Scotish man convicted for "offensive speech"

[*michaelsean*]

(04-03-2018, 07:57 PM)Dill Wrote: We suffer a bit from social amnesia on this side of the pond. One consequence of that is that many Americans cannot really define or recognize authoritarian leadership. E.g., when Trump says we should have "taken the oil" after conquering Iraq, many saw no problem with that fundamental disavowal of a liberal international order based upon universal human rights.  Nothing authoritarian about a Muslim ban--just protecting our borders. What is the use of having nuclear weapons if we are never going to use them, can you tell me that? Americans learn Hitler was a "bad guy who killed Jews" but little about the Nazi rollback of the liberal Weimar state to make Germany great again--especially his war on the "lying" press, the first enemy of every authoritarian leader.  We compare everyone we don't like to Hitler and then we can't compare anyone to Hitler. You European types pioneered a psychology geared to identifying authoritarian personalities. We didn't need to since our leaders are democratically elected and constrained.

Another consequence is a double standard to which we are largely blind.  Institutionalized, mass chattel slavery of millions doesn't really count against us when talking about you authoritarian Europeans and your evil history, nor does the century of legal segregation that followed, which respected states rights and not the dictates of some all powerful central government. It's not "authoritarian" when separate is equal. So we fought Hitler with a segregated military to end fascist racist authoritarianism. Free speech for white people has been the norm since the founding, with war time and Communist exceptions.  African Americans and Socialists have had a somewhat different experience which is a digression and beside the point when we are talking about the rights of most Americans.

From the time the first English settlers landed in North American, they noticed that Native Americans were not making the best use of their land. White people taking it and putting it to better use was good economics, and that land was for the most part appropriated democratically, by wars duly voted on and via policies propounded by duly elected officials, not some jack-booted thug who called himself "Fuehrer" or "Commissar."  Japanese were interned as much for their protection as ours. 

So I hope this helps you understand that basically it is different when we do when we do authoritarian stuff.

It isn't even really doing it when we do it.

Jesus have a little pride. Hint: they’re not going to become your besties now.

Edit:So we can’t comment rightly or wrongly on authoritarianism because slavery? Talking about Putin is amnesia if we don’t include the Indians?