Free speech on the Internet?
It sounds nice in theory doesn’t it? The right to say what you want, the right to
freely express your opinions; but does free speech actually work? There are of course clear benefits to free
speech, but groups like the westborough Baptist church or the KKK seem to ruin
it for the rest of us. It seems all well
and good to have free speech, but consider being the target for hate, and if
you’re gay, black, jewish, or anything other than a white, god-fearing male,
you’ll probably know all to well the downfall of free speech.
I felt like having a look at some extremist websites. I dunno the idea of these people using computers just amazes me. So after feeling a little dirty for searching white surpremacy I came across mostly hidden political mesagges. I'll chuck a link to some after I'm kind of in a public library and I don't really want people to think I'm all 'white pride' you know?
It was really interesting to see how subtle some were, for example one was outlining policies ti "get australia back" or something about working families, but then they just subtling throw in there something like "oh yeah and foreigners piss off".
You know it really got me thinking about the last election actually. (oh I'm austrlalian by the way, it's probably going to come up from time to time). I was specifically thinking about the "stop the boats" stuff. You know, I know theyre just trying to use strong colloquial language to get the majority on their side, but I find that a really ignorant thing to say. I think whats worse about that is that both parties wanted ton "stop the boats", which really suggests that keeping foreigners out is Australia public ineterst.
..anyway
Back to online extremism, if the above is true and generally Australians are anti-foreigner, these views might even see a fair bit of support. I mean it sucks that these people might be being encouraged but think about how, say your Asian looking friend who was born in Australia feels. Imagine seeing a website, subtle dedicated to kicking you out of your own country.
Even then you get into the issue of what extremism actually is. if extremism is defined by social norms, is white supremacy an extremist view if a large portion of the population actually do hate non-whites.
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The other day I was in a furniture store, just kind of browsing i guess, and I overhear this conversation which went a little like this.
Woman: "what about this one dear"
Man: "No!"
Man: "It's fucken black!"
Man: "-Fucken hate black!"
Man: "Just like fucken black people!"
Man: "Black people piss me off!"
And I guess when I think about it, he was about internet usage age. He would definately be the kind of guy that would frequent white supremacy sites. He was very bogan-looking, dumb look on his face, stupid hat, looked a little dirty, but on the internet people can't see this guy for the slob he is. others might actually listen to what this guy has to say simply because they can't tell it's an idiot saying it. Lets just hope his spelling and grammar is bad I guess.
What I'm really getting to is that free speach sounds like a brilliant idea paramount to 'freedom', but really I want nothing more than somebody to shut people like this up. Let's just leave the internet as a place for funny pictures of cats, yeah guys?
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OBLIGATORY CAT LINK!
Oh you know what? on the topic of racism and cats...cats that look like hitler THIS IS ACTUALLY A THING! seriously look!
I felt like having a look at some extremist websites. I dunno the idea of these people using computers just amazes me. So after feeling a little dirty for searching white surpremacy I came across mostly hidden political mesagges. I'll chuck a link to some after I'm kind of in a public library and I don't really want people to think I'm all 'white pride' you know?
It was really interesting to see how subtle some were, for example one was outlining policies ti "get australia back" or something about working families, but then they just subtling throw in there something like "oh yeah and foreigners piss off".
You know it really got me thinking about the last election actually. (oh I'm austrlalian by the way, it's probably going to come up from time to time). I was specifically thinking about the "stop the boats" stuff. You know, I know theyre just trying to use strong colloquial language to get the majority on their side, but I find that a really ignorant thing to say. I think whats worse about that is that both parties wanted ton "stop the boats", which really suggests that keeping foreigners out is Australia public ineterst.
..anyway
Back to online extremism, if the above is true and generally Australians are anti-foreigner, these views might even see a fair bit of support. I mean it sucks that these people might be being encouraged but think about how, say your Asian looking friend who was born in Australia feels. Imagine seeing a website, subtle dedicated to kicking you out of your own country.
Even then you get into the issue of what extremism actually is. if extremism is defined by social norms, is white supremacy an extremist view if a large portion of the population actually do hate non-whites.
_______________________________________________________
The other day I was in a furniture store, just kind of browsing i guess, and I overhear this conversation which went a little like this.
Woman: "what about this one dear"
Man: "No!"
Man: "It's fucken black!"
Man: "-Fucken hate black!"
Man: "Just like fucken black people!"
Man: "Black people piss me off!"
And I guess when I think about it, he was about internet usage age. He would definately be the kind of guy that would frequent white supremacy sites. He was very bogan-looking, dumb look on his face, stupid hat, looked a little dirty, but on the internet people can't see this guy for the slob he is. others might actually listen to what this guy has to say simply because they can't tell it's an idiot saying it. Lets just hope his spelling and grammar is bad I guess.
What I'm really getting to is that free speach sounds like a brilliant idea paramount to 'freedom', but really I want nothing more than somebody to shut people like this up. Let's just leave the internet as a place for funny pictures of cats, yeah guys?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
OBLIGATORY CAT LINK!
Oh you know what? on the topic of racism and cats...cats that look like hitler THIS IS ACTUALLY A THING! seriously look!
I am glad to see that you are keeping up with the challenge!! :)
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