World war 2 was probably the very worst humans have ever behaved. I don't think it was a laughing matter then, now or ever will be. Not the death camps, anyway. He's an attention-seeking nobody and has his 15 minutes. Hopefully, he'll crawl back under a stone soon enough.
Sure, people who were going to find it offensive didn't have to look. But then I'm sure he could have found a better medium to release it where only his intended audience would have got to see it. That's if the whole point wasn't to offend such people after all. But I'm fairly sure he did intend to offend.
Let's face it, it was crap. And only a moron could find funny a grown man repeating a couple of dumb expressions to a dumb dog.
So, on this rare occasion, I have to support the British legal system.
But then, he did want this. He wanted to offend people. Trolls do that kind of thing, don't they? I hope his life improves, either way. For I'm fairly sure no healthy normal person would have ever considered making such a pointless video.
I've said several times before that I didn't find the joke funny. In fact, I was probably close to being offended by it, personally. So there's that.
However, if you think he wanted this you simply don't know enough about the case.
He posted this video when his channel was very small, about as big as my YouTube channel currently is (not even 10,000 followers). It essentially was a quiet little place. And for months nobody cared about it. Until, suddenly, at some point long down the road, the guy started getting a little more notoriety, and the people who are paid to dig through the past of their political enemies looking for an outrage to publicize found this video and brought it to light.
It's not like he was blasting this video all over social media. He's an edgy boi who posts edgy vids for other people who like edgy content. Honestly, I had seen some of his videos before this whole thing blew up and I would say I thought about 75% of them were trash with a few occasional gems, and I also perennially got the impression that the guy in no way takes anything seriously, including himself and his content.
You don't like the guy personally, you don't like the joke, you don't like his girlfriend's dog, therefore you think he should be convicted of a crime.
I think you're also missing the bigger picture here, which is that the State arbitrarily decides what's considered "grossly" offensive after the fact. The setting of this precedent would allow the government of the UK to randomly define whatever they want as "grossly" offensive, and charge people with crimes for saying anything that they simply didn't like. It's a terrible precedent to set. What if the State decided that prayer was "grossly" offensive? Or abstract art? Or anything?
I'll tolerate a million edgy trolls over a government that gives itself the authority to charge citizens with crimes for arbitrary and selectively applied definitions of "gross".
I think with his channel he was planting seeds. And one grew to be one hell of a controversy. So, we'll have to disagree on motives behind his channel, I guess.
Don't get me wrong, the law is hardly perfect (I'm sure laws will forever be challenged as I know you'll agree). But yes, I do think he overstepped the mark and I think he knew he was doing so, with that being the idea. My mother died a couple of years ago but I don't know where she's buried as I am not in touch with certain family members any more. For whatever reason. I also know once you're dead, you're dead and your final resting place is little more than where your body gets to decompose. Now, the people who are donating to his cause... If I said I was going to piss on their mothers' graves, do you suspect none of them would get upset by that? (Even if I was just 'having a laugh'.) Personally, I imagine most would get hypocritical at this point and threaten me with violence or something. Because that's how people are. They just do not get that that is exactly how they are.
They'd soon lose their oh-so-fashionable tolerance virtue.
Freedom of speech is a fantastic idea but it does have its limitations. As it should. You can't slander / libel people freely. There are laws against that. Similarly, certain things are taboo or at least should be (at least in my humble opinion and that of a lot of other decent people). Whether the British legal system got him on a trumped-up charge of 'hate speech' is neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned. I think he wanted this. And he got it.
Hell, what's going to happen to the proceeds from the gofundme site? I do hope he doesn't profit in any way from being such a low life but I do have my doubts and accept shit people often prosper in this world. But that's life.
Legal loopholes exist in a million other places and if you think this is one, fair enough, but I'd say it's one of the very last that should be closed. Hardly the first.
Do you think for a minute the British government would do as you suggest they might (in the event the furore over his court case was considerably less)? I'm fairly confident they wouldn't. They commit enough abuses against the people (with their supporters backing, half the time), I'm fairly sure they would never see any need to start getting really ridiculous. Yes, that was arbitrary too, I know.
I'm fairly sure they don't want riots and other mass actions of civil disobedience. Nobody wants that.
But as there's never going be a serious riot over this guy's predicament (or at least as things stand, there won't, nor should there be imo) the British government can lose the keys on this guy as far as I'm concerned.
Millions died in the worst possible way during world war 2. Many of them bravely fighting a monster. Others tragically as a simple result of their ethnicity. Often in truly horrific ways. There are unwritten boundaries where humour limits are concerned. There have to be. Or at least that's what I feel (and again, many others will, also).
It's probably not worth starting WW 3 over but, well.... ;)
Let's not pretend like slander and libel are part of the free speech argument. Those are acts against a person that lie and/or seek to damage someone's reputation. Dank's video was nothing of the sort. It did not single out any person and it did not lie or damage anyone's reputation.
This wasn't slander or libel and that's not what he was charged with.
He was charged with offending people. I will never accept that as a crime and will fight for the right of anyone to offend anyone else on anything.
If you are offended, nothing happens. Your body or property are not damaged. If you're offended you should be perfectly able to continue on with your day. A video placed on an open platform is only viewed by choice. If you are offended by his video it's because you chose to watch it -- nobody forced you to.
It's not a crime and any government that considers it a crime is an authoritarian abuser.
Forget slander and libel, then.
Suppose:
All your family members die the most horrible death you can imagine. Uberprick comes running up to you thinking it's funny (for whatever reason). He (/she) has a real loud voice and there's not really anywhere for you to run. At which point do the jokes wear thin? NEVER??? Incidentally - You can't physically attack, that would be assault / ABH / GBH / attempted murder / murder (delete as appropriate).
You're a law-abiding citizen, say.
What's the difference between this little hypothetical and what Scottish git's guilty of? You know, freedom of speech-wise and all that?
I personally don't see one.
At a push, I suppose you could argue you'd be justified in attacking such a person through provocation. But then there's Mr eighty-year-old Scottish jew who grew up never knowing his parents as Hitler had them murdered.
He could take the law into his own hands and put a bullet through Scottish git's eye, say, but that's hardly desirable is it? We can't have members of the public murdering those whose sense of humour differs from theirs, can we?
So, simple common sense should prevail and Scottish git should grow up / be made to grow up. It really is that simple.
My mother and grandmother died of cancer. People make jokes about people dying of cancer. When I see people say on social media (which they often do) "I hope you die of cancer", I think about my mom.
It makes me sad.
YOU just made me think of my mom dying of cancer.
YOU should be "made to grow up" by the authority of the state.
YOU'VE committed a gross offense against me. Suffer the legal consequences.
Last I heard, cancer was a perfectly normal way to die. I was thinking of something far worse. Either way, I made a point that I felt was perfectly valid. Your comeback, well I guess you thought it valid but as I say there are many crueller ways for a life to be cut short as far as I'm concerned (as I'm sure many would agree). Eg. murder / murder by Nazis.
The rule of law as you opened with earlier is arbitrary and kind of has to be. A lot of things in life are hardly absolute. A policeman can decide whether you're being drunk & disorderly after you've had a bevvie or two. Speed limits on the road - what are they about???
Us civilised beasts try to do our best but the law will never be perfect. And if an obscene monstrosity getting fined upsets a few right-on people, so be it. But what alternative would you recommend?
No laws?
We just all go round doing what the fuck we like? I'm sure you know that wouldn't be the best idea.
Please, give it up? :D
For fear of moving in circles that I don't enjoy, I know I'll have to give it up myself, either way. Knowing that I've at least made what I consider to be a pretty damned sensible point or two in an effort to sway your view, here.
How dare you try to minimize the terrible way in which my mom died.
You're crossing the line, dude.
I guess I was clumsy, there. I apologise.
But then seeing as you've ignored me, I guess you won't get to see this. I'd apologise for having a different viewpoint to you also but I thought you were serious when you asked for people's opinions. I still think you're in the wrong but WTF? Peace. All the best.
Yeah, I thought about it and decided that it's pointless to argue with you because you are incapable of realizing that your own arguments apply to you and the way you're treating me.
People who are incapable of noticing such things are worthless in arguments.
Because of that I'm going to stop wasting time on you and mute you: it's better for my piece of mind, and my energies are really better spent elsewhere, like talking to people who are actually receptive and aware of the nature of their own arguments... or, you know, writing posts on Steemit.
Good luck to you.
Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hole....CD said..
The gassing the Jews bit, and I’m part jewish ....Just a Little dna ...was to make fun of the nazis and tease his girl friend...
Nothing more... come on people put some shoes on and stop trying to carpet the world!
This guy is kind of starting to show that he's not a very decent person... not really the type I want to spend my time trying to argue with. He doesn't listen and he doesn't see that the nature of his own arguments apply to him and what he's saying to me.
This is probably going to result in a mute on my end if he continues beeing a chode. I'm not interested in wasting my time on such people. Had enough of it on Twitter, don't want ANY of it here on Steemit.
Hey, I'm hardly the one making the mountain. The film-maker got his fine. And I'm fine with that. Your argument that what he did was making fun of the Nazis sails right over my head though. I bet there's loads of butt-hurt Nazis on the Internet these days, eh? Nah, I don't think so.
I have broad tastes in most things and like to think I have an open mind. Dark humour is the best, I'd say. But saying 'gas the jews' over and over and over again to a confused dog that only offered a puzzled expression? Frankly, I'm glad I can never accept that as any kind of humour is the last I'll say on the matter. It's a shame shayne didn't appreciate my opinion on this pretty sensitive subject. When he asked for opinions, I thought he'd be fine with someone who disagreed with him putting forward a sensible argument in the process. I was wrong there. No big deal.