WHAT DO YOU CALL TEN THOUSAND ACADEMICS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN?

Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer

Love the photo.

https://cdn.theconversation.com/avatars/106495/width238/image-20171123-17992-60ml05.jpg

Do they ever not look like this?

Professors Call For Hate Speech Protections To Be Extended To Animals

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Two professors at the University of Sheffield have published a piece in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies to extend hate speech protections to animals to deal with hateful “speciesist” remarks. Drs. Josh Milburn and Alasdair Cochrane insist that such protections will help achieve a “more benign human–animal relations within society.”  The need for speech criminalization is based on the view that “some animals do seem to have their social confidence eroded because of their awareness of the risk of violence.”

We previously discussed the campaign by PETA to end the use of animal references in pejorative comments. It called for the end of the use of pig, chicken, pig, rat, snake and other references to “stand up for justice by rejecting supremacist language.”

These two academics go further to demand actual speech crimes and controls to protect animals:

Laws against hate speech protect members of certain human groups. However, they do not offer protection to nonhuman animals. Using racist hate speech as our primary example, we explore the discrepancy between the legal response to hate speech targeting human groups and what might be called anti-animal or speciesist hate speech….We thus conclude that, absent a compelling alternative argument, there is no in-principle reason to support the censure of racist hate speech but not the censure of speciesist hate speech.

What was striking to me in the work is the reliance on the writings of NYU Professor Jeremy Waldron who I debated a couple years ago at Rice University over his work in establishing speech codes and crimes. Despite my respect for him as an academic, I have long objected to Waldron’s work as inimical to free speech and creating a slippery slope of ever-expanding censorship.  That danger is evident in this latest work.  The professors embrace Waldron’s concept of “group defamation” and the harm it causes to individuals in society. They then extend that concept to animals:

“the best reading of Waldron’s theory must include certain animals within its protective remit…some states have enacted constitutional provisions for the sake of animals, some of which explicitly recognise the ‘dignity’ of animals.But, again, none of these provisions acknowledges that animals possess the Waldronian sense of civic dignity: none views animals as possessing equal social standing, membership, status, and rights. No community truly regards its animal residents as members of society, and none recognises them as equals.”

The argument illustrates how speech controls and crimes develop into an insatiable appetite for more and more regulation in maintaining what Waldron calls a better society. More and more speech is pulled into this vortex of criminalization and regulation.

As many know on this blog, I have long called for greater protections for animals and the recognition broader of animal rights. This includes greater standing to argue for relief in court on behalf of such animal interests. However, I am also a free speech advocate. Indeed, academics like Waldron probably view me as something of an extremist in my own right. I admit that I oppose most regulation and criminalization of speech. I may be a free speech dinosaur in that sense. Traditional free speech values are certainly out of vogue among academics.  I believe in largely unfettered free speech, particularly for statements made off campus or outside of a classroom. I seriously do not believe that these animals are harmed by such comments but I know that free speech will be further harmed by their criminalization.

The danger is really not a line of woke Weimaraners because this really protects the sensibilities of humans.  Indeed, it may be an odd form of anthropomorphism in assuming hurt feelings that humans would have. Animals can clearly sense anger and disapproval. However, few leave the room when you complain of living a “dog’s life” or “eating like a pig.”

There is a point about such phraseology but I prefer Dr. Doolittle’s version:

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You can read the study here.

*  *  *

Update: Soon after this column was posted, I received a thoughtful and clarifying response from Professor Milburn.  With his approval, I can including that response to this posting so that readers understand the position of the authors. I appreciate his reaching out and I encourage readers to consider the more nuanced view that he is suggesting:

Thank you for blogging about the article I wrote with Alasdair Cochrane on animals and hate speech. We, of course, welcome engagement and analysis from legal scholars.

I am emailing to clarify that, in the article, we do not say that animals should be protected from hate speech. We argue for a conditional: given that we have found — in existing scholarly discourse about the foundations of hate speech law — no compelling reason to draw a line, we conclude that if humans should be protected by hate-speech laws, then (in principle) animals should be protected by hate-speech laws.

I believe that this is a conclusion that could be endorsed by people who support the existence of hate-speech laws and those who do not. Indeed, I have previously spoken with a colleague who is, like you, very sceptical of hate-speech laws, and he suggested that Alasdair and I frame the paper explicitly as a reductio-style argument against hate-speech laws. We do not do this in the paper — indeed, we do not take a side in the question of whether hate-speech laws are justified at all. But we welcome engagement with our arguments from people who are generally supportive of hate-speech laws and those who are generally opposed.

Anyways; thank you, again, for taking the time to write about our paper.

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Georges S
Georges S

Does that means we can sue muslims when they call us “allouff” (pig in arabic)

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

No. They are a protected class and cannot be sued by a non-believer for any reason. /s

RayK
RayK

What do you call 10,000 academics at the bottom of the ocean???

A good start.

TX Patriot
TX Patriot

A minimal good start. FIFY!!

Ghost
Ghost

I suggest we literally label them Sharkbait.

RayK
RayK

Like 500 lawyer skydivers being called ‘skeet’.

Anonymous
Anonymous

What do you call 10,000 academics at the bottom of the ocean.
A solution to pollution

Guest
Guest

Remember PETA euthanizing all of those animals awhile back? That’s how it always ends with these folk.

KaD
KaD
TN Patriot
TN Patriot

On a previous article, someone commented that bestiality would be the next cause for the left. It appears they are close to winning the trans battle, which gives them the go ahead for the next item on their list.

GDP, usually gruntled
GDP, usually gruntled

Pedophilia first, then bestiality.

bryanjb
bryanjb

i’ve said for a long time that i identify as a giraffe. i can see the day coming when that statement will be taken as fact and have no rhetorical effect whatsoever…

Stucky

“i’ve said for a long time that i identify as a giraffe.”

That’s nice.

But, if you ever see Francis Marion … RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!

starfcker
starfcker

😂😂😂😂😂

starfcker
starfcker

And if you happen to be a raccoon….

ILuCO2
ILuCO2

Stucky identifies as a racoon.

August
August

FWIW, having anal sex with a horse is already a cause celebre among the Smart Set:

Zoo is a 2007 American documentary film based on the life and death of Kenneth Pinyan, an American man who died of peritonitis due to perforation of the colon after engaging in receptive anal sex with a horse. The film’s public debut was at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007, where it was one of 16 winners out of 857 candidates. Following Sundance, it was selected as one of the top five American films to be presented at the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_(2007_film)

Then again, sex with animals was legal in Enumclaw WA in 2005. Boeing engineers will always find a way!

👻 (ghost)
👻 (ghost)

Interesting.

Stucky

“Interesting.”

Interesting????

When I wrote my article about Horse Fucking many moons ago, did you say “interesting” back then? Nooooo. You, and every other cur here mocked me mercilessly for many many moons. But, now it’s “interesting” … fukmedead, something WEIRD is going on in your life.

Ottomatik
Ottomatik

Pedo, Incest, Bestiality, Necrophilia, was the order, and it seems spot on.

Bob P
Bob P

I want to report YourAverageJoe for all the mean things he’s said about cats on Friday Fail. I definitely think he should be cancelled.

Georges S
Georges S

Some people really don’t know how to take a joke (thumbs down).

Yahsure
Yahsure

I remember this bumper sticker for sale at truck stops. If you’re looking for your cat, look between the tread of my tires.
The other one I liked was, don’t tell my family I’m a truck driver, they still think I’m a piano player in a whore house.

Michael D
Michael D

Now I KNOW the world and his father have gone mad.

Doctor de Vaca
Doctor de Vaca

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 NKJV

Man was set above the other animals by God. Doesn’t mean we’re to abuse them but be good stewards of them and the earth.

This is now a proposed Initiative in Colorado, California ain’t got nothing on us when it comes to this shit.
https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/results/2021-2022/16Results.html

Anonymous
Anonymous

Time to get out of Colorado. Also, I noticed that the SOS office was able to turn your state flag into a hexagon logo. What is the deal with all of the hexagons? Everything is a hexagon. It’s weird like we’re being taken over. Every corp that pledges fealty to the new order has to have these hexagons all over their branding now.

Auntie Kriest
Auntie Kriest

A prelude to the hexagram perhaps?

Doctor de Vaca
Doctor de Vaca

More likely a pentagram…👹

no one
no one

And voting here in CO won’t change anything because it is as fraudulent as voting in GA or AZ. The CO elections are so rigged that audits have been prohibited.

“Fraudits Have No Place in Colorado” – Democrat Colorado Secretary of State Issues Emergency Rules Prohibiting Election Audits

motley
motley

Romans Chapter 1. Period.

Stucky

This young girl was sentenced to 5 years hard labor just a few days after passage of the FAUCHI (Faggots Against Unnecessary Cow Hating Insults) Act.

comment image

Anonymous
Anonymous

Thats a horse.

Mygirl....maybe

Yup, that’s a horse.

Stucky

Please click the link below if you’re in need of a good laugh. It’s 1 minute long, —“If Trump was a GPS voice, then it would sound like this”.

It’s not pro-Trump or anti-Trump. it’s just spot on funny as can be. This guy sounds EXACTLY like Trump …. and I imagine that’s exactly how a Trump GPS would work.

https://trendingviews.co/video/if-trump-was-a-gps-voice-then-it-would-sound-like-this-15788.html

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug

Totally fucking brilliant. Conservatives would buy that. Trump would probably block it or take it over.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

That one had me spewing my wine. Good one, Stucky

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug

Does anyone else notice the creeping muzzie advance?

Auntie Kriest
Auntie Kriest

Auntie imagines with scholarly papers being published on this topic of bestial hate speech, there must be, indeed, plenty of time for the akademix over at U. of Sheffield, and Oxford too, for screwing the pooch.
comment image

After reading the journal article, Dan the police horse calls the two “doctors” who authored the paper fucking Human idiot wankers.

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

The yoooman on the left looks more like a horse than the horse on the right.

country boy
country boy

so now pig in a poke, or lipstick on a pig is considered had speech ? , what have we come to

Stucky

Get off your high horse!! 🙂

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug

Conquest by the covert, ubiquitous enemy. It is finished.

Mike
Mike

In the UK you can get arrested for tweeting something that offends people. That tells you all you need to know about why you should never visit that shithole police state.

Melty
Melty

World has devolved into a clown show. Fuck em all

Rooster fish
Rooster fish

Satire is truly dead

m
m

“Fish cannot understand what water is” syndrome?

We’re in The Matrix version of a satire!

KaD
KaD

Funny to me that people like them are too dense to realize that plants have thoughts and feelings too, intelligence is inherent in all creation- even a rock. They are the real speciests. Maybe it’s time for them to stop eating anything.

Stucky

“intelligence is inherent in all creation- even a rock. “

comment image

BUCKED/BUY MORE AMMO/BOURBON TOO
BUCKED/BUY MORE AMMO/BOURBON TOO

KaD..you ought to hear the broccoli scream when I steam it…it’s epic .

Ghost

And insects with hundreds of eyes must cry thousands of tears when swatted and left to squirm.

BUCKED/BUY MORE AMMO/BOURBON TOO
BUCKED/BUY MORE AMMO/BOURBON TOO

Does this mean I have to rename my pig…he likes his name which is Chris P. Bacon

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug

Doubling down on stupid I see. So long as violence is presumed to be sin in all cases (except by incorporated group authority, wink, wink), then an adult conversation is not possible. No argumentum ad absurdum can enlighten stupid. I am not convinced that was the point: the clarification was that stupid. Perhaps they want to enlighten without losing their careers? Fine, then they are good guys.

This whole thing is ga-ga talk and should not be taken seriously. Most Americans should not be taken seriously as human beings. If you protect everyone, you kill everyone. Society will die if it’s garbage is not excreted. Biology matters. The scale of meta-organisms does not change the fucking biology. Do NOT normalize this poo-poo talk in your cranium! I eat meat with no apologies. Cops are pigs. Politicians are pigs and rats. Discrimination is required in life. It can be wrong, but it’s absence is ALWAYS wrong, or how’s about I dump my hot load into your wife’s womb, pious buddy.

starfcker
starfcker
centinal
centinal

This is just a logical next step. People like this will push until they are stopped. Since society as a whole hasn’t pushed back, it continues.

I’d compare it to a child misbehaving, when subconsciously they are seeking (even needing) to understand the borders on what is acceptable behavior.

The most outrageous think you can envision will be the new thing, before you even have time to process the fact that men are now competing in women’s sports, drag queens are corrupting children in public, and schools are deliberately teaching kids to hate themselves and one another.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

We are seeing some pretty serious pushback on CRT. Suburban moms don’t like their kids being called racists when they have brought them up as liberal to the bone.

'Reality' Doug
'Reality' Doug

No, there is no serious pushback on CRT. More than usual, but not serious. The Christian principle of simply getting back to even on slights in localized isolation is as defeatist as Jesus the Christ.

RiNS

A pile.

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