You may find this hard to believe, but the world isn’t completely insane. A Dutch court acquited populist politician Geert Wilders on Thursday. He had been accused of inciting hatred of Muslims by telling the truth.
Speech is a little freer in the Netherlands now that Geert Wilders is free
Reuters has the report:
The case was seen by some as a test of free speech in a country which has a long tradition of tolerance and blunt talk, but where opposition to immigration, particularly from Muslim or predominantly Muslim countries, is on the rise.
Instantly recognizable by his mane of dyed blond hair, Wilders, 47, is one of the most outspoken critics of Islam and immigration in the Netherlands.
His Freedom Party is now the third-largest in parliament, a measure of support for its anti-immigrant stance, and is the minority government’s chief ally. But many of Wilders’ comments — such as likening Islam to Nazism — are socially divisive.
A selection of the Australian aborigines who are suing blogger Andrew Bolt
Really nice impartial work, Reuters. You didn’t even attempt to disguise your editorializing by saying, “Some people say his comments are socially divisive.” You went straight to they are socially divisive.
Unfortunately, the Wilders case isn’t an isolated incident. Australian newspaper columnist, blogger and TV star Andrew Bolt is currently being tried under his nation’s Racial Discrimination Act.
His offense? Suggesting in a series of columns that some light or white-skinned Aussies who identify themselves as aboriginal may have motives that are less than pure. The overly-sensitive “aboriginal” plaintiffs say they were offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated by Bolt’s articles.
One day at a time. Wilders today, Bolt tomorrow.
Source: Reuters
{ 56 comments… read them below or add one }
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These folks claiming to be aborigines is like me claiming to be Asian, and I’m as midwestern farm white as they come. I’m surprised but very happy that Wilders was acquitted. How can we support Bolt in getting an acquittal?
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I remember crap like this taking place while I was still on active duty. If you were white and in a politicized MOS, like Intel, you were likely to be overlooked for promotion simply because of social politics. I remember friends of mine gaming paperwork for fractions of their supposed heritages just so they would look better on paper when their records came up for review. Hurt and offended indeed! I can easily sympathize with Mr. Bolt here.
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There is a reason the collectivists attack our First and Second Amendments relentlessly and why our Founding Fathers put them as the First and Second.
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I got 3!!! I am on a ROLL lately
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Yayyyy!
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Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh were killed by ‘activists’ in Holland for expressing similar views, let’s hope they don’t kill Geert Wilders.
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On the subject of the white aboriginals, like that moron Ward Churchill, the college proffessor claiming he was Native American, those types are always liberals that have some self loathing thing going on. Funny seeing idiots like that whining about how they’ve been dicriminated against when the truth is people see them as the whites they are.
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‘Native Americans’ are people born in the USA to people who live within the jurisdiction of the US government. People in the US, Canada and Australia whose forefathers built these countries, and who continue to build them today, should reclaim the term ‘Natives’ for themselves.
Aboriginals in the Americas and Australia were hunter-gatherers who were lucky that hard working people from Europe showed up in great numbers to create great countries, had history gone differently they might have had the misfortune of meeting the sword of Islam first, in which case the fact of their existence would have been completely erased centuries ago.
No, it wasn’t all sweetness and light, everyone gets that, but the real ‘Natives’ of these nations owe no apology to aboriginals.
ps. John: sorry for hijacking your post to make a different kind of point.
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I understand the point you are making and I’m proud of my mixed European ancestry and what we’ve accomplished and when asked I say I’m American not some sort of hybrid. But these idiots in Australia and the Ward Churchills of America are not saying they are native born Europeans they claim to be aboriginal. They are either seeking sympathy for all the wrong done or admiration for being the noble native or just lying for benefits, whatever their motive it is a typical liberal tactic of deception.
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Well, remember our source is Al-Reuters. These guys are so far left, they must dial 011 first to reach a moderate. (They would need the interplanetary code to reach a conservative!)
One thing that puzzles me, is why a group like CNN doesn’t change their name to “Conservative News Network”. But then, there is a group called CNSNews.com, that once was “Conservative News Service”, but now is “Cyber News…”. I never figured out why. It just seems to me, that CNN with such crappy numbers as they have, might venture into a different strategy.
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You said: “maybe because true news reporting doesn’t—-and shouldn’t—– have a political agenda?” in regards to CNN reporting.
ROFLMAOWTFBBQ.
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Well, the lady on the bottom row, third from the left, MIGHT have some aboriginal blood in her. The rest are lying dogs, just looking for an excuse for a lawsuit.
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“And you’re qualified to recognize a person’s genetic ancestry just by looking at a thumbnail photograph of her, because………?”
Becasue he’s smart enough to know what “f*ck Obama” means…?
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“Translation: “If I can’t back up my position here with facts or logic, will screaming insults work almost as well?””
Screaming? Insults? What makes you an expert in interpreting what I was thinking when I wrote those words, Olivia?
And I can assure you that I was not screaming. Mocking you, yes. Screaming, never.
What facts and logic are you looking for?
Can he back up his claim that those people aren’t aboriginal? Probably not, since the liberal loons in Australia have changed the definition of aboriginal to mean anyone who claims to be one, is one.
How can he use facts and logic to attack THAT little bit of wisdom?
Once again, Olivia, you are asking the impossible.
winkie winkie
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“And you’re qualified to recognize a person’s genetic ancestry just by looking at a thumbnail photograph of her, because………?”
Ok, let’s try it this way. I’m sure you can all figure out how to go see a picture of me. I don’t make any attempt to hide it. So go take a look, and since I DO play the didgeridu, or as the aboriginals call it, the yerdaki, how about I try to convince you all that I’M an Australian Aborigine? Any takers?
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I knew a guy in Michigan who claimed to be part Apache. If he was, it must have been a very, very small part since he had brown hair, blue eyes and was as white as I am (I’m German/Irish). Anyway, he persuaded the Small Business Administrattion to give him a substantial loan based on his minority status. His company went under in less than two years and he never repaid the loan. There’s lots of scammers out there claiming to be part Indian, part Aborigine, part whatever, so long as there’s the chance to get money or a job from the government or a company trying to show its affirmative action bona fides.
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My powers of investigation, my knowledge of the man and his methods, interviews with him and his neighbors and the fact that I was, at the time, working for another government agency. You got a problem with that?
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Olivia, you don’t know what you’re talking about so you’re reduced to mere snottiness. Sad.
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Snottiness? You’re such a gentleman, Elrond.
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He didn’t pay it back.
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“Does anyone have a link to what Wilders actually said, that caused him to be charged with hate speech? ”
Yes.
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The trial of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff didn’t turn out as well:
On the count of “denigration of religious beliefs of a legally recognized religion”: Guilty.
The judgment against the defendant is a €480 fine….
More at the above link.
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“I never trust paraphrasings—especially from rabidly political websites wth an ax to grind.”
So you have a website.
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This is interesting:
In a landmark turnabout, one of the cornerstones of contemporary liberalism is being rejected by one of the fountainheads of liberalism. The politically correct doctrine of multiculturalism is heading for decline, as Holland, one of the most socially liberal societies on earth, is reversing its former policy of multiculturalism. Soeren Kern, writing for Hudson New York, covers an important story that has gotten almost no notice from the American media, which wishes to pretend that multiculturalism works just fine:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/06/netherlands_abandoning_multiculturalism.html
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You ingnorant hag, you compare American commercialism and the use of English, which must be welcomed there for it to prosper to subhuman muzzy animals screeming that they will take over Europe and the rest of the world and force islam on us all or we will die. Were you raised in an ant farm? Your a freaking idiot wasting space with your copy and paste method of debate. Move to Somalia or Yemen with your moronic ideas, your muzzy friends will welcome you to a beheading party.
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John, just what are you trying to tell us here? I’m not sure, but I think you may be holding something back.
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I’m saying olivia is an idiot.
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First of all, as usual your premise is wrong. Your accusation that right wingers are motivated by fear is just stupid as it is grossly general. Similar to me saying that all left wingers are motivated by misguided ideas of social justice and a complete lack of understanding of the origin of wealth. The Dutch government recognizes that multiculturalism does not work in their society. It has taken steps to ensure that those that come to The Netherlands do so with the goal of assimilating into that culture. This is nothing new (when in Rome…). It is interesting that this occurred almost at exactly the same time as Wilders’s acquittal. Clearly, the Dutch are hardly xenophobic right wingers, so how do you square their policy reversal with your apparent defense of multiculturalism? In other words, does the movement to the political right in Europe mean that they are all wrong and you are right? Or could it be, that multiculturalism is a failed social experiment that has ruinous consequences everywhere it is tried?
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Any thinking person fully understands what I wrote, which explains why you are at sea with it. Grow up!
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“Some things never change—–they’re just dressed up in new packages by political manipulators.”
And are called useful idiots. You wear the label well.
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Yea I can’t compare myself to a great, brave soldier like you olivia, as I hide afraid of my own shadow. You have to be one of those code pink, uglier than a goat, hags. I don’t mind cultural diversity at all and I’m certainly not afraid of muslums or anyone else. I don’t like it when those monkeys tell us they are going to take us over and force thier beliefs and laws on us. You haven’t heard any of that olivia?
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@ John: Olivia wrote: These are the people who know nothing whatsoever about other cultures, and are proud of it. Who have never studied a foreign language, but are dead certain they know more about it than foreigners who are struggling to master English. Who like to think the whole world is eager to be just like us in every way (even though they spend an awful lot of time bad-mouthing the country and its residents).
These kinds of sweeping generalizations are why I will never respond to Olivia gain. She knows NOTHING about the subject matter posted on this site and her responses are so ill informed and based on a confused and misguided worldview.
That said, I will provide a brief bio: Former army officer, Russian major, lived and studied in the USSR (1983), I am an executive with a German company and worked in middle management for a Japanese company prior to my current job. Have traveled to Europe on business and pleasure at least 12 times. Yet, This dingbat presumes to know me through some bizarrely constructed stereotype no doubt formulated while breathlessly watching MSNBC and reading Kos like a slobbering basset hound.
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“But at lest I have the courage to use my own judgement, and stand up to those who merely parrot caricatures>”
Olivia, speaking truth to power while patting herself on the back.
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I don’t fear you at all, My Dear Sweet Olivia. I despise you. Two different words, and you can look them up if you like, then you’ll understand the difference.
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Look at the photos of the so-called victims..The only one that looks like she may be Aboriginal would be the somewhat plump lady in the bottom row, the one with glasses….It must be world wide that you can sue anyone for anything..Can I sue Olivia for annoying me and taking up important blog space?
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If the English hadn’t grabbed it, the Chinese would have
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Well, get a knife, and let that shameful European blood out.
Your racism and hatred show you to be every bit the kind of person you pretend to detest.
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Crikey, mate! I thought your biggest shame was that your boomerang won’t come back.
You can ride a kangaroo, make kinkaju stew, but you waved that thing all over the place, practiced til you were blue in the face, but your boomerang won’t come back!
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You know what the aborigines call a boomerang that won’t come back, don’t you?
That’s right. A stick.
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