MAP Forum

Strato wrote:Forgive the length of the above extract, but having read it, I could well imagine the current UK government categorising pro-pedophilia discussion as misinformation, harmful to society, and thus subject to arrest warrants. Is anyone else here concerned about Rowley's warning in relation to the debates we engage in on this forum?

argosy wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2024 2:45 am

Strato wrote:Forgive the length of the above extract, but having read it, I could well imagine the current UK government categorising pro-pedophilia discussion as misinformation, harmful to society, and thus subject to arrest warrants. Is anyone else here concerned about Rowley's warning in relation to the debates we engage in on this forum?

People should be concerned, and they should be taking precautions as a result. On my part, I use Tor to access this site, ensuring that my real IP address never shows up in the site logs. Similarly, I am using a secure email address, the contents of which are both encrypted and anonymized -- even if my email inbox were to be seized, an investigator would learn nothing. Governments in the West are becoming more authoritarian, and more intrusive into the lives of their citizenry. Just look at Australia -- it has become a de-facto surveillance state. The UK is much the same.

The country where I live (Canada) likely regards this site as illegal -- virtually anything to do with kids and sex is classified as child pornography under draconian Canadian laws. In just the last 5 years, an author (Yvan Godbout) was put on trial over a 200-odd page novel -- a re-telling of Hansel and Gretel. In this dark re-telling of a familiar story, Mr. Godbout included one or two paragraphs describing the sexual abuse of Gretel by her abusive father. Mr. Godbout and his publisher were both put on trial for publishing child pornography.

After a very lengthy ordeal, Mr. Godbout was acquitted, but he is now a literal pariah -- all of his friends abandoned him; his publisher is virtually bankrupt -- both men are, basically, ruined.

The Crown now says that Godbout never should have been prosecuted, but the damage is already done.

Now, with respect to the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty, it has always been used to extradite hapless Britons (like the operator of TVShack) and put them on trial in American courtrooms. My understanding is that almost no Americans have found themselves extradited to the U.K.

In my view, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. If I cannot be located, I cannot be arrested and put on trial on spurious legal grounds.

...we must protect free speech and Free Speech only matters it's only relevant when it's someone you don't like saying something in your life because obviously every speech that you like is uh yes that's easy so it it's uh and it's the thing about censorship is that sure for those who would Advocate it um just remember at some point that will be turned on you
https://youtube.com/shorts/aGEIe1YNTLc

"The strongest weapon against hateful speech, is not repression, is more speech. If we want a robust society we need robust dialogue and that must include the right to insult or to offend."