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If I go in a public square and liken Xi to Winnie the Pooh for several hours, will I be returning home untouched by the government and continue to live without government reprisal?
I think we could learn a lot from their more restrained capitalism system. But that doesn't mean I can't recognize the authoritarian dictatorship.
There's an old Soviet Russia joke that applies here. They had freedom of speech too -- in the US you can rant about Reagan all day and the government won't do any reprisal, and in the USSR you can also rant about Reagan without any reprisal!
Recently in the UK, we had a lot of "not my king" protests where people were arrested for blank signs after people had signs mentioning Prince Andrew's misdeeds.
That’s just the British
Try saying From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! In Berlin. Or the many US states were boycotting Israel is illegal.
The last point doesn’t count, we’re talking about Free Speech.
For the first one, it’s understandable why the Krauts have to be on the side of Israel hardcore due to their, uh, “history” with the Jews. Sucks but hey, that’s life.
You can say that in any us state?
"As of 2021, 35 states have passed bills and executive orders designed to discourage boycotts of Israel.[4] Many of them have been passed with broad bipartisan support.[5] Most anti-BDS laws have taken one of two forms: contract-focused laws requiring government contractors to promise that they are not boycotting Israel; and investment-focused laws, mandating public investment funds to avoid entities boycotting Israel."
Not as bad as I remembered. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws
Seems a bit disingenuous to use a phrase co-opted by antisemites as your example here. I don't believe most people say it with that intent, but that doesn't change that Hamas and company use it to refer to ethnic cleansing.
Wikipedia has a pretty good page that discusses the history of it. My perception is that it was used by proponents for a one state solution, but the opposition to it very purposely boosted the violent groups who used it. It's like if I talk about the blood and soil in Israel or Palestine or work in the number 88. There are clear antisemitic connotations to those. It's fairly idiotic to use any phrases like that if your goal is to keep antisemitism completely separate from criticism of Israel.
Anyway, assuming you're in the US, you did just say it without reprisal too. This is one of those cases where providing an example immediately disproves it, because clearly, you're allowed to say it.
That isn't to say that some people haven't tried to criminalize or have successfully criminalized similar sentiments. But the difference is that if I post about Xi being Winnie the Pooh on Chinese social media, I'm going to see reprisal from the government no matter where in the country I post it from. There are shades of authoritarian disallowance of criticism, and the US certainly has some of that. China is just considerably more.
Hamas specifically notes in their charter that they do not call for genocide against Jewish people. They specifically note that they do not have a problem with Judaism, and that their fight is only with Zionism, AND they specifically note that “From the river to the sea” is a call for a one state solution, not genocide.
That's the most recent revision. The original document didn't make those distinctions, and it's what people think of.
So what you mean to say is that Hamas doesn’t use it to call for genocide of Jewish peoples, and that you were spreading misinformation in your previous comment.
I get where you're coming from but that's not an argument about the defining characteristics of dictatorships, that's an argument about the existence or lack thereof of free speech.
In my opinion a better argument would be that China has 1 leader at the top of the ladder with near unquestionable power over government precedings who will remain in that position until he either dies or chooses to step down. That already would make him something analogous to a monarch, but add the regular use of military strength in forcing compliance from the masses and now we have a dictator.