[pessimizer]

> What about "So-and-so ought to be stabbed"

> [That is a] clear incitement to violence, and [is] clearly illegal already.

Not in the US it's not. Clear and present danger, not hypothetical horseshit. I'm shocked at how unfamiliar censorship maximalists are with the current state of speech rights. I think it's why they think that censoring anti-vanilla ice cream speech or anti-Nolan Batman films speech is such a small step.

Every single would-be censor thinks it's illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater, and don't realize that phrase was used to jail someone for anti-war speech.

What makes you think that "incitements to violence" are illegal? Is is that "incitement" is a very legal-sounding word?

[denton-scratch]

The law in both the UK and the USA is that it's a crime to tell other people to commit violence. I think these are sensible laws.

[Edit] I'm no censorship maximalist! But populist politicians can stir up real violence just by speaking through their megaphone, and people die as a result. I think it's perfectly proper to forbid speech that exhorts violence.

[nradov]

So are you stating that President Roosevelt (a populist politician) should have been forbidden from telling other people to commit violence against German and Japanese people during WW2?

[denton-scratch]

I have not made any such statement. I have opinions about how USAians might better organize their affairs, but it's not my place to express them.

[tekknik]

> USAians

we call ourselves Americans.

[denton-scratch]

You are free to call yourselves whatever you like; I prefer to distinguish between inhabitants of the USA, inhabitants of Canada, and inhabitants of Guatemala.

And for clarity: no - I'm not trying to wind anyone up.

[tekknik]

Canadians, and Guatemalans, respectively. There’s also Central Americans and South Americans.

USA = United States of America, hence Americans.

Do we really have to be this woke?

[MichaelCollins]

He knows, he's trying to get a rise out of Americans.