This Victorian Anti-Swearing law is a CATASTROPHE OF ASS!

@Barkey: They're banning speech!

Morons who think x is a threat to the fabric of society are the problem.

At the very, very, very least, they should be harassed by the public until they back down or off themselves out of sheer desperation. That includes spitting at them in the face when they go shopping, refusing to serve them in bars and nightclubs, kicking them off cabs and related stuff, and even putting pressure on their families.

In short, full-on shunning: not allowed to shop anywhere, not allowed to speak in public without being booed and heckled, not allowed to do anything without being humiliated, insulted and pelted with all kinds of crap (and things that hurt) every time they show their faces in public.

edited 2nd Jun '11 8:08:50 AM by SavageHeathen

But how will they describe American Beer without swear words?

^^

Orrr fired and essentially blacklisted from ever being in any form of government work again as a result of criminal stupidity?

Seems fair, with way less primitive barbarism involved.

Well, Aussies do have free speech, so technically, you're correct.

Friday, 3rd of June, 5.30pm at Parliament House, Melbourne.

I've got to admit, I'm not fond of such language.

But that doesn't mean I think something should be legally done to marginalize it.

"but it's not like they're...preventing you from expressing your opinions (because free speech =/= cursing)"

I think you'll find cursing very much = free speech, unless we're redefining 'free speech' as "words which don't give me a boo-boo in my tum-tum".

Not being able to swear does not prevent you from expressing your opinion.

*

Unless it's an sweary opion, or an opinion about particular swears.

In any case, restricting the way someone's opines is not 'free speech': it's regulated speech.

I'm not sure what to make of it, to be honest. When I hear about folks who want to prohibit swearing, I'm reminded of that frightful letter I read in the Daily Mail some time ago, in which the writer essentially said that, "Children should be punished for swearing, though they should be allowed to smoke, because only the former is actually damaging."

Now, that's obviously not a dominant attitude, but it has coloured my opinion on issue (even though it really, really should not have done so).

I say let's stalk those responsible for the law and wait for them to swear. I know it's inevitable.

^No need to stalk them, just get into a fender-bender with a camrea on.

This joke has been done to death but.... IT's TIME TO START DROPPING SOME F-BOMBS!

FUCK! FUCK! FUCKITY-FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCKITY-FUCK!

• looks at craters in ground* well that got them victorian police good!

That won't go well with the cops themselves. Police officers swear more than people in most other career fields.

And god forbid they ever put out an "Anti-Off-Color-Joke Law"... VPD will go on strike.

Two options:

• Double Standard
• Hidden budget cut by causing cops to be fired en-masse.

@MRDA - I'm very much on the same side as you all are; this is wrong. However, this is not a matter of free speech, but rather freedom of expression and whether it should boil down to this. I can see reason in censoring the occasional F-Bomb on TV (disregarding, for now, the semantics of the social definition of 'cursing') but I think it's stupid to put a fine on somehow who slipped a crude word into a chat with a friend.

I was merely pointing out that it's not responsible to make mountains out of molehills (although it is an annoying molehill at that). You don't have to curse to express your opinion (see this post!), but I agree that you should be able to. Just don't think the two are perpetually linked. That was my intention with that statement.

Does "cursing" constitute, or not constitute, a type of speech?

Freedom of expression is an inseparable part of freedom of speech. Governments shouldn't regulate either: No government has a legitimate authority to restrict speech. Restricting speech is evil in and of itself...

I would say that any government that infringes on freedom of speech and/or freedom of expression deserves to be overthrown.

edited 5th Jun '11 5:40:59 AM by SavageHeathen

"Freedom of fucking speech is the ass-first cornerstone of a goddamn democracy, shitforbrains. Any motherfucker who thinks otherwise is a twat-faced cuntpuncher who needs his dick ripped off by rhinos. Cocksuckers." — Thomas Paine

And this following on Australia's ban on small breasts. What. The. Tits.