Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
So a Dutch court has acquitted Geert Wilders. He can say what he pleases about Islam. World relieved! Europe stood up for freedom of expression! Except simultaneously, John Galliano is on trial in France and facing six months in prison, yes prison, for "public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity." (For those of you who missed it, he drank himself into a gibbering stupor in a French cafe and relieved himself of a serenade about his enthusiasm for Hitler and the gas chambers and his distaste for his interlocutor's fat thighs.)
Not fully getting it about "freedom of speech" yet, are you, world?
And what's Galliano's defense? Not, "Yeah, I said it. So what, I have the right to say what I please." It's "I'm an addict, a sick person. I throw myself on the mercy of the court."
Just read this tripe:
"You can see that I embrace every culture, every people, every race, creed, religion. I celebrate their cultural diversity . . . through couture, through fashion."
The most touching part of the proceedings, which began in the mid-afternoon and dragged on late into the evening, was Galliano's candid confessions about his childhood sufferings and recent losses.
Galliano, born in the British enclave of Gibraltar to a Spanish mother, said his origin and his homosexuality made him the brunt of relentless teasing as a child.
"All my life I've fought against prejudice and intolerance and discrimination because I have been subjected to it myself," said the designer, who was wearing a black jacket with silk harem pants, his long locks loose down his back.
"I was born Juan Carlos Galliano . . . I went to a typically English school and you can imagine that children can be very cruel."
What's going on here? He lost his job, appropriately--he embarrassed the people who pay him, so they had every right to fire him. The whole world also has the right to say "John Galliano's a pathetic sniveling drunken Nazi pansy and we're not going to invite him to our fabulous Fall 2011 dip-dye taxidermy themed-collection after-parties." No more Pop Socks and Watermelon-Absinthe Winetails for you, John!
But a trial? The prospect of jail? This grotesque ritual sham of renouncing one's badthink and affirming one's love of cultural diversity?
Article 11 of the EU Charter:
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
And the reporter thinks this scene is touching?
Voltaire is puking in his grave.
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Comments :
Jun '11
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
I believe that Europe is crushing itself under its own weight. Gone are icons like Bismarck and Louis XIV and instead their money is adorned with spiritless doorways and bridges. With a past they are simultaneously unwilling to accept and unwilling to be proud of, the infantalization of their culture, a disconnect between nationalism and post-nationalism, a crippling welfare state, a democracy deficit, a loss of purpose on the international stage, and a supranational regulatory state that somehow manages to exacerbate all of those problems, Europe isn't so much in managed decline as it is paying off one credit card with another (literally and figuratively) until its time for a repeat of 1848.
This type of regulation of one's thoughts is endemic of a clearly declining culture. Unable to control events they used to be able to, it seems as if Europe has responded by controlling everything they can within their sphere of influence.
Edited on Jun 24, 2011 at 1:35amMay '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
I may disagree with your pleated-cowl cardigan with detachable dickey and bishops sleeves in brushed orange paired with faux-rose satin capri pants and tap shoes but I will defend to the death your right to wear them as you snivel and mewl before the commissars of the control-freak paternal super-state to absolve your of your most tasteless crime: your candor borne of intoxication and cattiness. Some things just may not be said, monsieur. Mon Dieu!
May '11
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
I'll go with "There, I said it." Liberté, egalité, fraternité in Europe is only for the PC crowd. In France, PC stands for Parti Communiste.
Nov '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
Where the heck did this law come from? In my experience, the French are the least PC of all Europeans!
Nov '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
Jan-Michael - the unPC side probably really ended with Vercingetorix; while France has generated some remarkable independent thinkers, the society as a whole has been more than ready to jump onboard of whatever authoritarian platform happens to be nearest for at least the last two centuries.
As for Galliano, I'm going to play devil's advocate. In the US, as well as most other countries, you can be sent to jail for publicly agitating for the murder of another individual. Shouldn't it be the same fwhen one agitates for the muder of thousands? Galliano was pretty explicit -"I love Hitler... People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be ****ing gassed.", and it is part and parcel of his support for antisemitism as well. Not all that long ago, the French were actively participating in such activities, there is no shortage of French neo-Nazis now; should one just laugh it off?
May '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
Alex Metcalf:
This type of regulation of one's thoughts is endemic of a clearly declining culture. Unable to control events they used to be able to, it seems as if our universities and cultural elites with their stultifying PC speech codes have responded by controlling everything they can within their sphere of influence. · Jun 24 at 1:23am
Edited on Jun 24 at 01:35 am
Rather than think this is a strictly European malady, I've tried to show the same sickness is well established here, simply not yet to the same degree.
Nov '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
HalifaxCB:
As for Galliano, I'm going to play devil's advocate. In the US, as well as most other countries, you can be sent to jail for publicly agitating for the murder of another individual. Shouldn't it be the same fwhen one agitates for the muder of thousands?
Context matters. Agitating in front of an armed and angry mob, thereby inciting them to violence, would probably be criminal. Agitating in front of a confused bunch of Parisian cafegoers who present no immediate danger to anyone is hardly agitating at all.
Edited on Jun 24, 2011 at 5:53amRe: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
No one laughed. He was ruined socially and professionally, which is absolutely as it should be. But if you find a way to criminalize someone else's speech without endangering your own right to speak, let me know.
May '11
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
No one laughed. He was ruined socially and professionally, which is absolutely as it should be. But if you find a way to criminalize someone else's speech without endangering your own right to speak, let me know. · Jun 24 at 4:41am
Can't be done. But we all reap what we sow.
Nov '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
Jan-Michael Rives
Context matters. Agitating in front of an armed and angry mob, thereby inducing them to violence, would probably be criminal. Agitating in front of a confused bunch of Parisian cafegoers who present no immediate danger to anyone is hardly agitating at all. · Jun 24 at 4:09am
I quite agree that context matters - but determining context, intent, and effect are generally the province of the courts. The police are pretty much limited to responding to the act.
Claire - suppose he hadn't suffered socially - suppose his statements had been treated as heroic? Would that change your opinion? Or suppose someone in one of your local coffee shops in Istanbul, high on caffeine, started vociferously championing the PKK and calling for a few street bombings? Are you cool with that?
All societies criminalize speech to some extent - I can't (for example) blatantly libel someone. The question then is where does one draw the line? Given the rather sordid French history of antisemitism and collaboration, I can understand why they tend to overreact.
Oct '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
It seems like there is an element of subjectivity here in determining whether or not the speech in question is intended to be, or construed as, an actual threat of violence, or a call to motivate others to violence. In this case, I don't see that at all.
However, I can see the French wanting to crack down on the crazy imams who say similar things (praising Hitler and demonizing Jews, quoting that Hadith about rocks and trees calling out for Muslims to kill Jews, etc.). These people could be seen as inciting actual physical violence, even though in some cases they're quoting their holy texts.
It may be the French have decided that if they're going to crack down on actual radicals that are calling for actual violence by saying certain things, they're going to have to be fair about it and also crack down on elites who say things in public that are only supposed to be said at cocktail parties.
Edited on Jun 24, 2011 at 5:51amMay '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
In fairness to Galliano, her thighs are really fat. (sorry, up late last night, I'll do better in half an hour).
I remember back in the days when Slate was interesting and we were all looking forward to Andrew Sullivan (this was back before he was noticeably insane). The best line he came up with in an entire week of posting was "enormous jiggling lesbian thighs". As I recall, we all jeered his lackluster lameness in the comments, but never thought to put him on trial.
Nov '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
HalifaxCB
Jan-Michael Rives
Context matters. Agitating in front of an armed and angry mob, thereby inciting them to violence, would probably be criminal. Agitating in front of a confused bunch of Parisian cafegoers who present no immediate danger to anyone is hardly agitating at all. · Jun 24 at 4:09am
I quite agree that context matters - but determining context, intent, and effect are generally the province of the courts. The police are pretty much limited to responding to the act.
I think the act is not a crime in itself -- it merely determines culpability for any crimes that might follow. If no angry mob springs up and starts a-slaughtering, then there's no crime!
HalifaxCB
All societies criminalize speech to some extent - I can't (for example) blatantly libel someone.
Good example: Of course you can blatantly libel someone. But should that person suffer some harm (financial or otherwise) as a result of that libel, a court is likely to hold your responsible.
Edited on Jun 24, 2011 at 7:41amOct '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
That guy looks like Jim Riggleman! Same swell outfit too!
Oct '10
Re: Free the Sniveling Nazi Pansy Galliano
That guy looks like Jim Riggleman! Same swell outfit too!