October 22, 2013

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It took years. It cost money. But a remarkably similar-sounding state enterprise was castrated by a tiny gang of Canadians who normally hate each other’s guts. By that I mean, among others, some (non-official) Jews prepared to defend the right of “neo-Nazis” to post “hate speech” on the Internet.

I intentionally violated the hated “hate speech” provision of the Human Rights Act on my (non-anonymous) blog every day. I wasn’t alone.

The authorities eventually realized they couldn’t arrest us all and that we just laughed when they called us “Nazis.” Eventually the law became an unenforceable international embarrassment. It was repealed this summer.

Canadians are notoriously timid. They care more about the lottery than about liberty. Most haven’t read John Stuart Mill, let alone Bradbury or Orwell. They certainly want nothing to do with “Nazis.”

Perhaps the average European is cut from the same flimsy cloth. So what? All it takes is a small swarm of noisy, relentless troublemakers willing to shove bananas into the state’s exhaust pipe at their own risk. Every time one person broke the law, the paradoxical result was that it made it that much harder for someone else to be charged.

That principle applies whether you’re trying to keep speech free or run a lemonade stand without a license.

Normally I try not to take inspiration from horny petulant socialist cokeheads, but I’m cheered by very existence of Illegal Eats. Jxust think: hardworking entrepreneurs blatantly defying the arbitrary, rent-seeking rules that cripple their efforts to make a living and bring some pleasure to the rest of us.

We are altogether too allergic to civil disobedience on this side of the aisle. As one of my fellow Canadian bloggers always says: “Not Showing Up To Riot Is A Failed Conservative Policy.”

 

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