I obviously don't support the new federal Hate Crimes amendments that downgraded the legal threshold for threatening violence against so called protected groups from 'intentional' to 'reckless' - as now people could be thrown in prison for jokes and unserious loose talk and I don't find this reasonable.
However the fear mongering over this bill is crazy and fueled largely by ignorance. Most commentators weighing in haven't actually read the amendment, or if they have they lack the competence to interpret and comprehend it correctly.
Despite what the media is saying, these are not "hate speech" laws, they have nothing to do with "racial vilification" or political speech. The sensationalism around these new laws will have a chilling effect which makes people think they're far wider in scope than they actually are - don't fall for it.
As I said on stream yesterday, the far greater concern is the amendments to the anti-vilification laws at the state level in both Victoria and NSW being proposed right now. These will have more of an impact, but they will also have inbuilt exemptions for political speech. We should oppose them and be weary of them, but we should also not become irrationally demoralised. Political speech remains legally protected.
I will talk more about this in coming weeks and months because it's one of the main political issues right now in Australia. I will do my best to give you all nuanced and sophisticated commentary. But in the meantime be weary of sensationalist retards, and read the bills and laws yourselves and think through them rationally.
I feel like they're making these laws seem more extreme in scope than they are intentionally to scare us into self-censoring our political views. Don't fall for it. But also, DO NOT fedpost. I don't want any of you getting in trouble with the law over undisciplined silliness.
