The Netherlands is home to some of the most liberal minded, peace loving, hippies in the world. I mean come on Amsterdam is their most famous city. Drugs run abundant in cafes and on the streets, gays and other minorities are welcome, no one hates anyone, everyone is all lovey dovey and gets along fine.
Sounds like heaven right? Well for the most part yes, but check this out!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24665094/
A Dutch artist was arrested for writing cartoon strips that were negative towards certain people's, mostly extremist Christians and Muslims. He was indicted for "Hate speech". Are you kidding me?! Dozens of comic strips are published daily in America portraying our very own President as an idiot. Portraying businessmen, religious leaders, athletes, and any other person that happens to be in the spotlight, in whatever manner the artists feels necessary.
I mean I've always known one of our greatest freedoms was freedom of speech, but for some reason I just assumed other industrialized, democratic nations also guaranteed this freedom. The Netherlands being my favorite European nation and one that I have seriously considered some day relocating to, makes this news quite unpleasant for me.
Now I do assume that they protect freedom of speech, there is most likely a law on the books specifically for hate speech. So can I live without being able to send a little hate out towards those who deserve it? I think so!! Legal mushrooms and weed VS not being able to say some racists or derogatory comments every now and again, sounds good to me! It'll probably make me a better person, or something.
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