Hate Speech Tyranny in Scotland and Scottsdale

Free speech is not faring well under encroaching leftism in moonbattery-addled Scotland. Mealtime conversations are now prosecutable under a ferociously repressive hate crime bill:

“Conversations over the dinner table that incite hatred must be prosecuted under Scotland’s hate crime law,” reports the Times.

You think your home is your castle, where you can express whatever opinion you please? Not in Scotland.

Such conversations were previously protected under the Public Order Act 1986, which includes a “dwelling defense” that shields conversations that take place in private homes from being prosecuted, however that would be removed under the new law.

You don’t have to hurt anybody to commit a hate crime. You don’t even have to hate anybody. Just say something that privileged people don’t want to hear, and you are liable to stand accused of stirring up hate:

The new bill would add an additional crime of “stirring up hate” against a protected group by “behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, or communicating threatening or abusive material to another person,” as well as the crime of possessing “inflammatory material.”

No doubt bookmarking this site on your computer would count as possessing inflammatory material.

Critics have argued that the vague term “stirring up hate” could be broadly interpreted and could lead to people like JK Rowling facing criminal charges and up to seven years in prison for expressing views about transgender issues.

That’s not a bug; it’s a feature. Rowling, though a leftie, has committed the unforgivable sin of refusing to pretend that men who say they are women really are women. Such notions are likely to spread if not criminally prosecuted.

Writers, comedians, journalists, theater directors, even bratty teenagers’ parents — all can be turned in to the authorities if they say something deemed offensive.

At least this could never happen in the Land of the Free, right? Wrong — it already has.

In the upscale Phoenix suburb Scottsdale, a fellow of Asian ancestry was not only fired but arrested by the police for saying a racist word. From NBC News:

The encounter happened Friday as Dre Abram and his roommate, both of whom are Black, were filming a podcast for Abram’s YouTube channel in the neighborhood of Old Town Scottsdale…

Local real estate agent Paul Ng, regarding their behavior as suspicious, asked them what they were up to. They responded that it was none of his business.

Rudeness often begets rudeness. Video recorded the situation as it deteriorated.

In the video, Ng says that they’ve had problems in the neighborhood recently. “I don’t care,” Abram says. “You don’t know me. Why are you taking pictures of me? And I don’t know you. Do you know a lot of white men are doing racist things in this world, sir?”

Ng replies, “No, I’m a racist. … This is a no (N-word) zone.”

Ng, 74, was arrested on disorderly conduct charges following the incident.

Ng though these belligerent victims of racist oppression might be casing the area for a robbery. A similar situation led to Trayvon Martin bashing “white Hispanic” community watch volunteer George Zimmerman’s head against a sidewalk until Zimmerman used a KelTec PF-9 to make him stop, thus giving birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ng regrets having used the objectionable word. But there can be no redemption for blasphemy under cancel culture.

Ng’s employer, Russ Lyon Sotheby’s Real Estate Agency in Scottsdale, released a statement about the incident saying that he has since been fired.

“Upon learning of this video we took immediate action in severing his license, terminating his involvement with us effective immediately and condemning his disgusting behavior,” the statement read. …

“In addition, we are notifying the Arizona Department of Real Estate of Ng’s behavior with the recommendation that his license be revoked.”

Then maybe we should burn his house down and sow the ground with salt so that nothing can ever grow there again.

This level of vicious hysteria generated over a word bodes very ill for our First Amendment liberties.

Once we prosecute “hate speech,” totalitarians have essentially won. We have crossed the Rubicon from a free country into one that is not free when Big Government can punish us not only for what we do, but for what we think.

On tips from Kate P and Dragon’s Lair.

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