Archive for Freedom of Expression

Fundamental rights and freedoms – Yin and Yang

The following is an updated version of a comment I wrote on the European Parliament’s Facebook page in response to the question What is the most important value that the EU should defend?


I agree that fundamental rights and freedoms are the most important thing for the EU to protect. However, I think that there is not just one particular fundamental right or freedom that is above another other in importance, it all goes together, like yin and yang.

For example, freedom of expression is worth little if one is without health care and is dying a slow and painful death from cancer or another serious disease.

Freedom of the press is also worth nothing if one cannot read, thus the right to an education is crucial as well.

Health care is not worth a lot in the long term if life is hell on earth (Uzbekistan, North Korea etc.) because of oppression, thus freedom of expression is of vital importance.

Education is worth little without the freedom of expression and the press, because in that scenario the education might be tainted with political or religious dogma to obscure the truth, and even if that was not the case, if one could not freely use one’s education to attain what one feels is a good life, then the education is also not worth much. An author would not be able to write a book, which others would then not be able to ever read etc.

It is all a giant web if yin and yang, I believe that it is all interconnected and interdependent for a free society to thrive, that is what I believe that European values should strive towards, and thus what the EU should be working hard to uphold.

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Kommentar til Karina Lorentzens (SF) Facebook udmelding “Når seriøsiteten svigter, står oppositionen klar!”

Politik er af og til morsomt, og det bør det være, ellers ville verden da være grå, og kedelig. Problemet er bare når noget næsten er komisk af dårlige grunde. Følgende er endnu et klart bevis på noget, som egentlig er tæt på komisk, men pga. seriøsiteten, ikke er sjovt overhovedet!


"Karina Lorentzen Dehnhardt vil lade statsministeren, hans parti og spinvennerne lege politik - så skal vi andre nok stå for at lave politik. Når seriøsiteten svigter, står oppositionen klar!"

Kilde: Facebook.

“Når seriøsiteten svigter, står oppositionen klar!”


Mit svar:

Som tekst:

Bare lad være med at fremsætte grundlovsstridige, ytringsfrihedsmyrdende, uigennemtænkte og unødvendige lovforslag, som kun spilder tid. Det der med at oppositionen “står klar”, finder jeg efterhånden noget utroværdigt. Fremfor at kæmpe for socialt progressive mærkesager, såsom ligeløn imellem mænd og kvinder, fuld lighed for homoseksuelle i samfundet, adskildelse af kirke og stat, ordenlig fokus på bekæmpelse af fattigdom, eliminering af skattelettelserne til de rige svindlere, ratificering af nye menneskerettighedstraktater, insisteren på undersøgelse af den ulovlige krig i Irak, NEJ, istedet støtter Socialdemokraterne et grundlovsstridigt burkaforbud, og du og SF foreslår, at man laver indirekte censur af internettet ved at straffe folk for at se på noget indhold, ikke for at udgive det. Alle som synes Karinas lille fikse idé er god, prøv at sætte en artikel om demokrati på kinesisk ind i den kontekst, jeg vil væde med at jeg kan høre jer skrige helt fra Sibirien. Det er ikke noget absurd eksempel, fordi principper testes kun når tingene bliver svære, principper er nemme at overholde når det er ting man i forvejen er enig i, eller synes om, det er kun når det modsatte er tilfældet at principperne træder i karakter eller bortfalder.

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Quick reminder for any oppressed people!

Given that the Danish politicians, yet again, dare even ponder the notion of censoring the Internet, and then try to dance around it like were they walking over a path of burning coal (And the Danish electorate seem to be too damn afraid of those oh so scary Muslims, and their minarets that they don’t care about another chunk of their freedom of expression going down the toilet!), I thought this might be a good opportunity to remind any oppressed Chinese, Burmese, Iranians etc., that if you are in need of computer software, to help you escape the dictator’s grip on your ability to express yourself, check my Encryption Software section.

I’ll have to remember to update and expand it in the near future, because hell, maybe I or my neighbor might be needing it one of these days!

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Kommentar til Karina Lorentzens (SF) blog-indlæg “Ingen censur af internettet”

I tilfælde af at sf.dk’s moderatorer ikke bryder sig om, min meget tilspidsede tone, er her hvad jeg skrev som svar på Karina Lorentzens (Fra Socialistisk Folkeparti, SF) blog-indlæg “Ingen censur af internettet”, hvor hun på fuldstændig fantastisk (For at bruge Villys udtryk) vis, forsøger at bortforklare Internet censur.


Karina skriver:

“Man kan ikke censurere internettet – og det skal man heller ikke. Men man kan godt stille krav til folks adfærd på nettet. Det gør man allerede i dag når det gælder pædofili, som det er strafbart at opsøge og downloade. Det samme kan man gøre med opfordringer til vold og terror.”

Hvis man kan straffes for aktivt at opsøge og surfe efter og downloade børneporno, som er til ubodelig skade for tusindvis af børn verden over – så kan man også straffes for aktivt og med forsæt at opsøge opfordringer til vold og terror – der koster tusindvis af mennesker, herunder også mange børn, livet verden over, hvert år – altså at nuancere muligheden for, hvornår man forbereder en forbrydelse.

Der er altså ikke tale om censur af hjemmesider. Ej heller er der tale om at teleudbydere skal holde justits med terrorhjemmesider. Det betyder derfor ikke øget overvågning, ej heller filtre og anden teknologi – men at politiet skal kunne gribe ind, når de har en konkret person i kikkerten med de midler, de allerede har.

Men der er tale om at PET og politiet får mulighed for at slå til, hvis en person aktivt og systematisk har været opsøgende i fht. terrorgruppers opfordringer og brugsanvisninger til vold, drab, terror.

Når det gælder fænomenet ”hate-crime” – altså forbrydelser der som motiv har had til f.eks andre etniske grupper, seksuelle minoriteter, anderledes politisk tænkende etc., så er hate-crime en skærpende omstændighed. Det er noget SF har kæmpet for!

Mange af disse terrorhjemmesider har et budskab om død over bestemte nationaliteter, holdninger, minoriteter, trosretninger. Det er altså organiseret ”hate-crime”.

Hvad så med den almindelige net-bruger, der surfer rundt på må og få? Det SF har foreslået at vi undersøger, er at man skal udvise omtanke når man færdes på nettet. Som i alle mulige andre sammenhænge i tilværelsen kan skødesløshed eller grov uagtsomhed blive et problem for den enkelte, når man skal stå til ansvar for domstolene. Men fordi man til en skoleopgave eller i sin forskning frekventerer visse sider – så er det jo ikke dét PET har brug for at slå ned på. De har nok at gøre med de virkeligt farlige personer.

Men PET kan have brug for et redskab til at kunne anholde en person, som med sandsynlighed, og når andre indikationer peger i samme retning, kan være ved at tilegne sig viden der skal bruges til terror. Derfor har vi spurgt jusitsministeren om dette allerede er kriminaliseret eller om der kan være behov for at gøre noget på et tidligere tidspunkt.

På pædofili-området har vi allerede i dag en række strafferegler i vores lovgivning – hvor ufuldstændig og uperfekt den end er – som kunne overføres til terrorområdet: At man enten forholder sig klogt, når man færdes på nettet – ligesom i trafikken. Eller hvis man vil tilegne sig terrorviden, risikerer at måtte stå til ansvar for domstolene. For den enkelte skal jo, på fuldstændig vanlig vis, for en dommer og have vurderet sin sag.”

Kilde: Ingen censur af internettet


Jeg skriver i min kommentar:

“så kan man også straffes for aktivt og med forsæt at opsøge opfordringer til vold og terror ”

Karina, jeg vil meget gerne at du forklarer mig hvordan et forbud mod det du her påpeger, ikke ville ramme folk som måske af ren interesse for biologi osv. opsøger det man kunne kalde “bombeopskrifter”, for af vide hvilke stoffer der bruges i bomber eller fyrværkeri, af ren videnskabelig interesse. Nu er det ikke alle som interesserer sig for biologi som vælger det som levebrød, eller har mulighed for det gøre så, og tage en universitetsuddannelse o.l.!

Du siger du ikke vil censurere hjemmesider, nej okay, men du foreslår noget der i såfald har næsten samme effekt, vi gør ikke hjemmesiderne ulovlige, men vi forbyder dælme folk at læse dem!

Der er MILLIARDER af websites på nettet, skulle en lille censurkommitée hos PET, Folketinget eller andre, nogensinde kunne holde styr på dem alle? Enhver fornuftig person, skulle nok kunne indse er det er helt umuligt. De egentlige forbrydere som vil slå andre ihjel ved at smide bomber, skal sgu nok finde en måde at få den nødvendige viden på, hvis ikke ved at finde en hurtig opskrift på nettet, så ved at studere noget biologi, og så er det da, at vi for alvor ikke kan kende forskel på bombemanden og biologinørden.
Vi ved at mange terrorister langt fra er dårligt uddannede, nogle vi har set har haft høje uddannelser i mange ting, det kan japanerne også fortælle os lidt om. da de terrorister som lavede saringas angrebe på Tokyos metro i 1995 havde store universitetsuddannelser i biologi og mange andre videnskaber.

Selv HVIS vi antog at Folketingets Censurudvalg eller hvad pokker vi skal kalde det, kunne holde styr på hvornår en person i Chile lægger noget ud på sin blog som en bombemand kan bruge, så tager det altså ikke mere end 10 minutters snak med en computernørd med samme viden som mig (Og der findes mange med mere viden indenfor feltet end jeg, sikkert også folk med en forskruet moral) for at bombemanden har alle de anonymiseringsteknikker han/hun skal bruge, for at undgå den konstruktion som dit frygts-masturberende forslag ville stille op. Jeg undskylder udtrykket, men det du foreslår giver kun en falsk følelse af sikkerhed. Og en falsk følelse af sikkerhed er meget værere end slet ingen, fordi når man ikke har nogen, så ved man at man ikke sikker, hvis man “TROR” man er sikker, så har man tilbøjelighed til ikke at være kritisk overfor sine egne konstruktioner, og så går man bombemandens ærne.

Lige en sidste ting, hvis det var Iran eller Kina som gjorde noget i den her stil og henviste til tibetanske websites med “farlig information”, så hvinede vi i vesten, med god grund, til vi ikke kunne trække vejret.
Lad nu for pokker være med at give ultra-liberalisterne alt hvad de skal bruge for at erklære SF for “NORDKOREA PARTIET”.

For at opsummere, og jeg undskylder min tone, men det forslag her er godt nok det mest useriøse, uigennemtænkte jeg har hørt siden de Konservatives burkaforbud, MEN VENT det var jo ikke så længe siden!!! Er det kun mig eller kommer de her “intellekts-udhuglede” (Man fristes til at bruge stærkere ord) forslag efterhånden bare på linje, og i stimer fra politikkerne på Christiansborg?

Jeg tror og mange andre vælgere i disse dage tænker følgende:
SÅ TAG JER DOG SAMMEN!!!

Hvor ærger jeg mig dog af og til over, at vi i Danmark har et så umoderne demokrati, at vælgerne i de forskellige valgkredse ikke har mulighed for indsamle underskrifter så vi tiltider kunne få nogle recall-valg, synes simpelthen der er så meget useriøsitet i Folketinget, at var det en almindelig arbejdsplads, offentlig eller privat, så var mange blevet fyret for længe siden!


Jeg tilføjede som en hurtig opfølgende kommentar:

Jeg skulle måske også lige understrege, at forslag og snak som det her, er ting som for første gang, efter kun 1½ års medlemsskab af SF, har fremprovokeret de første udmeldelsesovervejelser. Jeg er i forvejen politisk mere på linje med Enhedslisten, men tilslutter mig, af forskellige årsager, partipolitisk til SF, men hvis man bliver ved med så elendige, useriøse, og “intellekts-udhuglende” (Sjovt ord, men tror godt man kan gætte, udfra det, hvilket ord jeg egentlig gerne ville bruge, men pga. kommentarfeltets advarsel ikke bruger) forslag, så vil jeg ihvertfald hurtigt tage konsekvensen!

Jeg har grinet min *** i laser over folk, som sammenlignede SFs nyere kurs med Dansk Folkepartis konstante, fremmedfjenske populisme, og det vil jeg nok blive ved med lidt endnu, men synes godt nok det her fortjener at gå planken ud og direkte ned i en gylletank fyldt til bristepunktet!

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The UN makes a mockery of human rights!

“The U.N.’s top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism.”
Source: UN body OKs call to curb religious criticism.

This is bullshit!! This is marlarky!!! This is outrageous!!!!!!
(Borrowing a statement from Joe Biden)

I’m literally having difficulty writing anything because the outrage is so huge! The council that adopted this should now be renamed to the UN Human Repression Council. This is an insult to all people who appreciate the freedom to express themselves.

Because of my lack of words, I’ll leave you with something I have written before, a variation of George Orwell’s famous “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” …

When freedom of speech is under attack, exercising it becomes a revolutionary act.

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In China, doing the right thing seems to bite you in the ass …

“A Chinese teacher has been detained for posting images on the internet of schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake, a rights group has said.”

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7532813.stm

The Chinese dictatorship is up to it’s old tricks again. During the earthquake in May, a bunch of schools collapsed (And I bitch Danish school buildings were getting bad! :P ) resulting in the deaths of many children. A teacher gets upset that the government have not maintained these buildings, publishes pictures of it, and is sent to a labour camp for “re-education”, take a wild guess at what that means …

Why the hell was this asshole government allowed to host the Olympic Games in the first place!! Makes absolutely no sense.

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Classic Comedy!

I always love when a big pissing match, over something related to religion comes up, because the reactions from governments, and the small, vocal amount of people who protest or do stupid things, just make such great comedy! Not that they’re directly funny, but they’re just so ridiculously stupid that it’s funny! The source for all the following statements by people from various governments, is this article, UN chief condemns anti-Islam film, on BBC News.

Get this for instance:

“Pakistan said it told the Dutch ambassador that it was incumbent on the Netherlands to prosecute Mr Wilders for defamation and deliberately hurting Muslim sentiments, the official Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.”

Ah, great one to start out with! If they had said that to me (And they essentially did two years ago with the pissing match over the drawings of the prophet Muhammed), my reactions would be something along the lines of: Ummmm, OK? Dude, have you heard about this small concept, which be very alien to you, called freedom of expression? It’s a small concept that we in the west advocate. Anyway, anything else? OK good, then stick it in your asses!

Here’s another one that is less stupid-funny, but just simply stupid:

“The world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, also condemned the film, saying it was “misleading and full of racism”.”

OK guys, in case you folks in Indonesia skipped out on school, “racism” means:

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

Source: Britannica Online Encyclopedia – Definition of racism.

I have watched Geert Wilders film (If you want to see it, here’s you go: Fitna the Movie: Geert Wilders’ film about the Quran (English) ), and going by the above definition, I can find absolutely no traces of racism in it. So to the folks in Indonesia who see “racism” in it, get a dictionary, go to school and get a life!

Here’s one that I think is self-defeating:

“The foreign ministry in Bangladesh issued a statement calling the film “unwarranted” and “mindless”.”

Dudes, if you think something is mindless, please just keep quiet and ignore it, the fact that you bother saying that you think the film is mindless, is mindless!.

And to wrap up, here’s the usual, inevitable and retarded statement from Iran (They must have a book full of these by now …):

“Iran said it was blasphemous, anti-Islamic and heinous – a sign it said of deep hatred felt by Westerners towards Muslims.”

HA! What a surprise, Iran calling something critic of their religion, … blasphemous! … of all the words in the world! Can’t you losers be more creative! Come on!
You know, I think a staunch, zealot lesbian (I have nothing against homosexuality, yeah, I said it, damn it!) would see my dick as blasphemous against her beloved womanhood!

Oh, and Mr. Ahmadinejad … regarding Westerners hating Muslims, please cut the fucking shit! We don’t hate Muslims (In fact a person I consider a true friend is a Muslim, so there!), we just don’t like fundamentalist, facist extremists like you sir.

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“Religion is poison” – Mao Zedong

Dutch politician Geert Wilders, released his Islam-critic short-film Fitna, on the Internet earlier today. I finished watching it about an hour ago, and I just watched a TV debate about the film. One of the people on there, essentially called it a very very mediocre clip show. I won’t go so far as to call it very very mediocre, but it’s definitely a clipshow and not that great a clipshow.

OK, so I’ve seen the film, watched some debates, and thought a little bit about it. So what do I think? Well, it’s very easy to state a clear opinion with very few words, and I think I have found something which former dictator of People’s Republic of China, Chairman Mao Zedong have said, that I can agree with: “Religion is poison”.
People will probably accuse Geert Wilders for inciting hate or racism (You’re an idiot if you see racism in what he says!), however I don’t quite agree. Based on interviews with him that i have watched, I’d say he simply demonstrates how dangerous the Islamic ideology is, when it’s interpreted literally, which a fairly vocal minority seems to do. An argument against the film, which I heard on TV, was that the verse of the Quran being show are taken out of context. But you know, THAT is irrelevant, the fact that hateful words are in there, makes it dangerous, I have read other sources for awful verses in the Quran, so Geert Wilders is not making this up. I don’t really care whether Geert Wilders is taking things out of context, because saying that you should kill an enemy, is definitely violent words no matter how you shape it. So I agree with Wilders that the Quran is a dangerous book, because it does have violent messages that can interpreted, and ARE being interpreted as to “I should do something violent, against XYTZ person, if they do ABC, because the Quran tells me to!”. When you interpret the Quran like that, well you almost certainly become a an extremist terrorist.

So do I think the Quran is a dangerous book? Yes! Should it be banned? No. I don’t support limiting freedom of speech and expression in ether way, unless specific death threats are directly being made.

Now, I don’t want this to sound like I am speaking against Islam, but I am not really (You can apply everything I have said here to the bible of Judaism and Christianity as well), what I’m speaking against is violence in religions.

I am a fairly staunch atheist, and I believe the bible is very bad as well. One of my classmates, who once stated that he himself would probably be classified as Christian fundamentalist (Which I could only shake my head about), argued that that was just the Old Testament. But that’s really bullshit argument, because if the Old Testament is irrelevant, the why the fuck is it included in that darn book!?!?! People would say that Genesis, as described in the Old Testament needs to be taken literally (Even though the bible itself contains two different versions of it), but then turn around and say that other parts of the Old Testament are irrelevant, are being extremely hypocritical in my opinion.

Yeah, like Chairman Mao Zedong said: “Religion is poison”.

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People’s “Repression” Army!

While surfing around on Wikipedia a few days ago, it occurred to me that the Chinese army’s name, People’s Liberation Army, is not very appropriate in that it’s a very misleading name. A more correct name, to me, would be People’s Repression Army. Especially with the events that has been happening in Tibet recently, this has been never so true, in my humble opinion, that is!

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Utilization of freedom of speech … a revolutionary act!

Close to a month ago, a group of Danish newspapers republished the (in)famous cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Which resulted in various religious maniacs throughout the middle east going crazy. And here at home, some groups of assholes have been running around lighting cars on fire (The thought of which is REALLY pissing me off!). I consider all opposition to the newspapers republishing the cartoons as an attack on freedom of speech. In any truly free society, freedom of speech ought to be considered an inalienable civil liberty that should never be dishonored.

I know of this great quote, by George Orwell: “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”.

I just thought of my own version, related to freedom of speech, that is directly meant for the situations of today (I am not implying that G.O.’s quote cannot be directly applied to today’s world situation, but it was not meant to be, as it’s not a new quote by any means):

When freedom of speech is under attack, utilizing it becomes a revolutionary act.

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