A new law passed in Scotland that criminalizes the “stirring up of hatred” has led to a deluge of “hate crime” reports overwhelming Scottish police departments.
In the first week of the new law coming into effect, police departments have received approximately 8,000 complaints of so-called “hate crimes,” which is set to eclipse reports of actual crimes if the rate continues.
Ironically, on the first day of the law’s enactment, numerous complaints were reported for cases of hateful comments towards whites, showing that the perception of “stirring up hatred” is obviously a subjective matter poorly dealt with by the restrictive law.
Among the reports were complaints against Scottish First Minister Humsa Yousaf for a 2020 speech in which he lamented the white majority for people in positions of authority in the country. Yousaf was the prime force behind the law coming to fruition.
The new Scottish Hate Crime Law is already a complete farce. On Day 1 police were overwhelmed with 4000-odd complaints, many about the Scottish PM himself, for the speech below. The problem here is that what is considered “hateful” and “racist” is obviously subjective. pic.twitter.com/sjlTqnmLGL
— William McGimpsey (@TheZeitgeistNZ) April 4, 2024
Leftists, however, dismissed the reports against hatred towards whites as “false reports,” calling the makers of them “neo-Nazis.”
According to the anti-free speech law’s explanatory notes, the law says that “it is an offence for a person to behave in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner, or communicate threatening, abusive or insulting material to another person, with either the intention to stir up hatred against a group of persons based on the group being defined by reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national origins, or where it is a likely consequence that hatred will be stirred up against such a group.”
The explanatory notes also provides a list of protected people, including “a social or cultural group; perceived religious affiliation; sexual orientation; transgender identity; and variations in sex characteristics.”
It then goes even further to prohibit publishing “offensive material” through all forms of internet communications or even passing on material not owned or created by the poster.
Obviously, the incredibly restrictive scope of the law is not the only problem, but the fundamental restriction on free speech itself, as leftist political entities are fond of calling speech they don’t like “hate speech” and then using it as a way to ostracize, intimidate and otherwise control their opposition through fear.
Even famous author J.K. Rowling, who has been known to espouse some leftist views in the past, is adamantly against the law and sees it as a restrictive abuse of power that places the citizens of Scotland in a very dangerous position. Rowling, herself, has been targeted for possible “hate speech” because of her anti-transgender views.
It is an incredibly sad and scary state of affairs to see such a law passed and implemented in the modern Western world — and it couldn’t have been done without the help of leftist authoritarians. Hopefully, the folly of such a law will soon be proven and lead to its repeal, but until then, the sad state of Scotland is a sobering warning to the kind of society power-hungry leftists dream of creating.
