From “Brickbats,” April Reason:
French rapper Monsieur R faces up to three years in prison and a 75,000-euro fine for referring to France as a “slut” and a “bitch” and saying “I piss on Napoleon and General de Gaulle” on his latest album. Member of parliament Daniel Mach filed a complaint against the rapper, and a court has agreed to investigate the matter. Mach calls the lyrics “an attack on the dignity of France and of the state.”
…proving yet again that for all it’s faux moral superiority and lipservice to freedom, the nationalism of the French—and its dubious commitment to free speech—makes Sean Hannity look like Emma Goldman (albeit with furrowed eyebrows and cosmetically applied touches of gray to the temples).
Imagine if he was American saying that about the war in Iraq, Jeff. You’d be able to blame him for emboldening the enemy and demoralizing the troops!
A cartoon here on a similar matter.
And Chimpy McHitlerburton would send him to Guantanamo, right Adam?
Oh wait. We don’t lock people up for dissent (or bad attitudes) here. Adam, I think you should re-read Jeff’s post.
Hey Jeff!
Why is Pajamas Media only serving up chum PPC and in-network ads? Has Pajamas Media failed to corner the wingnut corporate online marketing world?
If I sign up for NetFlix, you get a nickel, right? That means if 200 or so of us sign up, you could get a haircut!
Well, rappers are hardly the same as an ostensibly “objective” press or the leaders of the minority party and its vocal adherents—and I don’t spend a lot of time here calling celebrities to account for their statements (unless, of course, they are producing “documentaries” that are well attended by Democratic congressmen and that are meant specifically to frame the war dishonestly, or unless they are on foreign soil providing PR for our enemies)—but far be it for me to take away the fillip of wit you must have allowed for yourself by stretching the analogy to fit your intentional misrepresentations of my earlier posts.
Anyway, Typically cant. Not at all interested in the content of the post – only interested in catching the wingnut in a strained gotcha moment.
BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY!
How fucking empty your life must be.
Gabriel
Don’t hold your breath that Adam will ‘get it.’ The moral perfidy of Lefist moral-equivalency “arguments” is evident in such comparisons as criticism of speech is the same as legally prosecuting or jailing someone over speech.
Wow. And attacks on PJ Media, too! Go for the trifecta, Adam. Pull out your joint, squeeze the head until it’s purple, and have it scream “YEAAAAAARRRRGGGH!” I hear that kills at parties.
Anyway, you are wasting my bandwidth and offering nothing to this thread. So you’re gone.
If adam is drunk, do I need his consent to mock him?
And Jeff would be right, Adam. Why is it that people only think their actions have positive effects?
The same people who tell us that films and music are “instruments of change” and so on are the first to say, “it’s only music, doood” when the possibility of deleterious effects from that music starts to look real.
Similarly, the so-called Peace Activists want to pretend that their shenanigans can only have positive effects. Is that because they believe that their intentions matter so dearly that the mere existence of such ostensibly noble intentions obviates the need to consider the actual effects of their behavior?
I’m not familiar with the rapper’s song, but it seems to me that calling France out for Napoleon is a good thing. Napoleon was a jackass. De Gaulle had his good points, but also some pretty bad ones as well. France has been a wreck of a culture for a while.
If you want to find a hellhole on this earth, look at places where the French were involved.
We ended up in Viet Nam because of the way the French handled the situation. Had France not botched the whole thing so badly, Ho Chi Minh would not have been able to make his nationalist appeal as a beard to install communism there.
(FYI, peasants and common people don’t fight for communism. They fight for nationalism. Only upper middle-class liberals fight for communism.)
Look at West Africa.
From the bloody, decadent French Revolution on up, France is a country that needs to take a serious look at the effects of its behavior.
And the people living there today need to start coming up with something worthwhile of their own to pass on, instead of being a bunch of arrogant cultural gouls, boasting about a history and culture that was created and built by better men long dead.
And here is a real example of the state quashing someone’s dissent. And our first lefty didn’t get it.
Amazing. Or not, really.
France has silly laws against criticizing the state that the US doesn’t have. So? What’s your point? You don’t like the French? Wow, how original!
Thanks Jeff,
Adam was annoying wasn’t he? Troll piece of shit….
France has silly laws against criticizing the state that the US doesn’t have. So? What’s your point? You don’t like the French? Wow, how original!
The point is that if you have such laws banning speech, don’t be surprised when some group (recently, Muslims) want to expand them in all sorts of unanticipated directions.
Jeff,
Was banishing Mr. Stanhope really a good idea? He seemed to have potential to play the mouse to your cat. Could have been entertaining. OTOH, if you’re not in the mood, you’re not in the mood. Still, his nose twitching made me laugh.
Are there laws in France against insulting the state?
HCT
I dunno, the guy was bragging that he pisses on corpses. That’s gotta be against the law.
The power of a nation-state to imprison you for your speech.
The power of a blogger to criticique your speech over the internet.
Must be an equation generated by some obscure subsection of that “chaos theory” shit that I never studied ‘cause the title made it sound confusing.
TW: consider
Mr. Stanhope should consider studying the properties of equivalence.
What’s your point?
tristero—Don’t let your mind wander– it’s far too small to be let out on its own.
I wonder, did Al and Tippie Gore recently speak in Paris and give them the idea for this?
Alleged excerpt from the speech:
“We opened a can of Whoop Ass on John Denver back in the day. Didn’t we, sweetums?”
(Unsure whether it was Al to Tipper, Tipper to Al, or just John Kerry being silly with his translation on his latest mass email.)
This guy’s music is actually seems to be a leftist critique of alleged racism and attendant policies in France. The dude pursuing the complaint is a member of the center-right UMP party. Monsieur R:
I don’t think this issue proves much about France, other than the fact that most European contries are more restrictive with respect to free speech than America is.
As the context for this controversy involves the French riots, etc., it seems at least a distant relative to the anti-terrorism free speech restrictions) implemented by Tony Blair, about which you said:
Stanhope? STANHOPE??
He still owes me money!
What I don’t get about people like Adam is why they never care about actual infringements on freedom, which is what the left is their reason for living right?
I mean why would Adam even bother making a stupid comment when the real issue is something his party pretends they are suffering from on a minute by minute basis.
I’m not thinking clearly right now (as this comments most like shows) but why doesn’t the left truly weep for this french rapper, the filmmaker Van Gogh, women rapped up in 400 hundred layers with low peripheral vision allowances instead of making up fake instances of infringement that mean nothing because their not true? Think Tm Robbins and chill wind at a Press Club speech
I don’t get it.
France never had a commitment to free speech. They ban the sale of nazi memorabilia, as well as headscarves and other religious icons in public buildings. Its forced assimilation into a state enforced ideal idealogy, and it doesn’t work.
Well, that was my point, wasn’t it—and that France, in particular, wraps those restrictions in the language of nationalism?
And as a strong advocate of free speech, I thought it worth pointing out that we are often lectured by a country that does not embrace an important component of liberty.
Or rather, I thought it worth pointing out that Reason pointed it out.
For those of you who don’t think it was worth mentioning this, send me a list of topics that will show the kind of ideological balance and free-thinking anti-judgmentalism you crave.
And I’ll ignore it.
.
And while I’m not saying the French and British situations are exactly the same thing (they’re obviously not), I found your lecturing of France didn’t jibe with your apparent unqualified endorsement of Blair’s speech restrictions. Politicians in both countries think free speech should be restricted to curb internal violence, etc.
Whatever, Jeff. I never endorsed anti-judgmentalism, and I think I was civil. Ignore away, though. Have a nice evening.
Wow, Jeff. He’s banished? A worthless troll who gives nada to the point at hand? Looks like it will be a trip to the tip jar soon. Wait! I’ve got it! Pledge drive! Offer up a variety for bidding and the one that nets you the most dolleros gets the boot.
Hubris- don’t you think that politicians in all countries think speech should be restricted to curb internal violence? It’s a matter of what is considered incitement to violence, or incitement to hatred. We have free speech, and you could easily start a blog about p!ssing on the flag or spitting on George Washington. You’d get into a bit of trouble if you started talking about an armed overthrow of the US government.
Probably not.
I got as far as reading “Monsieur R” and was stuck picturing him asking “Monsieur T” with the tall teeth for help finding his ripping rubberbands.
actus: Probably not.
Why not, actus? You think the FBI and DHS guys are too busy harassing PETA activists and librarians?
Well its not illegal to blog about armed overthrow of hte US govt. But you’re right, the feds might not care about that, or they might investigate to make sure you don’t meet the brandenburg test.
– actus – Your one undying shame is that, in your case, you could reprint the Marxist manifesto in triplicate and post it for the next ten years, along with plans for a White House take over by armed insurrection, and all the FBI would do is break a rib laughing. You do know it takes at least a modicum of viability to get taken seriously now don’t you?
Goddamit, if this boy’s smart enough to quote me, I say we stand by him!
“I would rather have five German divisions in front of me, than one French division behind me” – G Patton – 1943
Patton: That’s because the French division is looking hungrily at your ass.
Ok, that wasn’t nice.
Hubris, I think Jeff was talking about the “what’s your point?’ comment.
Actus, you Marxist jack ass, why don’t you get a job?
Because its spring break.
– They give you spring breaks at McDonalds?
You know the answer to that.
No, marianna, as I said on the other thread, actus is a Fabian.
Quick test: A Marxist has to give at least lip service to egalitarianism. When you find somebody bragging about cultural or moral superiority (“the smart party”) that’s a Fabian. Marxists hate Fabians.
Marxists give us labor unions. Fabians give us Compassionate Head Tilts. See the difference?
Regards,
Ric
So lets see the calculus here:
1. Its rap, and I hate rap for its vulgarity.
2. But it is rap that bashes on the French
3. And the French are now fining someone SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND Euros over it.
My conclusions:
1. It’s free speech, digbats. If you can throw Christ in a jar of piss and call it art, a few vulgarities that mock France in rap form should also qualify.
2. Rap isn’t worth that much to begin with. You already tax the French people enough, why bother wasting funds on this?
Welcome to France: We’re the Nanny State and we’re watching you, dopey subjects!
Because their definition of “freedom” is different than the one the rest of us use.