this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The government plans to expand hate speech laws in Victoria to encompass the LGBTQIA+ community, which organisers of the rally said threatened freedom of speech

These are the people i wanna chase like a maddened goose shouting what speech?

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

When they're also implementing laws that could potentially serve to arbitrarily criminalise peaceful protesting you really need to be asking what is defined as "hate speech". I did not see this in the article.

Do they mean supporting palestinians = "hate speech", or do they mean calling for violence against groups of people? I thought that was already illegal, so what does this change?

[–] eureka@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This is a real concern, because I have seen cases where groups (government or not) try to distort definitions such as "antisemitism" to include valid critiques of the Zionist Regime, and then try to lump that in among actually progressive protections in order to feign that the censorship is progressive. It's related to rainbow capitalism, the abuse of progressive movements to facilitate oppression. I haven't kept up with the Victorian legislation in question, I don't know if this is the case, but the linked articles suggest it's on the table.

That said, it goes without saying, the parts protecting the rainbow community from bigotry is obviously a benefit to society.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago

It very clearly says these are hate speech laws extending to cover the queer community and that is explicitly what they are protesting about.

Your parallel is not valid here.