Ive seen alot of people condemn Charlie firing some of its staff for antisemitic cartoons and some people condemn France for persecuting people under hatespeech laws for antisemitic speech. And if this antisemitism is in reality principled and consistent anti-zionism then of course it should be condemned. But otherwise I dont see the problem here. I support France persecuting antisemites under its hate speech laws. I support these laws completely in cases of antisemtism and want them to be extended universally to hate speech of marginalized communities. That they are protecting jewish people only is favortism of one group over another but it is better that they give favortism to the jewish people rather than have no favorites at all and protect no one. The Soviet Union under Stalin grasped this and put it into law: In answer to your inquiry: National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism. Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at capitalism. Anti-semitism is dangerous for the working people as being a false path that leads them off the right road and lands them in the jungle. Hence Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable, sworn enemies of anti-semitism. In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.” — J.V. Stalin, “Anti-Semitism: Reply to an Inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States” January 12, 1931, Works, Vol. 13, July 1930-January 1934, Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1955, p. 30 In short my problem with France isnt that they dont have free speech, but that they have free speech against some minorities while having the correct stance against hate speech for others.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 06:01:54 +0000