Freedom of speech in Europe is essentially dead as long as in the countries with royal houses you can't insult the royals and you can't state any falsehoods wrt to whatever happened in worldwar II.
I'm all for documenting and educating, not for outlawing stupidity, no matter how long your toes.
I think I'd rather have USA style free speech laws than the make-believe ones that we have here. You can keep the guns though.
?? living in the UK I have yet ot be lynched for calling the royal family pompous.. well.. ;)
Also I think there is some confusion here on the difference between the statments:
"It is my belief that...."
and
"It is a fact that...."
One is covered in free speech, one is (rightly) restricted by all sorts of law (for example defamation when applicable to statements about people). Think about it - if we had the inherent right to tell people our ideas were fact when this is not established
Your free to think what you want, and tell people that's what you think. But presenting beliefs as fact is a big no no. Right? :)
(holocaust denial being illegal is, I agree, somewhat of an extreme case and I dont agree with it so much)
I'm all for documenting and educating, not for outlawing stupidity, no matter how long your toes.
I think I'd rather have USA style free speech laws than the make-believe ones that we have here. You can keep the guns though.