re: #183 Ayatollah Ghilmeini

I don’t think it makes them smarter one way or the other. This guy is cut from the top drawer of British society. Over time speech regulation weakens societies by preventing discussion of items that otherwise would come into the marketplace of ideas. Laws like this have crippled Europe’s ability to confront the Islamicization of the continent. But they also do actually prevent the growth of fascists groups. It really is a mixed bag.

I disagree - I think there’s lots of evidence that criminalizing speech forces hate groups to get smarter about hiding their hatred. This is the reason why groups like the BNP and the Vlaams Belang, for example, are now trying to cast themselves as friends of Israel. They’ve learned that in Europe, expressing their true beliefs will get them banned, jailed, and fined. So they’ve responded by getting more deceptive, and more clever about hiding their intentions and beliefs.