Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Hate Speech Laws Are Not Necessary-Defamation and Libel Laws Work Perfectly Well

I found this article very interesting. 

A woman in Ottawa who had never blogged or written a restaurant review had a crappy meal, and crappy service at a restaurant and posted an on-line review, under her own name.

The restaurant owner was not very happy about that and proceeded with an extensive, intensive, time-consuming online harrassment and defamation campaign against the reviewer that was really obnoxious, crazy, defamatory and ultimately completely self-defeating. 

A psychologist notes:

"Revenge, he says, operates like a powerful craving".

“People who are in the thrall of the desire for revenge are in the thrall of an insatiable appetite. They look like people who are trying to get a fix of some kind of drug.” He says brain scans of people who are plotting revenge are similar to the scans of people with drug cravings."

Personally, I feel that there is no such thing as revenge. No action takes away pain, no action can change the past. Forgiveness is liberating and means you can live in the present and for the future.

There are many interesting lessons that can be gleaned from this article.

First of all, it shows that people who make enough of an ass of themselves on line may just find themselves against formidable opponents who do not wish to be bullied and will kick their asses-hard. 

The restauranteur was criminally charged, convicted of libel and can face up to 5 years in jail.

I wonder if they serve massive sh&t sandwiches at her restaurant because that is all that's on the menu for that woman today. 

Also, there are people who are not afraid to keep publishing and posting, with their real names, and won't be intimidated by the weirdos out there. And after several years of anonymous blogging, I'm happy to be in the company of the people who use their real names. It's a riskier life, but far more satisfying and effective.

Yeah, I'm a conservative: so what?

Yeah, I'm a married, heterosexual Jew with children: so what?

This article demonstrates something very important:

It shows that 'hate crime' and 'hate speech' laws are completely redundant in democracies when libel, defamation and criminal harassment laws are properly applied by the police and that the judiciary does punish citizens with the full force of the law when they undertake this type of behaviour.