It has finally reached our shores...well, not our shores, but the shores of Canada. It can only be a matter time before it reaches across the border. No, not poutine, but this. The Ontario Provincial Police Department tweeted this out in February. It looks like one of those innocuous public service announcements that we all see to remind us to be better citizens, but look closely...
...at the last line:
Say, what? If you think that it is a harmless PSA, well, a writer who tweeted back a quippy response that probably fell into the "N- is it necessary" or "K - is it kind" category ended up with an actually call from the Ontario Provincial Police Department ...
All I can say is...{{{Orwell...paging, Mr. Orwell...Mr. George Orwell, please come to the 21st Century to retrieve your call."}}}
Okay, I confess, I did a little research and found that this was meant to remind Ontarians not to take pictures of car accidents and post them on social media because there are people involved in those accidents. Apparently this is a thing in Ontario.
Now, I am no P.R. advertising whiz, but the Ontario Provincial Police P.R. Department could have made that a little more clear by using...oh, I don't know, the words "car accident" somewhere to avoid any confusion.
T.H.I.N.K. b4 u post
— Ontario Prov Police (@OPP_News) February 10, 2016
T - is it True
H - is it hurtful
I - is it illegal
N - is it necessary
K - is it kind#SID2016 pic.twitter.com/0imf4eG9LH
...at the last line:
"If it doesn't pass the T.H.I.N.K. test you may be breaking the law."
Say, what? If you think that it is a harmless PSA, well, a writer who tweeted back a quippy response that probably fell into the "N- is it necessary" or "K - is it kind" category ended up with an actually call from the Ontario Provincial Police Department ...
All I can say is...{{{Orwell...paging, Mr. Orwell...Mr. George Orwell, please come to the 21st Century to retrieve your call."}}}
Okay, I confess, I did a little research and found that this was meant to remind Ontarians not to take pictures of car accidents and post them on social media because there are people involved in those accidents. Apparently this is a thing in Ontario.
Now, I am no P.R. advertising whiz, but the Ontario Provincial Police P.R. Department could have made that a little more clear by using...oh, I don't know, the words "car accident" somewhere to avoid any confusion.
14 comments:
I thought that was from Scotland, not Ontario!
It's in Scotland, too. I'm not so worried about this stuff reaching the US. Our freedom of speech is very broadly and clearly defined; this T.H.I.N.K. thing wouldn't pass muster here except as a PSA from the Ad Council, and of course with the line about a visit from the cops stripped out.
Conversely, the Commonwealth has a crazy hodgepodge of speech and hate-speech laws that overlap and contradict each other, are vaguely defined, and are not uniformly enforced. In fairness, however, Mr. Orwell was English, so he should be expecting the call.
Also, I don't believe for a hot second that this was meant to curb car-crash selfies. "Are those pitchforks I see? Perhaps we've said too much." Yeah, that's a PR CYA if I ever heard one.
And now we see first hand exactly why our forebearers ["fore-fathers" just smacks of patriarchy, doncha' know!] felt compelled to extracate themselves (and us) from the clutches of the British Empire!
Tryanmax, I hope you're right that it won't come here to the US, but I'm not as optimistic about it.
All it takes is a President willing to snub his or her nose at the Constitution, issue a bunch of illegal executive orders, and use govt. agencies to silence any opposition (oh wait...).
It will take longer to get here, but if viters don't wise up, I can see it happening here. It already is in some (mostly leftist strongholds) places, to some extent.
They already got their feet in the door with "hate" crimes and "hate" speech bs.
Ezra Levant knows all about that, as does Mark Steyn.
Sure, it happened in Canada, but there are a lot of idiots in the US that want the same thing here.
I can see Trump, Sanders or Clinton taking us further down that road.
I hope I'm wrong, though.
Allena - all you have to do is look at what is happening on college Ivy league campuses today to know that it is coming. Deemed "The Chalkening", even the word "Trump" written in sidewalk chalk is causing those little snowflakes to scream out in horror and demand a stop to such hateful "speech"! And more often than not, the college administors acquiesce. I mean, they have need to keep those tuition payments coming in, right? And these are the youth that will one day take over the country.
Oh yes, that is a thing now. I've heard about how voicing support for Trump is now racist, sexist, whateverist hate speech. Yes, the special snowflakes want to shut up anyone who makes them sad. But the great thing about special snowflakes is that, as soon as a more special snowflake comes along to shut them up, they will loudly defend their snowflakiness to prove they are the snowflakiest of all.
BTW, I've got an article up at the film site if anybody is interested.
I find the impulse to make a lack of kindness into a crime to be truly disturbing. It shows a definite totalitarian mindset and it shows just how dangerous these places are.
*Shrugs* Even in the Western world, freedom of speech isn't much of a thing outside the US. Some countries offer more freedom than others but very few match us.
As with all things in the US support for freedom of speech is partially contingent on whose ox is being gored but generally speaking support for government restricting private speech is extremely low.
Generally speaking in the US the outspoken have more to worry about from private companies (read: their employers) many of whom cut squeaky wheels loose.
It's not free speech if the .GOV is watching you and telling you how to say things. Wake up Canada! Wake up USA (we're heading down that road).
Howdy folks. Sorry there's no new article today, but didn't get the chance to write anything. :(
Students at Indiana University saw a Catholic priest in his vestment robes and started reporting that there was a KKK member on campus...idiots.
"Lack of kindness" is a good way to put it, Andrew. We are so immersed in social media these days, no one thinks twice about posting an accident picture for all to see. I wonder if the poster ever stops to think about how they would feel if it was their loved ones involved in an accident and some stranger posted a picture. I know - rhetorical question.
I agree with Andrew though - to want to turn this into a crime is disturbing.
Thanks TJ! I agree, this is disturbing. The whole impulse to criminalize everything we don't like is truly totalitarian and it shows that a great many people who think they are great people are ready to turn evil with just the right leadership.
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