Your viewpoint is completely valid, although I personally wouldnt agree with some of it. The thing I find really terrifying though, is that anyone who voices a viewpoint very different from yours is in danger of being prosecuted for a hate crime.
This is Stalinist thought control at its worst, and should be fought tooth and nail by everyone who believes in the right to freedom of thought, speech and belief.
We really are sleepwalking into an Orwellian society and many people (particularly the young) have been educated (brainwashed) into thinking of it as normal and good
Thanks Migv6, I appreciate that and I must make it clear that I do not expect everyone to agree with everything I have said as that is life; people do not necessarily agree on everything all the time! That is right and proper.
As for comments being a Hate Crime, it is only when those comments are deliberately or accidentally hurtful to that particular community and are
made in public. An open public online forum can so easily transmit those feelings to very vulnerable people that the police, and on occasions, I have to deal with. Those comments not only can break the law but incite violence and lead to life threatening situations, which once more I can get involved in as a police advisor.
The right to democracy and free speech is paramount to our society, but so is the right, if within the laws of Great Britain, for people to live their lives with equal freedom, and not be fearful of insulting, or threatening, behaviour, regardless of what category of community they are part of. Therefore we ALL must be respectful and considerate in the way we act in public, or as a group in private, to not infringe THEIR rights within the law. Prosecution of the individual for Hate Crime only comes about when documented, recorded, evidence of such offences is public and crosses a line of "free speech" into offensive behaviour that causes others severe distress, incites violence in others, and renders the offended party into a state of shock or fear or both. There can be no excuses for shouting out derogatory or offensive beliefs in public, and most rational, law abiding, individuals in our society understand that, keeping whatever feelings they have, private.
What is considered as being "normal" or "sub-normal" is actually a feature of authoritarian societies and played on by it's leaders. We all should have nothing to fear in the truth being out there, which is the very thing Stalinist ideology does not permit within the general populous. Hitler made a point of highlighting how sub-normal, or even, sub-human the Jewish community was. That can never be justified.
I hope that clarifies the points I make.