Count Dankula Found Guilty Of Telling A Joke

[Twiggy 2,965]

Skeptic YouTuber and prolific shitposter Count Dankula has been found guilty of being “Grossly Offensive” by a court in the UK. For those that don't know, he trained his Pug to become attentive at the phrase "Gas the Jews." The joke was to turn the pupper "Into a Nazi" in order to fuck with his girlfriend. Here's the video.

 

The sentencing for the horrible crime of joke telling has been deferred to April 23rd, and until then he may be forced to wear a GPS tracking device and be placed under house arrest.

The Marxist cries out Fascism as he takes your basic human rights. Thoughts?

[Attack of the Pwns 894]

I’ll make this clear from day one- nazism is fricking stupid. It doesn’t help conservatism when people see this sort of crud.

 

Regardless, what the UK has done here is reprehensible. I know that the United Kingdom has never been as free as the US, but if this is where the bar is set, then they might as well go ahead and turn in their “world superpower” status. 

If you can’t take a joke, even a really dumb one, then something is wrong.

Fans of free speech over in Europe really should be thinking about moving to the U.S., because we need all the pro-first amendment voices we can get, and Europe looks to be a lost cause at this point.

[Celli 4,335]

I absolutely abhore what the UK did. Overreacting over a fucking joke.

Was it tasteless? Sure. Offensive? No.

PewDiePie didn't face repercussions for what he did. Why should this be any different?

I'm sick of how politically correct people in this world have become.

[nolongerabout 403]

Scottish law generally tends to be different to the rest of the UK (that's what happens when you have devolution and the SNP have been pushing through mad laws for the past 8 years).

They're prosecuting him under the Offensive behaviour at football matches and threatening communications act 2012 (Scotland only), alongside the Malicious Communications Act 1988 (British one, the term "grossly offensive" used at his trial can be found in the legislation).

This is the same law which people who send death threats are prosecuted under.

"In 2012 an individual was arrested under the Act for saying that Olympic diver Tom Daley let his late father down by not winning a medal at the London Olympics."

Fuck me, my country is being ruined.

"The MCA was successfully used against Internet troll Sean Duffy who harassed Natasha MacBryde and her family after her death. In the case of DPP v Connolly, the MCA was used to prosecute an anti-abortion campaigner who sent obscene images of fetuses to pharmacists who sold the contraceptive pill. "

This is what this is being compared to. A chap proving his girlfriend's dog isn't as cute as she thought by making it react to stuff involved with Nazism, clearly as a joke, is being compared to an anti-abortionist mailing people pictures of aborted fetuses. Are they going to arrest the creators of Spitting Image for portraying Adolf Hitler as Margaret Thatcher's neighbor and telling her to "elimate the weeds in the party", "build up that SS", "invade the union", or references to genocide?

But Dankula can't post a funny video on the internet. God forbid.

[Here No Longer 5,271]

The joke was absolutely awful. But offensive? Absolutely, positively not.

I'm really getting sick and tired of people getting offended by dumb things like Nazi jokes.

No reason for this to even remotely be any sort of issue, in all honesty.

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

I think Britain should have other priorities right now, like Russians poisoning people-type priorities.

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,671]

We've seen this all before. Far left governments overreach over something stupid, backlash ensues, the far left loses another bite of what remains of their credibility. A recurring pattern here is that the harder they try to push their agenda, the more support they ultimately lose. Even now I can't help but think that things are starting to calm down a bit. We might have already hit Peak SJW and it's only downhill from here. There will be peaks and valleys along the way but the overall trend will be down. The correction is happening. Quite honestly: good riddance. They've been nothing but a venomous thorn on the side Soc Dems like myself. I'm only surprised it's happening this fast.

People are standing up and making their voices heard. This shit just isn't going to fly. 

[Celli 4,335]

1 hour ago, Querch said:

We've seen this all before. Far left governments overreach over something stupid, backlash ensues, the far left loses another bite of what remains of their credibility. A recurring pattern here is that the harder they try to push their agenda, the more support they ultimately lose. Even now I can't help but think that things are starting to calm down a bit. We might have already hit Peak SJW and it's only downhill from here. There will be peaks and valleys along the way but the overall trend will be down. The correction is happening. Quite honestly: good riddance. They've been nothing but a venomous thorn on the side Soc Dems like myself. I'm only surprised it's happening this fast.

People are standing up and making their voices heard. This shit just isn't going to fly. 

I'm honestly glad the right is in power in the US, I'm not the biggest fan of them but they don't get their panties in a twist over "offensive" things.

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

4 minutes ago, Celli said:

I'm honestly glad the right is in power in the US, I'm not the biggest fan of them but they don't get their panties in a twist over "offensive" things.

They're too busy bending over backwards for their "donors" to actually do anything.

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,671]

2 minutes ago, Celli said:

I'm honestly glad the right is in power in the US, I'm not the biggest fan of them but they don't get their panties in a twist over "offensive" things.

You're setting yourself up for disappointment, kiddo. "Right wing snowflakes" are a thing. It's actually been a thing already (albeit not under that name) with the religious right before anyone had heard the term "SJW." The religious right would get in a tizzy over any silly little thing because they were "affronts" to Christianity. I kinda miss those days, to be honest.

Moral of the story is that the right is not immune to this sort of stupidity and their foolishness will be laid bare for all to see as the far left fades into irrelevancy and as the far right becomes more arrogant over time. Can you really blame them for getting more arrogant as the far left sets the bar ever lower? The pendulum has swung before. It will swing again.

[DubWolf 16,713]

Lol the same country that wanted to ban Donald Trump from entering  . No offense to them, just saying there should be some tolerance or patience with this kind of stuff, same in this case  .

[Yakamaru 3,077]

The UK is going down the drain. They've sentenced Mark, now we wait to see what the sentence will be. Community service? Jail? Who knows.

With the banning of Martin Sellner, Brittany Pettibone and Lauren Southern, free speech in the UK is showing how it is truly treated by the government and people in general.

People defend him. I am seeing Jews coming to his defense. Ricky Gervais also had this to say on the topic:

 

[Guest]

I struggle to find a justification for convicting a man of criminal bad joke-telling. I agree with @Vulon Bii in that in the wake of the nerve agent attack on the Russian double agent, the last thing UK officials want to appear as to their public is totalitarian, and stifling free speech is the very first step in actual totalitarianism. All Count Dankula is really guilty of is making a joke in bad taste. What precedent does it set when you say this is criminal activity?

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,153]

@Twiggy

As this isn't framed as a debate it has been moved to General Discussion.

Cheers!

[SharpWit 2,505]

What I find most worrisome here is that he's being charged with a hate crime but there is no crime being committed and he gives a disclaimer and purpose at the end of the video which for all legal intents and purposes negates an intent to spread hate which in of itself isn't a crime unless it exceeds towards being harassment. It could be deemed as harassment if his girlfriend is Jewish and she decided to press charges but that's not the case. The next best thing would be charging for animal abuse but that dog is clearly not suffering as a result of his antics.

UK laws are screwed up, and accusations of hate crimes should be more thoroughly and logically defined under the letter of the law.

[Anonymous Old User Who Has Left 599]

I think the real ones who were offended were the Israelite business powers who are in control of many of the UK's mainstream news media corporations. They took extreme offense to it and thus took this opportunity to "work" with the government to setup a ****storm amongst the UK public and cause free speech drama. We've seen it before with PewDiePie. If the MSM is offended, then it's offensive to everyone. Like seriously who do these news media think they are to speak on our behalf? WE CHOOSE OUR OFFENSE.

In case you didn't catch it, this is a mere theory.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Shabb3r

[Castle Bleck 19,197]

I hereby find that court grossly offensive -- and grossly stupid.

 

Edited March 24, 2018 by A.V.

[Here No Longer 5,271]

On 3/20/2018 at 9:37 PM, Querch said:

You're setting yourself up for disappointment, kiddo. "Right wing snowflakes" are a thing. It's actually been a thing already (albeit not under that name) with the religious right before anyone had heard the term "SJW." The religious right would get in a tizzy over any silly little thing because they were "affronts" to Christianity. I kinda miss those days, to be honest.

Moral of the story is that the right is not immune to this sort of stupidity and their foolishness will be laid bare for all to see as the far left fades into irrelevancy and as the far right becomes more arrogant over time. Can you really blame them for getting more arrogant as the far left sets the bar ever lower? The pendulum has swung before. It will swing again.

That's very true. The right is actually surprisingly easy to offend. The religious right still do get offended over such meaningless s***, and even people that aren't religoius on the right get offended by it sometimes. Say anything that hints that not every Muslim is an extremist and they get their panties in a SERIOUS knot.

The right is probably more prone to it than neo-liberals (the ones they constantly whine about every time they get the chance, ironically) are, honestly. They just act like it doesn't matter when they get offended by something for no reason and invent all kinds of dumb ignorant excuses for them to get offended by it. 

[Twilight Dirac 720]

On 3/21/2018 at 7:37 PM, SharpWit said:

UK laws are screwed up, and accusations of hate crimes should be more thoroughly and logically defined under the letter of the law.

Or better yet, dispose of both hate crime and hate speech laws entirely.  This entire category of crimes is far too open ended.  I see no reason why we can't just stick to more conventionally criminal code that bans clearly defined acts of behavior considering it already runs the gamut from murder to operating specific businesses without a license.  Hate speech laws are simply too prone to abuse, as observed here.

For a more profanity laden take on the issue, Jonathan Pie's performance is brilliant:

 

[Earl Grey Ghost 444]

While with anything, there is a line, but honestly, here? As tasteless as it was, not to mention pointless, it was only a joke. A bad one, but still an "unfunny" joke. This is the point where people should just roll their eyes, tell the guy to screw off and walk away-- also...like..what a weird choice of prank to play on a significant other, wasn't there more.... I don't know, less stupid things he could have done? That's what befuddles me. Out of all the things to do, he picks Nazism? I just don't get it. It wasn't even cleverly bad ... like what was his thinking in this choice? Seriously.

[Here No Longer 5,271]

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 6:46 PM, Whomst'd've said:

That's very true. The right is actually surprisingly easy to offend. The religious right still do get offended over such meaningless s***, and even people that aren't religoius on the right get offended by it sometimes. Say anything that hints that not every Muslim is an extremist and they get their panties in a SERIOUS knot.

The right is probably more prone to it than neo-liberals (the ones they constantly whine about every time they get the chance, ironically) are, honestly. They just act like it doesn't matter when they get offended by something for no reason and invent all kinds of dumb ignorant excuses for them to get offended by it. 

Case in point...

*looks at post reactions*

[GuerrierCosmique 146]

In the UK, online trolls get arrested all the time for violating a law from 2004 that prohibits sending messages over telecom networks that are grossly offensive, obscence or menacing.

Reminds me of a case here in Germany, were a well-known Youtuber (JuliensBlog) got sentenced to 8 months in jail on a 3 year long probation and a 15,000€ fine for racial hatred for a video about a railroad strike, because he said that it would be justice to kill all train operators in concentration camps. Also, a year ago the homes of several dozen people were raided in a country-wide crackdown on hatespeech in social media and a law was introduced that allows the government to fine social media companys up to 50 milllion € if they don't delete illegal content from German users in a short timeframe.

Another peculiar case of internet 'crime' happened last year in Switzerland, where a man was sentenced to a 3000 Franken fine for libel, because he liked (yep, just hit the like 'button') defamatory content on Facebook.

In Spain, it's common that people get arrested and go to jail for saying something against the government and authorities on the internet.

And a week ago in France, a Vegan was sentenced to 7 months jail on probation for glorification of terrorism, because she posted a tweet where she called it 'justice' that a butcher was murdered by a terrorist in a supermarket in Southern France, because she believes all butchers are murderers.

Well, my opinion is kind of in the middle, since obviously, free speech has to follow rules and can't give you the right to insult or threaten others just as you like it, but otherwise, if people go to jail for jokes or get a police raid for a dumb Youtube comment, something's wrong I guess.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Aktaion