How to save Labour from their Religious Hate Speech Law minefield

Let me begin by being very clear.

I don’t believe for one second that there is any malice or ulterior motive in these hate speech laws.

I’ve talked to lots of the people involved in this behind the scenes and I don’t sense any thirst to strangle off free speech.

I believe this Religious Hate Speech law is the conclusion to a terrible act of terrorism conducted against a religious minority in NZ whom we wish to protect.

However, the solution that has been forged here opens a range of outcomes that could be totally counter productive and actually end up protecting groups like Scientology.

Any Religious Hate Speech Law must be so defined and narrow that it can’t be used by religious fear grifters attempting to use the law for their own promotion and legitimacy.

It also can not include mockery because fuck it, religions should be mocked and if mockery is included you get perverse outcomes like the Life of Brian being banned.

Labour must pass something because it has wasted an enormous amount of political capital on this, but it must be so limited that it can’t cause mutations elsewhere. So the law should be as basic as:

‘You can not incite violence against others based on their Religion’.

This would be a simple thing to pass and would make a very clear demarcation line between offensive criticism and threatening criticism.

Likewise the issues regarding gender, disability and sexual orientation –

‘You can not incite violence against others based on their gender, disability or sexual orientation’.

It is currently illegal to threaten or harass people in NZ, we should be putting more resource and Policing muscle to enforce the current laws on harassment and threats than open the floodgates on what is and isn’t hate speech.

In 2018, I warned the woke middle class identity politics activists that if they kept cancelling and deplatforming free speech they would inadvertently awaken the dormant political fault line of ACT.

In 2018 ACT polled .7%.

After the woke middle class identity politics activists handed David Seymour the free speech ammunition, ACT are now on 12.5%

If the woke middle class identity politics activists have finished fucking the Left over with their micro aggression policing triggers as social policy, can we please bury this hate speech bullshit and start focusing on policy that will actually make a  material difference in peoples lives rather than alienating voters by criminalising the misuse of pronouns?

 

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice going into this pandemic and 2020 election – please donate here.

If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.