Mark Meechan aka Count Dankula fined £800 for Nazi dog video - Sensationalist Headlines

This was pretty hilarious... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6cqwj5WLk0

Even if you feel like hate crime laws are good (I disagree, but for the sake of argument) there is no way a reasonable person can come to the conclusion that the video in question was hateful at all. Is it in bad taste to train a dog to "salute" when he hears someone say "gas the jews"? Yeah, a bit, but the state shouldn't prosecute someone for it. I hope he wins his appeal and I hope this case builds momentum to have the law itself looked at and revised. I've seen a lot of people talk about how precedent setting this case is but thousands have been prosecuted under this law that gives judges wide room to consider what is sufficiently offensive.

He isn't alt right, he has the fucking hammer and sickle tattooed on his chest from when he was into that shit It was a fucking joke, not a literal expression of his views. if you believe that some speech shouldn't be free (short of incitement, obviously), you don't believe in free speech. That's not how principals work. It's not the state's place to "punish" or otherwise mediate views. That's called totalitarianism. It sucks, let's not do that. https://78.media.tumblr.com/3900230dcba6cab5706fcf5bcf5cbbaf/tumblr_inline_o6937npVeI1sx29xo_540.jpg You've been propagandized, mate. Unless you know that, and just don't care.

From what I've heard, people have both won and lost in similar cases in the UK, so I really don't see a precedent either way. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, this is not the death of free speech, and the UK is not going to become a police state because some cunt got fined for being a cunt.

I don't think it will "die", but I think it will suffer and I think having a black and white view of this issue doens't seem to be reasonable to me. Why's he a cunt? Does being a cunt carry with it a legal fine? If enough people thought you were a cunt, and worked to stop you talking about things because they intentionally missed the joke, would you still have this same flippant attitude?

Because he trained his dog to enjoy hate speech. as a joke No, but training an animal to recognize and enjoy hate speech does. I don't know, I've never trained an animal to enjoy hate speech. Maybe if I try, I can see what being a cunt is like.

1) So jokes you don't like mean someone is objectively a cunt? 2) Recognize yes. You'll have to prove enjoy, and you'll also have to prove why that SHOULD be a crime and who it hurts. I know, you don't care and have no interest in that. 3) I don't think that's the only thing you could do to a be a cunt and I would say your lack of desire to even think about this issue beyond your already stated narrow perspective is a qualifier for being disrespectful.

How the fuck does the pug “enjoy hate speech”.

I like this dumb, shitposty crap of "the dog enjoyed hate speech!" the dog doesn't even fucking know what hate speech is, let alone is it actually enjoying it. That's complete fabricated bullshit you're trying to use to justify ignorant hatred.

Like how do us, both of us, members of the left see this issue so differently? You want someone who harmed no one, and made a joke to be fined/imposed upon by the government. Over speech that hurt no one. I want you to explain why that's a good decision, you don't want to explain that, you just want to re-iterate that it should be. It's kind of a baffling thing

Oh fucking hell you have literally no idea what's even happening, do you? It wasn't his dog, it was his girlfriends. That's also not why he was even prosecuted. He was prosecuted because he said "gas the jews" in his video, not because he trained the dog. Also, dogs can't "enjoy hate speech". A dog has 0 way of knowing what hate speech even is. It just has a pavlovian response to those phrases because he said them and then gave the dog a treat or took it on a walk or something for the video. Some people would rather get offended/angry instead of think.

Bookmarking this thread for when newpunch gets an ignore user feature.

didn't you know that dogs fully understand and comprehend the idea of white supremacy get with the times, grandpa

No, it means he's subjectively a cunt. To me. It's an opinion. Did you happen to see the video? You don't need a degree in animal behavior to see that the dog was pretty happy to hear someone talking about gassing the Jews. I started to attempt an argument against this, but look. I'm not a legal expert. I don't want to claim to know anything about the UK's hate speech laws. I'm sure someone far more familiar with the subject than me could make a convincing argument, either about how acts don't necessarily need a victim to be criminal or how this affects the animal. Obviously whatever defense Count Dankula had wasn't good enough to convince the judge. I do have a question for you, though. Would you have a problem with this if an actual Nazi had done this instead of some guy doing it for a joke?

The dog doesn't know what a Jew is. It doesn't know what gassing is. It's a fucking dog. It got excited because he took it on walks after he said that and it associates the phrase "Gas the Jews" with going on a walk. Holy shit, how do you not get this?

To the people in support of this, I have the following question. How long do you think it'll be before somebody gets prosecuted for saying something that the government finds offensive?

Then why even post in this thread at all, if you don't care? 'He should just pay the fine, I don't care, he's a cunt' seems to be the only reason you're here. If you don't care, why are you concerned about him fighting this?

1) Fine, he's a cunt to you. 2) I did, the dog cannot be said to be "Enjoying" that. You're stretching the limits of believability here. 3) Clearly the UK has the legal grounds to fine him for this. My question is not "Do they". It is "Should they?" and my answer is No. 4) I would have a problem with it, but I wouldn't stop it because I am for free speech, which means I have to accept the good with the bad and make no qualms about that. I have a question for you. When would you say it's reasonable to stand up and defend free speech?

And it's a shitty opinion that people are calling you out on.

Probably when it affects someone that he likes, I'm willing to bet.

God he’s taking forever putting up that gofundme. Someone @ me whenever it’s live, thxxxx

I think gofundme has rules against hate speech.

https://www.gofundme.com/fund-the-count-dankula-appeal

Perfect, thxxx

Did you happen to see the video? You don't need a degree in animal behavior to see that the dog was pretty happy to hear someone talking about gassing the Jews. I don't know if you are having a laugh or I am having a stroke.

I haven't had time to really get into this but from what I have seen, his channel is filled with videos about "SJWs", "radical leftists", "helicopter rides", and "kekistan", and he's associated himself extensively with members of the far right, so I'm really unconvinced by the argument that he's not part of that whole scene https://youtu.be/KtEWR_jFALE https://youtu.be/4hLMFJgBN4M https://youtu.be/_BwBS8EsS1A https://youtu.be/mvTbzQl9Bag

I kinda doubt anyone else is reaching out to him or willing to offer him a platform Vox, Vice, CNN, MSNBC, Huff Post, etc, aren't likely to want to give him a platform for his point regardless The majority of these people are shitty people but they're also just willing to cover subjects that a lot of media won't. I genuinely don't know, or honestly care if he's alt-right. I don't feel he should be fined for this, or anyone should be.

You can be anti-sjw without being far right. You can be interviewed by a member of the far right without being far right, especially when they're the only ones willing to do so in order to help you protect your human rights. Kekistan is an ancient internet meme and only an idiot would assume that it's presence is indicative of closely held alt right political views. If you're unconvinced that he's not part of "that whole scene" it implies that maybe you were convinced of the opposite more easily than you should have been, if that is the case then maybe you should stop watching so much propoganda. This may be a hard concept to understand but your political views are defined in of themselves, not everyone is dumb enough to just go with this herd or that, some people actually have nuanced opinions that don't line up with whichever two to four buzzword groups are popular at the moment. In fact, some people are comedians on the internet and have nothing to do with any of that shit until they're thrust into the situation by authoritarian lunatics in government.

And you know what? So fucking what if he's part of the right? That doesn't suddenly make his obvious joke that he explains at the start of the video (turn his girlfriend's pug into the ugliest thing he could think of) any less of a joke. He should not have been brought to court over this, nor fined over it.

@paramud @proboardslol i seem to remember both of you doing the exact same shit in the last thread about this very topic. You clearly, and blatantly, ignored every single thing everyone said to you in that thread just to spout the same misguided and hypocritical nonsense here, again. Why.