Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 - Read OP

It's terrifying legislation in terms of personal liberty and it's not something I'd ever thought I'd see in this formerly moderate republic.

It evidences the disgraceful state the Irish media is in. A healthy media in a healthy democracy would be leading the charge against this. Instead? Radio silence because its seen as detrimental to a largely imaginary "Far Right" which they themselves have invented and inflated.

The greatest blow to Irish democracy in my lifetime.

In other words if you believe there are only two genders, and this happens to cause discomfort or offence to someone, you can be guilty of " hate speech " .

Jesus wept

Ben Scanlon of Gript as usual, calls McEntee out on her crap, claiming that the vast majority of Irish people want these laws, using her own govs public consultation outs her as an absolute liar. She avoided the initial question and then is bailed out by the "reporter", avoiding answering Scanlon completely. The day before this she was pontificating about “misinformation”...

It's a good contribution here from Chambers, but I cannot help but be suspicious for a reason.

2016 census showed the Jewish community in Ireland to be 2,892, the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland was the largest submission, a 56-page document for their input there hate speech laws. For comparison, Facebook has the 2nd which consisted of 15 pages. I work with a Jewish man, he said he experienced no "antisemitism" as he called it, and neither has his wife who was born and raised here. Ifind this submission a but mad

“Restricting freedom for the common good” to hear such words entered into the official record in the Seanad from an Oireachtas member.... Green Party Chair and local senator Pauline O’ Reilly....

No, sorry that was the tyrant in the Hugo Boss gear.....

Is this yet another case of Sinn Fein misjudging the direction of the wind when they were sat up on the fence? SF TDs voted in favor of the bill in both stages of the Dáil.

No matter where you are on the spectrum, it's impossible to say that they are not adding to journalism in Ireland, by simply asking very basic questions to politicians that the head nodding, establishment journalists refuse to ask. I feel like Gript will do very well for themselves in the future, all by just doing their jobs as journalists, something the rest of them haven't done in a long time. They are filling a gap that needed filling.

1. Can you reference another public consultation in Ireland that received majority 'against' views which are not in keeping with opinion polls?
2. The government tried to 'throw' the consultation by launching it quietly and then tweeting the consultation link to their crony NGOs and literally asked them to get as many of their members as possible to make submissions. They still couldn't overcome the majority opinion.
3. You completely ignore that in the very same question to McEntee, Scallan also references opinion pools showing 65% of the public are against the legislation - i.e. that the consultation received submissions broadly in line with public opinion.

Criticism of this extreme legislation is not confined to "fringe commentators". The large majority of the public are against it and McEntee's claim that the "vast majority" of people are in favour is an outright, bare faced lie - that she knows damn well is a lie.

Hang on a second - disagreement is not hate! I'm not a fan of the new bill, but it doesn't criminalise "disgreement" (at least i don't think so - unless somoene can point to a section of it that uses this exact word or a synonym for it)- unless you can't express your disagreement without expressing hate...?

No matter where you are on the spectrum, it's impossible to say that they are not adding to journalism in Ireland

I’m assuming you’re referring to a political spectrum, and not… anyways, I don’t share your idea of politics being a spectrum in the first place. It’s easy for anyone to point out that they are not adding anything of any significance or value or substance to journalism in Ireland when they put their sharticles behind a paywall.

I’m not interested in paying to read anyone’s opinion of their idea of free speech, or their hot takes on the new Irish legislation regarding hate crimes that brings us into alignment with the EU, as opposed to any conspiracy theorists wet dreams about there being any sort of a conflict of interest between Helen McEntee’s responsibilities as the Minister for Justice, and her husband’s occupation as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company.

And certainly not when I’m aware that the legislation covers several grounds which already existed in Irish legislation, and will undoubtedly be weaponised by the likes of McGuirk and those who don’t need viagra to get all worked up about nothing, portraying themselves as martyrs of anyone who doesn’t recognise their superior intellectual prowess.

Has anyone actually read the public consultation submissions referenced by Gript. They are quite mixed but A lot of those in favour give detailed rationale backed up by research, whereas a lot against are actually just racist, homophobic, transphobic rants with no rationale, no evidence, no back up.