of course, argue that there is no * right * to do anything at all. But on a day-to-day level we all think that we should have the * right * to eat our cornflakes in the morning, for example, without being interrupted by fascist stormtroopers. I don't think that makes us fucking liberals. Just not pedants.
 
On a philosophical level you can, of course, argue that there is no * right * to do anything at all. But on a day-to-day level we all think that we should have the * right * to eat our cornflakes in the morning, for example, without being interrupted by fascist stormtroopers. I don't think that makes us fucking liberals. Just not pedants.

...don't be silly.

Do you think we all actually have the right to freedom of speech?
 
nm
Yes but you can't just claim you're the least noticed poster for a particular year. You have to be nominated and voted on for it. Preferably by someone who's now banned and so whose judgement can't be questioned.

ha, is that where it’s from. Who called you that?
 
Yeah.

I understand that my take on this is not shared by all on here (and I kinda agree with those critiques, at least I'd like to)


Whose expectations?

Kids, parents, colleagues, bosses, Government, media...

If you choose to go against those expectations, to go outside and against your designated role as a teacher then you must also acknowledge that this carries the risk of repercussions. It doesn't make those repercussions "right" but they are real.

Look, when I was a teacher there were many time when in subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways I went against these expectations. I didn't have the "right" to do so. Sometimes I suffered because if it. That was the call I made.

I think he was trying to be funny - he actually said "anti-semetic" as in the language. Although I still don't know why really.
 
What people mean when they say that is that we all should be able to express our opinions without having our heads chopped off. That all. How silly of them

We should.

...but we don't.

Just like we can't call our bosses "cunts" on Facebook without risking the sack.

Or be racist on Question Time and still get plum acting jobs.

...and so on.

Perhaps we should have freedom of speech.

We don't though.

That's my point.
 
On a philosophical level you can, of course, argue that there is no * right * to do anything at all. But on a day-to-day level we all think that we should have the * right * to eat our cornflakes in the morning, for example, without being interrupted by fascist stormtroopers. I don't think that makes us fucking liberals. Just not pedants.
What I am arguing, and I don't think it is in any way controversial, is that the ability to protest, to poke fun at others' beliefs, and indeed to eat our cornflakes as we choose is only a right when the people who guarantee those abilities actually do so. Look at extinction rebellion and the police's vaunted duty to facilitate peaceful protest. Or the 2009 climate camp smashed in the city of london. What right is there really to peaceful protest when it is so easily withdrawn? What right to free expression when mild insults to politicians are met with police action? If you want the right to take the piss out of other people you have to exercise it constantly not wheel it out for Christmas or on other rare occasions. Everything you consider rights, be it rights of way or rights to insult, atrophy through disuse. But you are, I think, rather optimistic if you think you'll ever get the right to take the piss out of other people without them perhaps pushing back
 
I agree with a lot of the criticism of rights as a way to justice. Having a right to healthcare, for example, is not much use if there are no doctors.

That it is limited in scope does not mean that it is useless, however, as anyone who has lived in a totalitarian state will tell you. The assertion that rights don't matter is as naive as the assertion that they are the only thing that matters.

But then pickman's is fond of using logical fallacies of this kind to construct simplistic nonsenses. He does it every time he claims there is no democracy in the UK. Again, anyone who has experienced an actual absence of democracy knows how fatuous such a claim is.
 
I agree with a lot of the criticism of rights as a way to justice. Having a right to healthcare, for example, is not much use if there are no doctors.

That it is limited in scope does not mean that it is useless, however, as anyone who has lived in a totalitarian state will tell you. The assertion that rights don't matter is as naive as the assertion that they are the only thing that matters.

But then pickman's is fond of using logical fallacies of this kind to construct simplistic nonsenses. He does it every time he claims there is no democracy in the UK. Again, anyone who has experienced an actual absence of democracy knows how fatuous such a claim is.
You love affecting expertise, but an examination of your posts reveals how wanting in the substance of expertise you are. Above you decry minorities determining what may be published as tho there were no minorities running society, as tho capitalists didn't already restrict not only what is formally published but who may access it.

Or in the post I quote here, where despite my having said if people want their rights to have substance you have to exercise yourself to maintain them you make out I've said rights don't matter.

It's the sort of guff I'd expect from someone so unfamiliar with social housing he declares council tenants aren't exploited.

I don't think I've ever said there is no democracy in the UK. I have said we don't live in a democracy. And we don't
 
"Murder is wrong. But can you really blame beheader who kills a teacher because of a cartoon he finds offensive?"
Nobody is even close to saying this. I don't know why so many people keep trying to equate criticism of the teacher with endorsement of his murder. To see thinkers of the calibre of you and LBJ punting that line is just weird.

What is freedom of speech and how far should it go?

Is it ok for a teacher here to say "ok kids, today we're going to be discussing the terms nigger and paki. All you black and asian kids feel free to leave if you don't like it"?

This is about the right to cause offence and often we see the opinion on these boards that racists are free to air their views but shouldn't be surprised when someone acquaints their head with the pavement. If millions of muslims take offence at the cartoons being shown, why show them to a class containing muslims? You can have a perfectly effective discussion of freedom of expression without getting the cartoons out. It just seems gratuitous to me.
 
Last edited:
Nobody is saying this. I don't know why so many people keep trying to equate criticism of the teacher with endorsement of his murder, and to see thinkers of the calibre of you and LBJ punting that line is just weird.

What is freedom of speech and how far should it go?

Is it ok for a teacher here to say "ok kids, today we're going to be discussing the terms nigger and paki. All you black and asian kids feel free to leave if you don't like it"?

This is about the right to cause offence and often we see the opinion on these boards that racists are free to air their views but shouldn't be surprised when someone acquaints their head with the pavement. If millions of muslims take offence at the cartoons being shown, why show them to a class containing muslims? You can have a perfectly effective discussion of freedom of expression without getting the cartoons out.
LBJ is a thinker of a low powered .22 air pistol calibre
DLR is usually a high powered .303
 
There is no * right * to take the piss out of religions. And you're a bunch of fucking liberals if you think there is. There is no * right * to take the piss out of politicians, as those who recall police action to take class war posters from windows or make people hide political t-shirts knows.

There 100% should be, though.
 
Back
Top Bottom