Scotland may introduce the worst censorship law in the world. Meet Humza Yousaf, the man behind it.
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Scotland really built the industrial revolution. James Watt, after whom we named the unit of power, the Watt, pretty much started the industrial revolution, improving the English-made steam engine. Another Scot named Adam Smith pretty much codified capitalism. He didn’t invent it; he explained and defended it. The Scots really did built the modern world.
But apparently not everyone likes the fact that there are so bloody many Scots in Scotland!
One person who doesn’t like it is a bit of a racist, a bit of a radical, named Humza Yousaf.
You see, he’s a Scottish Muslim, and he has been so hard done by, so painfully discriminated against, so reviled, that he is actually now the justice minister of Scotland.
Here’s Humza Yousaf telling you just how awful it is.
But it’s a bit weird, because for a fellow who hates racism so much, Humza Yousaf is pretty racist.
A bigot as a justice minister. How will that work?
Well, it will go very poorly. TONIGHT I'm going to talk about what I think is the worst censorship law I have ever read:
Yousaf's bill, which he proudly introduced this spring, taking advantage of the pandemic to grab even more power for the police.
The first part of the law makes it an extra crime to commit any existing crime if you have ill-will in your heart. So it’s a thought crime. Humza Yousaf’s new crime is what you’re feeling or thinking or saying while you do it.
The bill also covers "offences of stirring up hatred."
Hatred is a human emotion. And we can’t really control our feelings — we can control what we do with our feelings. But this law makes it a crime. It makes "insults" a crime, too.
And what’s the sentence for this feelings crime?
A person who commits an offence under this section is liable—
• (a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both), or
• (b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or a fine (or both).
I’ve been following rape gang trials in the UK. And most of the mass rapists there get just a few years in jail. Because raping girls — including Muslim rape gangs who explicitly say they have a religious motivation for targeting white girls — that’s obviously not as serious a crime as sharing a mean Facebook post.
So bizarrely, this law specifically targets plays. As in, theatrical productions. I kid you not.
You also can't criticize "participation in activities associated with such a [religious] culture or such traditions."
So you can’t criticize misogyny, female genital mutilation, forcing women to wear a burka, beating women who are disobedient. If they’re associated with a culture, you can’t criticize them. Gee, I wonder if that’s what Humza Yousaf really is after here.
This law will destroy all intellectual freedom.
But it will do something else, that I’m sure Humza Yousaf is pretty psyched about:
It will destroy the police who are to be tasked with implementing this un-Scottish, un-British law.
New Hate Crime Bill Could Devastate Police Relationship with the Scottish Public
Proposed hate crime legislation could lead to police officers determining free speech and thereby devastate the legitimacy of the police service.
This bill will destroy Scotland’s fundamental freedoms. And along the way, it will destroy the police.
It’s almost as if the man who wrote it — you know — hates Scotland.
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